Lokantarika, Lokāntarikā, Loka-antarika: 7 definitions
Introduction:
Lokantarika means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
In Buddhism
Mahayana (major branch of Buddhism)
Source: Wisdom Library: Maha Prajnaparamita SastraLokāntarikā (लोकान्तरिका) refers to the “intermediate spaces between two worlds”, according to the 2nd century Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra chapter XLVII.—Accordingly, “in the intermediate spaces between two worlds (lokāntarikā) where there is no sun, beings live and die in the shadows (andhakāra). At the time when a Buddha is born, a brilliant light (avabhāsa) shines temporarily, and all see themselves, see one another and see the sun and moon. Thus illuminated, the beings of the lokāntarikā recognize and say: ‘those over there are very worthy; we ourselves are great sinners’. Sometimes, the Buddha illumines the Buddha fields with his brilliance completely, and the beings of the universes without Buddha, seeing the Buddha’s brilliance, experience great joy (mahāmuditā) and say: ‘‘For us, it was shadows (andhakāra), but for them, great light’.”.
Lokāntarikā refers to the “intermediate spaces between the universes of four continents”, according to the Anguttara:—“on four occasions, (a) when the Bodhisattva descends into the womb of his mother, (b) comes out of his mother’s womb, (c) attains supreme complete enlightenment, or (d) turns the Wheel of Dharma, there is a grand miracle: a brilliant light illumines the lokāntarikā. These are the intermediate spaces between the universes of four continents. Grouped into three, these universes, circular in form, touch one another by their outer walls (cakravāla), like three coins brought together. Thus between them they demarcate a surface with the form of a triangle with three arched sides. These lokāntarikās, infinite in number like the universes that demarcate them, are always plunged in deep darkness to the point that their inhabitants cannot even distinguish their own limbs. However, a brilliant light illumines them on the four occasions indicated above. Then the inhabitants of the lokāntarikas notice one another and also discover the beings populating the neighboring universes, normally illumined by the sun and moon”.
Mahayana (महायान, mahāyāna) is a major branch of Buddhism focusing on the path of a Bodhisattva (spiritual aspirants/ enlightened beings). Extant literature is vast and primarely composed in the Sanskrit language. There are many sūtras of which some of the earliest are the various Prajñāpāramitā sūtras.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
Source: BuddhaSasana: Concise Pali-English Dictionarylokantarika : (adj.) situated between the worlds.
Source: Sutta: The Pali Text Society's Pali-English DictionaryLokantarika refers to: (scil. Niraya) a group of Nirayas or Purgatories situated in the lokantara (i.e. cakkavāl, antaresu J. I, 76), 8, 000 yojanas in extent, pitch dark, which were filled with light when Gotama became the Buddha J. I, 76; VbhA. 4; Vism. 207 (lokantariya°); SnA 59 (°vāsa life in the l. niraya); cp. BSk. lokântarikā Divy 204 (andhās tamaso ‘ndhakāra-tamisrā).
Note: lokantarika is a Pali compound consisting of the words loka and antarika.
Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
Sanskrit dictionary
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Edgerton Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit DictionaryLokāntarikā (लोकान्तरिका).—subst. f., usually pl. (= Pali lokan- [Page464-b+ 71] tarikā, subst., not adj., ‘scil. Niraya’, with [Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary]), inter- stice(s) between the worlds; they are dark, gloomy places, a kind of purgatories: chiefly in a well-known cliché, recorded Saddharmapuṇḍarīka 163.8; Lalitavistara 51.10; 410.13 (and the first part, ending andhakārās, as abbreviation, 351.22—352.1); Mahāvastu i.41.4; 229.20; 240.9; ii.162.9; iii.334.7; 341.12; Divyāvadāna 204.22; 205.4, 13, 23; 206.5, 16; Samādhirājasūtra page 7 line 9; Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā 102.17 (abbreviated); and in Pali, Dīghanikāya (Pali) ii.12.10; Majjhimanikāya (Pali) iii.120.9; Aṅguttaranikāya (Pali) ii.130.24; SN v.454.16. There are minor variants thruout, not all reported here, and in Mahāvastu the mss. are mostly quite corrupt and vary widely; Senart em. rashly; I shall quote a blended version which seems at least close to a common Mahāvastu text. For convenience the passage is divided into sections, (a) to (g); Divyāvadāna lacks (b) and (f); Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā lacks (a) and (g); in Samādhirājasūtra, (b) is lacking, (a) and (c) come after (f); in Mahāvastu (all six passages) and in Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, (b) comes after (c): (a) om. Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā; yā (a)pi tā (Divyāvadāna adds lokasya; 204.22 lacks api tā, and so also Saddharmapuṇḍarīka; 3 of 6 Mahāvastu passages add loke) lokāntarikā (Pali lokant°); (b) omitted in Divyāvadāna, Samādhirājasūtra, and probably corrupt in all; I believe orig. had aghā aghasaṃvṛtā (Pali aghā asaṃvutā, for which Senart, Mahāvastu i.406, brilliantly conjectured aghā aghasaṃvutā; the Pali comms. seem to me fatuous, and I cannot feel attracted by Critical Pali Dictionary's interpretation of aghā, see s.v. agha; Mahāvastu supports Senart, and so in a measure do Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, Lalitavistara and Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā); the Mahāvastu tradition seems to point to aghā aghasaṃbhūtapūrvā, in which with Senart I regard saṃbhūta as a corruption for saṃvṛta, or MIndic saṃ- vuta; close in sense, also, is aghā aghasphuṭā (full of misery), the reading of Lalitavistara and Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā (in Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā after c); finally, Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, tho substituting (tāsu ya) akṣaṇāḥ for the first aghā, and omitting the 2d agha-, actually preserves saṃ- vṛtā(ḥ), alone among [Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit] texts (note that it has no negative! thus tending to show the corruption of the Pali); (c) andhakārā andhakāratamisrā(ḥ) (Pali andhakārā andhakāratimisā); so Samādhirājasūtra; Saddharmapuṇḍarīka ed. omits andhakārā (haplogr.), but v.l. has it; either it or andhakāra- is omitted in Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā and both Lalitavistara versions (haplogr.); Divyāvadāna andhās tamaso 'ndhakāratamisrā; Mahāvastu (very confused) seems orig. to have read, andhakārā andhakārāpitatvā (or °rāyitatvā) tamisrā (or ti°) tamisrāyitatvā (or ti°); (d) yatremāu (yatra ime, etc.) candrasūryā(v; or variants) evaṃ maharddhikā(v) (sometimes omitted) evaṃ mahānu- bhāvā(v); Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, Lalitavistara, Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, Samādhirājasūtra add other adjectives prec. by evaṃ; Pali yattha p'ime candimasuriyā evaṃ mahid- dhikā evaṃ mahānubhāvā; (e) ābhayā (or ābhāya, etc., Mahāvastu; Pali ābhāya) ābhāṃ (or ābhāsaṃ; om. Pali) nānu- bhavanti (so probably orig.; Lalitavistara