The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism

dharmavinaya. (P. dhammavinaya; T. chos ’dul ba; C. falü; J. hōritsu; K. pŏmnyul 法律). In Sanskrit, the “teaching” (DHARMA) and “discipline” (VINAYA) expounded by the Buddha and recommended to his followers as the highest refuge and spiritual guide after his demise. The compound dharmavinaya, with dharma referring to the Buddha’s discourses (SŪTRA) and vinaya referring to monastic discipline, appears to be an early term used prior to the development of the ABHIDHARMA as a separate category of teachings and the tripartite division of the Buddhst canon (TRIPIṬAKA). Dharmavinaya is one of the terms (along with BUDDHADHARMA) within the tradition that is closest to what in the West is called “Buddhism.” Generally, the sūtras and the vinaya were collectively called dharmavinaya; the Chinese term falü may also less precisely refer only to the monastic precepts (see PRĀTIMOKṢA) and does not always denote two separate categories.

dharmāyatana. (P. dhammāyatana; T. chos kyi skye mched; C. fachu; J. hōsho/hossho; K. pŏpch’ŏ 法處). In Sanskrit, “the sense-field of mental objects,” that is, objects of the mind or mental phenomena (DHARMA) as they occur in the list of twelve sense faculties or “bases of cognition” (ĀYATANA), which serve as the bases for the production of consciousness, viz., the six internal sense bases, or sense organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) and the six external sense objects (forms, sounds, odors, tastes, tangible objects, and mental phenomena). The contact (SPARŚA) between the mental sense base (MANENDRIYA) and its corresponding mental object (dharma) leads to mental consciousness (MANOVIJÑĀNA). Although the other organs (INDRIYA) are limited to their respective objects (the eye to forms, the ear to sounds, etc.), any phenomenon may be a dharmāyatana because it can be an object of thought.

Dharmodgata. (T. Chos ’phags; C. Faqi pusa; J. Hōki bosatsu; K. Pŏpki posal 法起菩薩). In Sanskrit, “Elevated Dharma,” or “Dharma Arising,” the name of a BODHISATTVA whom the AVATAṂSAKASŪTRA describes as residing in the Diamond (S. VAJRA) Mountains. According to the Chinese translations of the Avataṃsakasūtra, Dharmodgata lives in the middle of the sea in the Diamond Mountains (C. Jingangshan; J. KONGŌSAN; K. KŬMGANGSAN), where he preaches the dharma to his large congregation of fellow bodhisattvas. The AṢṬASĀHASRIKĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ also says that Dharmodgata (his name there is transcribed as C. Tanwujian, J. Donmukatsu, and K. Tammugal) preaches the PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ three times daily at the City of Fragrances (S. Gandhavatī; C. Zhongxiangcheng; J. Shukōjō; K. Chunghyangsŏng), now used as the name of one of the individual peaks at the Korean KŬMGANGSAN. Since the Chinese Tang dynasty and the Korean Silla dynasty, East Asian Buddhists have presumed that Dharmodgata resided at the Diamond Mountains, just as the bodhisattva MAÑJUŚRĪ lived at WUTAISHAN. In his HUAYAN JING SHU, CHENGGUAN’s massive commentary to the Avataṃsakasūtra, Chengguan explicitly connects the sūtra’s mention of the Diamond Mountains to the Kŭmgangsan of Korea. At Kŭmgangsan, there are many place names associated with Dharmodgata and several legends and stories concerning him have been transmitted. Records explain that P’YOHUNSA, an important monastery at Kŭmgangsan, at one time had an image of Dharmodgata enshrined in its main basilica (although the image is now lost). According to the Japanese ascetic tradition of SHUGENDŌ, the semilegendary founder of the school, EN NO OZUNU (b. 634), is considered to be a manifestation of Dharmodgata, and his principal residence, Katsuragi Mountain in Nara prefecture, is therefore also sometimes known as the Diamond Mountains (KONGŌSAN).

Dharmottara. (T. Chos mchog) (fl. eighth century). Indian author of a number of works on PRAMĀṆA, the most important of which are his detailed commentary on DHARMAKĪRTI’s PRAMĀṆAVINIŚCAYA and a shorter commentary on his NYĀYABINDU. A contemporary or student of PRAJÑĀKARAGUPTA, Dharmottara was influential in the transmission of PRAMĀṆA (T. tshad ma) studies in Tibet. RNGOG BLO LDAN SHES RAB’s translation of Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇaviniścaya and Nyāyabindu into Tibetan together with Dharmottara’s commentaries and his own explanations laid the foundations for the study of pramāṇa in GSANG PHU NE’U THOG monastery. This importance continued unchallenged until SA SKYA PAṆḌITA’s detailed explanation of Dharmakīrti’s ideas based on all his seven major works, particularly his PRAMĀṆAVĀRTTIKA, opened up a competing tradition of explanation.

dhātu. (T. khams; C. jie; J. kai; K. kye 界). In Sanskrit and Pāli, “element”; a polysemous term with wide application in Buddhist contexts. ¶ In epistemology, the dhātus refer to the eighteen elements through which sensory experience is produced: the six sense bases, or sense organs (INDRIYA; viz., eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind); the six corresponding sense objects (ĀLAMBANA; viz., forms, sounds, odors, tastes, tangible objects, and mental phenomena); and the six sensory consciousnesses that result from contact (SPARŚA) between the corresponding base and object (VIJÑĀNA; viz., visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and mental consciousnesses). As this list makes clear, the eighteen dhātus also subsume the twelve ĀYATANA (sense-fields). The dhātus represent one of the three major taxonomies of dharmas found in the sūtras (along with SKANDHA and āyatana), and represent a more primitive stage of dharma classification than the elaborate analyses found in much of the mature ABHIDHARMA literature (but cf. DHARMASKANDHA). ¶ In cosmology, dhātu is used in reference to the three realms of existence (TRILOKADHĀTU), which comprise all of the phenomenal universe: the sensuous realm (KĀMADHĀTU), the subtle-materiality realm (RŪPADHĀTU), and the immaterial realm (ĀRŪPYADHĀTU). The three realms of existence taken together comprise all of SAṂSĀRA, and are the realms within which beings take rebirth. In this cosmological sense, dhātu is synonymous to AVACARA (sphere, domain); see AVACARA for further details. ¶ In a physical sense, dhātu is used to refer to the constituent elements of the physical world (see MAHĀBHŪTA), of which four are usually recognized in Buddhist materials: earth, water, fire, and wind. Sometimes two additional constituents are added to the list: space (ĀKĀŚA) and consciousness (VIJÑĀNA). ¶ The term dhātu may also refer to an “elemental physical substance,” that is, the physical remains of the body, and this context is synonymous with ŚARĪRA (relic), with which it is often seen in compound as śarīradhātu (bodily relic). Sometimes three types of relics are differentiated: specific corporeal relics (śarīradhātu), relics of use (pāribhogikadhātu), and relics of commemoration (uddeśikadhātu). In a further development of this usage, in the RATNAGOTRAVIBHĀGA, dhātu is synonymous with GOTRA, the final element that enables all beings to become buddhas; see BUDDHADHĀTU.

Dhātukathā. In Pāli, “Discourse on Elements”; traditionally listed as the third of the seven canonical books of the THERAVĀDA abhidhammapiṭaka, and probably deriving from the middle stratum of Pāli abhidhamma literature, after the earlier VIBHAṄGA and PUGGALAPAÑÑATTI, but before the later KATHĀVATTHU; the proposed dating varies widely, but the first century BCE is its terminus ad quem. The Dhātukathā presents a psychological analysis of noble states of mind, supplementing the subject matter of the DHAMMASAṄGAṆI. Its fourteen chapters are presented in catechetic style, describing the relationship that pertains between specific factors (dhamma; S. DHARMA) and the three broader categories of the aggregates (khandha; S. SKANDHA), elements (DHĀTU), and sense-fields (ĀYATANA). In its analysis of the relationships that pertain between these various factors and categories, rigorous definitions of each factor are provided. The analytical approach taken in the text—e.g., whether a specific factor is both included and not included in a particular category, etc.—anticipates the sophisticated logical analysis found later in the four antinomies (CATUṢKOṬI). The Dhātukathā is reminiscent in style and exegetical approach to the SARVĀSTIVĀDA DHĀTUKĀYA, and may derive from a common urtext, although there are few similarities in their respective contents.

Dhātukāya[pādaśāstra]. (T. Khams kyi tshogs; C. Jieshen lun; J. Kaishinron; K. Kyesin non 界身論). In Sanskrit, “Collection of Elements”; traditionally placed as the fifth of the six “feet” (pāda) of the JÑĀNAPRASTHĀNA, the central treatise in the SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMAPIṬAKA. The text, which is attributed to either VASUMITRA or PŪRṆA, probably dates from the middle stratum of Sarvāstivāda abhidharma materials, together with the VIJÑĀNAKĀYA, and probably the PRAJÑAPTIBHĀṢYA and PRAKARAṆAPĀDA as well; the first century BCE is the terminus ad quem for its composition. As its title suggests, the Dhātukāya is a collection of various schemata for organizing the diverse mental concominants (CAITTA) that had been listed in previous ABHIDHARMA materials. The text is in two major sections, the first of which, the *mūlavastuvarga, provides a roster of ninety-one different types of mentality (CITTA) and mental concomintants (caitta) in fourteen different lists of factors (DHARMA). The second major section, the *vibhajyavarga, provides a series of analyses that details the intricate interrelationships among the various factors included in these dharma lists. The text concludes with an analysis of each individual factor in terms of its association with, or dissociation from, the eighteen elements (DHĀTU), twelve sense-fields (ĀYATANA), and five aggregates (SKANDHA). The idiosyncratic lists of dharmas found in the Dhātukāya are ultimately standardized in the later Prakaraṇapāda. Because the Dhātukāya’s preliminary rosters are ultimately superseded by the more developed and comprehensive treatment of dharmas found in the Prakaraṇapāda, the Dhātukāya is less commonly read and consulted within the later Sarvāstivāda tradition and is, in fact, never cited in the ABHIDHARMAMAHĀVIBHĀṢĀ, the Sarvāstivāda’s encyclopedic treatment of doctrine. The fact that the Chinese tradition ascribes authorship of both of these texts to Vasumitra suggests that the Prakaraṇapāda may have been intended to be the definitive and complete systematization of dharmas that are outlined only tentatively, and incompletely, in the Dhātukāya. The Dhātukāya is reminiscent in style and exegetical approach to the Pāli PAṬṬHĀNA and especially the DHĀTUKATHĀ (both of which may derive from a common urtext), although there are few similarities in their respective contents. The Dhātukāya does not survive in an Indic language and is only extant in a Chinese translation made by XUANZANG’s translation team in 663 CE. The text is said to have been composed originally in six thousand ślokas, although the recension Xuanzang translated apparently derived from an abbreviated edition in 830 ślokas.

Dhṛṭaka. [alt. Dhītika] (C. Tiduojia; J. Daitaka; K. Chedaga 提多迦). The fifth of the twenty-eight Indian patriarchs of Buddhism listed in the LIDAI FABAO JI, the important lineage history of the CHAN school. Dhṛṭaka is said to have been a disciple of UPAGUPTA and is best known for having converted to Buddhism the religious teacher Micchaka [alt. Mikkaka], who became his successor and the sixth patriarch, along with his eight thousand followers.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra. (P. Dhataraṭṭha; T. Yul ’khor srung; C. Chiguo Tian; J. Jikokuten; K. Chiguk Ch’ŏn 持國天). In Sanskrit, “He whose Empire is Unyielding,” or “He who Preserves the Empire”; one of the four “great kings” of heaven (CATURMAHĀRĀJA), who are also known as “world guardians” (LOKAPĀLA); he is said to be a guardian of the DHARMA and of sentient beings who are devoted to the dharma. Dhṛtarāṣṭra guards the gate that leads to the east at the midslope of the world’s central axis of Mount SUMERU; this gate leads to pūrvavideha (see VIDEHA), one of the four continents (dvīpa), which is located in the east. Dhṛtarāṣṭra and his fellow great kings reside in the first and lowest of the six heavens of the sensuous realm of existence (KĀMADHĀTU), the heaven of the four great kings (CATURMAHĀRĀJAKĀYIKA). Dhṛtarāṣṭra is a vassal of ŚAKRO DEVĀNĀM INDRAḤ (see INDRA; ŚAKRA), the king of the gods, who is lord of the heaven of the thirty-three divinities (TRĀYASTRIṂŚA), the second of the six sensuous-realm heavens, which is located at the peak of Mount SUMERU. Among the eight classes of demigods, Dhṛtarāṣṭra rules over the “heavenly musicians” (GANDHARVA) and the “stinking hungry demons” (pūtana). Dhṛtarāṣṭra and the four heavenly kings were originally indigenous Indian or Central Asian deities, who were eventually “conquered” by the Buddha and incorporated into Buddhism; they seem to have been originally associated with royal (KṢATRIYA) lineages, and their connections with royal warfare are evidenced in the suits of armor they come to wear as their cult is transmitted from Central Asia to China, Korea, and Japan. According to the Dhāraṇīsamuccaya, Dhṛtarāṣṭra is to be depicted iconographically with his sword in his left hand and his right fist akimbo on his waist.

dhūtaguṇa. [alt. dhūta/dhuta]. In Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, “austerities.” See DHUTAṄGA.

dhutaṅga. [alt. dhūtaṅga] (S. dhūtaguṇa/dhūta/dhuta; T. sbyang pa’i yan lag; C. toutuo[xing]; J. zuda[gyō]; K. tut’a[haeng] 頭陀[行]). In Pāli, lit. “limbs of scrupulousness,” viz., “austerities,” or “ascetic practices.” The term is alternately known as simply dhuta/dhūta in both Pāli and Sanskrit; the BUDDHIST HYBRID SANSKRIT term dhūtaguṇa means the “qualities” (GUṆA) of the “purified” (dhuta) person, viz., an “ascetic.” Dhūtaṅga refers to a specific set of thirteen ascetic practices that the Buddha authorized monks to adopt voluntarily for the purposes of cultivating contentedness with little, detachment, energy, and moderation. These austerities are not enjoined on monks and nuns by the VINAYA, but are rather optional practices that monastics were sanctioned to adopt for limited periods of time in order to foster sensory restraint (INDRIYASAṂVARA), an important constituent of morality (ŚĪLA). Based on the Buddha’s own failed experiments with extreme mortification of the flesh (see TAPAS) as a practice conducive to enlightenment while he was a BODHISATTVA, this specific set of practices was considered to provide a middle way (MADHYAMAPRATIPAD) between self-mortification and sensual indulgence. The thirteen authorized practices are (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 (PĀTRA), rather than more elaborate meals presented to the SAṂGHA; (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 (ŚMAŚĀNA); (12) satisfaction with whatever dwelling one has; and (13) sleeping in a sitting position without ever lying down (see CHANGJWA PURWA). The comparable Mahāyāna list of twelve dhūtaguṇas is essentially the same, dropping the two practices involving eating (5, 6) and adding an additional rule on wearing only garments made of coarse hemp and wool. The VISUDDHIMAGGA recommends these ascetic practices especially to those of either greedy (RĀGA) or deluded (MOHA) temperaments (CARITA), because greed and delusion both wane through, respectively, the continued practice of asceticism and the clarification of what is important in life; sometimes a person of hateful temperament is also said to benefit, because conflict abates as one becomes content with little. The Buddha offered this authorized list of voluntary practices after explicitly rejecting a more severe set of austerities proposed by his cousin and rival DEVADATTA that would have been mandatory for all members of the saṃgha: forest dwelling (see ARAÑÑAVĀSI), subsistence on gathered alms food only, use of rag robes only, dwelling at the foot of a tree, and strict vegetarianism. With the growth of settled monasticism, the practice of the austerities waned, although asceticism continues to be a major prestige factor within the Buddhist lay and monastic communities. In their accounts of India, both FAXIAN and XUANZANG note the presence of followers of Devadatta who adhered to the austere practices he had recommended to the Buddha. The dhutaṅgas should be distinguished from TAPAS, “severe austerities,” or DUṢKARACARYĀ, “difficult feats” of religious virtuosity, practices that do not necessarily involve the authorized types of ascetic practices. See also THUDONG.

dhyāna. (P. jhāna; T. bsam gtan; C. chan/chanding; J. zen/zenjō; K. sŏn/sŏnjŏng 禪/禪定). In Sanskrit, “meditative absorption,” specific meditative practices during which the mind temporarily withdraws from external sensory awareness and remains completely absorbed in an ideational object of meditation. The term can refer both to the practice that leads to full absorption and to the state of full absorption itself. Dhyāna involves the power to control the mind and does not, in itself, entail any enduring insight into the nature of reality; however, a certain level of absorption is generally said to be necessary in order to prepare the mind for direct realization of truth, the destruction of the afflictions (KLEŚA), and the attainment of liberation (VIMUKTI). Dhyāna is classified into two broad types: (1) meditative absorption associated with the realm of subtle materiality (RŪPĀVACARADHYĀNA) and (2) meditative absorption of the immaterial realm (ĀRŪPYĀVACARADHYĀNA). Each of these two types is subdivided into four stages or degrees of absorption, giving a total of eight stages of dhyāna. The four absorptions of the realm of subtle materiality are characterized by an increasing attenuation of consciousness as one progresses from one stage to the next. The deepening of concentration leads the meditator temporarily to allay the five hindrances (NĪVARAṆA) and to put in place the five constituents of absorption (DHYĀNĀṄGA). The five hindrances are: (1) sensuous desire (KĀMACCHANDA), which hinders the constituent of one-pointedness of mind (EKĀGRATĀ); (2) malice (VYĀPĀDA), hindering physical rapture (PRĪTI); (3) sloth and torpor (STYĀNA-MIDDHA), hindering applied thought (VITARKA); (4) restlessness and worry (AUDDHATYA-KAUKṚTYA), hindering mental ease (SUKHA); and (5) skeptical doubt (VICIKITSĀ), hindering sustained thought (VICĀRA). These hindrances thus specifically obstruct one of the specific factors of absorption and, once they are allayed, the first level of the subtle-materiality dhyānas will be achieved. In the first dhyāna, all five constituents of dhyāna are present; as concentration deepens, these gradually fall away, so that in the second dhyāna, both types of thought vanish and only prīti, sukha, and ekāgratā remain; in the third dhyāna, only sukha and ekāgratā remain; and in the fourth dhyāna, concentration is now so rarified that only ekāgratā is left. Detailed correlations appear in meditation manuals describing specifically which of the five spiritual faculties (INDRIYA) and seven constituents of enlightenment (BODHYAṄGA) serves as the antidote to which hindrance. Mastery of the fourth absorption of the realm of subtle materiality is required for the cultivation of the supranormal powers (ABHIJÑĀ) and for the cultivation of the four ārūpyāvacaradhyānas, or meditative absorptions of the immaterial realm. The immaterial absorptions themselves represent refinements of the fourth rūpāvacaradhyāna, in which the “object” of meditation is gradually attenuated. The four immaterial absorptions instead are named after their respective objects: (1) the sphere of infinite space (ĀKĀŚĀNANTYĀYATANA), (2) the sphere of infinite consciousness (VIJÑĀNĀNANTYĀYATANA), (3) the sphere of nothingness (ĀKIÑCANYĀYATANA), and (4) the sphere of neither perception nor nonperception (NAIVASAṂJÑĀNĀSAṂJYYATANA). Mastery of the subtle-materiality realm absorptions can also result in rebirth as a divinity (DEVA) in the subtle-materiality realm, and mastery of the immaterial absorptions can lead to rebirth as a divinity in the immaterial realm (see ANIÑJYAKARMAN). Dhyāna occurs in numerous lists of the constituents of the path, appearing, for example, as the fifth of the six perfections (PĀRAMITĀ). The term CHAN (J. zen), the name adopted by an important school of indigenous East Asian Buddhism, is the Chinese phonetic transcription of the Sanskrit term dhyāna. See also JHĀNA; SAMĀDHI; SAMĀPATTI.

