གང་པོས་ཞུས་པ།
The Questions of Pūrṇa
Pūrṇaparipṛcchā
འཕགས་པ་གང་གང་པོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།
’phags pa gang pos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo
The Noble Great Vehicle Sūtra “The Questions of Pūrṇa”
Āryapūrṇaparipṛcchānāmamahāyānasūtra

Toh 61
Degé Kangyur, vol. 42 (dkon brtsegs, nga), folios 168.b–227.a..
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 1.2.12 (2020)
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
In Veṇuvana, outside Rājagṛha, Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra asks the Buddha about the conduct of bodhisattvas practicing on the path to awakening. The Buddha replies by describing the attitudes that bodhisattvas must possess as well as their benefits. Then, at the request of Maudgalyāyana, the Buddha recounts several of his past lives in which he himself practiced bodhisattva conduct. At the end of the teaching, the Buddha instructs the assembly about how to deal with specific objections to his teachings that outsiders might raise after he himself has passed into nirvāṇa.
Acknowledgements
Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee under the supervision of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. Benjamin Collet-Cassart and Nika Jovic translated the text from Tibetan into English and wrote the introduction. James Gentry then compared the translation with Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation. Finally, Andreas Doctor compared the draft translation with the original Tibetan and edited the text. Ryan Damron and Thomas Doctor also helped resolve several difficult passages.
This translation has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
Work on this text would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of 王学文 and 马国凤, which is most gratefully acknowledged.
Notes
Bibliography
Source Texts
’phags pa gang pos zhus pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Pūrṇaparipṛcchāsūtra). Toh 61, Degé Kangyur vol. 42 (dkon brtsegs, nga), folios 168b.1–227a.6.
———. 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), 2006–2009, vol. 42, pp. 168b.1–227a.6.
———. Stok Palace Kangyur (stog pho brang bris ma bka’ ’gyur). Vol. 38 (dkon brtsegs, nga), folios 319v–411v.
富樓那會 (Fu lou na hui). Taishō shinshū daizōkyō (大正新脩大藏經). Vol. 11, 310 (大寶積經), scrolls 77–79.
Secondary References
Conze, Edward. The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.
Greene, Eric Matthew. “Meditation, Repentance, and Visionary Experience in Early Medieval Chinese Buddhism.” Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkley, 2012.
Kilty, Gavin. The Mirror of Beryl: A Historical Introduction to Tibetan Medicine. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2010.
Muller, A. Charles, ed. Digital Dictionary of Buddhism. buddhism-dict.net. Edition of 12/26/2007.
Pagel, Ulrich. “The Dhāraṇī of Mahāvyutpatti #748: Origin and Formation.” Buddhist Studies Review, vol. 24, no. 2 (2007): 151–91.
Pagel, Ulrich. “The Bodhisattvapiṭaka and Akṣayamatinirdeśa: Continuity and Change in Buddhist Discourses.” The Buddhist Forum, vol. 3 (2012): 333–73.
Deshung Rinpoche. The Three Levels of Spiritual Perception: A Commentary on the Three Visions. Translated by Jared Rhoton. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003.
Skilling, Peter. “Caitya, Mahācaitya, Tathāgatacaitya: Questions of Terminology in the Age of Amaravati.” In Amaravati: The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument in Context, edited by Akira Shimada and Michael Willis, 23–26. London: British Museum, 2016.
Soothill, William Edward and Lewis Hodous. A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms. Digital version: buddhistinformatics.ddbc.edu. Taipei: Dharma Drum Buddhist College, 2010.
Verhagen Peter C. “Studies in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Hermeneutics (4): The Vyākhyāyukti by Vasubandhu.” Journal Asiatique 293.2 (2005): 559–602.
Glossary
Affliction
- kun nas nyon mongs pa
- ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པ།
- saṃkleśa
Saṃsāra, in being nothing but afflicted; its opposite is “purification” (vyavadāna).
Aggregates
- phung po
- ཕུང་པོ།
- skandha
The fivefold basic grouping of the components out of which the world and the personal self are formed.
Ānanda
- kun dga’ bo
- ཀུན་དགའ་བོ།
- Ānanda
The Buddha’s cousin and principal attendant.
