GLOSSARY

Ajita

idem Maitreya, q.v.

Amitābha, Amitāyus, or Amita

Infinite light and infinite life, possibly a Persian concept adapted by Mahāyānists. It is in this Sutra that he first has mention. He is the most popular Buddha in the Far East, and to Sukhavatī, his Paradise, or Pure-land, where also Kuan-yin dwells, it is the prayer of most devotees to go.

Ānanda

p. 146.

Anātman

Without a permanent personality, or soul.

Anuttara-samyak-saṁbōdhi

Unsurpassed perfect wisdom.

Araṇya

Hermitage.

Arhat, Arhān

In Chinese ‘Lo-han’. One who has attained to spiritual ārya or saintship; one who strives after it; a higher class of Buddhist disciple.

Arjaka

Symplocos Racemosa; but it may be Marjaka which is said to split into seven pieces when cut down.

Asaṃkhyēya

Beyond number, countless, numberless; by some explained as 1 followed by 17 ciphers, by others as by 97 ciphers, by others as a world period of 1,344,000,000 years.

Asita

p. 20.

Aśōka

The first great royal patron of Buddhism in the third century B.C.; see p. 6.

Asuras

Titans, powerful rivals of the gods; see Nāga.

Avalōkiteśvara

Regarder of cries, Kuan-yin. The original form is uncertain.

Avīci

Unintermitted reincarnation in the last of the eight hot hells.

Avinivartanīyaḥ

Never retrograding, or returning to mortality.

Bhikshu, Bhikshuṇī

Mendicants, monks, nuns.

Bōdhi

Enlightenment; awake, aware, enlightened.

Bōdhisattva

A disciple who has become enlightened and freed from the miseries of mortality; also an angelic being ready for final buddhahood, who remains in a lower state to save others; see Mahasattva.

Bōdhisattva-Mahāsattva

See Mahāsattva.

Brahmā

The first person in the Brahminical trinity. By Buddhists he is considered as subject to mortality, and therefore inferior to one who has attained to Bōdhi. In this Sūtra he is mentioned as the ‘Father of all the living’, perhaps as Dēva of the present world.

Brāhmaṇas

Brahmins, i.e. those of the highest caste.

Buddha

The enlightened; awake, aware.

Dēva

The gods of Brahminism; gods in general; they are all subject to metempsychosis.

Dēvadatta

p. 20.

Dhāraṇī

Magic formula, spell, incantation.

Dharmagupta

p. 7.

Dharmaraksha

p. 7.

Dhuta

Discipline.

Gandharva

Beings superior to men, able to smell incense and make music; see Nāga.

Garuḍa

Winged spirits resembling powerful birds able to fight Nāgas, q.v.

Gayā

An ancient city of Magadha, where Śākyamuni lived for seven years before attaining his enlightenment; pp. 197, 200.

Gṛidhrakūṭa

The Vulture Peak, p. 13.

Hīnayāna

Small conveyance, or vehicle; whereby the few are saved by works.

Indra

One of the most ancient gods of Brahminism, now protector of Buddhism, though considered inferior to a Buddha. His symbol is the vajra.

Īśvara

A sovereign (in his own right), see Maheśvara.

Jñanāgupta

p. 7.

Kalaviṅka

A fabulous bird of melodious song; p. 220.

Kalpa

There are many kinds, but the general meaning is an aeon or age.

Kanishka

See p. 6.

Karma

Deed, conduct, moral action; used also in the sense of character as the resultant of moral thought and action. See p. 44.

Kāśyapa

See Mahā-Kāśyapa.

Kinnara

Supernatural beings usually represented with horses’ heads; the musicians of Kuvera, or Pluto; see Nāga.

Kōṭī

A figure varying from 100,000 to 10,000,000,000.

Kshatriyas

The second caste, of kings and warriors, from which Buddhas come.

Kumārajīva

See p. 7.

Kumbhāṇḍa

Monstrously deformed demons.

Kuntī

Name of a demoness.

Mahā-Kāśyapa

One of the principal disciples of the Buddha.

Mahāsattva

Great being. Bōdhisattvas superior to all beings except Buddhas, and who are saviours of all creatures.

Mahāyanā

Great vehicle; by which all are saved through faith.

Mahā-Kātyāyana

One of the four oldest disciples; p. 129.

Mahā-Māudgalyāyana

One of the four oldest disciples; p. 129.

Mahēśvara

King of dēvas. Śiva.

Mahōraga

Boa-demons; large bellied demons; see Nāga.

Māitrēya

The next Buddha, the Messiah of the Buddhists. Also called Ajita.

Mañjuśrī

An imaginary Bōdhisattva, the apotheosis of transcendental wisdom.

Māra

The murderer or enemy of goodness; the devil.

Nāga

Snake, boa, dragon, monster. The eight classes beyond the human stage are Dēvas, Nāgas, Rakshas, Gandharvas, Asuras, Garuḍas, Kinnaras, Mahōragas.

Namo or Namaḥ

A formula of adoration like Ave.

Nayuta

Some say a hundred thousand millions.

Nirvāṇa

Extinction, but whether of existence, or of reincarnation, or of all impurity, is much debated.

Pāramitās

The (six) virtues which ferry over the saṃsāra stream to nirvāṇa—renunciation, purity, endurance, advance, concentrated meditation, wisdom.

Parinirvāṇa

Final extinction, see Nirvāṇa.

Pratyēkabuddha

An individualist who saves himself but does not save others; an ascetic.

Puṇḍarīka

The great, or white lotus.

Rāhula

Son of the Buddha, born before the latter left home.

Rakshas

Demons who devour men, the retinue of Vāiśravaṇa; see Nāga.

Saddharma

Good Law, True Law, somewhat similar to ‘Gospel’. In Chinese it is translated by Miao Fa, which means wonderful, beautiful, supernatural law.

Sāgara

Dragon-King of the Ocean, whose palace is full of pearls, and who is the bestower of rain; p. 172.

Śakra

idem Indra.

Saha

A mortal world.

Śākyamuni

Saint of the Śākya clan, whose other names were Siddhārtha and Gautama.

Samādhi

Mystical meditation, concentrated contemplation, ecstatic absorption.

Saṃgha

The assembly of monks; the ‘Church’ of Buddhism, hence the third member of the trinity Buddha, Law, Church.

Śāriputra

Son of Śāri, the most learned of the Buddha’s disciples.

Śramaṇa

A monk, an ascetic.

Śrāmaṇēras

Novices.

Śrāvaka

A hearer, or disciple; an elementary stage of sainthood.

Stūpa

A reliquary, or shrine, of cupola-shape to contain remains after cremation, especially of the Buddha.

Subhūti

One of the four oldest disciples; p. 129.

Sumēru

The central mountain of every world, whose height above the sea is 84,000 yōjanas, but whose total height from its invisible base to its summit is 168,000 yōjanas.

Sūtra

A work supposed to give the discourses of the Buddha.

Tāla

The fan palm; a length of about 70 feet.

Tathāgata

One who comes, or goes, as he should, a term for a Buddha.

Udumbara

A tree supposed to flower only once in 3,000 years.

Utpala

The blue lotus.

Vajra

The sceptre of Indra as god of lightning and thunder.

Vārāṇasī

Benares.

Yaksha

A class of demons.

Yōjana

A measure of length, a league, variously estimated at from 4½ to 9 miles.