buddha-kṣetra (10968)

buddha-kṣetra
Entry 10968, Page 401, Col. 1

(budDakzetra, budDa-kzetra)
buddha-kṣetra¦, nt. (= Pali, late, °khetta), Buddha- field, region or (usually) world or world-system in which a particular Buddha lives and operates; see Teresina Rowell, ‘The background and early use of the Buddhakṣetra concept,’ The Eastern Buddhist 6.199--430 and 7.131--176, where the term is ably discussed; a few out of many occurrences are here recorded: descriptions of a b°, SP 65.9 ff.; 144.9 ff.; its ‘jewels’ are Bodhisattvas SP 66.3; in Mv ii.301.16 Bodhisattvas in numberless b° take the form of gods and come to Śākyamuni as he is about to become enlightened; misc., Mvy 3065; Mv ii.319.11; 349.17; iii.139.3; 342.1; in Mv i.123.4 ff. enumeration of some ‘present’ Buddha-fields and their Buddhas; huddha- kṣetraṃ viśodhenti bodhisattvā(ḥ) Mv i.283.3; atuliya (so mss.) aprameyaṃ °traṃ aparimitaṃ bharitvā (having filled) sameti (= śamayati) khila-doṣa-mohaṃ (so read, see s.v. khila) Mv ii.295.9; on ‘emptying’ of buddha-fields, see s.v. riñcati; in Mv i.121.14 ff. the question is asked whether Buddhas are produced in all Buddha-fields, and the answer, 122.2--3, is negative; in many there is no Buddha; Śikṣ 147.15 speaks of going to a buddhaśūnya- buddhakṣetram as an evil fate; so in SP 68.2 (vs; cf. 66.3 ff., prose, same subject) buddhakṣetra is clearly equated with lokadhātu, meaning merely world-system, presumably as potential field for a Buddha, but not ne- cessarily containing one; on this see Rowell, op. cit., 415. See also upakṣetra.