རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཏོག་གི་གཟུངས།
The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī
Ratnaketudhāraṇī
འཕགས་པ་འདུས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཏོག་གི་གཟུངས་ཤེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
’phags pa ’dus pa chen po rin po che tog gi gzungs shes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī” from the Great Collection
Āryamahāsannipātaratnaketudhāraṇīnāmamahāyānasūtra

Toh 138
Degé Kangyur, vol. 56 (mdo sde, na), folios 187.b–277.b.
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
First published 2020
Current version v 1.0.11 (2021)
Generated by 84000 Reading Room v2.1.18
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.

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Summary
The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī is one of the core texts of the Mahāsannipāta collection of Mahāyāna sūtras that dates back to the formative period of Mahāyāna Buddhism, from the first to the third century ᴄᴇ. Its rich and varied narratives, probably redacted from at least two independent works, recount significant events from the lives, past and present, of the Buddha Śākyamuni and some of his main followers and opponents, both human and nonhuman. At the center of these narratives is the climactic episode from the Buddha’s life when Māra, the personification of spiritual death, sets out to destroy the Buddha and his Dharma. The mythic confrontation between these paragons of light and darkness, and the Buddha’s eventual victory, are related in vivid detail. The main narratives are interwoven with Dharma instructions and interspersed with miraculous events. The text also exemplifies two distinctive sūtra genres, “prophecies” (vyākaraṇa) and “incantations” (dhāraṇī), as it includes, respectively, prophecies of the future attainment of buddhahood by some of the Buddha’s followers and the potent phrases that embody the Buddha’s teachings and are meant to ensure their survival and the thriving of its practitioners.
Acknowledgements
This translation was produced by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the supervision of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. Wiesiek Mical translated the extant parts from the Sanskrit and wrote the introduction. Timothy Hinkle compared the translation from the Sanskrit against the Tibetan translation and translated from the Tibetan the parts that are lost in the original Sanskrit.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The generous sponsorship of Twenty and family, which helped make the work on this translation possible, is gratefully acknowledged. They would like to dedicate their sponsorship to Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche.
Homage
[F.187.b] [B1]10 Homage to the thus-gone Splendorous with the Gentle Glow of Light and Fragrance!
Homage to the one with the melodious voice of Mahābrahmā!
Having paid homage to him, one should employ the dhāraṇī called unharmed by the assemblies of Māra. May I accomplish the following mantra:11
Avāme avāme amvare amvare {TK4} parikuñja naṭa naṭa puṣkaravaha jalukha khama khaya ili mili kili mili kīrtipara mudre mudramukhe svāhā! {TK5}
Colophon
Tibetan Translators’ Colophon
This sūtra was translated by the Indian preceptor Śilendrabodhi and the translator-editor Yeshé Dé. It was later standardized in line with the new terminological register.
Abbreviations
D | Tibetan Degé edition |
---|---|
G | Gilgit manuscript |
K | Kurumiya 1978 (page numbers entered in braces, e.g. {K26} denotes page 26) |
TK | Kurumiya 1979 (page numbers entered in braces, e.g. {TK26} denotes page 26) |
Notes
Bibliography
Primary literature (manuscripts and editions)
Sanskrit
Dutt, Nalinaksha, ed. Gilgit Manuscripts. Vols. 1–4. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1984.
Kurumiya, Yenshu, ed. Ratnaketuparivarta: Sanskrit Text. Kyoto: Heirakuji-shoten, 1978.
Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī—the Gilgit manuscript. National Archives of India, New Delhi.
Tibetan
’phags pa ’dus pa rin po che tog gi gzungs shes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo. Toh 138, Degé Kangyur vol. 56 (mdo sde, na), folios 187.b–277.b.
’phags pa ’dus pa rin po che tog gi gzungs shes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo. bka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 56, pp. 509–734.
Kurumiya, Yenshu, ed. ’Dus Pa Chen Po Rin Po Che Tog Gi Gzungs, ’Dus Pa Chen Po Dkon Mchog Dbal Zes Bya Ba’i Gzungs: being the Tibetan translation of the Ratnaketu Parivarta. Kyoto: Heirakuji-shoten, 1979.
Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan[/lhan] dkar gyi chos ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.
Narthang Catalog (bka’ ’gyur dkar chag ngo mtshar bkod pa rgya mtsho’i lde mig). Narthang Kangyur vol. 102 (dkar chag), folios 1.a–124.a.
