GLOSSARY

idem Maitreya, q.v.

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.

p. 146.

Without a permanent personality, or soul.

Unsurpassed perfect wisdom.

Hermitage.

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

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

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.

p. 20.

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

Titans, powerful rivals of the gods; see Nāga.

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

Unintermitted reincarnation in the last of the eight hot hells.

Never retrograding, or returning to mortality.

Mendicants, monks, nuns.

Enlightenment; awake, aware, enlightened.

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.

See Mahāsattva.

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.

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

The enlightened; awake, aware.

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

p. 20.

Magic formula, spell, incantation.

p. 7.

p. 7.

Discipline.

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

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

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

The Vulture Peak, p. 13.

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

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

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

p. 7.

A fabulous bird of melodious song; p. 220.

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

See p. 6.

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

See Mahā-Kāśyapa.

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

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

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

See p. 7.

Monstrously deformed demons.

Name of a demoness.

One of the principal disciples of the Buddha.

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

Great vehicle; by which all are saved through faith.

One of the four oldest disciples; p. 129.

One of the four oldest disciples; p. 129.

King of dēvas. Śiva.

Boa-demons; large bellied demons; see Nāga.

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

An imaginary Bōdhisattva, the apotheosis of transcendental wisdom.

The murderer or enemy of goodness; the devil.

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

A formula of adoration like Ave.

Some say a hundred thousand millions.

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

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

Final extinction, see Nirvāṇa.

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

The great, or white lotus.

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

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

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

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

idem Indra.

A mortal world.

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

Mystical meditation, concentrated contemplation, ecstatic absorption.

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

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

A monk, an ascetic.

Novices.

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

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

One of the four oldest disciples; p. 129.

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.

A work supposed to give the discourses of the Buddha.

The fan palm; a length of about 70 feet.

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

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

The blue lotus.

The sceptre of Indra as god of lightning and thunder.

Benares.

A class of demons.

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

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