om. nānu°; Pali nānubhonti, but Saddharmapuṇḍarīka nānubhavataḥ, Divyāvadāna na pratyanubhavataḥ, Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā and Samādhirājasūtra na bhāsato, omitting ābhayā ābhāṃ before it; Mahāvastu clearly intends nābhisaṃbhuṇanti, all 6 times; Pali commentary on Dīghanikāya (Pali), ii.433.23, attano pabhāya na-ppahonti, on which the ‘old ṭīkā’ cited Critical Pali Dictionary glosses…obhāsituṃ an-abhisaṃbhuṇanti, compare Mahāvastu!); (f) ? not in Pali or Divyāvadāna, perhaps not orig.; Saddharmapuṇḍarīka varṇenāpi varṇaṃ tejasāpi tejo nānubhava- taḥ; Lalitavistara varṇena varṇaṃ tejasā tejo nābhitapato nābhiviro- cataḥ (best mss. nāti° for nābhi° both times); Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, Samādhirājasūtra, na tapato na virocataḥ; Mahāvastu ālokena vā ālokaṃ na spha- ranti; (g) uncertain; not in Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā; Pali tattha pi appamāṇo uḷāro obhāso pātubhavati; Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, Lalitavistara (in Lalitavistara after insertion) tatrāpi (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka tāsv api) tasmin samaye mahata udārasyāva- bhāsasya (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka mahato 'vabhāsasya) prādurbhāvo 'bhūt; Divyāvadāna tā api tasmin samaye udāreṇāvabhāsena sphuṭā bhavanti; Samādhirājasūtra tā api tasmin samaye tenāvabhāsena sphuṭā abhūvan; Mahāvastu te (once tā) pi tena obhāsena sphuṭā abhūnsuḥ, with varr. The entire cliché means approx- imately: And even those world-interstitial-spaces, (which are) miseries and covered over with miseries, darknesses, glooms of darkness, —in which the moon and sun here, which possess such great supernatural power and dignity (or capacity), are not capable of (producing) light by (their) [Page465-a+ 71] light,… (f varies too much to admit a unified rendering,) even in them a great, magnificent radiance appeared (at that time).—Besides this cliché, lokāntarikā occurs in, na ca vedayanti duḥkhaṃ °rikā vipadyamānā (? em.) Mahāvastu ii.34.16; alone, Mahāvyutpatti 3062; lokadhātor °rikā duratikramā Daśabhūmikasūtra 58.11; sarva-°rikāś ca tasmin samaye mahatāva- bhāsena sphuṭā abhūvan Lalitavistara 86.19 (compare the cliché, g); (na ca bhūyo) °rikā…prajñāyante sma Lalitavistara 277.9.
Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English DictionaryLokāntarika (लोकान्तरिक):—[from loka > lok] mf(ā)n. dwelling or situated between the worlds, [Buddhist literature]
[Sanskrit to German]
Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches: Loka, Antarika.
Full-text: Andhakara Sutta, Andhakaratamisra, Timisra, Asamvidita, Anubhavati, Adbhutadharma, Andhakarapitatva, Abhisambhunati, Audara, Agha, Cakkavala, Vasa, Akshana.
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Search found 8 books and stories containing Lokantarika, Lokāntarikā, Loka-antarika, Lokāntarika; (plurals include: Lokantarikas, Lokāntarikās, antarikas, Lokāntarikas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Maha Prajnaparamita Sastra (by Gelongma Karma Migme Chödrön)
Appendix 2 - Lokāntarikā (intermediate spaces between two worlds) < [Chapter XLVII - Praises made by the Buddhas]
V. Value of the Buddha fields < [Part 4 - Assuring the continuity of the Buddha universes]
Part 4 - Illuminating the darkness of the intermediary worlds < [Chapter LI - Seeing all the Buddha Fields]
The Great Chronicle of Buddhas (by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw)
Chapter 8 - Eighteen Abhabbaṭṭhānas < [Volume 1.2]
Buddha attributes (5): Lokavidū < [Chapter 42 - The Dhamma Ratanā]
Part 4 - The Birth of the Bodhisatta < [Chapter 1 - The Jewel of the Buddha]
Abhidhamma in Daily Life (by Ashin Janakabhivamsa) (by Ashin Janakabhivamsa)
Part 2 - How The World Came To An End < [Chapter 11 - Planes Of Existence]
Dipavamsa (study) (by Sibani Barman)
Mahavamsa (by Wilhelm Geiger)
A Dictionary Of Chinese Buddhist Terms (by William Edward Soothill)