dhyānamudrā. (T. mnyam bzhag gi phyag rgya; C. dingyin; J. jōin; K. chŏngin 定印). In Sanskrit, “gesture of meditation”; also sometimes written as dhyānimudrā. This MUDRĀ is formed with both hands resting in the lap, the back of the right hand resting on the palm of the left and both thumbs lightly touching. In this version, the right hand represents the world of enlightenment, which subdues the world of appearance symbolized by the left hand, or, alternatively, the absolute realm of reality in which NIRVĀṆA and SAṂSĀRA are nondual. This gesture may also be made with the left hand only, while the right hand is positioned in another mudrā. This gesture is commonly found in images of ŚĀKYAMUNI and AMITĀBHA buddhas and is also a basic hand position used in the practice of meditation.

dhyānāṅga. (P. jhānaṅga; T. bsam gtan gyi yan lag; C. chanzhi; J. zenshi; K. sŏnji 禪支). In Sanskrit, the “constituents of meditative absorption” (DHYĀNA); according to mainstream Buddhist materials, five factors that must be present in order to enter into the first meditative absorption of the subtlemateriality realm (RŪPĀVACARADHYĀNA): (1) applied thought (VITARKA), (2) sustained thought (VICĀRA), (3) physical rapture (PRĪTI), (4) mental ease (SUKHA), and (5) one-pointedness (EKĀGRATĀ; cf. CITTAIKĀGRATĀ) or equanimity (UPEKṢĀ). Each constituent results from the temporary allayment of a specific mental hindrance (NĪVARAṆA): vitarka allays sloth and torpor (STYĀNA-MIDDHA); vicāra allays skeptical doubt (VICIKITSĀ); prīti allays malice (VYĀPĀDA); sukha allays restlessness and worry (AUDDHATYA–KAUKṚTYA); and ekāgratā allays sensuous desire (KĀMACCHANDA). Each higher dhyāna has a decreasing number of factors, with both types of thought dropping away in the second dhyāna, physical rapture dropping away in the third, and mental ease vanishing in the fourth, when only onepointedness remains. The ABHIDHARMAKOŚABHĀṢYA and related MAHĀYĀNA accounts say the first dhyāna has five branches: applied and sustained thought, rapture, bliss, and SAMĀDHI (meditative stabilization); the second, four branches: rapture, bliss, samādhi, and PRASĀDA (calm clarity); the third, five branches: equanimity, SMṚTI (recollection), SAṂPRAJANYA (introspection), happiness, and one-pointedness; and the fourth, four branches: equanimity, recollection, an equanimous feeling that is neither painful nor pleasant, and samādhi. See also DHYĀNA; NĪVARAṆA.

dhyānapāramitā. (P. jhānapāramī; T. bsam gtan gyi pha rol tu phyin pa; C. jinglü boluomiduo; J. jōryoharamita; K. chŏngnyŏ paramilta 靜慮波羅蜜多). In Sanskrit, the “perfection of meditative absorption” or “concentration”; the fifth of the six [alt. ten] perfections (PĀRAMITĀ) cultivated on the BODHISATTVA path. It is perfected on the fifth of the ten stages (DAŚABHŪMI) of the bodhisattva path, SUDURJAYĀ (invincibility), where the bodhisattva comprehends the various permutations of truth (SATYA), including the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, the provisional (NEYĀRTHA) and definitive (NĪTĀRTHA), etc., and masters infinite numbers of samādhis.

dhyānasamāpatti. [alt. samāpattidhyāna] (P. jhānasamāpatti; T. bsam gtan snyoms ’jug; C. xiude ding; J. shutokujō; K. sudŭk chŏng 修得定). In Sanskrit, “meditative absorption attained through cultivation”; one of the two types of meditative absorption, along with “innate meditative absorption” (DHYĀNOPAPATTI). Whereas “innate meditative absorption” is attained once one is reborn into the “field of meditative concentration” (dhyānabhūmi), i.e., the subtle-materiality realm (RŪPADHĀTU) or the immaterial realm (ĀRŪPYADHĀTU), this “meditative absorption attained by cultivation” is the meditative state attained in the “field of distraction” (asamāhitatva) of the sensuous realm (KĀMADHĀTU) through meditative practice. Rebirth into the subtle-materiality or immaterial realms is presumed to occur as the reward for having performed in the preceding lifetime cultivation of the subtle-material absorptions (RŪPĀVACARADHYĀNA) or immaterial absorptions (ĀRŪPYĀVACARADHYĀNA). The ABHIDHARMAKOŚABHĀṢYA and related MAHĀYĀNA accounts parse the compound dhyānasamāpatti as a dual compound (dvandva) and construe dhyāna as referring to the four levels of the dhyānas of the subtle-materiality realm and samāpatti to the four levels of dhyāna of the immaterial realm.

dhyānibuddha. In Sanskrit, “meditation buddhas”; a term used to refer to the five central buddhas of VAJRAYĀNA Buddhism: AKṢOBHYA, AMITĀBHA, AMOGHASIDDHI, RATNASAMBHAVA, and VAIROCANA (see PAÑCATATHĀGATA). Although these five buddhas commonly appear as a group, the collective designation of them as dhyānibuddhas does not seem to be attested in a Buddhist textual source. The term first appears in the essays of BRIAN HOUGHTON HODGSON, British Resident at the Court of Nepal in the early nineteenth century, who may have learned the term from his Newari informant, the pundit Amṛtānanda. Hodgson distinguished these more celestial buddhas from the mānuṣibuddhas, or human buddhas, buddhas such as ŚĀKYAMUNI who appear on earth as the human manifestations of the dhyānibuddhas. Through Hodgson, the term was widely used in Europe in the nineteenth century, and was appropriated by HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY, who explained in The Secret Doctrine that there are not five but seven dhyānibuddhas.

dhyānopapatti. (C. shengde ding; J. shōtokujō; K. saengdŭk chŏng 生得定). In Sanskrit, “innate meditative absorption”; one of the two types of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA), along with “meditative absorption attained through cultivation” (DHYĀNASAMĀPATTI). The innate type of meditative absorption refers to the state of deep concentration that is possessed congenitally by a being who is born into either the subtle-materiality realm (RŪPADHĀTU) or the immaterial realm (ĀRŪPYADHĀTU). For this reason, the subtle-materiality and the immaterial realms are termed “fields of meditative concentration” (dhyānabhūmi), while the sensuous realm (KĀMADHĀTU) is the “field of distraction” (asamāhitatva).

Dhyānottarapaṭala. (T. Bsam gtan phyi ma rim par phye ba). In Sanskrit, the “Chapter on the Subsequent Stages of Concentration”; a brief work in seventy-four verses regarded as a chapter of the lost Vajroṣṇīṣatantra. It also is related to the fifth chapter of the MAHĀVAIROCANĀBHISAṂBODHISŪTRA. The work, preserved only in Tibetan, is classified as a KRIYĀTANTRA, and provides instruction on MANTRA recitation and yogic breath practice (PRĀṆĀYĀMA), which are to be undertaken subsequent to the practice of DHYĀNA. There is a detailed commentary on the text by BUDDHAGUHYA.

dianyan. (J. tengen; K. chŏman 點眼). In Chinese, lit. “dotting the eyes,” also known as “opening the eyes” (KAIYAN; T. spyan phye); a consecration ceremony for a buddha image (BUDDHĀBHIṢEKA) that serves to make the icon come alive. The term refers to a ceremony, or series of ceremonies, that accompanies the installation of a buddha image or painting, which specifically involves dotting the pupils onto the inert eyes of the icon in order to animate it. Until this ceremony is performed, the icon remains nothing more than an inert block of wood or lump of clay; once its eyes are dotted, however, the image is thought to become invested with the power and charisma of a living buddha. The related term kaiyan has the same denotation, but may in some contexts it refer more broadly to “opening up the eyes” of an image by ritually dropping eye drops into its eyes. Both dianyan or kaiyan occurred in conjunction with esoteric Buddhist rituals. The Yiqie rulai anxiang sanmei yigui jing provides an elaborate set of instructions on how to consecrate buddha images, in which “dotting the eyes” accompanies the performance of other esoteric practices, such as MANTRA and MUDRĀ. When a bodhisattva wonders why buddha images are installed if the DHARMAKĀYA of a buddha has no physical form, the Buddha replies that images are used as an expedient for guiding neophytes who have first aroused the thought of enlightenment (BODHICITTOTPĀDA). In Korea, where this term chŏman is typically used for this ceremony rather than kaean (C. kaiyan), there were different “dotting the eyes” consecrations for different types of Buddhist images and requisites, including images of a buddha, ARHAT, the ten kings of hell (shiwang), and the kings of heaven, as well as in conjunction with ceremonies for erecting a STŪPA or offering robes (KAṢĀYA). Through these chŏman ceremonies, Buddhist artifacts are transformed from mere physical objects into spiritually sanctioned religious items imbued with spiritual efficacy. The Korean Chinŏn chip (“Mantra Anthology”), extant in several editions of which the oldest is dated 1476, includes a “mantra for dotting the eyes” (chŏman mun) along with its Sanskrit and Chinese transliterations. In Japan, this ceremony is usually called kaigen (C. kaiyan) rather than tengen. In Chinese CHAN texts, “dotting the eyes” of a buddha image is also sometimes used as a metaphor for a Chan adept’s final achievement of awakening. See also NETRAPRATIṢṬHĀPANA.

dianzuo. (J. tenzo; K. chŏnjwa 典座). In Chinese, lit. “in charge of seating”; the term that comes to be used for a cook at a Buddhist monastery, who supervises the preparation and distribution of meals. In Indian VINAYA texts, the term was used to designate a “manager,” the service monk (S. VAIYĀPṚTYA[KARA]; P. veyyāvaccakara) who assigned seating at assemblies and ceremonies and arranged for the distribution of material objects or donations in addition to food. In the pilgrimage records of YIJING in India and ENNIN in China, the term always referred to a “manager,” not someone who worked in the monastic kitchen. But sometime after the tenth century, during the Northern Song dynasty, the term came to be used in Chinese monasteries to refer to the cook. In East Asian CHAN monasteries, the cook and five other officers, collectively known as the ZHISHI (J. chiji), oversaw the administration of the monastic community. Typically, the dianzuo position was considered a prestigious position and offered only to monks of senior rank. The Japanese Zen monk DŌGEN KIGEN wrote a famous essay on the responsibilities of the cook entitled Tenzo kyōkun (“Instructions to the Cook”). Cf. DRAVYA MALLAPUTRA.

Diệu Nhân. (妙仁) (1042–1113). The only nun whose biography is recorded in the Vietnamese lineage history THIỀN UYỂN TẬP ANH. Diệu Nhân’s personal name was Lý Ngọc Kiều. She came from Phù Đổng village, Tiên Du prefecture in northern Vietnam, the eldest daughter of Lord Phụng Yết. She was raised in the imperial palace by King Lý Thánh Tông (r. 1054–72) and married a man named Lê, a provincial governor. Upon his death, she vowed not to remarry and, moved by the Buddhist teaching on impermanence, decided to give away all her belongings and enter the Buddhist order. She studied under the monk Chân Không of Phù Đổng District who gave her the sobriquet Diệu Nhân. Diệu Nhân devoted herself to keeping the precepts and practicing meditation and was highly revered among nuns. Later, Chân Không appointed her head of the Hương Hải Convent.

Dīghanikāya. In Pāli, “Collection of Long Discourses”; the first division of the Pāli SUTTAPIṬAKA. It is comprised of thirty-four lengthy suttas (SŪTRA) arranged rather arbitrarily into three major sections: “morality” (sīlakkhanda), comprising suttas 1–14; “great division” (mahāvagga), comprising suttas 14–23; and the “charlatan” (pāṭikavagga), comprising suttas 24–34. Among the suttas contained in the Dīghanikāya are such renowned and influential scriptures as the AGGAÑÑASUTTA, MAHĀPARINIBBĀNASUTTA, SĀMAÑÑAPHALASUTTA, and the SATIPAṬṬHĀNASUTTA. The Pāli tradition asserts that the texts of the Dīghanikāya were first recited orally during the first Buddhist council (SAṂGĪTI; see COUNCIL, FIRST) following the Buddha’s death and were officially transcribed into written form in Sri Lanka during the reign of King VAṬṬAGĀMAṆI ABHAYA in the first century BCE. An analogous recension of the “Long Discourses” appears in the Sanskrit DĪRGHĀGAMA (all but three of its thirty sūtras have their equivalents in Pāli). Fragments of the Sanskrit recension, which is associated with the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school or its MŪLASARVĀSTIVĀDA offshoot, were rediscovered in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Before that rediscovery, only a Chinese translation of the Dīrghāgama survived, which was attributed to the DHARMAGUPTAKA school; the translation was finished in 413 CE. Although all three recensions of this collection have a tripartite structure, only the first section of the Pāli, the sīlakkhanda, has a counterpart in the Sarvāstivāda and Dharmaguptaka recensions. The Dīghanikāya appears in the Pali Text Society’s English translation series as Dialogues of the Buddha.

Dignāga. [alt. Diṅnāga] (T. Phyogs glang; C. Chenna; J. Jinna; K. Chinna 陳那) (c. 480–c. 540). Indian monk regarded as the formalizer of Buddhist logic (NYĀYA; HETUVIDYĀ). Dignāga was an influential innovator in Buddhist inferential reasoning or logical syllogisms (PRAYOGA; SĀDHANA), an important feature of Indian philosophy more broadly, which occupies a crucial place in later Indian and Tibetan philosophical analysis. The Indian Nyāya (Logic) school advocated that there were five necessary stages in syllogistic reasoning: (1) probandum or proposition (PRATIJÑĀ), “The mountain is on fire”; (2) reason (HETU), “because there is smoke,” (3) analogy (udāharaṇa), “Whatever is smoky is on fire, like a stove, but unlike a lake”; (4) application (upanāya), “Since this mountain is smoky, it is on fire”; (5) conclusion (nigamana), “The mountain is on fire.” Using the same example, Dignāga by contrast reduced the syllogism down to only three essential steps: (1) probandum or proposition (PAKṢA), “the mountain is on fire”; (2) reason (hetu), “because there is smoke”; (3) exemplification (dṛṣṭānta), “whatever is smoky is on fire, like a stove,” and “whatever is not on fire is not smoky, like a lake,” or, more simply, “like a stove, unlike a lake.” Dignāga is also the first scholiast to incorporate into Buddhism the Vaiśeṣika position that there are only two valid means of knowledge (PRAMĀṆA): direct perception (PRATYAKṢA, which also includes for Buddhists the subcategory of YOGIPRATYAKṢA) and inference (ANUMĀNA). Dignāga’s major works include his PRAMĀṆASAMUCCAYA (“Compendium on Valid Means of Knowledge”), ĀLAMBANAPARĪKṢĀ (“Investigation of the Object”), and Nyāyamukha (“Primer on Logic”), which is available only in Chinese translation. See also DHARMAKĪRTI.

Dil mgo mkhyen brtse. [alt. Ldil go] (Dilgo Kyentse) (1910–1991). One of the most highly revered twentieth-century teachers of the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism, renowned both for his scholarship and meditative mastery of RDZOGS CHEN practices. His full name was Rab gsal zla ba gzhan dga’. Born in eastern Tibet, he was recognized at the age of twelve as the mind incarnation of the illustrious nineteenth-century savant ’JAM DBYANGS MKHYEN BRTSE DBANG PO and enthroned at ZHE CHEN monastery. He studied under a number of masters, including the fourth Zhe chen Rgyal tshabs and ’JAM DBYANGS MKHYEN BRTSE CHOS KYI BLO GROS, and then spent close to thirteen years in solitary meditation retreat. At the suggestion of his teachers, he married while in his mid-twenties and fathered several children. Escaping the Communist invasion of Tibet in 1959, he fled to Bhutan where he was invited to live as the spiritual master of the royal family. A prolific author, Dil mgo mkhyen brtse was recognized as a modern-day treasure revealer (GTER STON) and eventually served a period of time as the spiritual head of the Rnying ma. In the early 1980s he founded a new Zhe chen monastery in Kathmandu where his grandson, recognized as the monastery’s throne holder, the seventh Rab ’byams incarnation, resides. On December 29, 1995, a young boy named O rgyan bstan ’dzin ’jigs med lhun grub (Orgyan Tendzin Jikme Lhundrup, b. 1993) was enthroned as Dil mgo mkhyen brtse’s reincarnation in a ceremony at MĀRATIKA cave in eastern Nepal.