Phangthangma (dkar chag ’phang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Translations and secondary literature:
Braarvig, Jens (1993). Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra. Vol. 2, The Tradition of Imperishability in Buddhist Thought. Oslo: Solum Verlag, 1993.
———(1985). “Dhāraṇī and Pratibhāna: Memory and Eloquence of the Bodhisattvas.” The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 8, no. 1: 17–29. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1985.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid. Die lHan kar ma: ein früher Katalog der ins Tibetische übersetzten buddhistischen Texte. Vienna: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008.
Lamotte, Étienne. The Treatise of the Great Virtue of Wisdom of Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra). Translated from the French by Karma Migme Chodron, 2001.
Mak, Bill M. “Ratnaketu-parivarta, Sūryagarbha-parivarta, and Candragarbha-parivarta of Mahāsannipātasūtra (MSN): Indian Jyotiṣa through the lens of Chinese Buddhist Canon.” Paper presented at the World Sanskrit Conference, New Delhi, January 8, 2012.
Miller, Adam Tyler. “The Buddha Said That Buddha Said So: A Translation and Analysis of ‘Pūrvayogaparivarta’ from the Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī Sūtra.” MA thesis. University of Missouri-Columbia, 2013.
Miller, Robert, et al., trans. The Chapter on Going Forth (Pravrajyāvastu, Toh 1-1). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018.
Negi, J. S. Bod skad daṅ Legs-sbyar gyi tshig mdzod chen mo. Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary. Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1993.
Skilling, Peter. “From bKa’ bstan bcos to bKa’ ’gyur and bsTan ’gyur.” In Transmission of the Tibetan Canon: Papers Presented at a Panel of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995, edited by Helmut Eimer, 87–111. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997.
Ui, Hakuju. A catalogue-index of the Tibetan Buddhist canons (Bkaḥ-ḥgyur and Bstan-ḥgyur). Sendai: Tōhoku Imperial University, 1934.
Glossary
Absorption
- ting nge ’dzin
- ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན།
- samādhi
Stabilized meditative concentration.
Acintyamati
- blo gros bsam gyis mi khyab pa
- བློ་གྲོས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པ།
- Acintyamati
A bodhisattva in the retinue of the Buddha.
Acts of attracting beings
- bsdu ba’i dngos po bzhi
- བསྡུ་བའི་དངོས་པོ་བཞི།
- saṃgrahavastu
The means of winning over beings; traditionally there are four of them—generosity, kind talk, meaningful action, and impartiality.
Afflictions
- nyon mongs
- ཉོན་མོངས།
- kleśa
Mental and emotional traits that bind one to saṃsāra; the fundamental three are ignorance, desire, and anger. When the term refers to the fundamental three, it tends to be translated as “the afflictions.”
Airāvaṇa
- sa srung
- ས་སྲུང་།
- Airāvaṇa
The elephant of Indra.
Akṣobhya
- mi ’khrugs pa
- མི་འཁྲུགས་པ།
- Akṣobhya
In the Ratnaketudhāraṇī, he is one of the six “directional” tathāgatas.
Amitāyus
- tshe dpag med
- ཚེ་དཔག་མེད།
- Amitāyus
In the Ratnaketudhāraṇī, he is one of the six “directional” tathāgatas.
Anurādhā
- lha mtshams
- ལྷ་མཚམས།
- Anurādhā
The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as Delta Scorpii in the occidental tradition.
Applications of mindfulness
- dran pa nye bar bzhag pa
- དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་བཞག་པ།
- smṛtyupasthāna
Ārdrā
- lag
- ལག
- Ārdrā
The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as Alpha Orionis in the occidental tradition.
Arivijaya
- dgra las rnam par rgyal
- དགྲ་ལས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ།
- Arivijaya
A bodhisattva in the retinue of the Buddha.
Āśleṣā
- skag
- སྐག
- Āśleṣā
The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as Alpha Hydrae in the occidental tradition.
Asura
- lha ma yin
- ལྷ་མ་ཡིན།
- asura
A class of titans or demigods.
Aśvajit
- rta thul
- རྟ་ཐུལ།
- Aśvajit
One of the five ascetics, the companions of the Buddha during his early practice of austerities.
Aśvinī
- tha skar
- ཐ་སྐར།
- Aśvinī
The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as Beta Arietis in the occidental tradition.