Aphorisms
- ched du brjod pa’i sde
- ཆེད་དུ་བརྗོད་པའི་སྡེ།
- udāna
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Ascetic practices
- sbyangs pa’i yon tan
- སྦྱངས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན།
- dhūtaguṇa
An optional set of thirteen practices that monastics can adopt in order to cultivate greater detachment. They consist of 1) wearing patched robes made from discarded cloth rather than from cloth donated by laypeople; 2) wearing only three robes; 3) going for alms; 4) not omitting any house while on the alms round, rather than begging only at those houses known to provide good food; 5) eating only what can be eaten in one sitting; 6) eating only food received in the alms bowl, rather than more elaborate meals presented to the Saṅgha; 7) refusing more food after indicating one has eaten enough; 8) dwelling in the forest; 9) dwelling at the root of a tree; 10) dwelling in the open air, using only a tent made from one’s robes as shelter; 11) dwelling in a charnel ground; 12) satisfaction with whatever dwelling one has; and 13) sleeping in a sitting position without ever lying down.
Bimbisāra
- gzugs can snying po
- གཟུགས་ཅན་སྙིང་པོ།
- Bimbisāra
King of Magadha who lived at the time of Buddha Śākyamuni.
Biographies
- rtogs pa brjod pa’i sde
- རྟོགས་པ་བརྗོད་པའི་སྡེ།
- avadāna
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Black Line Hell
- thig nag
- ཐིག་ནག
- Kālasūtra
One of the eight hot hells.
Brahmaghoṣa
- tshangs pa’i dbyangs
- ཚངས་པའི་དབྱངས།
- Brahmaghoṣa
A thus-gone one of the past.
Brahmin
- bram ze
- བྲམ་ཟེ།
- brāhmaṇa
A member of the Indian priestly caste.
Crushing Hell
- bsdus ’joms
- བསྡུས་འཇོམས།
- Saṃghāta
One of the eight hot hells.
Damaśrī
- da ma shi ri
- ད་མ་ཤི་རི།
- Damaśrī
A prince living in the past at the time of the buddha Merugandha.
Deer Park
- ri dwags rgyu ba’i tshal
- རི་དྭགས་རྒྱུ་བའི་ཚལ།
- Mṛgadāva
The forest, located outside of Vārāṇasī where the Buddha first taught the Dharma.
Devadatta
- lhas byin
- ལྷས་བྱིན།
- Devadatta
A cousin of Buddha Śākyamuni who broke with him and established his own community. His tradition was still continuing during the first millennium ᴄᴇ. He is portrayed as engendering evil schemes against the Buddha and even succeeding in wounding him. He is usually identified with wicked beings in accounts of previous lifetimes.
Dhāraṇī
- gzungs
- གཟུངས།
- dhāraṇī
A formula invoking a particular deity for a particular purpose; dhāraṇīs are longer than most mantras, and their applications are more specialized.
Discourses
- mdo’i sde
- མདོའི་སྡེ།
- sūtravarga
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Eight limbs of the noble path
- ’phags pa’i lam yan lag brgyad pa
- འཕགས་པའི་ལམ་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་པ།
- āryāṣṭāṅgamārga
Right view, intention, speech, actions, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration.
Eighteen unique qualities
- ma ’dres pa bco brgyad
- མ་འདྲེས་པ་བཅོ་བརྒྱད།
- aṣṭādaśāveṇikā
Eighteen special features of a buddha’s behavior, realization, activity, and wisdom that are not shared by other beings.
Elements
- khams
- ཁམས།
- dhātu
One way of describing experience and the world in terms of eighteen elements (eye and form, ear and sound, nose and odor, tongue and taste, body and touch, mind and mental objects, to which the six consciousnesses are added).
Elephant Trunk
- glang po che’i lag
- གླང་པོ་ཆེའི་ལག
- —
A monk. Interlocutor of the Buddha in the Questions of Pūrṇa sūtra.
Erudition
- mang du thos pa
- མང་དུ་ཐོས་པ།
- bahuśrutya, bāhuśrutya
Evil Mind
- sdig pa’i yid
- སྡིག་པའི་ཡིད།
- —
Name of a demon who lived in the past.
Expanding Arm
- rab tu ’phel ba’i dpung
- རབ་ཏུ་འཕེལ་བའི་དཔུང་།
- —
A thus-gone one of the past.
Extensive teachings
- shin tu rgyas pa’i sde
- ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པའི་སྡེ།
- vaipulya
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Extremely Hot Hell
- rab tu tsha ba
- རབ་ཏུ་ཚ་བ།
- Pratāpana
One of the eight hot hells.