Di lun zong. (J. Jironshū; K. Chi non chong 地論宗). In Chinese, “School of Di lun Exegetes”; a lineage of Buddhist scholastics who studied the Di lun, an abbreviation of the Shidijing lun, or DAŚABHŪMIVYĀKHYĀNA, a commentary on the DAŚABHŪMIKASŪTRA attributed to the Indian exegete VASUBANDHU. The school is considered one of the earliest of the indigenous scholastic traditions of Chinese MAHĀYĀNA Buddhism, and its thought draws on strands of Indic thought that derive from both the YOGĀCĀRA and TATHĀGATAGARBHA traditions. At the Northern Wei capital of Luoyang, BODHIRUCI, Ratnamati (d.u.), and Buddhaśānta (d.u.) began the translation of the Daśabhūmivyākhyāna into Chinese in 508. However, disagreements between the collaborators over the nature of ĀLAYAVIJÑĀNA (viz., whether it was pure, impure, or both) led them to produce different translations. This controversy about the real nature of this eighth storehouse consciousness derived from VASUBANDHU’s ambiguous position in his commentary. In some passages, Vasubandhu implied that the ālayavijñāna was the tainted source from which SAṂSĀRA arises and thus impure; in others, he implied instead that the ālayavijñāna was coextensive with suchness (TATHATĀ) and thus fundamentally pure. Those who studied Bodhiruci’s rendering came to be known as the Northern Di lun school, while the followers of Ratnamati’s version were known as the Southern Di lun school. The Northern Di lun school advocated that the ālayavijñāna was only provisionally real (SAṂVṚTISATYA) and was impure; it was a tainted source that produced only defiled dharmas. By contrast, the southern branch advocated that the ālayavijñāna was fundamentally pure but came to be associated with impure elements: it was the functioning of suchness and thus pure, but it also was subject to the same laws of conditioned origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPĀDA) as the sensory consciousnesses and thus impure. The two contrasting renderings of the treatise were later edited together by the Southern Di lun monk Huiguang (468–537), also known as VINAYA master Guangtong, and it is this edition in twelve rolls that we have today. Studies of the Shidijing lun continued with Fashang (495–580), Huishun (d.u.), JINGYING HUIYUAN, and others. Interest in the theories of the Shidijing lun largely waned, as new YOGĀCĀRA texts from India were introduced to China by the pilgrim and translator XUANZANG and the work of HUAYAN scholars such as FAZANG on the AVATAṂSAKASŪTRA (within which the Daśabhūmikasūtra is incorporated) began to gain prominence. Despite being superseded by these later schools, however, the positions of the Southern Di lun school lived on in the Huayan school of the mature Chinese tradition, while the Northern Di Lun school positions were taken up by the Chinese Yogācāra tradition of the FAXIANG ZONG. See also SHE LUN ZONG.

dingxiang. (J. chinzō; K. chŏngsang 頂相). In Chinese, lit. “mark on the forehead” or “head’s appearance.” The term dingxiang was originally coined as the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit term UṢṆĪṢA, but the term also came to be used to refer to a portrait or image of a monk or nun. Written sources from as early as the sixth century, such as the GAOSENG ZHUAN (“Biographies of Eminent Monks”), recount the natural mummification of eminent Buddhist monks, and subsequently, the making of lifelike sculptures of monks made from ashes (often from cremation) mixed with clay. The earliest extant monk portraits date from the ninth century and depict the five patriarchs of the esoteric school (C. Zhenyan; J. SHINGONSHŪ); these portraits are now enshrined in the collection of TŌJI in Kyoto, Japan. Another early example is the sculpture of the abbot Hongbian in cave 17 at DUNHUANG. Dingxiang portraits were largely, but not exclusively, used within the CHAN, SŎN, and ZEN traditions, to be installed in special halls prepared for memorial and mortuary worship. After the rise of the SHIFANGCHA (monasteries of the ten directions) system in the Song dynasty, which guaranteed the abbacy to monks belonging to a Chan lineage, portraits of abbots were hung in these image halls to establish their presence in a shared spiritual genealogy. The portraits of the legendary Indian monk BODHIDHARMA and the Chan master BAIZHANG HUAIHAI were often placed at the center of these arrangements, symbolizing the spiritual and institutional foundations of Chan. The practice of inscribing one’s own dingxiang portrait before death also flourished in China; inscribed portraits were presented to disciples and wealthy supporters as gifts and these portraits thus functioned as highly valued commodities within the Buddhist religious community. The practice of preparing dingxiang portraits was transmitted to Japan. Specifically noteworthy are the Japanese monk portrait sculptures dating from the Kamakura period, known for their lifelike appearance. The making of dingxiang portraits continues to flourish even to this day. In Korea, the related term CHINYŎNG (“true image”) is more commonly used to refer to monks’ portraits.

Dīpaṃkara. (P. Dīpaṅkara; T. Mar me mdzad; C. Dingguang rulai; J. Jōkō nyorai; K. Chŏnggwang yŏrae 定光如來). In Sanskrit, “Maker of Light”; a buddha of the past, who preceded the current buddha ŚĀKYAMUNI in the succession lineage of buddhas. It was in the presence of this buddha that the hermit SUMEDHA, who would eventually become ŚĀKYAMUNI Buddha, made his initial vow (PŪRVAPRAṆIDHĀNA) to attain buddhahood and received the prophecy (VYĀKARAṆA) of his enlightenment. Dīpaṃkara is sometimes presumed to be the fourth in a line of twenty-seven buddhas preceding Śākyamuni, but the first to have met the BODHISATTVA who would become the current Buddha. He is therefore sometimes referred to as the first of twenty-four previous buddhas, or the fourth of twenty-eight, the last being Śākyamuni. Later enumerations found in Sanskrit and Chinese Mahāyāna texts count as many as eighty-one predecessor buddhas. Dīpaṃkara is said to have lived on earth for one hundred thousand years, three thousand of which he passed before he met a worthy recipient of his dharma. His name is explained by the legend of his birth. According to the MAHĀVASTU, he was born on an island that miraculously appeared in a bathing tank as his mother neared childbirth, at which point a great many lamps appeared. An alternate name of this buddha, Dvīpaṃkara, means “Island Maker.” He is frequently depicted to the left of Śākyamuni Buddha and MAITREYA in a triad of the three buddhas of the past, present, and future. His right hand is commonly in the “gesture of fearlessness” (ABHAYAMUDRĀ), and he either stands or sits.

Dīpavaṃsa. In Pāli, the “Island Chronicle”; the earliest surviving Pāli chronicle of Sri Lanka. Written in verse, the Dīpavaṃsa is based on a collation of earlier Sinhalese commentaries passed down in the MAHĀVIHĀRA tradition. In its present form, it probably dates from the fourth-century CE. The bulk of the work concerns the history of THERAVĀDA Buddhism in Sri Lanka from the conversion of the Sinhalese king DEVĀNAṂPIYATISSA by the elder MAHINDA in the third-century BCE to the reign of king Mahāsena in the fourth-century CE. Immensely important to the development of Theravāda historiography, the Dīpavaṃsa contains the earliest Pāli accounts of the Indian emperor AŚOKA and his patronage of the third Buddhist council (see COUNCIL, THIRD) at Pāṭaliputta (S. PĀṬALIPUTRA). It also reports on the dispatch of missionaries to nine foreign lands at the command of MOGGALIPUTTATISSA, the leader of the third council. These lands included Sīhaḷadīpa (Sri Lanka) and Suvaṇṇabhūmi, the latter variously identified by Buddhist geographers as Lower Burma, the Malay Peninsula, and/or Thailand. The Dīpavaṃsa provided the basic outline and contents for the later MAHĀVAṂSA, and it is quoted in the Bāhiranidāna, the historical introduction to the VINAYA commentary (SAMANTAPĀSĀDIKĀ). A critical edition and English translation of the Dīpavaṃsa was produced by Hermann Oldenberg in 1879, entitled The Dipavaṃsa: An Ancient Buddhist Historical Record.

Dīrghāgama. (T. Lung ring po; C. Chang Ahan jing; J. Jōagongyō; K. Chang Aham kyŏng 長阿含經). In Sanskrit, “The Collection of Long Scriptures”; the Sanskrit scriptural collection (ĀGAMA) that is analogous to the Pāli DĪGHANIKĀYA. (All but three of the Dīrghāgama’s thirty SŪTRAS have equivalents in the Pāli Dīghanikāya.) The Sanskrit recension was long lost and survived only in a Chinese translation made in 413 CE by BUDDHAYAŚAS and ZHU FONIAN; that Chinese recension is attributed to the DHARMAGUPTAKA school. In the 1990s, however, extensive fragments of a Sanskrit recension of the Dīrghāgama in BRĀHMĪ script were discovered in Afghanistan, a recension that is instead associated with the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school or its MŪLASARVĀSTIVĀDA offshoot. These fragments, which constitute about fifty-five percent of the complete manuscript, are the object of intensive scholarly investigation. Small fragments of this same Sarvāstivāda or Mūlasarvāstivāda recension have also been discovered in Central Asia. All three major recensions of the Dīrghāgama (including the Pāli Dīghanikāya) have a tripartite structure, but two of the three sections in the Sarvāstivāda manuscript are radically different from the other two recensions, suggesting that it comes from an independent textual lineage. In the Sarvāstivāda Sanskrit recension, part one, the “six sūtra section” (ṣaṭsūtrakanipāta), and part two, the “section on pairs” (yuganipāta), have no counterpart in the Pāli or Dharmaguptaka recensions. Part three, the “section on morality” (śīlaskandhanipāta), has an analogue in the other two recensions, but the titles and sequence of the incorporated sūtras differs. The first section of the Sarvāstivāda Dīrghāgama with its six major sūtras—the Daśottarasūtra (P. DASUTTARASUTTA), Arthavistarasūtra, Saṃgītisūtra (P. SAṄGĪTISUTTA), Catuṣpariṣatsūtra, Mahāvadānasūtra (P. MAHĀPADĀNASUTTANTA), and MAHĀPARNIRVĀṆASŪTRA (P. MAHĀPARINIBBĀNASUTTANTA)—was not preserved in the Afghan manuscripts and is extant only in fragments from Central Asia, where it was popular in its own right and often circulated independently.

diṭṭhivisuddhi. In Pāli, “purity of understanding”; the third of seven purities (P. visuddhi; S. VIŚUDDHI) that are to be developed along the path to liberation according to THERAVĀDA Buddhist soteriological theory. In the VISUDDHIMAGGA, purity of understanding refers to correct knowledge according to reality (YATHĀBHŪTA) of the nature of mentality and materiality (NĀMARŪPA) through reliance on discriminative wisdom, having overcome all mistaken belief in the existence of a perduring soul (attan; S. ĀTMAN). The ordinary person (puggala; S. PUDGALA) and, indeed, all of the phenomenal universe or realm of rebirth (SAṂSĀRA) are comprised merely of mentality and materiality. Mind and matter, whether taken singly or together, do not constitute a self; but there is also no self existing apart from mind and matter that possesses them as their controller. Rather, the self is to be correctly regarded as merely a conventional expression (vohāradesanā) that does not designate a real, existing thing. The purity of understanding thus reveals that everything that exists is selfless (anattā; S. ANĀTMAN). Such an understanding of the selflessness of mind and matter penetrates the veil of conventional truth (sammutisacca; S. SAṂVṚTISATYA) and apprehends ultimate truth (paramatthasacca; S. PARAMĀRTHASATYA).

divyacakṣus. (P. dibbacakkhu; T. lha’i mig; C. tianyan; J. tengen; K. ch’ŏnan 天眼). In Sanskrit, lit. “divine eye,” viz., “clairvoyance”; one of the five (or six) superknowledges (ABHIJÑĀ) and one of the three “knowledges” (TRIVIDYĀ). The divine eye refers to the ability to observe things from afar, as well as to see the “mind-made bodies” (MANOMAYAKĀYA) that are the products of meditation or enlightenment. It also provides the ability to observe where beings will be reborn after they die (S. CYUTYUPAPĀDĀNUSMṚTI), the second of the TRIVIDYĀ. One who possesses this power sees the disappearance and arising of beings as low or noble, beautiful or ugly, etc., according to their wholesome and unwholesome deeds (KARMAN) in body, speech, and mind. Those who revile the noble ones (ĀRYAPUDGALA), hold perverse views (MITHYĀDṚṢṬI), and act in accordance with perverse views are observed to be reborn in lower realms of existence, or in painful realms such as the hells. Those who honor the noble ones, hold right views, and act in accordance with right views are observed to be reborn in higher realms of existence, and in pleasant realms such as the heavens. On the night of his enlightenment, the Buddha gained the divine eye during the second watch of the night. This superknowledge is considered to be a mundane (LAUKIKA) achievement and is gained through refinement of the fourth stage of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA; RŪPĀVACARADHYĀNA).

divyaśrotra. (P. dibbasota; T. lha’i rna ba; C. tian’er; J. tenni; K. ch’ŏni 天耳). In Sanskrit, lit. “divine ear,” viz., “clairaudience”; one of the five (or six) superknowledges (ABHIJÑĀ). With the divine ear, one can hear heavenly and earthly sounds both far and near just as if one were a divinity. This superknowledge is considered to be a mundane (LAUKIKA) achievement and is gained through refinement of the fourth stage of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA; RŪPĀVACARADHYĀNA).

Divyāvadāna. In Sanskrit, “Divine Exploits”; a collection of thirty-eight “heroic tales” or “narratives” (AVADĀNA). Avadānas are the tenth of the twelvefold (DVĀDAŚĀṄGA[PRAVACANA]) categorization of the traditional genres of Buddhist literature and relate the past and present deeds of a person, either lay or ordained, who in some specific fashion exemplifies Buddhist ethics and practice. The present characters in the stories in the Divyāvadāna are often identified as persons whom the Buddha encountered in a former life. Thus, its tales have a narrative structure similar to JĀTAKA stories, in which an event in the present offers an opportunity to recount a story from the past, which in turn illuminates details regarding present circumstances. Themes that run throughout the Divyāvadāna include the realization of positive or negative consequences of action (KARMAN), the importance of moral discipline, and the great merit (PUṆYA) that can be accrued through service or reverence offered to the buddhas or to sites related to the buddhas, such as a STŪPA. The Divyāvadāna includes thirty-six avadānas and two SŪTRAs. Famous stories found in the Divyāvadāna collection include the Pūrṇāvadāna, the story of the monk PŪRṆA, and the AŚOKĀVADĀNA, which recounts the birth, life, and reign of King AŚOKA, the monarch whom the Buddhist tradition considers the great protector of the religion. Although the style and language of the works vary tremendously, more than half of the tales also appear in the MŪLASARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA. Given their debt to vinaya literature, it is not surprising that many of the tales in the Divyāvadāna often make reference to points of monastic discipline (VINAYA). This association with the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya suggests that these stories could date as far back as the beginning of the Common Era. However, the oldest extant manuscript of the Divyāvadāna dates only to the seventeenth century, and there is no reference to a text by that title in a Buddhist source prior to that date. There also is no Tibetan or Chinese translation of the text, although many of its stories are found in the Tibetan and Chinese canons. (For example, twenty-one of the thirty-eight stories of the collection are found in the vinaya section of the Tibetan canon.) This has led some scholars to conclude that, although the stories themselves are quite old, the particular compilation as the Divyāvadāna may be rather late. A number of stories from the Divyāvadāna were translated by EUGÈNE BURNOUF in his 1844 Introduction à l’histoire du Buddhisme indien. The first Sanskrit edition of the entire text was undertaken in 1866 by Edward B. Cowell and Robert A. Neil. The Divyāvadāna legends had a significant influence on Buddhist art and were often the subject of Buddhist sculptures and paintings. For instance, in the “Sahasodgata” chapter of this collection, the Buddha describes the “wheel of existence” (BHAVACAKRA), which became a popular subject of painting in many of the Buddhist traditions.

Diyu bian[xiang]. (J. Jigoku hen[sō]; K. Chiok pyŏn[sang] 地獄變[相]). In Chinese, “transformation tableaux of the hells”; pictorial representations of scenes from various hells, which were used as dramatic visual aids in storytelling and preaching. Often graphic and gory, these paintings depict the denizens of hells (NĀRAKA) as being variously devoured by beasts, boiled in cauldrons, inundated in rivers of blood, having their limbs amputated, etc. In East Asia, one of the earliest reported examples of this type of transformation tableaux (BIANXIANG) was in the form of paintings made on the walls of the Jingong monastery in 736 by the famous Tang-dynasty artist Wu Daozi. Legend has it that the sensationalized depictions of the hells in this transformation tableaux so shocked the butchers of the Tang capital that they all switched professions. See also AMITUO JINGTU BIAN; JINGTU BIAN.

dkar po chig thub. (karpo chiktup). In Tibetan, “self-sufficient white [remedy]” or “white panacea”; in Tibetan pharmacology, a single remedy that has the ability to effect a cure by itself alone. In Tibetan Buddhism, the term was used as a metaphor to describe certain doctrines or methods said to be self-sufficient for bringing about awakening. Although found in various contexts, the term is best known from its use by members of the DWAGS PO BKA’ BRGYUD, including SGAM PO PA BSOD NAMS RIN CHEN and his nephew’s disciple BLA MA ZHANG. This method is often equated with the introduction to the nature of mind (sems kyi ngo sprod) or the direct realization of the mind’s true nature, and is deeply rooted in the tradition of MAHĀMUDRĀ transmitted by Sgam po pa. In Sgam po pa’s own words, “I value the realization of the nature of mind as better than excellent meditation.” Some Tibetan scholars, most notably SA SKYA PAṆDITA KUN DGA’ RGYAL MTSHAN, rejected the notion that any single method or factor (even insight into ŚŪNYATĀ, or emptiness) could be soteriologically sufficient. He also argued that the fruit of mahāmudrā practice could never be gained through wholly nonconceptual means. Nor, he argued, could it be gained outside of strictly tantric practice, in contrast to Sgam po pa’s tradition, which advocated both SŪTRA and TANTRA forms of mahāmudrā. Such arguments often disparagingly associate dkar po chig thub with the subitism of MOHEYAN, the Chinese CHAN protagonist in the BSAM YAS DEBATE, who is known to have also used the metaphor.

Dkon mchog rgyal po. (Könchok Gyalpo) (1034–1102). A Tibetan master renowned as the founder of the SA SKYA sect of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a member of the ’Khon clan and a descendent of one of the first seven Tibetans to be ordained as a Buddhist monk (SAD MI BDUN). He studied primarily under the translator ’BROG MI SHĀKYA YE SHES, receiving teachings and initiations of the new translations (GSAR MA), particularly the HEVAJRATANTRA. He was also instructed in the doctrine of “path and result” (LAM ’BRAS), which had originally been transmitted by the great Indian adept VIRŪPA. In 1073, Dkon mchog rgyal po founded SA SKYA monastery, one of the sect’s principal institutions, and the seat of Tibetan political power for nearly a century; he also served as its first abbot. His son, SA CHEN KUN DGA’ SNYING PO, became another important Sa skya hierarch and served as the monastery’s third abbot.

