84000 Glossary of Terms

Our trilingual glossary combining entries from all of our publications into one useful resource, giving translations and definitions of thousands of terms, people, places, and texts from the Buddhist canon.

ཚངས་པ། | Glossary of Terms

  • བྲཧྨ།

  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brah+ma
  • brahmā
  • brahman
  • Note: this data is still being sorted
  • Term
  • Person
Publications: 112

A high-ranking deity presiding over a divine world where other beings consider him the creator; he is also considered to be the lord of the Sahā world (our universe). Though not considered a creator god in Buddhism, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two gods (the other being Indra/Śakra) said to have first exhorted the Buddha Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma. The particular heavens found in the form realm over which Brahmā rules are often some of the most sought-after realms of higher rebirth in Buddhist literature. Since there are many universes or world systems, there are also multiple Brahmās presiding over them. His most frequent epithets are “Lord of Sahā World” (Sahāṃpati) and Great Brahmā (Mahābrahmā).

Translation by Robert Miller
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Gyurme Dorje
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Gareth Sparham
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Gyurme Dorje
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

The personification of the universal force of Brahman, the deity in the form realm, who was, during the Buddha’s time, considered the supreme deity and creator of the universe. In the cosmogony of many universes, each with a thousand million worlds, there are many Brahmās. Also called Mahābrahmā.

Translation by Zachary Beer
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

Lord of the Sahā world, regarded by Buddhists as occupying a high position in cyclic existence, with a very long life and a great deal of power

Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Thomas Doctor
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Oriane Lavolé
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Klaus-Dieter Mathes · Julika Weber · Katrin Querl · Konstantin Brockhausen · Susanne Fleischmann · Daniel Gratzer · Georgi Krastev · Jamie Gordon Creek
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Ulrich Pagel
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Jake Nagasawa · ErdeneBaatar Erdene-Ochir · Jaakko Takkinen
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Chloé Cramer · Ben Ewing · Lowell Cook · Oriane Lavole · Sarah Evers
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Jed Forman · ErdeneBaatar Erdene-Ochir · Michael Ium
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by James B. Apple · Shinobu Arai Apple
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Maurizio Pontiggia
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
  • 梵天
Translation by David Jackson
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Thomas Doctor
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Catherine Dalton · Heidi Koppl · James Gentry · Cortland Dahl · Hilary Herdman · Andreas Doctor
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Jens Erland Braarvig
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Benjamin Ewing
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Andreas Doctor · Zachary Beer · Thomas Doctor
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Mattia Salvini
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahman
Definition in this text:

A high-ranking deity who presides over a divine world where other beings consider him the creator; he is also considered to be the Lord of the Sahā-world (our universe).

Translation by Dr. Thomas Doctor · James Gentry
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Tulku Sherdor · Virginia Blum
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

The personification of the universal force of Brahman, the deity in the form realm, who was during the Buddha’s time considered the supreme deity and creator of the universe. In the cosmogony of many universes, each with a thousand million worlds, there are many Brahmās.

Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Julia Stenzel · Ngawang Rinchen Gyaltsen · Tsewang Gyaltsen
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

Lord of the Sahā world (q.v.). Buddhists see Brahmā as a god occupying a high position in cyclic existence, with a very long life and a great deal of power.

Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

The personification of the universal force of Brahman, who became a higher deity than Indra, the supreme deity of the early Vedas.

Translation by Gyurmé Avertin
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

The personification of the universal force of Brahman, the deity in the form realm, who was, during the Buddha’s time, considered in India to be the supreme deity and creator of the universe.

Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Andreas Doctor
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Joseph McClellan
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Zachary Beer
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Wiesiek Mical · Timothy Hinkle
  • brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Wiesiek Mical · Timothy Hinkle
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

One of the trinity of Hindu gods, a protagonist and ally of the Buddha; when spelled with the lower case, it denotes any god from the multiple worlds of Brahmā.

Translation by David Jackson
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Dr. Andreas Doctor
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by David Jackson
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Dr. Anne Burchardi · Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche · Dr. Ulrich Pagel
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

One of the primary deities of the Brahmanical pantheon, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two deities (the other being Indra/Śakra) that are said to have first exhorted Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma. The particular heavens over which Brahmā rules are often some of the most sought after realms of higher rebirth in Buddhist literature. Among his epithets is “Lord of Sahā World” (Sahāṃpati).

Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

A high-ranking deity presiding over a divine world where other beings consider him the creator; he is also considered to be the Lord of the Sahā world (our universe). Though not considered a creator god in Buddhism, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two deities (the other being Indra/Śakra) that are said to have first exhorted Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma. The particular heavens found in the form realm over which Brahmā rules are often some of the most sought-after realms of higher rebirth in Buddhist literature. Since there are multiple universes and world systems, there are also multiple Brahmās presiding over them.

Translation by Benjamin Ewing
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Gyurmé Avertin
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

(1) In this text, the term is frequently used as a shorthand for Brahma­viśeṣacintin, one of the main interlocutors in this sūtra. (2) A high-ranking deity, presiding over a divine world where other beings consider him the creator; he is also considered to be the “Lord of Enduring” (our universe).

Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

One of the primary gods of the Brahmanical pantheon, Brahmā rules the brahmā realm; a member of the Buddha’s retinue.

Translation by Tenpa Tsering
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Celso Wilkinson · Laura Goetz · L.S. Summer
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

One of the primary deities of the Brahmanical pantheon, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two deities (the other being Indra/Śakra) that are said to have first exhorted Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma. The particular heavens found in the form realm over which Brahmā rules are often some of the most sought after realms of higher rebirth in Buddhist literature. Since there are multiple universes and world systems, there are also multiple Brahmās presiding over them; however, The Question of Mañjuśrī describes sequentially higher brahmā gods as ruling over sequentially more numerous world systems. The image of the singular deity, Brahmā, is depicted as the forty-seventh of the eighty designs on the palms and soles of the Tathāgata.