Five faculties
- dbang po lnga
- དབང་པོ་ལྔ།
- pañcendriya
Faith, mindfulness, diligence, concentration, and insight.
Five higher perceptions
- mngon par shes pa lnga
- མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ་ལྔ།
- pañcābhijña
Divine sight, divine hearing, knowledge of the minds of others, remembrance of past lives, and ability to perform miracles. See “six higher perceptions,” the same list with the addition of “ability to destroy mental defilements,” which can only be attained by Buddhist practitioners.
Five powers
- stobs lnga
- སྟོབས་ལྔ།
- pañcabala
Faith, mindfulness, diligence, concentration, and insight. Similar to the five faculties but differing in that they cannot be shaken by adverse conditions.
Former births
- skyes pa’i rabs kyi sde
- སྐྱེས་པའི་རབས་ཀྱི་སྡེ།
- jātaka
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Former events
- de lta bu byung ba’i sde
- དེ་ལྟ་བུ་བྱུང་བའི་སྡེ།
- itivṛttaka
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Four applications of mindfulness
- dran pa nye bar gzhag pa bzhi
- དྲན་པ་ཉེ་བར་གཞག་པ་བཞི།
- catuḥsmṛtyupasthāna
A fundamental practice of Buddhist meditation: the close application of mindfulness to the body, feelings, mind, and phenomena.
Four bases of miraculous displays
- rdzu ’phrul gyi rkang pa bzhi
- རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་རྐང་པ་བཞི།
- catvāraṛddhipādā
Determination, discernment, diligence, and concentration.
Four concentrations
- bsam gtan bzhi
- བསམ་གཏན་བཞི།
- caturdhyāna
The four levels of concentration of beings residing in the form realm.
Four fearlessnesses
- mi ’jigs pa bzhi
- མི་འཇིགས་པ་བཞི།
- caturvaiśāradya
Fearlessness in declaring that one has (1) awakened, (2) ceased all illusions, (3) taught the obstacles to awakening, and (4) shown the way to liberation.
Four relinquishments
- yang dag par spong ba bzhi
- ཡང་དག་པར་སྤོང་བ་བཞི།
- catuḥsamyakprahāṇa
Four types of relinquishment consisting in abandoning existing negative mind states, abandoning the production of such states, giving rise to virtuous mind states that are not yet produced, and letting those states continue.
Fruitful Conduct
- gdon mi za ba’i spyod pa
- གདོན་མི་ཟ་བའི་སྤྱོད་པ།
- —
A thus-gone one of the past.
Gandharvas
- dri za
- དྲི་ཟ།
- gandharva
A class of semi-divine beings sometimes referred to as “heavenly musicians.”
Garuḍas
- nam mkha’ lding
- ནམ་མཁའ་ལྡིང་།
- garuḍa
A class of semi-divine bird-like beings.
Good Profit
- legs par rnyed pa
- ལེགས་པར་རྙེད་པ།
- —
Name of Buddha Śākyamuni in a past life, when he was a merchant practicing bodhisattva conduct.
Great Wailing Hell
- ngu ’bod chen po
- ངུ་འབོད་ཆེན་པོ།
- Mahāraurava
One of the eight hot hells.
Healer of Men
- mi’i sman
- མིའི་སྨན།
- —
Name of Buddha Śākyamuni in a past life, when he was a prince practicing bodhisattva conduct.
Heaven of the Thirty-Three
- sum cu rtsa gsum lha’i gnas
- སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ་ལྷའི་གནས།
- Trāyastriṃśa
The second lowest of the six heavens of the desire realm, located on top of Mount Sumeru in the Buddhist cosmology.
Hell of Ceaseless Torment
- mnar med pa
- མནར་མེད་པ།
- Avīci
One of the eight hot hells.
Hot Hell
- tsha ba
- ཚ་བ།
- Tāpana
One of the eight hot hells.
Hymns and praises
- dbyangs kyis bsnyad pa’i sde
- དབྱངས་ཀྱིས་བསྙད་པའི་སྡེ།
- geya
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Irreversible
- phyir mi ldog pa
- ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ།
- avaivartika
Īśvarasena
- dbang phyug gi sde
- དབང་ཕྱུག་གི་སྡེ།
- Īśvarasena
A king who lived in the past.
Kalandaka Forest
- ka lan da ka
- ཀ་ལན་ད་ཀ
- Kalandaka
A grove or forest within the Veṇuvana near Rājagṛha, where Buddha Śākyamuni spent several monsoon retreats and delivered many Great Vehicle teachings. In other texts it is known as the Kalandakanivāsa or °nivāpa, the dwelling place or feeding ground of kalandaka—crows or other birds according to Tibetan renderings, but some Sanskrit and Pali sources suggest flying squirrels.