Dōgen Kigen. (道元希玄) (1200–1253). Japanese ZEN monk who is regarded as the founder of the SŌTŌSHŪ. After losing both his parents at an early age, Dōgen became the student of a relative, the monk Ryōkan (d.u.), who lived at the base of HIEIZAN, the headquarters of the TENDAI school (C. TIANTAI) in 1212; Ryōkan subsequently recommended that Dōgen study at the famed training center of Senkōbō. The next year, Dōgen was ordained by Kōen (d.u.), the abbot of the powerful Tendai monastery of ENRYAKUJI. Dōgen was later visited by the monk Kōin (1145–1216) of Onjōji, who suggested the eminent Japanese monk MYŌAN EISAI as a more suitable teacher. Dōgen visited Eisai at his monastery of KENNINJI and became a student of Eisai’s disciple Myōzen (1184–1225). In 1223, Dōgen accompanied Myōzen to China as his attendant and made a pilgrimage to various important monastic centers on Mts. Tiantong, Jing, and Yuwang. Before returning to Japan in 1227, Dōgen made another trip in 1225 to Mt. Tiantong to study with the CAODONG ZONG Chan master TIANTONG RUJING (1162–1227), from whom he is said to have received dharma transmission. During his time there, Dōgen overheard Rujing scolding a monk who was sleeping, saying, “The practice of zazen (C. ZUOCHAN) is the sloughing off of body and mind. What does sleeping accomplish?” Dōgen reports that he experienced awakening upon hearing Rujing’s words “sloughing off body and mind” (SHINJIN DATSURAKU), a phrase that would figure prominently in his later writings. The phrase, however, is not common in the Chan tradition, and scholars have questioned whether Dōgen’s spoken Chinese was up to the task of understanding Rujing’s oral instructions. Dōgen also attributes to Rujing’s influence the practice of SHIKAN TAZA, or “just sitting,” and the notion of the identity of practice and attainment: that to sit correctly in meditative posture is to enact one’s own buddhahood. After Rujing’s death, Dōgen returned to Japan, famously reporting that he had learned only that noses are vertical and eyes are horizontal. He returned to Kenninji, but relocated two years later in 1229 to the monastery of Anyōin in Fukakusa. In 1233, Dōgen moved to Kōshōji, on the outskirts of Kyōto, where he established one of the first monasteries in Japan modeled on Song-dynasty Chan monastic practice. Dōgen resided there for the next ten years and attracted a large following, including several adherents of the DARUMASHŪ, who became influential in his burgeoning community. When the powerful monastery of Tōfukuji was established by his RINZAISHŪ rival ENNI BEN’EN, Dōgen moved again to remote area of Echizen (present-day Fukui prefecture), where he was invited to reside at the newly established monastery of Daibutsuji; Dōgen renamed the monastery EIHEIJI in 1246. There, he composed several chapters of his magnum opus, SHŌBŌGENZŌ (“Treasury of the True Dharma Eye”). In 1253, as his health declined, Dōgen entrusted Eiheiji to his successor Koun Ejō (1198–1280), a former disciple of the Darumashū founder DAINICHIBŌ NŌNIN, and left for Kyōto to seek medical treatment. He died that same year. Dōgen was a prolific writer whose work includes the FUKAN ZAZENGI, EIHEI SHINGI, Eihei kōroku, BENDŌWA, HŌKYŌKI, GAKUDŌ YŌJINSHU, Tenzo kyōkun, and others. Dōgen’s voluminous oeuvre has been extremely influential in the modern construction of the Japanese Zen tradition and its portrayal in Western literature. See also GENJŌ KŌAN; SHIKAN TAZA.

dohā. (T. nyams mgur). In Sanskrit, the name of a meter in poetry; hence, a name for a poetic form of religious expression most commonly employing this meter, which began to appear as early as the seventh century CE. These verses are of varying lengths, usually in rhymed couplets, and are composed in APABHRAṂŚA, an early medieval protovernacular from northeastern India. These songs offer an expression of the beauty and simplicity of tantric experience (the Tibetan translation means “song of experience”). There are collections of dohā by the SIDDHAs TILOPA, Kṛṣṇācārya (Kāṇha), and SARAHA (see MAHĀSIDDHA); Saraha’s DOHĀKOŚA (“Treasury of Dohā Verses”) was especially influential in Tibet. In the early BKA’ BRGYUD tradition, the songs (mgur) of MI LA RAS PA (see MI LA’I MGUR ’BUM) show the influence of dohā.

Dohākośa. [alt. Dohākośagīti] (T. Do ha mdzod). In Sanskrit, “Treasury of Dohā Verses”; a collection of DOHĀ verses sung by SARAHA (perhaps fl. in the tenth century, one of the eighty-four MAHĀSIDDHAs); the verses express the immediacy of the ultimate spiritual experience and the inadequacy of language to convey it, often using sarcasm to mock social conventions. At the same time, the work is based on the traditional tantric premise that meditative practice, motivated by BODHICITTA, and undertaken with devotion to one’s GURU, can bring about the bliss of enlightenment within the present lifetime. The order and number of the verses vary significantly among the different versions of the text, reflecting the interests and views of the Nepalese or Tibetan compilers and exegetes. The verses were transmitted sixteen times to Tibet and gave rise to a large and varied commentarial literature; Advayavajra’s (1007–1085) Dohākośapañjikā is extant in Sanskrit. See also DO HA SKOR GSUM.

Dōhan. (道範) (1179–1252). A Kamakura-period SHINGON scholar-monk from KŌYASAN, who wrote extensively on the works of KŪKAI and KAKUBAN. He is well known for his esoteric writings on the PURE LAND, especially the Himitsu nenbutsushō (“Compendium on the Secret Contemplation of Buddha”). Dōhan was ordained at the age of fourteen under Myōnin (1148–1229) at Shōchiin, and he later studied under KAKUKAI at Keōin. In 1237, Dōhan was appointed head administrator of Shōchiin. In 1243, a violent dispute erupted between Kongōbuji and Daidenbōin, which resulted in the exile of Dōhan and around thirty other Kōyasan elders. Dōhan’s travel diary, Nankai rurōki (“Record of Wandering by the Southern Sea”), records his time in exile on the island of Shikoku, traveling to many sites associated with Kūkai. One of his dharma lectures from his time in exile survives as Dōhan goshōsoku (“Dōhan’s Letter”), a short discussion of AJIKAN, or contemplation of the letter “a.” In 1249, Dōhan was pardoned by imperial decree and permitted to return to Kōyasan, where he passed away in 1252.

Do ha skor gsum. (Doha korsum). In Tibetan, “Three Cycles of Spiritual Songs”; a collection of spiritual songs (DOHĀ) composed by the Indian sage SARAHA. Originally recorded in an eastern APABHRAṂŚA dialect, they were later compiled and translated into Tibetan. The title refers to the work’s three chapters: “king dohās,” “queen dohās,” and “people dohās,” although there is some debate as to whether the divisions were Saraha’s own or a later Tibetan innovation. See also DOHĀKOŚA.

Dokuan Genkō. (独庵玄光) (1630–1698). Japanese ZEN monk in the SŌTŌSHŪ. Dokuan was ordained by the monk Tenkoku (d.u.) at the temple of Kōdenji in his hometown of Saga. After traveling around the country on pilgrimage, Dokuan visited the émigré Chinese CHAN monk DAOZHE CHAOYUAN in Nagasaki and studied under him for eight years. When Daozhe returned to China in 1658, Dokuan continued his training under the Zen master Gesshū Sōrin (1614–1687) at Kōtaiji in Nagasaki and remained at Kōtaiji after Gesshū’s death. Dokuan was a prolific writer whose work includes the Gohōshū, Shūi sanbō kannō den, and the Zenaku genken hōō hen.

dokusan. (C. ducan; K. tokch’am 獨參). In Japanese, lit. a “private consultation” between a ZEN student and master, which is conducted in the privacy of the master’s room. This consultation is an important element of training in the Japanese RINZAISHŪ, and allows the master to check the progress of the student in his meditation, and the student to ask questions regarding his practice. Dokusan is also the formal occasion where the student is expected to express his understanding of a specific Zen kōan (GONG’AN) so that the master can gauge his development (see J. JAKUGO; C. ZHUOYU).

Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan. (Dolpopa Sherap Gyaltsen) (1292–1361). An innovative and controversial Tibetan Buddhist scholar, who is regarded as an early master of the JO NANG lineage. He is best known for promulgating the view of extrinsic emptiness (GZHAN STONG), for his writings on the KĀLACAKRATANTRA, and for constructing a massive multiroom STŪPA temple (SKU ’BUM) above JO NANG PHUN TSHOGS GLING monastery. He was born in the region of Dol po in present-day northwestern Nepal, from which his toponym (literally “the man from Dol po”) is derived. Although his family was affiliated with the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism, he formed an early connection with the SA SKYA teacher Skyi ston ’Jam dbyangs grags pa rgyal mtshan (Gyidön Jamyang Drakpa Gyaltsen, d.u.). As a seventeen-year-old novice monk, Dol po pa fled his home, against the wishes of his parents and without their knowledge, in order to study with this master. He arrived first in the nearby region of Mustang and in 1312 continued on to the Tibetan monastery of SA SKYA itself. He was a gifted student, mastering a broad range of MAHĀYĀNA subjects in a short period of time. His erudition was so great that while still in his early twenties he earned the title “omniscient” (kun mkhyen), an epithet by which he was known for the rest of his life. He was ordained as a BHIKṢU in 1314, going on to study with leadings masters from various sects, including the third KARMA PA. He spent several years in strict meditation retreat, during which time he began to formulate his understanding of extrinsic emptiness. In 1326 he formally ascended the abbatial throne at Jo nang, dividing his time between meditative retreats and teaching the monastic community. In 1333, Dol po pa completed construction of the sku ’bum chen po stūpa, one of the largest in Tibet. Dol po pa developed a rich new vocabulary for discussing his controversial notion of extrinsic emptiness. Public reaction was mixed, and many Sa skya scholars in particular appear to have felt betrayed by this new doctrine, which seemed to contradict their own. Among his major works written at this time was the Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho (“The Ocean of Definitive Meaning: A Mountain Dharma”). Another of Dol po pa’s major projects was a revised translation and reinterpretation of the Kālacakratantra and VIMALAPRABHĀ, both important sources for his major doctrinal theories. In 1338, Dol po pa retired from his position at Jo nang, after which he remained in isolated retreat, in part to discreetly avoid an invitation to the court of the Mongol ruler Toghon Temür (r. 1333–1370). By the end of his life, Dol po pa ranked as one of the leading masters of his time. During a 1358 trip to LHA SA toward the end of his life, the halls in which he taught literally collapsed from the enormous size of the crowds in attendance. On his return to Jo nang, he visited the monastery of ZHWA LU, home of another leading scholar and Kālacakra expert of the day, BU STON RIN CHEN GRUB. According to several accounts, Bu ston declined the opportunity to debate, but Dol po pa uttered the opening exclamation for debate as he departed, which cracked the walls of Bu ston’s residence. While Dol po pa’s views were considered unorthodox, even heterodox, particularly in the DGE LUGS sect, his works made a lasting impression on the landscape of Buddhism in Tibet.

Ḍombī Heruka. A tantric adept counted among the eighty-four MAHĀSIDDHAs, often depicted riding a tiger with his consort. As recorded in his hagiographies, he was originally king of the Indian region of MAGADHA and received teachings on the HEVAJRATANTRA from the SIDDHA VIRŪPA. These he practiced for twelve years in secret while continuing to skillfully administer his kingdom. He then secretly took a low-caste musician, a ḍombī, as his consort and continued his practice of TANTRA with her. (The word heruka is rendered khrag thung, “blood drinker,” in Tibetan.) When his subjects discovered their king’s transgression of customary social and caste restrictions, Ḍombī Heruka abdicated the throne and disappeared with his consort into the jungle, where they continued to practice tantric yoga for twelve years. Later, the kingdom was wrought with famine and the subjects searched for their former king to request his assistance. Ḍombī Heruka then emerged from the jungle astride a tigress, brandishing a snake in one hand. Displaying miraculous signs of his mastery, he denied the subjects’ request and departed for the celestial realms. Ḍombī Heruka is an important member of the lineage of the Hevajratantra and, according to some accounts, was a disciple of NĀROPA as well as a teacher of ATIŚA DĪPAṂKARAŚRĪJÑĀNA. Seventeen texts attributed to him are preserved in the BSTAN ’GYUR section of the Tibetan Buddhist canon. He is also known as Ḍombīpa.

Donglinsi. (J. Tōrinji; K. Tongnimsa 東林寺). In Chinese, “Eastern Grove Monastery”; located in the forest on the eastern side of LUSHAN, a Buddhist sacred mountain in Jiangxi province. The monastery was founded between 380 CE and 386 CE by the early advocate of PURE LAND visualization LUSHAN HUIYUAN (334–416 CE) and became an important early center of Buddhism in China, especially of the White Lotus retreat society (BAILIAN SHE). The monastery also hosted such monks as Saṃghadeva, who translated important works of ABHIDHARMA and SARVĀSTIVĀDA scholasticism, and BUDDHABHADRA (359–429). Donglinsi continued to be a center of Buddhist activity during subsequent dynasties and its influence reached its zenith during the Tang dynasty, when it attracted both monks and leading literati, such as the renowned Tang poet BO JUYI (772–846 CE).

Dongshan famen. (J. Tōzan hōmon; K. Tongsan pŏmmun 東山法門). In Chinese, lit. “East Mountain Dharma Gate” or “East Mountain Teachings”; one of the principal early CHAN schools, which is associated with the putative fourth and fifth patriarchs of the tradition, DAOXIN (580–651) and HONGREN (602–675). The name of the school is a toponym for the location of Hongren’s monastery, at Huangmei in Qizhou (present-day Hubei province). “East Mountain” refers to the easterly of the “twin peaks” of Mount Shuangfeng, where Hongren taught after the death of his master Daoxin, who had taught on the westerly peak; the term “East Mountain Teachings,” however, is typically used to refer to the tradition associated with both masters. The designations Dongshan famen and Dongshan jingmen (East Mountain Pure Gate) first appear in the LENGQIE SHIZI JI (“Records of the Masters and Disciples of the Laṅkā[vatāra]”) and were used in the Northern school of Chan (BEI ZONG) by SHENXIU (606?–706) and his successors to refer to the lineage and teachings that they had inherited from Daoxin and Hongren. ¶ Although later Chan lineage texts list Daoxin and Hongren as respectively the fourth and the fifth Chan patriarchs, succeeding BODHIDHARMA, HUIKE, and SENGCAN, the connection of the East Mountain lineage to these predecessors is tenuous at best and probably nonexistent. The earliest biography of Daoxin, recorded in the XU GAOSENG ZHUAN (“Supplementary Biographies of Eminent Monks”), not only does not posit any connection between Daoxin and the preceding three patriarchs, but does not even mention their names. This connection is first made explicit in the c. 713 CHUAN FABAO JI (“Annals of the Transmission of the Dharma-Jewel”), one of the earliest Chan “transmission of the lamplight” (CHUANDENG LU) lineage texts. Unlike many of the Chan “schools” that were associated with a single charismatic teacher, the “East Mountain Teachings” was unusual in that it had a single, enduring center in Huangmei, which attracted increasing numbers of students. Some five or six names of students who studied with Daoxin survive in the literature, with another twenty-five associated with Hongren. Although Hongren’s biography in the Chuan fabao ji certainly exaggerates when it says that eight to nine out of every ten Buddhist practitioners in China studied under Hongren, there is no question that the number of students of the East Mountain Teachings grew significantly over two generations. ¶ The fundamental doctrines and practices of the East Mountain Teachings can be reconstructed on the basis of the two texts: the RUDAO ANXIN YAO FANGBIAN FAMEN (“Essentials of the Teachings of the Expedient Means of Entering the Path and Pacifying the Mind”) and the XIUXIN YAO LUN (“Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind”), ascribed respectively to Daoxin and Hongren. The Rudao anxin yao fangbian famen, which is included in the Lengqie shizi ji, employs the analogy of a mirror from the Banzhou sanmei jing (S. PRATYUTPANNABUDDHASAṂMUKHĀVASTHITASAMĀDHISŪTRA) to illustrate the insubstantiality of all phenomena, viz., one’s sensory experiences are no more substantial than the reflections in a mirror. The text then presents the “single-practice SAMĀDHI” (YIXING SANMEI) as a practical means of accessing the path leading to NIRVĀṆA, based on the Wenshushuo bore jing (“Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra Spoken by MAÑJUŚRĪ”). Single-practice samādhi here refers to sitting in meditation, the supreme practice that subsumes all other practices; it is not one samādhi among others, as it is portrayed in the MOHE ZHIGUAN (“Great Calming and Contemplation”). Single-practice samādhi means to contemplate every single aspect of one’s mental and physical existence until one realizes they are all empty, just like the reflections in the mirror, and “to guard that one without deviation” (shouyi buyi). The Xiuxin yao lun, which is attributed to Hongren, stresses the importance of “guarding the mind” (SHOUXIN). Here, the relationship between the pure mind and the afflictions (KLEŚA) is likened to that between the sun and clouds: the pure mind is obscured by afflictions, just as the sun is covered by layers of clouds, but if one can guard the mind so that it is kept free from false thoughts and delusions, the sun of NIRVĀṆA will then appear. The text suggests two specific meditation techniques for realizing this goal: one is continuously to visualize the original, pure mind (viz., the sun) so that it shines without obscuration; the other is to concentrate on one’s own deluded thoughts (the clouds) until they disappear. These two techniques purport to “guard the mind” so that delusion can never recur. The East Mountain Teachings laid a firm foundation for the doctrines and practices of later Chan traditions like the Northern school.