Awakening
- byang chub
- བྱང་ཆུབ།
- bodhi
I.e., awakening to the reality of phenomena (inner and outer) as they actually are.
Bālāha
- sprin gyi shugs can
- སྤྲིན་གྱི་ཤུགས་ཅན།
- Bālāha
A mythical horse.
Bases of supernatural power
- rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa
- རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ།
- ṛddhipāda
Bharaṇī
- bra nye
- བྲ་ཉེ།
- Bharaṇī
The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as 35 Arietis in the occidental tradition.
Bhūteśvara
- phun sum tshogs pa’i dbang phyug
- ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པའི་དབང་ཕྱུག
- Bhūteśvara
One of the great brahmās.
Black faction
- nag po’i phyogs
- ནག་པོའི་ཕྱོགས།
- kṛṣṇapakṣa
The army, divisions, or factions of Māra, the deity who personifies spiritual death; from Māra’s point of view, this is the “white faction.” Also refers to the dark fortnight of the lunar month.
Blue Light
- sngon por snang ba
- སྔོན་པོར་སྣང་བ།
- (Skt. lacuna)
A buddha field in the future where the bodhisattva Saffron Color attains buddhahood as Precious Light.
Bodhisattva
- byang chub sems dpa’
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།
- bodhisattva
A practitioner who, motivated by altruistic feelings, vows not to enter nirvāṇa until each and every being has been liberated first.
Branches of knowledge
- rig pa’i gnas
- རིག་པའི་གནས།
- vidyāsthāna
Traditionally, there are eighteen branches of knowledge; they include the great philosophical systems of India (Sāṅkhya, Yoga, etc.) as well as ordinary sciences and arts, such as arithmetic, medicine, astrology, music, archery, etc.
Buddha
- sangs rgyas
- སངས་རྒྱས།
- buddha
A fully awakened being; when spelled with a capital letter it refers to the Buddha Śākyamuni, one of the Three Jewels.
Caitya
- mchod rten
- མཆོད་རྟེན།
- caitya
A structure containing holy relics.
Cakravāḍa
- ’khor yug
- འཁོར་ཡུག
- Cakravāḍa
The name of a mountain range.
Cessation of perception and sensation
- ’du shes dang tshor ba ’gog pa
- འདུ་ཤེས་དང་ཚོར་བ་འགོག་པ།
- saṃjñāvedayitanirodha
- saṃjñāveditanirodha
An advanced state of meditation corresponding to the ninth anupūrvavihārasamāpatti (the attainment of (nine) successive stages); the state of the eighth vimokṣa (liberation).
Citrā
- nag pa
- ནག་པ།
- Citrā
The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as Spica (alpha Virginis) in the occidental tradition.
Consecration
- dbang bskur ba
- དབང་བསྐུར་བ།
- abhiṣeka
In the Buddhist context, the ritual of consecration usually involves an initiation or empowerment.
Correct applications of mindfulness
- yang dag pa’i dran pa nye bar bzhag pa
- ཡང་དག་པའི་དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་བཞག་པ།
- samyaksmṛtyupasthāna
This refers to the four types of mindfulness: the mindfulness of the body, sensations, thought, and phenomena.
Dark age
- zad pa’i dus
- ཟད་པའི་དུས།
- kaliyuga
The most degenerate in the cosmic cycle of five ages.
Demonstrator of Consequences
- thal ba ston
- ཐལ་བ་སྟོན།
- (Skt. lacuna)
A bodhisattva who seeks a prophecy from Śākyamuni.
Dependent origination
- rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba
- rten ’brel
- རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ།
- རྟེན་འབྲེལ།
- pratītyasamutpāda
The arising of beings explained as a chain of causation involving twelve interdependent links or stages.
Desire realm
- ’dod khams
- འདོད་ཁམས།
- rūpadhātu
One of the three realms of saṃsāra (the other two being the form and formless realms).
Dhaniṣṭhā
- mon gru
- མོན་གྲུ།
- Dhaniṣṭhā
The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as Beta Delphini in the occidental tradition.
Dhāraṇamati
- gzungs kyi blo gros
- གཟུངས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས།
- Dhāraṇamati
A bodhisattva in the retinue of the Buddha.
Dhāraṇī
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
Magical spell, usually a longer one with a specific purpose. Being also the name of a literary genre, this term may refer also to the entire text of the Ratnaketudhāraṇī or a section of text dealing with a particular dhāraṇī.
