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大

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: great

Senses:

  • Large, big, vast, broad, all-pervading, all-embracing (Skt. mahā; Tib. chen po); transliterated as 摩訶, 麼賀, etc. In Buddhism, the connotations of the notion of 'great' are various, including: numerous 多; surpassing; mysterious 妙; beyond comprehension 不可思議; omnipresent 體無不在. [Charles Muller; source(s): Ui, Nakamura,Soothill, YBh-Ind]
  • The elements, or essential things:
    1. The three all-pervasive qualities of thusness 三大 taught in the Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith: its essence 體大, attributes 相大 , and function 用大.
    2. The four tanmātra or elements 四大, earth, water, fire, air (or wind) taught in Abhidharma.
    3. The five elements 五大 taught in esoteric Buddhism, i.e. the above four, plus space 空.
    4. The six elements 六大, earth, water, fire, wind, space (or ether), mind 識. Abhidharma, emphasizing selflessness of the person 人空, considers these six as the elements of all sentient beings; Mahāyāna, emphasizing the selflessness of phenomena 法空, counts them as elements, but fluid in a flowing stream of life, with mind 識 dominant; the esoteric school emphasizing nonproduction, or non-creation, regards them as universal and as the absolute in differentiation.
    5. The Śūraṃgama-sūtra adds 見 perception, to the six above named to cover the perceptions of the six organs 根, bringing the total to seven 七大.
    . [Charles Muller; source(s): Soothill]
  • (Skt. mahat, mahā-vipula; bhūta, mahā-bhūta; atimahat, atyartham, āyata, udāra, ghana, ghanatara, jyāyas, jyeṣṭha, tīvra, dhātu, parama, pariṇāha, pṛthu, pracaṇḍa, pradhāna, prabhūta, bahu, bṛhat, bhūyas, bhṛśatara, mahattā, mahattva, mahad-gata, mahad-gatatā, mahad-bhūta, mahallaka, mahā-kalpa, *mahiman, mahīyas, mahâtmya, vara, vipula-gata, vipulatā, vipulâtmaka, vistara, vaipulya, śreyas, samagra, sthūla) [Charles Muller; source(s): Hirakawa]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 688

    Bulgyo sajeon 144a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 794a, 1030a

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 912a

    Fo Guang Dictionary 749

    Ding Fubao

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 0317

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)3185b, (v.1-6)3249a

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1122-3

    Sanskrit-Tibetan Index for the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra (Yokoyama and Hirosawa)

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 2001-09-08

    Updated: 2016-01-04