Dongshan Liangjie. (J. Tōzan Ryōkai; K. Tongsan Yanggae 洞山良价) (807–869). Chinese CHAN master of the Tang dynasty and reputed founder of the CAODONG lineage of Chan; also known as Xinfeng. Dongshan was a native of Yuezhou in present-day Zhejiang province. He left home at an early age and became the student of the Chan master Lingmo (747–818). Having received full monastic precepts from a certain VINAYA master Rui on SONGSHAN, Dongshan visited the Chan masters NANQUAN PUYUAN and GUISHAN LINGYOU and later continued his studies under Yunyan Tancheng (782–841). Dongshan is said to have attained awakening under Yunyan’s guidance and eventually inherited his lineage. During the HUICHANG FANAN, Dongshan remained in hiding until the persecution ran its course, eventually reemerging at Xinfeng tong in Jiangxi province. With the support of his followers, Dongshan later established the monastery Guangfusi (later renamed Puli yuan) on Mt. Dong (Dongshan), whence he acquired his toponym. Among his many disciples, Yunju Daoying (d. 902) and CAOSHAN BENJI are most famous. Dongshan was renowned for his poetry and verse compositions and his teaching of the “five ranks” (WUWEI). His teachings are recorded in the Dongshan yulu (“The Record of Dongshan”), but the most famous of his works is the BAOJING SANMEI (“Jeweled-Mirror Samādhi”), a definitive verse on enlightenment and practice from the standpoint of the CAODONGZONG. The Baojing sanmei emphasizes the “original enlightenment” (BENJUE; cf. HONGAKU) of sentient beings and the futility of seeking that enlightenment through conscious thought. Instead, the song urges its audience to allow one’s inherently pure, enlightened nature to “silently illuminate” itself through meditation (see MOZHAO CHAN), as the Buddha did under the BODHI TREE.

Dongshan Shouchu. (J. Tōsan Shusho; K. Tongsan Such’o 洞山守初) (910–990). Successor in the Chinese YUNMEN lineage of the CHAN school. See MA SANJIN.

Dongta lü zong. (J. Tōtō Risshū; K. Tongt’ap yul chong 東塔律宗). In Chinese, the “East Pagoda VINAYA School”; one of the three major exegetical traditions of the DHARMAGUPTAKA school’s SIFEN LÜ (“Four-Part Vinaya”); the other traditions are DAOXUAN’s NANSHANLÜ ZONG (South Mountain) and Fali’s XIANGBU LÜ ZONG (Xiang Region) vinaya schools. The reputed patriarch of the Dongta tradition is the vinaya master HUAISU. This exegetical tradition derived its name from Huaisu’s residence near the east pagoda of the monastery of Xidayuansi in the Chinese capital of Chang’an. Huaisu’s disciple Fashen (d.u.) firmly established his teacher’s Sifen lü kaizong ji (composed in 682), also known as the “new commentary” (xinshu), as the authoritative commentary on the “Four-Part Vinaya.” The tradition thrived under Emperor Daizong (r. 762–779), thanks to the grand councilor’s support of Huaisu, but was subsequently eclipsed by the Nanshan school.

Dorzhiev, Agvan. (T. Ngag dbang rdo rje) (1854–1938). Influential Mongol-Russian monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition; born in the Siberian region of Buryatia to a semi-nomadic Buddhist family. As a child, Dorzhiev was introduced to Buddhism at the monastery at Atsagat, receiving his first tantric empowerment (ABHIṢEKA) at the age of thirteen. He continued his education in Urga after his father died in 1868, at which time there were thirteen thousand monks in the city. For a time he was married to a woman named Kholintsog and worked in the local government. In 1873, he began his first journey to LHA SA and spent a few months in eastern China. Because of his linguistic and academic prowess, he was sent to ’BRAS SPUNGS monastery, where he became a scholar at Sgo mang (Gomang) College. In 1880, he settled in Lha sa, and rapidly completed his DGE BSHES degree. By 1888, he was teaching logic, debate, and language at ’Bras spungs. At this time, the thirteenth DALAI LAMA was twelve or thirteen years old, and Dorzhiev became one of his religious teachers and political advisors. Dorzhiev displayed great ability in political diplomacy and served as the only emissary between Russia and Tibet for many years. He feared that British influence in Tibet could be detrimental to the future of the country, and advised the Dalai Lama to initiate relations between Lha sa and St. Petersburg as a counter. In 1898, Prince Ukhtomsky summoned him to St. Petersburg, where he met with Tsar Nicholas II. From there, he traveled to Paris, where he lectured on Buddhism at the Musée Guimet. He then went to Kalmykia and Buryatia before returning to Lha sa. Dorzhiev sought to improve the quality of Buddhist practice in Russia, specifically in Buryatia and Kalmykia, where he opened monasteries, initiated monks, and opened a school for Tibetan Buddhist doctors. In 1915 he opened a temple and monastery in St. Petersburg, the first in the West. Dorzhiev was arrested at the onset of the “Red Terror” of 1918, but was soon released. Buddhism remained comparatively inviolable over the next decade, although other Russian religions suffered. Dorzhiev wrote his memoirs in Tibetan around 1924. In 1922, an “All-Buryat Buddhist Congress” was held, followed by a 1927 “Congress of Soviet Buddhists” in Moscow. Russian Buddhism entered a bleak period after the death of Lenin in 1924; in 1930, an antireligion campaign began in Buryatia, during which the aged Dorzhiev was placed under house arrest. He wrote his will in 1937, at which time he left house arrest in Leningrad and traveled to Ulan Udé, Buryatia. In Ulan Udé, he was arrested and interrogated before being sent to the prison hospital, where he died in January of 1938.

doṣa. (P. dosa; T. skyon/zhe sdang; C. guo; J. ka; K. kwa 過). In Sanskrit, “fault”; a general term for a mental or physical defect, used also as a synonym for affliction (KLEŚA). In addition, the classical Sanskrit term DVEṢA (P. dosa), “anger,” is frequently written as doṣa in BUDDHIST HYBRID SANSKRIT.

Dōshō. (道昭) (629–700). Japanese monk and reputed founder of the Japanese Hossō (YOGĀCĀRA) school in the seventh century. A native of Kawachi province, Dōshō became renowned for his strict adherence to the precepts while he was residing at the monastery of Gangōji. In 653, Dōshō made a pilgrimage to China, where he studied under the Chinese monk–translator and Yogācāra scholar XUANZANG. In 660, Dōshō returned to Gangōji and devoted the rest of his life to the dissemination of the Yogācāra teachings that he had brought back with him from China.

Dpa’ bo Gtsug lag phreng ba. (Pawo Tsuklak Trengwa) (1504–1566). A renowned master and historian of the KARMA BKA’ BRGYUD sect of Tibetan Buddhism, second in the line of DPA’ BO INCARNATIONS. Born in the region of Snye thang (Nyethang), south of LHA SA in central Tibet, Gtsug lag phreng ba was recognized at the age of five as the embodiment of his predecessor, Dpa’ bo Chos dbang lhun grub (Pawo Chöwang Lhundrup). At nine, he received monastic ordination from the fourth ZHWA DMAR, Chos grags ye shes (Chödrak Yeshe, 1453–1524), and he later studied with masters such as Dwags po paṇḍita Chos rgyal Bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan (Chögyal Tenpe Gyaltsen, b. fifteenth century), the mad yogin of central Tibet Dbus smyon Kun dga’ bzang po (Ü Nyön Kunga Sangpo, 1458–1532) Heruka. At the age of twenty-nine he received the name Gtsug lag phreng ba from the eighth KARMA PA MI BSKYOD RDO RJE. He was active throughout his life in the southern Tibetan region of LHO BRAG; he became the abbot of LHA LUNG monastery and later renovated SRAS MKHAR DGU THOG, the famed site of MI LA RAS PA’s tower, commissioning many religious paintings, adding a large a golden roof and constructing a large monastic complex. Among Gtsug lag ’phreng ba’s major literary works is the famous history of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism CHOS ’BYUNG MKHAS PA’I DGA’ STON, composed between 1544 and 1564.

Dpa’ bo incarnations. (Pawo). A lineage of incarnate lamas (SPRUL SKU), members of the KARMA BKA’ BRGYUD sect of Tibetan Buddhism and traditionally responsible for the propitiation of the sect’s protector deities. The second incarnation, DPA’ BO GTSUG LAG ’PHRENG BA, was a renowned scholar and historian. The incarnation line includes:

1. Chos dbang lhun grub (Chöwang Lhundrup, 1440–1503)

2. Gtsug lag phreng ba (Tsuklak Trengwa, 1504–1566)

3. Gtsug lag rgya mtsho (Tsuklak Gyatso, 1568–1630)

4. Gtsug lag kun bzang (Tsuklak Kunsang, b.1633)

5. Gtsug lag ’phrin las rgya mtsho (Tsuklak Trinle Gyatso, 1650–1699)

6. Gtsug lag chos kyi don grub (Tsuklak Chökyi Döndrup, 1701–1718?)

7. Gtsug lag dga’ ba (Tsuklak Gawa, 1718–1781)

8. Gtsug lag chos kyi rgyal po (Tsuklak Chökyi Gyalpo, d.u.)

9. Gtsug lag nyin byed (Tsuklak Nyinje, d. 1911)

10. Gtsug lag smra ba’i dbang phyug (Tsuklak Mawe Wangchuk, 1912–1991)

11. Gtsug lag smra ba’i rta dbyang (Tsuklak Mawe Tayang, b. 1993)

Dpal brtsegs. (Paltsek) (fl. late eighth-early ninth centuries). A translator (LO TSĀ BA) during the early spread of Buddhism in Tibet; a native of ’Phan yul of the Ska ba (Kawa) clan; translator of a large number of VINAYA, PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ, and tantric texts, and the author of the Lta ba’i rim pa’i man ngag (also known as Snang ba bcu bdun) and Chos kyi rnam grangs kyi brjed byang, a work that mainly consists of a list of standard Buddhist terms. See also YE SHES SDE; KLU’I RGYAL MTSHAN.

Dpal ldan lha mo. (S. Śrīdevī). In Tibetan, “Glorious Goddess”; a literal translation of the Sanskrit name for a form of a female divinity ubiquitous in the northeast and mountainous regions of the Indian subcontinent. In her usual form, she has one face, is wrathful, holds a kaḍga (sword) and KAPĀLA (skull cup), and rides a barren mule above a churning ocean of blood. The mule has an eye in his rump, caused by an arrow shot by her husband after she killed their son and used his skin as a saddle. She is found in the retinue (parivāra) of the Sarvavighnavināyaka (Obstacle-Removing) MAHĀKĀLA, but as a central figure she is surrounded by a large retinue that includes the goddesses Ākāśāmbarā, Svayambhu-rājñī, and Nīleśvarī. She is always a supramundane (LOKOTTARA) being and is considered to be a protector of all Tibet; in this role she is seen as a wrathful form of TĀRĀ. In the DGE LUGS sect, she is an important protector, particularly as the main protectress of the DALAI LAMAS; she is propitiated daily in rituals and a THANG KA of her is always kept in the presence of the Dalai Lama. Each Dalai Lama would try to visit her sacred lake, LHA MO BLA MTSHO, at least once during his life to receive visions on the water’s surface regarding his future activities and death, a tradition said to date back to the first Dalai Lama, DGE ’DUN GRUB. The lake is also believed to display signs concerning the future rebirth of the Dalai Lama and PAṆ CHEN LF. Most recently, in 1933 the regent of Tibet, Rwa sgreng Rin po che, saw visions in the lake that indicated the birthplace and circumstances of the fourteenth Dalai Lama. At Tibetan Buddhist temples, long lines of ordinary people are often seen at the chapel of Dpal ldan lha mo carrying small bottles of chang (barley beer) or black tea as offerings for her.

Dpal sprul Rin po che. (Patrul Rinpoche) (1808–1887). One of the most important teachers of the RNYING MA sect of Tibetan Buddhism during the nineteenth century, famous for his great humility and simple lifestyle. Recognized as an incarnate lama (SPRUL SKU) while a child, Dpal sprul Rin po che trained under the great ascetic ’Jigs med rgyal ba’i myu gu (Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu), himself a disciple of the renowned treasure revealer (GTER STON) ’JIGS MED GLING PA, from whom he received instructions on the KLONG CHEN SNYING THIG, “Heart Essence of the Great Expanse.” He later studied with many other great masters, including MDO MKHYEN RTSE YE SHES RDO RJE, mind emanation (thugs sprul) of ’Jigs med gling pa. Although he established himself as one of the foremost scholars of his time, Dpal sprul Rin po che emulated the renunciate lifestyle of his masters, wandering from place to place with few possessions, often in the guise of an ordinary beggar. He was known for his exceptional kindness, treating both king and pauper with equal compassion. The author of numerous commentaries and treatises on Buddhist philosophy and doctrine, he is perhaps best known for his KUN BZANG BLA MA’I ZHAL LUNG (“Words of My Perfect Teacher”), an explanation of the preliminary practices of the klong chen snying thig. Together with other great lamas of eastern Tibet, Dpal sprul Rin po che was also an active participant in the so-called RIS MED (nonsectarian) movement, which sought to cut through the rampant sectarian controversies of the time. According to one account, when asked what religious affiliation he maintained, Dpal sprul Rinpoche famously remarked that he was only a follower of the Buddha. He is also known as Rdza Dpal sprul (Dza Patrul) and O rgyan ’jigs med chos kyi dbang po.

Dpal spungs. (Palpung). A large fortress-like monastic compound located near SDE DGE in the eastern Tibetan region of Khams belonging to the BKA’ BRGYUD sect of Tibetan Buddhism and serving as the seat of the TAI SI TU INCARNATION lineage; its full name is Dpal spungs thub brtan chos ’khor gling (Palpung Tupten Chökorling). The center was established in 1727 by the eighth Si tu CHOS KYI ’BYUNG GNAS, a great Bka’ brgyud scholar, historian, and linguist, with support from Derge’s ruler Bstan pa tshe ring (Tenpa Tsering, 1678–1738). Prior to this, the Si tu line mainly resided at the nearby Karma dgon monastery. Dpal spungs was also home to the nineteenth-century luminary ’JAM MGON KONG SPRUL BLO GROS MTHA’ YAS and became one of the largest and most powerful Bka’ brgyud institutions in eastern Tibet. An important monastic college (BSHAD GRWA) and several centers for practicing the traditional three-year meditation retreat are located nearby. Not far from Dpal spungs is one of the region’s premier retreat locations, Tsa ’dra Rin chen brag—a locale reckoned to be equivalent in spiritual power to the famed region of TSĀ RI in southern Tibet. The founding of Dpal spungs coincides with the start of the so-called RIS MED (nonsectarian) movement in Khams.

Dpal yul. (Payul). The Tibetan short name of a monastery in Khams (now part of the Chinese province of Sichuan). The name is an abbreviation of Dpal yul rnam rgyal byang chub chos gling, one of the four main RNYING MA monasteries in eastern Tibet, the others being KAḤ THOG, RDZOGS CHEN, and ZHE CHEN; founded in 1665 by Kun bzang shes rab (1636–1699). The monastery specializes in the GTER MA (treasure text) teachings of KARMA CHAGS MED; members of the monastery follow a set course of preliminary practices and engage in a three-year retreat. The monastery, destroyed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–76), has been rebuilt and currently houses about three hundred monks. The eleventh khri ’dzin (throne-holder) Thub bstan legs bshad chos kyi sgra dbyangs, Penor Rin po che (1932–2009), established a new monastery called Rnam grol gling with great success near Bylakuppe in South India; at present it is the largest Rnying ma institution outside Tibet, with perhaps as many as five thousand monks and nuns. The present throne-holder is the fifth Karma sku chen (b. 1970).

dravya. (T. rdzas; C. shishi; J. jitsuji; K. silsa 實事). In Sanskrit “substance,” “constituent,” or “real entity”; a term with wide-ranging use in Buddhism, from the “ingredients” of a medicine or magic potion to “substance” in an ontological sense. The various schools of Indian Buddhism made use of the term in different ways. Although the term is virtually unknown in Pāli materials (where the equivalent is dabba), including its abhidhamma literature, in the VAIBHĀṢIKA school of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA, dravya became virtually synonymous with DHARMA. The Vaibhāṣikas conceived that all things that were “real entities” (DRAVYA) had unique characteristics of their own (SVALAKṢAṆA), were not subject to any further division, and had specific modes of being (what the Vaibhāṣikas termed their “own being,” or SVABHĀVA). All material objects were said to be composed of eight dravya: earth, water, fire, air, form, smell, taste, and touch. In MAHĀYĀNA, the YOGĀCĀRA school argued that because there is no external world, there were no physical constituents; only consciousness (VIJÑĀNA) possessed dravya. By contrast, the MADHYAMAKA school, in keeping with its doctrine of emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ), saw dravya as almost a synonym of inherent existence (SVABHĀVA) and said that all things were ultimately devoid of dravya. See also DRAVYASAT.