Dhāraṇī-seal
- gzungs kyi phyag rgya
- གཟུངས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- dhāraṇīmudrā
This is another term used for dhāraṇī that is meant to convey, among other meanings, the idea that a dhāraṇī seals or stamps upon the reciter or the targeted phenomenon the nature that it embodies.
Dharma
- chos
- ཆོས།
- dharma
Quality or phenomenon in a general sense; when spelled with a capital letter it refers to the Buddha’s teaching, one of the Three Jewels.
Dharma discourse
- chos kyi rnam grangs
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།
- dharmaparyāya
This may refer to the entire text of the Ratnaketudhāraṇī or to a section dealing with a particular dhāraṇī.
Dharma method
- chos kyi tshul
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ།
- dharmanetrī
The Skt. term, which means “way,” “method,” or “system,” could be interpreted as that which is “conducive” to the Dharma, which “leads” to the Dharma or which “guides” in accordance with the principles of the Dharma. In the Ratnaketudhāraṇī, it variously refers to individual dhāraṇīs, the sections that deal with these dhāraṇīs, or the entire text of the Ratnaketudhāraṇī.
Discriminating Intellect
- shin tu rnam par phye ba’i blo gros
- ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་ཕྱེ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས།
- (Skt. lacuna)
One of the bodhisattvas who received from the Buddha a prophecy of his future awakening.
Doorway
- sgo ldan
- སྒོ་ལྡན།
- (Skt. lacuna)
A buddha field in the future where the bodhisattva Supreme Wisdom attains buddhahood as the tathāgata Supreme Sun of Bliss.
Dṛḍhā
- gzi brjid che ba
- གཟི་བརྗིད་ཆེ་བ།
- Dṛḍhā
An earth deity.
Dundubhisvara
- rnga sgra
- རྔ་སྒྲ།
- Dundubhisvara
In the Ratnaketudhāraṇī, he is one of the six “directional” tathāgatas.
Durdharṣa
- thub dka’
- ཐུབ་དཀའ།
- Durdharṣa
One of the bodhisattvas in the Buddha’s retinue; also one of the māras.
Dyutindharā
- ’od ’chang
- འོད་འཆང་།
- Dyutindharā
A tree deity.
Earth
- sa
- ས།
- Vasundharā
Earth (Tib. sa, Skt. bhūmi) is the Indian goddess representing Mother Earth. She goes by various other names including Vasundharā (“holder of the riches”).
Eighteen unique qualities of a buddha
- sangs rgyas kyi chos ma ’dres pa bco brgyad
- སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་མ་འདྲེས་པ་བཅོ་བརྒྱད།
- aṣṭādaśāveṇikabuddhadharma
Eighteen special features of a buddha’s behavior, realization, activity, and wisdom that are not shared by other beings.
Eightfold path
- yan lag brgyad lam
- ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་ལམ།
- aṣṭāṅgamārga
Right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right absorption.
Element
- khams
- ཁམས།
- dhātu
Sphere; primary element (such as earth, water, etc.; see “six elements”); sensory “elements” that comprise six types of sense objects, six types of sense faculties, and six sense consciousnesses.
Exposition
- lung bstan
- ལུང་བསྟན།
- vyākaraṇa
A clear analysis or detailed presentation. Also translated here as “prophecy.”
Extensive Scent of Flowers
- me tog rgyas pa’i dris
- མེ་ཏོག་རྒྱས་པའི་དྲིས།
- (Skt. lacuna)
A buddha field in the future where the bodhisattva Jyotīrasa attains buddhahood as the tathāgata Immaculate Fragrant Star of Bright Splendor.
Factors of awakening
- byang chub kyi phyogs kyi chos
- བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་ཆོས།
- bodhipakṣadharma
Traditionally there are thirty-seven factors conducive to awakening.
Fetter
- kun tu sbyor ba
- ཀུན་ཏུ་སྦྱོར་བ།
- saṃyojana
Fetters binding one to saṃsāra; they come in groups of three (ignorance, hatred, and desire) or ten.
Five acts of immediate retribution
- mtshams med pa byed pa
- མཚམས་མེད་པ་བྱེད་པ།
- pañcānantarya
Acts for which one will be reborn in hell immediately after death, without any intervening stages; they are (1) killing one’s master or father, (2) killing one’s mother, (3) killing an arhat, (4) maliciously drawing blood from a buddha, and (5) causing a schism in the saṅgha.