Kaṭamorakatiṣya
- ka ta mo ra ka ti sha
- ཀ་ཏ་མོ་ར་ཀ་ཏི་ཤ།
- Kaṭamorakatiṣya
One of the members of a group of four monks described in the Vinaya as followers of Devadatta that attempted to create a schism in the Buddhist saṅgha.
Kauverdu
- ke’u wer du
- ཀེའུ་ཝེར་དུ།
- Kauverdu
A bodhisattva of the past.
Khaṇḍadravja
- khaN Da dra ba bya
- ཁཎ་ཌ་དྲ་བ་བྱ།
- Khaṇḍadravja
One of the members of a group of four monks described in the Vinaya as followers of Devadatta that attempted to create a schism in the Buddhist saṅgha.
Kiṃnaras
- mi’am ci
- མིའམ་ཅི།
- kiṃnara, kinnara
A class of semidivine beings that resemble humans to the degree that their very name—which means “Is that a man?”—suggests some confusion as to their divine status.
King of All Qualities’ Light Rays
- yon tan thams cad kyi ’od zer gyi rgyal po
- ཡོན་ཏན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་འོད་ཟེར་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
- Sarvaguṇa
Past buddha who lived countless eons ago.
Kokālika
- ko ka li ka
- ཀོ་ཀ་ལི་ཀ
- Kokālika
One of the members of a group of four monks described in the Vinaya as followers of Devadatta that attempted to create a schism in the Buddhist saṅgha.
Kṣāntibala
- bzod pa’i stobs
- བཟོད་པའི་སྟོབས།
- Kṣāntibala
Name of the Buddha Śākyamuni in a past life, when he was a sage practicing bodhisattva conduct.
Magadha
- ma ga dha
- མ་ག་དྷ།
- Magadha
The largest kingdom of northern India during the time of the Buddha.
Mahābala
- stobs pa che
- སྟོབས་པ་ཆེ།
- Mahābala
Name of the Buddha Śākyamuni in a past life, when he was a king practicing bodhisattva conduct.
Mahākāśyapa
- ’od srung chen po
- འོད་སྲུང་ཆེན་པོ།
- Mahākāśyapa
A senior student of Buddha Śākyamuni, famous for his austere lifestyle.
Mahāmaudgalyāyana
- mod gal gyi bu chen po
- མོད་གལ་གྱི་བུ་ཆེན་པོ།
- Mahāmaudgalyāyana
Alternate name for Maudgalyāyana, one of the closest disciples of the Buddha Śākyamuni, known for his miraculous abilities.
Mahāsthāmaprāpta
- mthu chen thob pa
- མཐུ་ཆེན་ཐོབ་པ།
- Mahāsthāmaprāpta
Dharma-preaching monk living at the time of the buddha King of All Qualities’ Light Rays.
Mahāśumata
- ma hA shu ma ta
- མ་ཧཱ་ཤུ་མ་ཏ།
- Mahāśumata
Son of Śani, householder who lived in the past at the time of the buddha King of All Qualities’ Light Rays.
Mahoragas
- lto ’phye chen po
- ལྟོ་འཕྱེ་ཆེན་པོ།
- mahoraga
A class of non-human beings shaped like enormous serpents.
Maitreya
- byams pa
- བྱམས་པ།
- Maitreya
Bodhisattva of loving kindness; the next buddha to follow Śākyamuni.
Marvels
- rmad du byung ba’i chos kyi sde
- རྨད་དུ་བྱུང་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྡེ།
- adbhutadharma
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Maudgalyāyana
- maud gal
- མཽད་གལ།
- Maudgalyāyana
One of the closest disciples of the Buddha Śākyamuni, known for his miraculous abilities.
Merugandha
- me ro gan dha
- མེ་རོ་གན་དྷ།
- Merugandha
A past buddha who lived countless eons ago.
Merurāja
- ri’i rgyal po
- རིའི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
- Merurāja
A thus-gone one of the past.
Mount Sumeru
- ri rab
- རི་རབ།
- Sumeru
In Buddhist cosmology, the sacred mountain at the center of the world.
Nāga
- klu
- ཀླུ།
- nāga
A semidivine class of beings who live in subterranean aquatic environments and who are known to hoard wealth and esoteric teachings. They are associated with snakes and serpents.