Dravya Mallaputra. (P. Dabba Mallaputta; C. Tapomoluo; J. Tōbamara; K. Tappamara 沓婆摩羅). An important ARHAT, whom the Buddha declared to be foremost among his monk disciples in service (S. VAIYĀPṚTYA[KARA]; P. veyyāvaccakara) to the community of monks, specifically in assigning residence quarters and arranging meals. According to Pāli sources, Dravya (P. Dabba) belonged to the Malla clan and had a most unusual birth: he was born to his mother while her corpse was burning on the funeral pyre and was discovered lying amid the ashes after the flames were extinguished. He was seven when he first saw the Buddha and immediately asked his grandmother to allow him to join the order. She gave her consent and he became an arhat while he was being ordained as a novice. Because he was already enlightened, he was given the higher ordination as a BHIKṢU while he was still only seven years old. Wishing to be useful, Dravya assumed the task of assigning night lodgings to visiting monks. So diligent and efficient was the young boy that he quickly became famous. Monks used to arrive late in the evening intentionally so they could witness his special thaumaturgic skill: he would burst into flames and use his body as a lamp to show his guests to their quarters. Dravya appears to have had several encounters with the infamous “group of six” (S. ṢAḌVĀRGIKA), a notorious band of recalcitrant malefactors in the order. Twice these monks falsely accused him of seducing women, and once for neglecting his duties, but Dravya was vindicated of all charges. Dravya was fated to die young and had a premonition of his own demise. With his death imminent, he bid farewell to the Buddha and passed away in his presence amid a marvelous display of ṚDDHI power. Cf. DIANZUO.

dravyasat. (T. rdzas yod; C. shi you; J. jitsuu; K. sil yu 實有). In Sanskrit, “substantially existent,” or “existent in substance”; a term used in Buddhist philosophical literature to describe phenomena whose inherent nature is more real than those designated as PRAJÑAPTISAT, “existent by imputation.” The contrast drawn in doctrinal discussions between the way things appear to be and the way they exist in reality appears to have developed out of the early contrast drawn between the false view (MITHYĀDṚṢṬI) of a perduring self (ĀTMAN) and five real aggregates (SKANDHA). The five aggregates as the real constituents of compounded things were further elaborated into the theory of factors (DHARMA), which were generally conceived as dravyasat, although the ABHIDHARMA schools differed regarding how they defined the term and which phenomena fell into which category. In the SARVĀSTIVĀDA abhidharma, for example, dharmas are categorized as dravyasat because they have “inherent existence” (SVABHĀVA), while all compounded things, by contrast, are prajñaptisat, or merely conventional constructs that derive from dravyasat. In the MADHYAMAKA school of MAHĀYĀNA scholasticism, however, all things are considered to lack any inherent existence (NIḤSVABHĀVA). Therefore, Madhyamaka asserts that even dharmas are marked by emptiness (ŚŪNYATĀ) and thus nothing is “substantially existent” (dravyasat). In contrast to the Madhyamaka’s exclusive rejection of anything being dravyasat, the YOGĀCĀRA school maintained that at least one thing, the flow of consciousness or the process of subjective imputation (VIJÑAPTI), was substantially existent (dravyasat). For Yogācāra followers, however, the reason that the flow of consciousness is dravyasat is not because it is free from causal conditioning and thereby involves inherent existence (svabhāva), but because the Yogācāra denies the ontological claim that causal conditioning involves the absence of svabhāva, or vice versa. Thus the flow of consciousness, even though it is causally conditioned, may still be conceived as “substantially existent” (dravyasat) because its inherent existence is “dependent” (PARATANTRA), one of the three natures (TRISVABHĀVA) recognized in the school. Another strand of Mahāyāna thought that asserts there is something that is substantially existent is the doctrine of the buddha-nature (BUDDHADHĀTU) or TATHĀGATAGARBHA. As the potentiality inherent in each sentient being to become a buddha, the tathāgatagarbha is sometimes said to be both empty (of all afflictions) and nonempty (of all the attributes and qualities inherent in enlightenment). In this context, there has been some dispute as to whether the buddhadhātu or tathāgatagarbha should be conceived as only dravyasat, or as both dravyasat and prajñaptisat.

’dre. Tibetan term for a class of baleful spirits that includes what might be termed demons, ghosts, and goblins in English.

Droṇa. (P. Doṇa; T. Bre bo; C. Xiangxing poluomen; J. Kōshō baramon; K. Hyangsŏng paramun 香姓婆羅門). A renowned brāhmaṇa who is remembered for resolving the dispute that arose over control of the Buddha’s relics following his cremation. Droṇa was a brāhmaṇa with many disciples who came upon the Buddha once while traveling. After hearing the Buddha’s discourse, he became a once-returner (ANĀGĀMIN) and wrote an extended verse eulogizing the Buddha. Droṇa was revered by the secular rulers of his day, so while he was sojourning in the city of KUŚINAGARĪ (P. Kusinārā), he was able to mediate among the various competing groups concerning who would take charge of the Buddha’s relics (ŚARĪRA) following the teacher’s cremation. His solution was to divide the relics into eight parts, which he distributed among the factions to take back to their regions for enshrinement. After the division of the relics into eight shares, there remained the ashes from the cremation fire and the bucket (droṇa) that Droṇa had used to divide the relics. Droṇa received permission to keep the bucket himself and erected a reliquary STŪPA in Kuśinagarī to house the vessel that had temporarily held the relics. A young brāhmaṇa who arrived late for the division of the relics received the ashes and built a tenth stūpa to house them.

dṛṣṭi. (P. diṭṭhi; T. lta ba; C. jian; J. ken; K. kyŏn 見). In Sanskrit, “view” or “opinion”; nearly always used pejoratively in Buddhism to refer to a “wrong view.” In the AṬṬHAKAVAGGA chapter of the SUTTANIPĀTA, which seems to belong to the earliest stratum of Pāli Buddhist literature, the Buddha offers a rigorous indictment of the dangers inherent in “views” and displays a skepticism about religious dogmas in general, seeing them as virulent sources of attachment that lead ultimately to conceit, quarrels, and divisiveness. Some scholars have suggested that the thoroughgoing critique of views may have been the core teaching of Buddhism and might have served as the prototype of the later MADHYAMAKA logical approach of reductio ad absurdum, which sought to demonstrate the fallacies inherent in any philosophical statement. A standardized list of five types of wrong views (pañcadṛṣṭi) is commonly found in the literature: (1) the view that there is a perduring self, or soul, that exists in reality (SATKĀYADṚṢṬI); (2) extreme views (ANTAGRĀHADṚṢṬI), viz., in permanence or annihilation (dhruvoccheda); (3) fallacious views (MITHYĀDṚṢṬI), the denial of or disbelief in the efficacy of KARMAN, rebirth, and causality; (4) the rigid attachment to views (DṚṢṬIPARĀMARŚA), viz., mistakenly and stubbornly clinging to one’s own speculative views as being superior to all others; and (5) the rigid attachment to the soteriological efficacy of rites and rituals (ŚĪLAVRATAPARĀMARŚA). There are numerous other kinds of wrong views listed in the literature. Views are also commonly listed as the second of the four attachments (UPĀDĀNA), along with the attachments to sensuality (KĀMA), the soteriological efficacy of rites and rituals (śīlavrata), and mistaken notions of a perduring soul (ĀTMAVĀDA). Views are also the third of the four contaminants (ĀSRAVA), along with sensuality (KĀMA), the desire for continued existence (BHAVA), and ignorance (AVIDYĀ).

dṛṣṭiparāmarśa. (P. diṭṭhiparāmāsa; T. lta ba mchog tu ’dzin pa; C. jianqu; J. kenju; K. kyŏnch’wi 見取). In Sanskrit, “attachment to (wrong) views”; the fourth of the five types of wrong views (DṚṢṬI), along with the view that there exists in reality a perduring self, or soul (SATKĀYADṚṢṬI); extreme views (ANTAGRĀHADṚṢṬI), viz., in permanence or annihilation; fallacious views (MITHYĀDṚṢṬI); and the rigid attachment to the soteriological efficacy of rites and rituals (ŚĪLAVRATAPARĀMARŚA). Dṛṣṭiparāmarśa suggests that a person mistakenly and stubbornly clings to one’s own speculative views as being correct and superior to all others. In practice, the term refers specifically to the stubborn attachment to self-view (satkāyadṛṣṭi), extreme views (antagrāhadṛṣṭi), and false views (mithyādṛṣṭi).

dṛṣṭiprāpta. (P. diṭṭhippatta; T. mthong bas thob pa; C. jianzhi/jiande; J. kenji/kentoku; K. kyŏnji/kyŏndŭk 見至/見得). In Sanskrit, “one who has attained understanding” or “one who attains through seeing”; one of the seven noble persons (ĀRYAPUDGALA; P. ariyapuggala) listed in the MAJJHIMANIKĀYA; parallel to the DHARMĀNUSĀRIN (P. dhammānusāri), or “follower of the dharma.” The dṛṣṭiprāpta is one in the list of the members of the SAṂGHA when it is subdivided into twenty (VIṂŚATIPRABHEDASAṂGHA). Among the dṛṣṭiprāpta, there are recipients of the fruit of stream-enterer (SROTAĀPANNAPHALASTHA), once-returner (SAKṚDĀGĀMIPHALASTHA), and nonreturner (ANĀGĀMIPHALASTHA). The dharmānusārin and dṛṣṭiprāpta are characterized as having keen faculties (TĪKṢṆENDRIYA), unlike the ŚRADDHĀNUSĀRIN and ŚRADDHĀVIMUKTA who have dull faculties (MṚDVINDRIYA).

drum. (S. dundubhi, mṛdaṅga; P. dundubhi, mutiṅga; T. rnga bo che; C. gu; J. ku; K. ko 鼓). Drums and other percussion instruments are used in many Buddhist cultures to signal the events of the daily monastic schedule, to call the monks and nuns to assembly, and in Buddhist liturgical activities. Drums also appear frequently in Buddhist literature as a symbol of the power of the dharma to encourage good and frighten away evil. In Chinese monasteries, a drum is beaten at dawn and dusk to gather the monastic residents for services; a “cloud drum,” viz., a drum ornamented with clouds, calls the monks to the midday meal; and a bathing drum is used to announce bath time in CHAN monasteries. The Chinese typically use four instruments to mark the schedule of events in a monastery: the dharma drum, temple bell, cloud-shaped gong, and wooden fish (C. muyu = K. MOKTAK). Especially interesting is the wooden fish, a wooden percussion instrument carved in the shape of a fish that is used for calling the monks to meals and to mark time during chanting. Because a fish’s eyes are always open day and night, the wooden fish is a subtle admonition to monks and nuns to remain ever vigilant about their practice. Drums are often used together with other instruments during Buddhist liturgical activities. Small drums, bells, and gongs, for example, are used to mark time during Buddhist rituals and while chanting the Buddha’s name (C. NIANFO). ¶ Drums often appear in conjunction with heavenly divinities (DEVA) in Buddhist literature. Dundubhisvara-rāja is the lord of the sound of celestial drums, viz., the thunder. Meghasvara-rāja, a son of Mahābhijñābhibhu, is the ruler of the cloud drums in the SADDHARMAPUṆḌARĪKASŪTRA. The heavenly drum in the TRĀYASTRIṂŚA heaven spontaneously emits a sublime sound without being struck; it warns the divine inhabitants that even their lives are impermanent and subject to the law of causality. Drums are a common metaphor for the Buddha or dharma in Buddhist literature. “Great Drum of the Dharma” is one of the epithets of a Buddha, since he exhorts sentient beings to perform wholesome actions and frightens away baleful influences and demons. The YOGĀCĀRABHŪMIŚĀSTRA describes one of the characteristics of the divine voice of a Buddha as being like the thunderous sound of a heavenly drum. The drum of dharma is also likened to both a noxious drum that helps to repress unwholesome action and evil, as well as a heavenly drum that offers kind and gentle encouragement to sentient beings to perform wholesome deeds. The noxious drum is likened also to the buddha-nature (C. FOXING), which can help overcome all evil. There are many variant Sanskrit names for drums and percussion instruments, including bherī, ghaṭṭita, GHAṆṬA, dundubha, and paṇava. See also MOKT’AK; ḌAMARU.

duḥkha. (P. dukkha; T. sdug bsngal; C. ku; J. ku; K. ko 苦). In Sanskrit, “suffering” or “unsatisfactoriness”; the first of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (CATVĀRY ĀRYASATYĀNI) of Buddhism and a concept foundational to Buddhism’s worldview and religious practice. The emblematic description of duḥkha, as found in the first noble truth, is, “Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering. To be conjoined with what one dislikes is suffering and to be separated from what one likes is suffering. Not to get what one wants is suffering. In short, grasping at the five aggregates (SKANDHA) is suffering.” Suffering thus not only includes the suffering that will invariably be associated with ordinary life, such as birth, aging, disease, and death, but also subsumes a full range of mental, emotional, and spiritual dissatisfactions, and ultimately is seen to be inherent to life itself. The teaching of suffering therefore seeks to change one’s ordinary perspectives on the things of this world as objects worthy of pursuit, so that instead one realizes their nature of impermanence (ANITYA), suffering, and nonself (ANĀTMAN), viz., the three marks of existence (TRILAKṢAṆA). Through this sort of systematic attention (YONIŚOMANASKĀRA), even the pleasures of life are ultimately realized to be “unsatisfactory,” because, like all compounded things, they are impermanent and thus inevitably destined to pass away. This awareness of suffering produces a sense of the “dangers” (ĀDĪNAVA) inherent in this world and prompts the practitioner to turn away from this world and toward the radical nonattachment that is NIRVĀṆA. ¶ Many types of duḥkha are enumerated in the literature, including forms specific to each of the six realms of rebirth (GATI). Most common are lists of three, four, and eight types of suffering. The three major categories of suffering are: (1) “misery caused by (physical and mental) suffering” (DUḤKHADUḤKHATĀ), viz., the full range of unpleasant or painful sensations (VEDANĀ) that are associated with either the physical body or the mind; (2) “misery caused by change” (VIPARIṆĀMADUḤKHATĀ), i.e., pleasant sensations may be a cause of suffering because they do not perdure and eventually turn into pain; (3) “misery caused by conditioning” (SAṂSKĀRADUḤKHATĀ), i.e., sensations that are neither painful nor pleasant may still be a cause of suffering because they are impermanent and thus undependable; because of past KARMAN, suffering may always occur unexpectedly in the next moment. The four types of suffering are the suffering associated with birth (jātiduḥkha), senescence or aging (jarāduḥkha), sickness (vyādhiduḥkha), and death (maraṇāduḥkha); various sūtras describe the Buddha’s quest for enlightenment as motivated by the impulse to overcome these four types of sufferings. The eight types of suffering comprise the above four types plus an additional four: “the suffering of being separated from persons and things one likes” (priyaviprayogaduḥkha), “the suffering of being associated with persons and things one dislikes” (apriyasaṃprayogaduḥkha), “the suffering of not getting what one wants” (yad api icchayā paryeṣamāṇo na labhate tad api duḥkhaṃ), and “the suffering inherent in the five aggregates that are objects of clinging” (saṃkṣepeṇa pañcopādānaskandhaduḥkha). In addition to these three typical categories of suffering, there are other lists, from the eighteen types of suffering listed in the Śāriputrābhidharmaśāstra (Shelifu apitan lun) to the one hundred and ten types enumerated in the YOGĀCĀRABHŪMIŚĀSTRA. NĀGĀRJUNA’s SUHṚLLEKHA gives a list of six sufferings: uncertainty, insatiability, casting off bodies repeatedly, repeated rebirth, repeatedly descending from high to low, and having no companions when dying and being reborn. Tibetan sources stress the role that meditation on suffering plays in producing a feeling of disgust (NIRVEDA; T. nges ’byung), that is, the preliminary turning away from the things of this world and turning toward nirvāṇa.

duḥkhaduḥkhatā. (P. dukkhadukkhatā; T. sdug bsngal gyi sdug bsngal; C. kuku; J. kuku; K. kogo 苦苦). In Sanskrit, “misery caused by (physical and mental) suffering”; one of the three principal categories of suffering (DUḤKHA), along with “suffering caused by conditioning” (SAṂSKĀRADUḤKHATĀ), and “suffering caused by change” (VIPARIṆĀMADUḤKHATĀ). Misery caused by suffering is defined as the full range of unpleasant and painful sensations (VEDANĀ) that rack the body and mind. The specific constituents of misery caused by suffering vary in different texts but typically include, among the physical components, birth (JĀTI), aging (JARĀ), disease (vyādhi), death (maraṇā), and physical pain (duḥkha) and, among the mental and emotion components, sorrow (śoka), lamentation (parideva), despair (daurmanasya), irritation (upāyāsa), being associated with persons and things that one dislikes, being dissociated from persons and things that one likes, and being unable to get what one wants. Many texts explain in great detail how these ordinary experiences involve or generate duḥkha. For example, according to the VISUDDHIMAGGA, the suffering associated with birth indicates all kinds of discomfort and pain to which a fetus is subject during gestation: the unpleasant conditions of stench, darkness, and physical constraint in the mother’s womb, the nauseating feelings produced when the mother moves, and the excruciating pain that the newborn suffers during the birth process. By contrast, the “misery caused by conditioning” (saṃskāraduḥkhatā) means that sensations that are neither painful nor pleasant may still be a cause of suffering because they are impermanent and thus undependable. The “misery caused by change” (vipariṇāmaduḥkhatā) means that even pleasant sensations may be a cause of suffering because they do not perdure.

duḥkhasatya. (P. dukkhasacca; T. sdug bsngal gyi bden pa; C. kudi; J. kutai; K. koje 苦諦). In Sanskrit, “truth of suffering,” or “true suffering,” the first of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (CATVĀRY ĀRYASATYĀNI), set forth in the Buddha’s first sermon (DHAMMACAKKAPPAVATTANASUTTA), where he enumerated eight types of suffering (see DUḤKHA) and identified as suffering the five aggregates (SKANDHA) that are produced by contaminated (ĀSRAVA) actions (KARMAN) and afflictions (KLEŚA). Thus, the minds and bodies of ordinary sentient beings, as well as the environments they inhabit, which are also the byproducts of the actions of these beings, are forms of suffering. The term satya in Sanskrit can mean “truth” in the abstract sense, but it can also have the more concrete meaning of a fact, a reality, or a constituent of experience. In this sense, the constituents of SAṂSĀRA, both sentient beings and their environments, can be called “true sufferings.” More generally, the truth of suffering encompasses the three forms of suffering: (1) “misery caused by (physical and mental) suffering” (DUḤKHADUḤKHATĀ), (2) “misery caused by change” (VIPARIṆĀMADUḤKHATĀ), and (3) “misery caused by conditioning” (SAṂSKĀRADUḤKHATĀ), as well as the specific sufferings of the six realms (GATI) of rebirth. Each of the four truths has four aspects (ĀKĀRA), which are specific objects of SAMĀDHI on the mainstream Buddhist path. The four aspects of the truth of suffering are impermanence (ANITYA), misery (duḥkha), emptiness (śūnya; see ŚŪNYATĀ), and nonself (anātmaka; see ANĀTMAN). The five aggregates are forms of suffering because they are impermanent in the sense that they are constantly disintegrating; by meditating on the impermanence of mind and body, one overcomes the wrong view that they are permanent. The five aggregates are miserable in the sense that they are produced by contaminated actions and afflictions and thus are subject to the three types of suffering; by meditating on their misery one overcomes the wrong view that they are pure and pleasurable. The five aggregates are empty and nonself in the sense that they lack a permanent self and are not the possessions of such a self. By meditating on their emptiness and lack of selfhood, one overcomes the wrong view that a self is present among the five aggregates.

duiji. (J. taiki; K. taegi 對機). In Chinese, lit. teaching “in accord with capacity”; an abbreviation of the phrase duiji shuofa, or “speaking the DHARMA in accord with [the student’s] capacity,” referring to the Buddha’s propensity to tailor his message through stratagems (UPĀYA) in order to respond to the specific needs of his audience and his listeners’ ability to understand him. The term comes to be used in the CHAN school to refer to a formal exchange between a Chan master and disciple that takes place in the master’s room (see FANGZHANG). This exchange between master and disciple is typically a “private” affair, for the master’s answers are designed to respond to the spiritual capacity of that specific student. These exchanges constitute much of the content of the discourse records (YULU) of Chan, SŎN, and ZEN masters.

duiji shuofa. (J. taiki seppō; K. taegi sŏlbop 對機

法). In Chinese, “speaking the dharma in accord with [the student’s] capacity.” See DUIJI.

