བདེ་གཤེགས། | Glossary of Terms

An epithet for a buddha meaning “well-gone one.” Here it is used as an epithet for the Buddha Śākyamuni.

An epithet of the buddhas meaning “one who has gone to bliss.”

Here used also as an epithet of Buddha Śākyamuni.

An epithet of the buddhas meaning “well-gone one.”

“One who fares well” or “one who is free from care.” Sometimes interpreted as “one gone to bliss.” The su or bde bar is adverbial, and gata, a past passive participle, denotes a state of being rather than literal motion and refers to a present state rather than a past one.

One of the standard epithets of the Buddha Śākyamuni and other buddhas. According to Buddhaghoṣa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su), and where he went (gata) is good (su).

An epithet for a buddha meaning “well-gone one.”

An epithet of the Buddha meaning “well-gone one,” “gone to bliss,” “easily understood.”

Sometimes interpreted as “one gone to bliss”; the su or bde bar is adverbial, and gata denotes a state of being rather than literal motion. Therefore it means “one who has fared well.”

An epithet of the buddhas.

Epithet of a buddha.

An epithet for a buddha meaning “well-gone one.”

An epithet of the Buddha.

One of the standard epithets of the Buddha Śākyamuni and other buddhas. According to Buddhaghoṣa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su), and where he went (gata) is good (su).

An epithet for a buddha typically meaning “well-gone one,” but also interpreted as “bliss-gone one.”

An epithet of a buddha meaning “well-gone.”

An epithet of the buddhas meaning “one who has gone to bliss.” Here used also as an epithet of the Buddha Śākyamuni.

An epithet of the buddhas, meaning “the blissfully gone one” or “the well gone one.”

One of the standard epithets of the buddhas. A recurrent explanation offers three different meanings for su- that are meant to show the special qualities of accomplishment of one’s own purpose (svārthasampat) for a complete buddha. Thus, the Sugata is “well” gone, as in the expression su-rūpa (“having a good form”); he is gone “in a way that he shall not come back,” as in the expression su-naṣṭa-jvara (“a fever that has utterly gone”); he has gone “without any remainder,” as in the expression su-pūrṇa-ghaṭa (“a pot that is completely full”). According to Buddhaghosa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su) and where he went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su).

An epithet of the buddhas meaning “well-gone one.”

Literally “one who has fared well”; a common epithet for a buddha.

The term sugata is formed by the preverb su- (“well,” “good,” “completely”) and the participle gata, from the root gam (“to go” but also “to understand”). A recurrent explanation offers three different meanings for su- that are meant to show the special qualities of accomplishment of one’s own purpose (svārthasampat) for a complete buddha. Thus, the Sugata is “well” gone, as in the expression su-rūpa (“having a good form”); he is gone “in a way that he shall not come back,” as in the expression su-naṣṭa-jvara (“a fever that has utterly gone”); he has gone “without any remainder” as in the expression su-pūrṇa-ghaṭa (“a pot that is completely full”). These three senses of su- distinguish the Buddha from non-Buddhist practitioners who are free of desirous attraction (bāhya-vītarāga), from Buddhist practitioners who are still in need of training (śaikṣa), i.e., are not liberated, and from Buddhist practitioners who have no more need of training (aśaikṣa), i.e., are liberated but have not obtained complete buddhahood (svārtha­sampat sugatatvena trividham artham upādāya praśastatvārthaṃ surūpavat apunarāvṛttyarthaṃ sunaṣṭajvaravat niḥśeṣārthaṃ supūrṇaghaṭavat arthatrayaṃ caitad bāhyavītarāga­śaikṣāśaikṣebhyaḥ svārtha­sampadviśeṣaṇārtham, Dignāga, Pramāṇa­samuccaya 1.1, Steinkellner 2005, p. 1; see also Prajñākaramati’s Pañjikā on Bodhi­caryāvatāra 1.1, de La Vallée Poussin 1901–14, pp. 2–3; and Artha­viniścaya­sūtra­nibandhana, Samtani 1971, p. 244).