Narratives
- gleng gzhi’i sde
- གླེང་གཞིའི་སྡེ།
- nidāna
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Pariṇāyaka
- rab tu ’dren pa
- རབ་ཏུ་འདྲེན་པ།
- Pariṇāyaka
Reincarnation of Damaśrī, prince living in the past at the time of the buddha Merugandha.
Perfumed chamber
- dri gtsang khang
- དྲི་གཙང་ཁང་།
- gandhakuṭī
Term that was first used in reference to the Buddha’s personal residence. Later, after the Buddha’s passing, the term came to denote the inner chamber of Buddhist monasteries in India, where a Buddha statue was housed to represent the Buddha’s residence at the monastery.
Preceptor
- mkhan po
- མཁན་པོ།
- upādhyāya
A personal preceptor and teacher.
Profound doctrines
- gtan la phab par bstan pa’i sde
- གཏན་ལ་ཕབ་པར་བསྟན་པའི་སྡེ།
- upadeśa
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Prophecies
- lung du bstan pa’i sde
- ལུང་དུ་བསྟན་པའི་སྡེ།
- vyākaraṇa
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra
- byams ma’i bu gang po
- བྱམས་མའི་བུ་གང་པོ།
- Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra
Main interlocutor of the buddha in the Questions of Pūrṇa sūtra.
Reviving Hell
- yang sos
- ཡང་སོས།
- Saṃjīva
One of the eight hot hells.
Sage
- drang srong
- དྲང་སྲོང་།
- ṛṣi
Indian sage or wise man (often a wandering ascetic or hermit).
Śakra
- brgya byin
- བརྒྱ་བྱིན།
- Śakra
Alternate name for Indra, the lord who rules the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.
Samudradatta
- rgya mtshos byin
- རྒྱ་མཚོས་བྱིན།
- Samudradatta
One of the members of a group of four monks described in the Vinaya as followers of Devadatta that attempted to create a schism in the Buddhist saṅgha.
Śani
- sha ni
- ཤ་ནི།
- Śani
Householder who lived in the past at the time of the buddha King of All Qualities’ Light Rays.
Śāriputra
- shA ri’i bu
- ཤཱ་རིའི་བུ།
- Śāriputra
One of the closest disciples of the Buddha Śākyamuni, known for his insight.
Sense source
- skye mched
- སྐྱེ་མཆེད།
- āyatana
One way of describing experience and the world in terms of twelve sense sources (eye and form, ear and sound, nose and odor, tongue and taste, body and touch, mind and mental objects).
Seven limbs of awakening
- byang chub kyi yan lag bdun
- བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་བདུན།
- saptabodhyaṅga
Mindfulness, discrimination, diligence, joy, pliability, absorption, and equanimity.
Six higher perceptions
- mngon par shes pa drug
- མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ་དྲུག
- ṣaḍabhijñā
Divine sight, divine hearing, knowledge of the minds of others, remembrance of past lives, ability to perform miracles, and ability to destroy all mental defilements.
Smṛtipratilabdha
- dran pa thob pa
- དྲན་པ་ཐོབ་པ།
- Smṛtipratilabdha
Reincarnation of Damaśrī, prince living in the past at the time of the buddha Merugandha.
Śula
- shu la
- ཤུ་ལ།
- Śula
Reincarnation of Damaśrī, prince living in the past at the time of the buddha Merugandha.
Sumeru
- ri rab
- རི་རབ།
- Sumeru
A thus-gone one of the past.
Sunetra
- legs pa’i spyan
- ལེགས་པའི་སྤྱན།
- Sunetra
A thus-gone one of the past.
Supratiṣṭhita
- shin tu brtan pa
- ཤིན་ཏུ་བརྟན་པ།
- Supratiṣṭhita
A hearer who lived in the past and was a disciple of the buddha Merugandha.
Supreme Assembly
- ’khor mchog
- འཁོར་མཆོག
- —
A thus-gone one of the past.
Teacher
- slob dpon
- སློབ་དཔོན།
- ācārya
A spiritual teacher (sometimes more specifically the deputy or substitute of the upādhyāya).
Ten strengths
- stobs bcu
- སྟོབས་བཅུ།
- daśabala
The ten strenghts of a buddha: reflection, intention, application, insight, aspiration, vehicle, conduct, manifestation, awakening, and turning the Dharma wheel.