Dung dkar. (Dungkar). A valley in western Tibet (Mnga’ ris) about thirty kilometers from THO LING with 1,150 caves, most of which were used as dwellings but twenty of which are cave temples with mural paintings. The area appears to have become the capital of the Pu rang GU GE kingdom at the beginning of the twelfth century, and the cave temples with mural paintings and mud sculptures were probably founded by the descendents of the Gu ge royal family during that period. Of the three main caves, the most important has statues of the seven buddhas of the past (SAPTATATHĀGATA) and the future buddha MAITREYA, a ceiling mural of the VAJRADHĀTU MAṆḌALA, and walls covered with bodhisattvas. Another has a GUHYASAMĀJA MAṆḌALA, suggesting development at a later period. The caves have been documented a number of times, first by GIUSEPPE TUCCI in the 1930s.

Dunhuang. (J. Tonkō; K. Tonhwang 敦煌). A northwest Chinese garrison town on the edge of the Taklamakan desert in Central Asia, first established in the Han dynasty and an important stop along the ancient SILK ROAD; still seen written also as Tun-huang, followed the older Wade–Giles transcription. Today an oasis town in China’s Gansu province, Dunhuang is often used to refer to the nearby complex of approximately five hunded Buddhist caves, including the MOGAO KU (Peerless Caves) to the southeast of town and the QIANFO DONG (Caves of the Thousand Buddhas) about twenty miles to the west. Excavations to build the caves at the Mogao site began in the late-fourth century CE and continued into the mid-fourteenth century CE. Of the more than one thousand caves that were hewn from the cliff face, roughly half were decorated. Along with the cave sites of LONGMEN and YUNGANG further east and BEZEKLIK and KIZIL to the west, the Mogao grottoes contain some of the most spectacular examples of ancient Buddhist sculpture and wall painting to be found anywhere in the world. Legend has it that in 366 CE a wandering monk named Yuezun had a vision of a thousand golden buddhas at a site along some cliffs bordering a creek and excavated the first cave in the cliffs for his meditation practice. Soon afterward, additional caves were excavated and the first monasteries established to serve the needs of the monks and merchants traveling to and from China along the Silk Road. The caves were largely abandoned in the fourteenth century. In the early twentieth century, Wang Yuanlu (1849–1931), self-appointed guardian of the Dunhuang caves, discovered a large cache of ancient manuscripts and paintings in Cave 17, a side chamber of the larger Cave 16. As rumors of these manuscripts reached Europe, explorer-scholars such as SIR MARC AUREL STEIN and PAUL PELLIOT set out across Central Asia to obtain samples of ancient texts and artwork buried in the ruins of the Taklamakan desert. Inside were hundreds of paintings on silk and tens of thousands of manuscripts dating from the fifth to roughly the eleventh centuries CE, forming what has been described as the world’s earliest and largest paper archive. The texts were written in more than a dozen languages, including Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, Sogdian, Uighur, Khotanese, Tangut, and TOCHARIAN and consisted of paper scrolls, wooden tablets, and one of the world’s earliest printed books (868 CE), a copy of the VAJRACCHEDIKĀPRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀSŪTRA (“Diamond Sūtra”). In the seventh-century, a Tibetan garrison was based at Dunhuang, and materials discovered in the library cave also include some of the earliest documents in the Tibetan language. This hidden library cave was apparently sealed in the eleventh century. As a result of the competition between European, American, and Japanese institutions to acquire documents from Dunhuang, the material was dispersed among collections world-wide, making access to all the manuscripts difficult. Many items have still not been properly catalogued or conserved and there are scholarly disputes over what quantity of the materials are modern forgeries. In 1944 the Dunhuang Academy was established to document and study the site and in 1980 the site was opened to the public. In 1987 the Dunhuang caves were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and today are being preserved through the efforts of both Chinese and international groups.

dunjiao. (J. tongyō; K. ton’gyo 頓教). In Chinese, “sudden teachings,” or “subitism”; a polemical term used by HOZE SHENHUI in the so-called “Southern school” (NAN ZONG) of Chan to disparage his rival “Northern school” (BEI ZONG) as a gradualist, and therefore inferior, presentation of Chan teachings and practice. Unlike the Northern school’s more traditional soteriological approach, which was claimed to involve gradual purification of the mind so that defilements would be removed and the mind’s innate purity revealed, the Southern school instead claimed to offer immediate access to enlightenment itself (viz., “sudden awakening”; see DUNWU) without the necessity of preparatory practices or conceptual mediation. See also LIUZU TAN JING. ¶ The “sudden teaching” (dunjiao) was also the fourth of the five classifications of the teachings in the Huayan school (see HUAYAN WUJIAO), as outlined by DUSHUN and FAZANG (643–712). In a Huayan context, the sudden teachings were ranked as a unique category of subitist teachings befitting sharp people of keen spiritual faculties (S. TĪKṢNENDRIYA), which therefore bypassed systematic approaches to enlightenment. Huayan thus treats the Chan school’s touted methods involving sudden enlightenment (dunwu) and its rejection of reliance on written texts (BULI WENZI) as inferior to the fifth and final category of the “perfect” or “consummate teaching” (YUANJIAO), which was reserved for the HUAYAN ZONG.

dunwu. (J. tongo; K. tono 頓悟). In Chinese, “sudden awakening,” or “sudden enlightenment”; the experience described in the CHAN school that “seeing the nature” (JIANXING) itself is sufficient to enable the adept to realize one’s innate buddhahood (JIANXING CHENGFO). The idea of a subitist approach (DUNJIAO) to awakening was also used polemically by HOZE SHENHUI in the so-called “Southern school” (NAN ZONG) of Chan to disparage his rival “Northern school” (BEIZONG) as a gradualist, and therefore inferior, presentation of Chan soteriological teachings. Although debates over gradual vs. sudden enlightenment are most commonly associated with the East Asian Chan schools, there are also precedents in Indian Buddhism. The so-called BSAM YAS DEBATE, or “Council of LHA SA,” that took place in Tibet at the end of the eighth century is said to have pitted the Indian monk KAMALAŚĪLA against the Northern Chan monk HESHANG MOHEYAN in a debate over gradual enlightenment vs. sudden enlightenment. ¶ In two-tiered path (MĀRGA) schemata, such as “sudden awakening [followed by] gradual cultivation” (DUNWU JIANXIU), this initial experience of sudden awakening constitutes an “understanding–awakening” (JIEWU), in which the adept comes to know that he is not a deluded sentient being but is in fact a buddha. (In this context, the understanding–awakening is functionally equivalent to the path of vision [DARŚANAMĀRGA] in ABHIDHARMA path systems.) But this sudden awakening is not sufficient in itself to generate the complete, perfect enlightenment of buddhahood (ANUTTARASAMYAKSAṂBODHI), where one is able to manifest all the potential inherent in that exalted state. That realization comes only through continued gradual cultivation (jianxiu) following this initial sudden awakening, so that one will learn not only to be a buddha but to act as one as well. That point where knowledge and action fully correspond marks the final “realization–awakening” (ZHENGWU) and is the point at which buddhahood is truly achieved. See also WU; JIANWU.

dunwu jianxiu. (J. tongo zenshu; K. tono chŏmsu 頓悟漸修). In Chinese, “sudden awakening [followed by] gradual cultivation”; a path (MĀRGA) schema emblematic of such CHAN masters as GUIFENG ZONGMI (780–841) in the Chinese Heze school of Chan, and POJO CHINUL (1158–1210) of the Korean CHOGYE school of Sŏn. In this outline of the Chan mārga, true spiritual practice begins with an initial insight into one’s true nature (viz., “seeing the nature”; JIANXING), through which the Chan adept comes to know that he is not a deluded sentient being but is in fact a buddha. This experience is called the “understanding–awakening” (JIEWU) and is functionally equivalent to the path of vision (DARŚANAMĀRGA) in ABHIDHARMA path systems. Simply knowing that one is a buddha through this sudden awakening of understanding, however, is not sufficient in itself to generate the complete, perfect enlightenment of buddhahood (ANUTTARASAMYAKSAṂBODHI) and thus to ensure that one will always be able to act on that potential. Only after continued gradual cultivation (jianxiu) following this initial understanding–awakening will one remove the habituations(VĀSANĀ) that have been engrained in the mind for an essentially infinite amount of time, so that one will not only be a buddha, but will be able to act as one as well. That point where knowledge and action fully correspond marks the final “realization-awakening” (ZHENGWU) and is the point at which buddhahood is truly achieved. This soteriological process is compared by Zongmi and Chinul to that of an infant who is born with all the faculties of a human being (the sudden understanding–awakening) but who still needs to go a long process of maturation (gradual cultivation) before he will be able to live up to his full potential as an adult human being (realization–awakening). See also WU.

Dunwu rudao yaomen lun. (J. Tongo nyūdō yōmonron; K. Tono ipto yomun non 頓悟入道要門論). In Chinese, “Treatise on the Essential Gate of Entering the Way through Sudden Awakening,” composed by the Tang dynasty CHAN master DAZHU HUIHAI (d.u.); also known as the Dunwu yaomen. The monk Miaoxie (d.u.) discovered this text in a box and published it in 1369 together with Dazhu’s recorded sayings that he selectively culled from the JINGDE CHUANDENG LU. Miaoxie’s edition is comprised of two rolls. The first roll contains Dazhu’s text the Dunwu rudao yaomen lun, and the second contains his sayings, which Miaoxie entitled the Zhufang menren canwen yulu. A preface to this edition was prepared by the monk Chongyu (1304–1378). The Dunwu rudao yaomen lun focuses on the notion of “sudden awakening” (DUNWU) and attempts to explicate various doctrinal concepts, such as ŚĪLA, DHYĀNA, PRAJÑĀ, TATHATĀ, BUDDHA-NATURE (FOXING), and “no-thought” (WUNIAN), from the perspective of sudden awakening. The text explains sudden awakening as the “sudden” (dun) eradication of deluded thoughts and “awakening” (WU) to nonattainment or the fundamental absence of anything that needs to be achieved. Citing such scriptures as the LAṄKĀVATĀRASŪTRA and VIMALAKĪRTINIRDEŚA, the text also contends that the mind itself is the foundation of cultivation and practice. The primary method of cultivation discussed in the text is seated meditation (ZUOCHAN), which it describes as the nonarising of deluded thoughts and seeing one’s own nature (JIANXING). The Dunwu rudao yaomen lun also contends that sudden awakening begins with the perfection of giving (DĀNAPĀRAMITĀ).

dūraṅgamā. (T. ring du song ba; C. yuanxing di; J. ongyōji; K. wŏnhaeng chi 遠行地). In Sanskrit, “gone afar,” or “transcendent”; the seventh of the ten “stages” or “grounds” (BHŪMI) of the bodhisattva path (MĀRGA). The name of this stage is interpreted to mean that the bodhisattva has here reached the culmination of moral discipline (ŚĪLA) and hereafter proceeds to focus more on meditation (SAMĀDHI) and wisdom (PRAJÑĀ). This stage marks the bodhisattva’s freedom from the four perverted views (VIPARYĀSA) and his mastery of the perfection of expedients (UPĀYAKAUŚALYA), which he uses to help infinite numbers of sentient beings. Although at this stage the bodhisattva abides in signlessness (ĀNIMITTA), he does not negate the conventions that create signs, thereby upholding the conventional nature of phenomena. He remains at this stage until he is able to abide spontaneously and effortlessly in the signless state. According to CANDRAKĪRTI in his MADHYAMAKĀVĀTĀRA, at this stage the bodhisattva, in each and every moment, is able to enter into and withdraw from the equipoise of cessation (NIRODHASAMĀPATTI) in which all elaborations (PRAPAÑCA) cease. For Candrakīrti, at the conclusion of the seventh stage, the bodhisattva is liberated from rebirth, having destroyed all of the afflictive obstructions (KLEŚĀVARAṆA). The seventh stage is thus the last of the impure bhūmis. The bodhisattva then proceeds to the three pure stages (the eighth, ninth, and tenth bhūmis), over the course of which he abandons the obstructions to omniscience (JÑEYĀVARAṆA).

durbhāṣita. (P. dubbhāsita; T. nyes par smra ba; C. eshuo; J. akusetsu; K. aksŏl 惡

). In Sanskrit, “mischievous talk”; a supplementary category of ecclesiastical offenses. See DUṢKṚTA; PRĀTIMOKṢA; VINAYA.

durgati. (P. duggati; T. ngan ’gro; C. equ; J. akushu; K. akch’wi 惡趣). In Sanskrit, “unfortunate destinies.” These destinies refer to the unfortunate or unfavorable rebirths (APĀYA) that occur as a consequence of performing demeritorious actions (AKUŚALAKARMAN). Typically a list of three (or sometimes four) such destinies is found in the literature: (1) a denizen of hell (S. NĀRAKA; P. nerayika), (2) an animal (S. TIRYAK; P. tiracchāna), (3) a hungry ghost (S. PRETA; P. peta), and (4) a demigod or titan (ASURA). According to the ABHIDHARMAKOŚABHĀṢYA, the eight hot and eight cold hells are the lowest place beneath JAMBUDVĪPA; the pretas are ruled by YAMA and primarily live in a region five hundred yojanas (a YOJANA is the distance a pair of bulls can pull a cart in a day) below; animals primarily live on the land, in the water, and in the air. The life spans of beings in the unfortunate destinies are longest in the hells and shortest for animals. The life span of the least-painful, topmost hell is five hundred years calculated as follows: fifty human days makes a day in the life of the lowest level sensuous realm (KĀMADHĀTU) divinity who lives five hundred years; one day in the topmost hell is equal to the life span of that god. The length of life span becomes even more dire for the lower hells. A day for a preta who lives for five hundred years is one month for a human being. Animal life spans range widely, some seeming almost evascent by human standards, others, such as the NĀGA, supposedly able to live for an eon (KALPA). See also APĀYA; BHAVACAKRA.

Dus gsum mkhyen pa. (Dusum Kyenpa) (1110–1193). A renowned Tibetan master recognized as the first in the lineage of KARMA PA incarnations and early founder of the KARMA BKA’ BRGYUD sect of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in the Tre shod region of eastern Tibet and at the age of sixteen was ordained by a monk of the BKA’ GDAMS sect and received tantric instruction from a disciple of ATIŚA DĪPAṂKARAŚRĪJÑĀNA. He went on to study MADHYAMAKA and the KĀLACAKRATANTRA with some of the leading scholars of the day. At the age of thirty, Dus gsum mkhyen pa met his principal GURU, SGAM PO PA BSOD NAMS RIN CHEN, from whom he received many teachings, including so-called “heat yoga” (gtum mo; see CAṆḌĀLĪ). He also studied with MI LA RAS PA’s renowned disciple RAS CHUNG PA. He devoted himself to the teachings that would become the hallmark of the Bka’ brgyud, such as the six yogas of NĀROPA and MAHĀMUDRA, but he also received teachings from a number of Bka’ gdams and SA SKYA masters. He went on to found three important Bka’ brgyud monasteries: Kam po gnas nang in 1164, KARMA DGON in 1184, both in eastern Tibet, and MTSHUR PHU northwest of LHA SA in 1187. The latter became a powerful central-Tibetan institution as the primary seat of the Karma pas up to 1959. It is said that at the age of sixteen Dus gsum mkhyen pa received a hat woven from the hair of one hundred thousand ḌĀKINĪs. This hat has been passed down to subsequent Karma pas, and seen in the so-called “black hat ceremony” (zhwa nag).

Dushun. (J. Tojun; K. Tusun 杜順) (557–640). Chinese monk thaumaturge, meditator, and exegete who is recognized by tradition as the founder and putative first patriarch of the HUAYAN ZONG of East Asian Buddhism; also known as Fashun. Dushun was a native of Wengzhou in present-day Shaanxi province. He became a monk at the age of seventeen and is said to have studied meditation under a certain Weichen (d.u.) at the monastery of Yinshengsi. Later, he retired to the monastery of Zhixiangsi on ZHONGNANSHAN, where he devoted himself to study of the AVATAṂSAKASŪTRA. The monk ZHIYAN (602–668) is presumed to have studied under Dushun at Zhixiangsi and subsequently came to be recognized as Dushun’s formal successor. Some fourteen different works have been ascribed to Dushun at various points in history, but it is now presumed that only two of these can definitively be associated with him: the Huayan yisheng shixuan men (“The Ten Arcane Gates of the One Vehicle of the Avataṃsaka”), which was composed by Dushun’s successor, Zhiyan, supposedly from his teacher’s oral teachings; and the HUAYAN FAJIE GUANMEN, one of the foundational texts of the nascent Huayan school. (Some scholars have proposed that this text may have been excerpted from FAZANG’s Fa putixin zhang, and only later attributed to Dushun, but this hypothesis is not widely accepted.) Dushun is also portrayed as an advocate of various Sui- and Tang-dynasty cults associated with MAÑJUŚRĪ and AMITĀBHA that were popular among the laity. Because of the sweeping scope of his religious career, Dushun is sometimes considered to be emblematic of the emerging “new Buddhism” of sixth- and seventh-century China, which sought to remake Buddhism into forms that would be more accessible to an indigenous audience.

dusi. (J. tsūsu; K. tosa 都寺/司). In Chinese, “prior’s assistant,” or later “prior”; a principal administrative post in a CHAN monastery, the officer in charge of supplies and finances and the main staff person of the prior (JIANYUAN). Along with the rector (WEINUO), cook (DIANZUO), superintendent (ZHISUI), comptroller (JIANSI), and assistant comptroller (FUSI), the prior is one of the six stewards (ZHISHI) at an East Asian Chan monastery. The comptroller and assistant comptroller are usually under the prior’s direct supervision, and the prior himself is second only to the abbot (ZHUCHI) in administrative rank.

duṣkaracaryā. (P. dukkarakārikā; T. dka’ ba spyod pa; C. kuxing; J. kugyō; K. kohaeng 苦行). In Sanskrit, “difficult feats” of religious practice, referring especially to the extreme asceticism in which Śākyamuni Buddha engaged as the BODHISATTVA, prior to finding the middle way (MADHYAMAPRATIPAD) between mortification of the flesh and sensual indulgence. For the authorized list of ascetic practices, see DHUTAṄGA.