The sgra sbyor bam po gnyis pa commentary on the Mahāvyutpatti, apart from the three explanations above, contains an additional interpretation of the preverb su-, as meaning “happiness/bliss/pleasure” (sukha), attributed to the Dharmaskandha (one of the abhidharma treatises of the Sarvāstivāda tradition); thus su-gata is understood as “one who has reached happiness” (su[khaṁ]gata): “The Bhagavat has happiness; he has heavenly happiness, since he is endowed with the untroubled dharma” (dharmmaskandha las ’byung ba sugata iti sukhito bhagavān | svargita avyathitadharmmasamanvāgata | tad ucyate sugata ces ’byung ste). The commentary further explains that the Tibetan rendering bde bar gshegs pa is in fact in accordance with the Dharmaskandha interpretation of the term (dharmaskandha las ’byung ba dang sbyar te bde bar gshegs pa zhes btags), which explains why the Tibetan rendering does not seem to match the more recurrent interpretations of sugata in Sanskrit treatises. The connection with sukham can also be found in lexicographical literature (see for example Subhūticandra’s Kavikāmadhenu commentary on the Amarakośa, Deokar 2014, p. 121; and also the Pāli Abhidhānappadīpikāṭīkā, Saggakaṇḍavaṇṇanā, which seems to be a shortened version of the Kavikāmadhenu gloss on sugata).

The Pāli tradition offers a slightly different explanation, in four parts: “his way of going is good,” “he has gone to a beautiful place,” “he has gone in the right manner,” and, deriving gata not from gam but from gad (“to speak,” “to say”), “he speaks in the right manner” (sobhanagamanattā sundaraṃ ṭhānaṃ gatattā sammā gatattā sammā ca gadattā sugato | Visuddhimagga, 1.134).

An epithet of the Buddha meaning “one who has gone to bliss” or, interpreting gata as denoting a state of being rather than literal motion, “one who has fared well.” The epithets sugata and tathāgata in this sūtra, which likely belonged to the canon of an early Buddhist school, seem to refer to the historical Buddha rather than to buddhas in general.

“One gone to bliss.”An epithet of the buddhas. Also rendered here as “Gone to Bliss.”

“Bliss-gone one”; an epithet of the Buddha or a tathāgata.

An epithet of a fully realized buddha (samyak­sambuddha).

An epithet of the buddhas meaning “well-gone one.”

Synonym for a buddha.

An epithet for a buddha.

One of the standard epithets of the buddhas. A recurrent explanation offers three different meanings for su- that are meant to show the special qualities of the accomplishment of one’s own purpose (svārthasampat) for a buddha. Thus, the Sugata is “well” gone, as in the expression su-rūpa (“having a good form”); he is gone “in a way that he shall not come back,” as in the expression su-naṣṭa-jvara (“a fever that has utterly gone”); he has gone “without any remainder” as in the expression su-pūrṇa-ghaṭa (“a pot that is completely full”). According to Buddhaghosa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su) and where he went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su).

An epithet of a buddha also meaning “gone to bliss.”

One of the standard epithets of the buddhas. A recurrent explanation offers three different meanings for su- that are meant to show the special qualities of accomplishment of one’s own purpose (svārthasampat) for a complete buddha. Thus, the Sugata is “well” gone, as in the expression su-rūpa (“having a good form”); he is gone “in a way that he shall not come back,” as in the expression su-naṣṭa-jvara (“a fever that has utterly gone”); he has gone “without any remainder” as in the expression su-pūrṇa-ghaṭa (“a pot that is completely full”). According to Buddhaghosa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su) and where he went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su).

An epithet applied to buddhas, often interpreted to mean “one gone to bliss.” It should be noted, though, that in Sanskrit the prefix su- (Tib. bde bar) is adverbial, and that gata denotes a state of being rather than literal motion, hence the current rendering of “well-gone one,” that is, “one who has fared well.”

One of the standard epithets of the buddhas. According to Buddhaghosa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su) and where he went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su).

An epithet for a buddha.

An epithet of the buddhas. According to Buddhaghosa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su), and where he went (gata) is good (su).

An epithet applied to buddhas, often interpreted to mean “one gone to bliss.” In Sanskrit the prefix su- (Tib. bde bar) is adverbial, and that gata denotes a state of being rather than literal motion, hence the current rendering of “well-gone one,” that is, “one who has fared well.”

One of the standard epithets of the Buddha Śākyamuni. According to Buddhaghoṣa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su) and where he went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su).

Epithet of a buddha, meaning “one who has reached bliss.”

An epithet for a buddha.

An epithet for a buddha.

Epithet of a buddha, meaning “one who has reached bliss.”

Synonym for a buddha.

Epithet of the Buddha.

An epithet of the buddhas meaning “one who has gone to bliss.” The Sanskrit term literally means “faring well.”

Epithet of a buddha.

An epithet of the buddhas. Also rendered here as “sugata.”