The Determined One
- rus pa can
- རུས་པ་ཅན།
- —
The name, mentioned in the Questions of Pūrṇa sūtra, that Devadatta will receive upon reaching the fruition of a solitary buddha.
Three doors of liberation
- rnam par thar pa’i sgo gsum
- རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པའི་སྒོ་གསུམ།
- trivimokṣamukha
Emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness.
Three types of knowledge
- rig pa gsum
- རིག་པ་གསུམ།
- trividyā
The three kinds of supernormal cognition among the six supernormal powers (六神通). Applied to buddhas they are called 三達, and applied to worthy ones they are called 三明. They are the power of divine vision (天眼通), whereby they can observe the full course of passage by sentient beings through the six destinies; the power of the knowledge of previous lifetimes (宿命通), (宿住通), whereby they know the events of countless kalpas of previous lifetimes experienced by themselves, as well as by all the beings in the six destinies; and the power of the extinction of contamination (漏盡通), whereby they completely extinguish all the afflictions of the three realms and thus are no longer subject to rebirth in the three realms. In the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya (倶舍論) 27, the three are termed 住智識證明, 死生識證明, and 漏盡識證明 (Skt. tri-vidya, tisrovidyāḥ, traividya; Pāli ti-vijjā; Tib. rig pa gsum).
Trichiliocosm
- stong gsum gyi stong chen po’i ’jig rten gyi khams
- སྟོང་གསུམ་གྱི་སྟོང་ཆེན་པོའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས།
- trisāhasramahāsāhasralokadhātu
A series of parallel universes containing one billion worlds, according to traditional Indian cosmology.
Twelve links of dependent origination
- rten cing ’brel bar byung ba’i yang lag bcu gnyis
- རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་བྱུང་བའི་ཡང་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས།
- dvādaśāṅgapratītyasamutpāda
The twelve causal links that perpetuate life in saṃsāra; starting with ignorance and ending with death.
Unimpeded Vision
- thogs ma mi mnga’ ba’i spyan
- ཐོགས་མ་མི་མངའ་བའི་སྤྱན།
- Asaṇganetra
A thus-gone one of the past.
Universal monarch
- ’khor los sgyur ba’i rgyal po
- འཁོར་ལོས་སྒྱུར་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ།
- cakravartin
Monarch ruling over the four continents of human beings.
Vārāṇasī
- bA ra NA si
- བཱ་ར་ཎཱ་སི།
- Vārāṇasī
City in northern India where the Buddha first taught the Dharma.
Veṇuvana
- ’od ma’i tshal
- འོད་མའི་ཚལ།
- Veṇuvana
A bamboo grove or forest containing a monastery, north of Rājagṛha, where Buddha Śākyamuni spent several monsoon retreats and delivered many Great Vehicle teachings.
Verses
- tshigs su bcad pa’i sde
- ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པའི་སྡེ།
- gāthā
One of the twelve branches of Buddhist scriptures.
Virtues of ascetic practice
- sbyangs pa’i chos
- སྦྱངས་པའི་ཆོས།
- dhūtadharma
The qualities associated with the observance of ascetic practices.
Vulture Peak Mountain
- bya rgod phung po’i ri
- བྱ་རྒོད་ཕུང་པོའི་རི།
- Gṛdhrakūṭaparvata
The mountain where many Great Vehicle teachings were delivered by Buddha Śākyamuni.
Wailing Hell
- ngu ’bod
- ངུ་འབོད།
- Raurava
One of the eight hot hells.
Wishlessness
- smon pa med pa
- སྨོན་པ་མེད་པ།
- apraṇihita
One of the threedoors of liberation.
World
- ’dzam bu’i gling
- འཛམ་བུའི་གླིང་།
- Jambudvīpa
The name of the southern continent in Buddhist cosmology, which can mean the known world of humans or more specifically the Indian subcontinent. A gigantic, miraculous rose-apple (Skt. jambu) tree at the source of the great Indian rivers is said to give the continent its name.
Worthy one
- dgra bcom pa
- དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།
- arhat
A person who has accomplished the final fruition of the path of the hearers and is liberated from saṃsāra.
Yakṣa
- gnod sbyin
- གནོད་སྦྱིན།
- yakṣa
A class of mostly malevolent beings that cause harm to humans. One of the eight classes of spirits.
Yaśas
- ya sha
- ཡ་ཤ།
- Yaśas
Reincarnation of Damaśrī, prince living in the past at the time of the buddha Merugandha.