Five aggregates
- phung po lnga
- ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ།
- pañcaskandha
The five constituents of a living entity: form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.
Five degenerations
- snyigs ma lnga
- སྙིགས་མ་ལྔ།
- pañcakaṣāya
Five signs that the later era of an eon has arrived: degenerate views, afflictions, beings, lifespan, and time.
Formation
- ’du byed
- འདུ་བྱེད།
- saṃskāra
Predispositions; conditioning (as in “conditioned existence”) in general; also the fourth aggregate, that of volition.
Fortunate Eon
- bskal pa bzang po
- བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ།
- bhadrakalpa
The name of our current eon.
Four bases of supernatural power
- rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa gzhi
- rdzu ’phrul gyi yul bkod pa bzhi
- རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ་གཞི།
- རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ཡུལ་བཀོད་པ་བཞི།་
- caturṛddhipāda
- caturṛddhiviṣaya
These are (1) single-pointed intention, (2) single-pointed thoughts, (3) single-pointed diligence, and (4) single-pointed investigation.
Four concentrations
- bsam gtan bzhi
- བསམ་གཏན་བཞི།
- caturdhyāna
The four levels of meditative concentration.
Four errors
- phyin ci log bzhi
- ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་བཞི།
- caturviparyāsa
- caturviprayāsa
The four errors are (1) the mistaken belief in permanence, (2) in the self (ātman), (3) in the purity of that which is impure, and (4) that the suffering is pleasurable.
Four Great Kings
- rgyal po chen po bzhi
- རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞི།
- caturmahārāja
The powerful nonhuman guardian kings of the four quarters—Virūḍhaka, Virūpākṣa, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, and Vaiśravaṇa—who rule, respectively, over kumbhāṇḍas in the south, nāgas in the west, gandharvas in the east, and yakṣas in the north.
Four māras
- bdud bzhi
- བདུད་བཞི།
- cāturmāra
Personification of the four factors that keep beings in saṃsāra—afflictions, death, aggregates, and pride arising through meditative states.
Four noble attributes
- ’phags pa’i rigs bzhi
- འཕགས་པའི་རིགས་བཞི།
- caturāryavaṃśa
The attributes of a practitioner; the first three are garments, food, and bedding, and the fourth is the dedication to the path of liberation.
Four rivers
- chu bo bzhi
- ཆུ་བོ་བཞི།
- caturogha
- caturaugha
The same as the four āsrava (“outflows” or “contaminants”), namely (1) sensual desire, (2) conditioned existence, (3) wrong views, and (4) ignorance; also refers to birth, old age, sickness, and death.
Four truths of the noble ones
- ’phags pa’i bden pa bzhi
- འཕགས་པའི་བདེན་པ་བཞི།
- caturāryasatya
The truth of suffering, the cause of suffering, the path, and the cessation of suffering.
Fourfold assembly
- ’khor bzhi po
- འཁོར་བཞི་པོ།
- catuḥparṣad
The fourfold assembly comprises monks, nuns, and female and male lay practitioners.
Gandharva
- dri za
- དྲི་ཟ།
- gandharva
A class of celestial beings.
Gaṅgā
- gang gA
- གང་གཱ
- Gaṅgā
The river Ganges.
Garuḍa
- nam mkha’ lding
- ནམ་མཁའ་ལྡིང་།
- garuḍa
A class of celestial birds with bodies half human and half bird.
Gautama
- gau ta ma
- གཽ་ཏ་མ།
- Gautama
One of the names of the Buddha, especially during his earlier life as an ascetic.
Glorious
- snang ba ’chang ba
- སྣང་བ་འཆང་བ།
- —
The name of an eon in the past.
Glorious and Brilliantly Shining Jewel
- nor bu ’od ’bar ba dpal
- ནོར་བུ་འོད་འབར་བ་དཔལ།
- (Skt. lacuna)
One of the tathāgatas.
Going forth
- rab tu ’byung ba
- རབ་ཏུ་འབྱུང་བ།
- pravrajati
- pravrajyā
Leaving the life of a householder and embracing the life of a wandering, renunciant follower of the Buddha.
Hastā
- me bzhi
- མེ་བཞི།
- Hastā
The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as Delta Corvi in the occidental tradition.
Hearer
- nyan thos
- ཉན་ཐོས།
- śrāvaka
A disciple of the Buddha; in the Mahāyāna sūtras this term refers to the followers of the Hīnayāna, or the Lesser Vehicle.