Translation by Jens Braarvig
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Robert A. F. Thurman
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

Creator-lord of a universe, there being as many as there are universes, whose number is incalculable. Hence, in Buddhist belief, a title of a deity who has attained supremacy in a particular universe, rather than a personal name. For example, the Brahmā of the Aśoka universe is personally called Śikhin, to distinguish him from other Brahmās. A Brahmā resides at the summit of the realm of pure matter (rūpadhātu), and is thus higher in status than a Śakra.

Translation by Timothy Hinkle
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Andreas Doctor · Zachary Beer
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Chodrungma Kunga Chodron
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Dr. Karen Liljenberg · Dr. Ulrich Pagel
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

God who presides of the realm of Brahmā (brahmaloka) associated with the first concentration level in the realm of forms. In the Buddhist Avataṃsaka cosmology of innumerable (asaṃkhyeya) interpenetrating buddha realms, there are myriad Brahmās, each presiding over its own world-system.

Translation by Miguel Sawaya
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Benjamin Ewing · Lowell Cook
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Jamyang Choesang · Kunsang Choepel · Boyce Teoh · Solvej Nielsen
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

Vedic creator god. In Buddhist texts Brahmā refers to various gods in high situations of cyclic existence.

Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart · Nika Jovic
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Rebecca Hufen · Shanshan Jia · Jason Sanche
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Zachary Beer
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Rolf Scheuermann · Casey Kemp
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Karen Liljenberg · Ulrich Pagel
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Benjamin Ewing
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Joshua Capitanio
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Joshua Capitanio
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Yanneke Josephus Jitta
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Jed Forman · ErdeneBaatar Erdene-Ochir · Michael Ium
  • brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahman
Definition in this text:

Divinity in the intermediate realm within the first concentration (dhyāna). The deity in the form realm who was during the Buddha’s time considered the supreme deity and creator of the universe. In the cosmogony of many universes, each with a thousand million worlds, there are many brahmās.

Translation by Adam Krug
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Bhikṣuṇī Thubten Damcho
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
This is an addendum to the general definition from the 84000 Glossary:

Also used in this text as a shorthand for Brahmaviśeṣacintin, the main interlocutor in this discourse.

Translation by Dr. Thomas Doctor · Timothy Hinkle · Benjamin Collet-Cassart
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Zsuzsa Majer
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā AO
Translation by Dr. Fumi Yao
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahman
Translation by Ryan Conlon
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Chodrungma Kunga Chodron
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Mattia Salvini
  • Brahma
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahman
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Dr. Lozang Jamspal · Kaia Fischer · Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

One of the primary deities of the purāṇic Hindu pantheon, and perhaps the first to take on the status formerly held by the cosmic being Prajāpati in the literature of the brahmaṇas. As a creator god in the purāṇas, Brahmā is said to have pronounced the mantras of four vedas from each of his four faces and thus established the sonic foundation for the manifestation of the cosmos. Though not considered a creator god in Buddhist literature, in his form as Sahāṃpati Brahmā, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two deities (the other being Indra/Śakra) that are said to have exhorted Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma in the hagiographic literature. The particular heavens over which Brahmā rules are often some of the most sought after realms of higher rebirth in Buddhist literature. Among his epithets is “Lord of Sahā World” (Sahāṃpati).

Translation by Ruth Gamble · Tenzin Ringpapontsang
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Laura Dainty
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Wiesiek Mical
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Stefan Mang · Peter Woods
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Adam Krug
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Dylan Esler
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Julian Schott
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahman
Translation by Wiesiek Mical
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Peter Alan Roberts
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā AS
  • 梵天
Translation by James Gentry
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by James Gentry
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by James Gentry
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by James Gentry
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Stefan Mang · Roger Espel Llima · Ryan Conlon · Paul Thomas
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Stefan Mang · Lowell Cook · Ryan Conlon · Paul Thomas · Roger Espel Llima
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Stefan Mang · Laura Dainty · Ryan Conlon · Paul Thomas · Roger Espel Llima
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Stefan Mang · Laura Dainty · Ryan Conlon · Paul Thomas · Roger Espel Llima
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Julian Schott
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Wiesiek Mical · Anna Zilman · Andreas Doctor · Adam Krug
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • བྲཧྨ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brah+ma
  • brahmā
Translation by Laura Dainty · Khenpo Tsöndrü Sangpo
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Roger Espel Llima · Alex Yiannopoulos · Lowell Cook · Ryan Conlon
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

A major deity in the Brahmanical pantheon presiding over a divine world where other beings consider him the creator. He is also considered to be the “Lord of the Sahā world” (our universe).

Translation by Lowell Cook
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Lozang Jamspal · Kaia Fischer · Erin Sperry
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by James Gentry
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Adam Krug
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Translation by Adam Krug
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā
Definition in this text:

As one of the three primary deities of the Hindu pantheon, in the Purāṇic cosmogony Brahmā is said to issue the four Vedas (Ṛg, Yajus, Sāma, and Athārva) from his four mouths, from which the entirety of creation unfolds. In Buddhist traditions, Brahmā is said to be a worldly deity who exists at the zenith of cyclic existence. He is thus added to the list of the eight guardians of the directions as the guardian of the zenith. In most narratives of the life of the Buddha, Brahmā is said to appear together with Śakra to request that the Buddha Śākyamuni teach the Dharma.

Translation by Gareth Sparham
  • Brahmā
  • ཚངས་པ།
  • tshangs pa
  • brahmā