དམ་པའ་ཆས་པད་མ་དཀར་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.50

intro.50

’jig rten gyi khams (lokadhātu) can mean not simply the one world we live in, but a thousand million worlds that are presided over by one Brahmā and are the field of activity of a single buddha (which is why the term buddha realm may include this great number of worlds). However, it is sometimes uncertain whether lokadhātu is referring simply to one world, as in early Buddhism, or to a group of many such worlds. The terms universe and cosmos are too comprehensive for such a set of worlds, as a number of these sets are said to coexist. Galaxy has been used in some translations and is analogous, but seems too modern a term with an overly specific meaning for this translation. We have therefore used “world realm” because it is a literal translation of lokadhātu and ’jig rten gyi khams, and could be understood to mean both a single world or a thousand million worlds.