Heart of the Jewel
- nor bu’i snying po
- ནོར་བུའི་སྙིང་པོ།
- (Skt. lacuna)
A buddha field in the future where the bodhisattva Discriminating Intellect attains buddhahood.
Highly Extolled
- rab bsngags pa
- རབ་བསྔགས་པ།
- —
A buddha field in the future where the bodhisattva Demonstrator of Consequences attains buddhahood as the tathāgata Lamp of Fire.
Himalaya Mountains
- gangs kyi ri
- གངས་ཀྱི་རི།
- Himālaya
Holder of Meru’s Peak
- lhun po’i rtse ’dzin
- ལྷུན་པོའི་རྩེ་འཛིན།
- (Skt. lacuna)
A bodhisattva in the Buddha’s retinue.
Immaculately Moved by Beings
- sems can la g.yo zhing rdul dang bral ba
- སེམས་ཅན་ལ་གཡོ་ཞིང་རྡུལ་དང་བྲལ་བ།
- (Skt. lacuna)
A bodhisattva who seeks a prophecy from Śākyamuni.
Insight
- shes rab
- ཤེས་རབ།
- prajñā
Direct gnosis without conceptuality or mental elaboration.
Intelligent Light
- ’od kyi blo gros
- འོད་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས།
- (Skt. lacuna)
A bodhisattva in the Buddha’s retinue.
Intelligent Lightning
- glog gi blo gros
- གློག་གི་བློ་གྲོས།
- (Skt. lacuna)
A bodhisattva in the Buddha’s retinue.
Intelligent Sky
- nam mkha’i blo gros
- ནམ་མཁའི་བློ་གྲོས།
- (Skt. lacuna)
A bodhisattva in the Buddha’s retinue.
Jambudvīpa
- ’dzam bu’i gling
- འཛམ་བུའི་གླིང་།
- Jambudvīpa
The southern continent, one of the four comprising our world in Buddhist cosmology.
Jayamati
- rgyal ba’i blo gros
- རྒྱལ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས།
- Jayamati
A bodhisattva in the Buddha’s retinue; also one of Māra’s sons.
Jñānaraśmirāja
- ye shes kyi ’od zer
- ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་འོད་ཟེར།
- Jñānaraśmirāja
In the Ratnaketudhāraṇī, he is one of the six “directional” tathāgatas.
Jyeṣṭhā
- smron
- སྨྲོན།
- Jyeṣṭhā
The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as Antares in the occidental tradition.
Kalandakanivāpa
- bya ka lan ta ka
- བྱ་ཀ་ལན་ཏ་ཀ
- Kalandakanivāpa
Literally, “The Squirrel Feeding Ground,” a location within the Veṇuvana where the Buddha stayed, receiving its name from the many squirrels living there, being fed by humans. It should be noted that Tibetan translations misunderstand the Sanskrit term kalandaka to be a kind of bird (Tib. bya).
Kāśyapa
- ’od srung
- འོད་སྲུང་།
- Kāśyapa
One of the Buddha’s closest hearer disciples; the name of the third buddha of the Fortunate Eon.
Kaṭapūtana
- ’byung po
- lus srul po
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ལུས་སྲུལ་པོ།
- kaṭapūtana
A class of demons; a subdivision of the pretas.
Kinnara
- mi ’am ci
- མི་འམ་ཅི།
- kinnara
A class of celestial beings.
Kṛttikā
- smin drug
- སྨིན་དྲུག
- Kṛttikā
The name of a lunar asterism. Its chief star is known as Pleiades in the occidental tradition.
Kṣatriya
- rgyal rigs
- རྒྱལ་རིགས།
- kṣatriya
The warrior caste (one of the main four Indian castes).
Kubera
- lus ngan po
- ལུས་ངན་པོ།
- Kubera
- Kuvera
A god of wealth, sometimes (as in the Ratnaketudhāraṇī) identified with Vaiśravaṇa, one of the Four Great Kings.
Kumbhāṇḍa
- grul bum
- གྲུལ་བུམ།
- kumbhāṇḍa
A class of nonhuman beings.
Lamp of Fire
- me yi sgron ma
- མེ་ཡི་སྒྲོན་མ།
- (Skt. lacuna)
The bodhisattva Demonstrator of Consequences when he becomes a buddha.