duṣkṛta. (P. dukkaṭa; T. nyes byas; C. ezuo/tujiluo; J. akusa/tokira; K. akchak/tolgilla 惡作/突吉羅). In Sanskrit, “wrongdoing”; a general category for the least serious of ecclesiastical offenses; for this reason, the term is also rendered in Chinese as “minor misdeed” (xiaoguo) or “light fault” (qingguo). In some recensions of the VINAYA, such as the Pāli, wrongdoings are treated as a category supplementary to the eight general classifications of rules and regulations appearing in the monastic code of conduct (PRĀTIMOKṢA). The eight are: (1) PĀRĀJIKA (“defeat,” entailing expulsion from the order in some vinaya recensions); (2) SAṂGHĀVAŚEṢA (requiring a formal meeting and temporary suspension from the order); (3) ANIYATA (undetermined or indefinite offenses); (4) NAIḤSARGIKAPĀYATTIKA (offenses entailing expiation and forfeiture); (5) PĀYATTIKA (offenses entailing confession and forfeiture); (6) PRATIDEŚANĪYA (offenses that are to be publicly acknowledged); (7) ŚAIKṢADHARMA (minor rules of training); and (8) ADHIKARAṆA (rules for settling disputes). Other such supplementary categories include STHŪLĀTYAYA (various grave, but unconsummated offenses), and DURBHĀṢITA (mischievous talk). In such treatments, the duṣkṛta category typically is said to entail deliberate disobeying of any of the śaikṣadharma rules, which involve a whole range of possible transgressions of monastic decorum and public conduct, such as improperly wearing one’s robes, misconduct during alms round (PIṆḌAPĀTA), or incorrect toilet habits. In addition, failed attempts to break any of rules in the relatively minor categories of the pāyattika, or pratideśanīya are a duṣkṛta, while failed attempts to break the much more serious pārājika and saṃghāvaśeṣa rules are both a duṣkṛta and a sthūlātyaya. Finally, various offenses that are not specifically treated in a formal rule in the prātimokṣa may also be treated as a duṣkṛta, e.g., striking a layperson, which is not specifically enjoined in the prātimokṣa, although striking a monk is. Other vinayas, however, such as the DHARMAGUPTAKA VINAYA (C. Sifen lü), list the duṣkṛta offenses as one of the five categories of precepts, along with pārājika, saṃghāvaśeṣa, pāyattika, and pratideśanīya; alternatively, the Dharmaguptaka vinaya also lists seven categories of precepts, which include the preceding five categories, plus stūlātyaya and durbhāṣita. In such categorizations, the duṣkṛta essentially replace the śaikṣadharma rules of other vinayas. These duṣkṛta offenses are typically said to be expiated through confession; more specifically, the Dharmaguptaka vinaya stipulates that a deliberate wrongdoing should be confessed to a single monk or nun, while an accidental case of wrongdoing may simply be repented in the mind of the offender. Similarly, the MŪLASARVĀSTIVĀDA VINAYA includes the 112 duṣkṛta in the 253 PRĀTIMOKṢA rules recited during the UPOṢADHA confession. In MAHĀYĀNA discussions of bodhisattva precepts (according to ASAṄGA and others, these are a second set of precepts that supplement the prātimokṣa rules but do not contradict them), all offenses except the eighteen involving defeat (pārājika) [alt. mūlāpatti, T. rtsa ltung] are classified as “minor offenses” (C. qing gouzui; T. nyas byas), i.e., duṣkṛta. There are, for instance, forty-two types of duṣkṛta discussed in the BODHISATTVABHŪMI (Pusa dichi jing), forty-eight in the FANWANG JING, and fifty in the Pusa shanjie jing. In tantric Buddhism, gross infractions (sthūla) are any form of behavior that does not constitute defeat (mūlāpatti), but are a weaker form of the infraction.

Duṭṭhagāmaṇī. [alt. Sinhalese: Dutugümunu] (r. 101–77 BCE). Sinhalese king best known for restoring Sinhalese suzerainty over the entire island of Sri Lanka after his first century BCE defeat of King Eḷāra of the predominantly Hindu Damiḷas (Tamil). According to the MAHĀVAṂSA, Duṭṭhagāmaṇī had been a monk in his previous life, when he vowed to be reborn as a CAKRAVARTIN. As king, he went to war against the enemies of the dharma, carrying a spear with a relic of the Buddha attached to it. The battle ended when he killed the enemy king, the pious but non-Buddhist Eḷāra. After his victory, he planted his spear in the earth. When he attempted to extract it, he failed, and so decided to have a STŪPA built around it, making the instrument of his victory a site for merit-making. Like AŚOKA, Duṭṭhagāmaṇī was troubled by the carnage he had caused, specifically the death of sixty thousand of his enemies. But a delegation of ARHATs assured him that, because his victims were not Buddhists, he had only accrued the negative KARMAN of having killed just one and a half persons. As a result of meritorious deeds, Duṭṭhagāmaṇī is said to have been reborn in the TUṢITA heaven, awaiting rebirth as a disciple of MAITREYA. The story of Duṭṭhagāmaṇī continues to be told in Sri Lanka, and was deployed during the late-twentieth century to defend the violence of Sinhalese Buddhists against non-Buddhist Tamils. After his victory over Eḷāra at his capital of ANURĀDHAPURA, the king began a series of construction projects in support of Buddhism, culminating in the MAHĀTHŪPA, the great stūpa [alt. Ruwanwelisaya], at the site where the Buddha is thought to have made his third visit to the island of Sri Lanka. Duṭṭhagāmaṇī fell ill before this massive project was completed, but according to legend his brother Saddhātissa draped the site in white cloth so that the king could visualize it in all its glory prior to his death.

dvādaśāṅga[pravacana]. (T. gsung rab yan lag bcu gnyis; C. shi’erbu jing; J. jūnibukyō; K. sibibu kyŏng 十二部經). In Sanskrit, “twelve categories”; the twelve traditional divisions of the Buddha’s teachings based on content and literary style, according to Sanskrit Buddhist sources. The Sanskrit list adds three more genres—framing stories or episodes (NIDĀNA), heroic tales or narratives (AVADĀNA), and instructions (UPADEŚA)—to the nine divisions (P. NAVAṄGA[PĀVACANA]) listed in mainstream Buddhist sources: discourses (SŪTRA), aphorisms in mixed prose and verse (GEYA), prophetic teachings or expositions (VYĀKARAṆA), verses (GĀTHĀ), utterance or meaningful expressions (UDĀNA), fables (ITIVṚTTAKA), tales of previous lives (JĀTAKA), marvelous events (ADBHUTADHARMA), and catechisms or works of great extent (VAIPULYA). In Sanskrit sources, these twelve are called vacana or pravacana (P. pāvacana), viz., the words of the Buddha. See also AṄGA.

dvārapāla. (T. sgo bsrungs pa; C. shoumenren; J. shumonnin; K. sumunin 守門人). In Sanskrit, “gatekeepers”; Indian Buddhist wrathful deities (see YAKṢA), who protect the entrances to monasteries, marking the passage from mundane to sacred space. Four names generally appear in the literature: Vajrāṅkuśa, Vajrapāśa, Vajrasphoṭa, and Vajrāveśa/Vajraghaṇṭa. Statues of dvārapāla are often placed on either side of a monastery’s main gate and the entrances to holy sanctuaries. They are typically depicted as male warriors, carrying weapons or emblems, and wrathful in appearance, sometimes with two fangs at each corner of mouth, and displaying imposing strength that can frighten away evil spirits and baleful influences before they can disturb the quietude of the monastery. Dvārapāla are connected with dragon or snake spirits (NĀGA) and are often depicted in South Asia with sacred threads (upavīta) in the guise of snakes encircling their waists or knees. They are mighty in battle and can uproot trees or hurl mountaintops to thwart their enemies. They are also skilled in magic and can transform themselves into all sorts of shapes, whether human or nonhuman, in order better to protect their monastery. ¶ Dvārapāla also guard the four gates of the MAṆḌALA. MAÑJUŚRĪ in the GARBHADHĀTU maṇḍala is portrayed with two guardians of the dharma, called the Durdharṣadvārapāla, to his sides. They are typically portrayed standing with one hand raised, eyes bulging, and naked to the waist. Sometimes they are portrayed with the right hand raised, holding a long club. See also DHARMAPĀLA.

Dvāravatī. Name given to the Mon civilization that flourished in the region of present-day Thailand from roughly the sixth through the eleventh centuries, occupying chiefly the Menam valley and extending northward to Lamphun. Little is known of the political organization of Dvāravatī, that is, whether it was an empire that had one or more capitals, or whether it was instead a collection of autonomous city-states. The geographic distribution of urban sites suggests an economy based on control of trade routes, particularly across the Three Pagodas Pass into Burma, northward up the Chaophraya River toward Chiangmai, and eastward into Cambodia. The chief Dvāravatī centers of the Menam valley were U Thong, Lopburi, Khu Bua, and Nakhon Pathom. In the north near Lamphun was the kingdom of Haripuñjaya, which, according to the Thai chronicles, was founded in the seventh century by sages and governed by a heroic Mon queen named Cāma (cf. CĀMADEVĪVAṂSA). Common at all of the sites are inscriptions written in Mon, with a smaller number in Sanskrit and Pāli. The sites are typically fortified with moats and earthen walls and display extensive Buddhist remains, which include ruins of monasteries, temples, and pagodas and stone and bronze sculpture and statuary. Much of Dvāravatī art shows strong Indian influence reminiscent of the Amaravatī and Gupta styles, while in later centuries a distinctive Khmer influence becomes evident. The overall religious culture of the Dvāravatī civilization appears to have been mixed, with evidence of multiple forms of Buddhism, Brahmanism, and indigenous cults receiving patronage. By the mid-eleventh century, the cities occupying the eastern portion of the Dvāravatī cultural zone were absorbed by the expanding Khmer empire of Angkor, while in the west they fell to the newly emergent Burmese empire of Pagan. Haripuñjaya alone retained a degree of autonomy until the thirteenth century, when it was conquered by the northern Thai kingdom of Lānnā (Lan Na).

Dvedhāvitakkasutta. (C. Nian jing; J. Nengyō; K. Yŏm kyŏng 念經). In Pāli, “Discourse on Two Kinds of Thoughts”; the nineteenth sutta contained in the MAJJHIMANIKĀYA (a separate SARVĀSTIVĀDA recension appears as the 102nd sūtra in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMĀGAMA); preached by the Buddha to his disciples gathered at the JETAVANA Grove in the town of Sāvatthi (ŚRĀVASTĪ). The Buddha explains that thoughts can be divided into two categories: unsalutary (P. akusala; S. AKUŚALA) thoughts associated with sensual desire, ill will, and harmfulness; and salutary (P. kusala; S. KUŚALA) thoughts associated with renunciation, non-ill will, and harmlessness. He describes his own practice prior to his enlightenment as discerning between these two types of thoughts and recognizing the advantages that come from developing the salutary and the disadvantages of the unsalutary. He advises his monks to examine their minds in the same way so that they too would develop salutary thoughts and overcome unsalutary thoughts.

dveṣa. (P. dosa; T. zhe sdang; C. chen; J. shin; K. chin 瞋). In Sanskrit, “aversion,” “ill will,” or “hatred”; it is frequently written DOṢA in BUDDHIST HYBRID SANSKRIT; closely synonymous also to “hostility” (PRATIGHA). “Aversion” is one of the most ubiquitous of defilements and is listed, for example, among the six fundamental “afflictions” (KLEŚA), ten “fetters” (SAṂYOJANA), ten “proclivities” (ANUŚAYA), five “hindrances” (NĪVARAṆA), and “three poisons” (TRIVIṢA). It is also one of the forty-six mental factors (CAITTA) according to the VAIBHĀṢIKA school of SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA, one of the fifty-one according to the YOGĀCĀRA school, and one of fifty-two in the Pāli abhidhamma. In Buddhist psychology, when contact with sensory objects is made “without introspection” (ASAṂPRAJANYA), “passion” (RĀGA) or “greed” (LOBHA), “aversion,” and/or “delusion” (MOHA) arise as a result. In the case of “aversion”—which is a psychological reaction that is associated with repulsion, resistance, and active dislike of a displeasing stimulus—one of the possible derivative emotions typically ensue. These derivative emotions—which include “anger” (KRODHA), “enmity” (UPANĀHA), “agitation” (PRADĀSA), “envy” (ĪRṢYĀ), “harmfulness” (VIHIṂSĀ)—all have “aversion” as their common foundation.

Dwags lha sgam po. (Daklha Gampo). The site of an important BKA’ BRGYUD monastic complex in the Dwags po (Dakpo) region of south-central Tibet, founded in 1121 by SGAM PO PA BSOD RNAM RIN CHEN. Flanked by an unusual range of mountains, the location was originally developed by the Tibetan king SRONG BTSAN SGAM PO, who constructed one of his many “taming temples” (mtha’ ’dul) there in order to pin down the head of the supine demoness (srin mo) believed to be hindering the spread of Buddhism in Tibet. It is said that PADMASAMBHAVA later hid several treasure texts (GTER MA) in the surrounding peaks, foremost among which was the BAR DO THOS GROL CHEN MO, or “Liberation Through Hearing in the Intermediate State,” usually known in English as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which was unearthed by the treasure revealer (GTER STON) KARMA GLING PA. Dwags lha sgam po is best known, however, as the seat of the important Bka’ brgyud hierarch Sgam po pa and under his direction it became an active center for meditative retreats. His numerous disciples, from whom stem the four major and eight minor Bka’ brgyud subsects, include the first KARMA PA DUS GSUM MKHYEN PA and PHAG MO GRU PA RDO RJE RGYAL PO. Following Sgam po pa’s death, the complex was directed by masters in his familial lineage, and later, Sgam po pa’s incarnation lineage, including lamas such as DWAGS PO BKRA SHIS RNAM RGYAL. It was destroyed by the invading Dzungar Mongol army in 1718 and rebuilt, only to be completely destroyed once again during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Several small chapels have since been renovated.

Dwags po Bkra shis rnam rgyal. (Dakpo Tashi Namgyal) (1512/13–1587). An abbot of the Tibetan monastery of DWAGS LHA SGAM PO, founded by SGAM PO PA BSOD NAMS RIN CHEN, from which he receives his toponym. In his early years he studied with SA SKYA teachers and was abbot of NA LAN DRAmonastery. He is known in particular for his writing on the HEVAJRATANTRA and MAHĀMUDRĀ; his Nges don phyag rgya chen po’i sgom rim gsal bar byed pa’i legs bshad zla ba’i ’od zer is a definitive text of mahāmudrā, giving a presentation of the graduated stages of HĪNĀYĀNA and MAHĀYĀNA practices and a scholarly explanation of mahāmudrā. Among his students was the scholar PADMA DKAR PO, the fourth head of the BRUG PA BKA’ BRYUD sect and the systematizer of its teachings.

Dwaya. (P. Dvāra). The third largest monastic fraternity (B. GAING; P. gaṇa, cf. NIKĀYA) of modern Myanmar (Burmese) Buddhism, following the THUDHAMMA (P. Sudhammā) and the SHWEGYIN fraternities. The Dwaya fraternity was founded as a dissident group within the Burmese saṅgha (S. SAṂGHA) in the mid-nineteenth century by the Okpo Sayadaw, U Okkamwuntha (P. Okkaṃvaṃsa), who hailed from the Okpo region between Yangon (Rangoon) and Bago (Pegu) in Lower Burma. During his lifetime, Lower Burma was conquered by the British with the result that many Buddhist monks fled north to seek the protection of the Burmese crown. The Okpo Sayadaw recommended against this move, claiming that if the saṅgha strictly observed the VINAYA, it did not need royal protection but could resist the political and religious encroachments of the British and their Christian missionaries on its own. This led him to challenge the authority of the Burmese king to direct saṅgha affairs in the British-controlled south. In 1857, he seceded from the royally backed Thudhamma fraternity and established an independent ordination line that came to be known as the Dwaya Gaing. The fraternity derives its name from the Okpo Sayadaw’s interpretation of the correct way to take refuge in the three jewels (P. ratanattaya; S. RATNATRAYA), viz., not through one’s literal acts (P. kamma; S. KARMAN) of body, speech, and mind, but rather through the “doors” (B. dwaya; P. dvāra) or “intentions” that inform one’s acts of body, speech, and mind. True worship thus derives from correct mental volition (CETANĀ), not from ritual acts themselves. The Dwaya fraternity is well-known for its strict interpretation of the vinaya, and sectarian aloofness. Dwaya monks are not allowed to handle money or even to use umbrellas, preferring instead large fans made of palmyra leaf; they also are prohibited from living, eating, or otherwise associating with members of other monastic fraternities. Following the Okpo Sayadaw’s death, the fraternity split into rival factions. As of 1980, the Burmese Ministry of Religious Affairs officially recognizes three independent Dwaya gaing.

’Dzam gling rgyas bshad. (Dzamling gyeshe). In Tibetan, “An Extensive Exposition on the World”; one of the first works in Tibetan to present a systematic geographical and cultural description of the world, although that world is substantially limited to the sacred Buddhist geography of India, Nepal, and Tibet. The text was composed in 1820 (1830 according to one source) by the fourth Bstan po No mon han (Tsenpo Nomonhan) incarnation of SMIN GROL GLING ’Jam dpal chos kyi bstan ’dzin ’phrin las (Jampal Chökyi Tendzin Trinle, 1789–1838). The complete title is ’Dzam gling chen po’i rgyas bshad snod bcud kun gsal me long.

’Dzam thang. A monastic complex in eastern Tibet founded in 1658 in the ’Dzam thang region of A mdo; the major monastric seat of the JO NANG tradition following the suppression of the Jo nang sect in central Tibet by the fifth DALAI LAMA. Following the death of TĀRANĀTHA, the fifth Dalai Lama forcibly converted the main seat of the Jo nang sect at Phun tshogs gling in central Tibet into a DGE LUGS monastery (see DGA’ LDAN PHUN TSHOGS GLING) in 1658 and sealed the works of DOL PO PA and TĀRANĀTHA as heretical. Long unknown to modern scholarship, the tradition flourished in the far east of Tibet since that time. Important masters from the monastery are Thub bstan dge legs rgya mtsho (Tupten Gelek Gyatso) (1844–1904) from ’Bam mda’, who studied with the luminaries of the Khams RIS MED movement; and Ngag dbang blo gros grags pa (1920–1975) and his disciple Ngag dbang yon tan rgya mtsho, who died in 2002. In the early twenty-first century, there were about fifteen hundred residents of the monastic complex.