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Over 250 translations of canonical Buddhist texts—more than 19,000 pages of wisdom—freely available today in our Reading Room

About

84000 is a global non-profit initiative to translate all of the Buddha’s words into modern languages and provide free and open access to over 230,000 pages. Emphasizing engaging and interactive comprehension tools, and through collaborating with like-minded organizations and institutions, 84000 is creating an essential new resource for primary-source scholarship, independent study, and personal practice.

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Want to get involved? Translation grants offer a valuable opportunity to work on translating the Tibetan canonical literature. Our Opportunities page has up-to-date information on volunteer and job openings. Finally, subscribe to our quarterly newsletter to learn about new publications, newly translated sūtras and upcoming events.

News

NEW PUBLICATION
The Wheel of Meditative Concentration
17 Mar 2023

While dwelling on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛha, the Buddha is absorbed in the meditative concentration called wheel of meditative concentration. In response to a series of questions posed by the Buddha, Mañjuśrī explains the nature of ultimate reality.
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NEW PUBLICATION
The Great Lion’s Roar of Maitreya
3 Mar 2023

In this sūtra, Mahākāśyapa poses a series of questions to the Buddha about proper monastic conduct and practice, which the Buddha answers at length. Mahākāśyapa then requests the Buddha to remain in the world in order to safeguard the Dharma, but when the Buddha initially predicts that Mahākāśyapa himself will do so in the future, Mahākāśyapa insists that for the Dharma to remain for long, it must be entrusted to a bodhisattva rather than a śrāvaka.
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FEATURE
Q&A | Publishing Translations from the Tengyur
28 Feb 2023

We are delighted to have recently announced the publication of our very first translation from the Tengyur: a commentary on the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras. We work on the research and translation of texts for years and spend hundreds …
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FEATURE
Reading Room Tips for Tengyur Texts
28 Feb 2023

With the publication of this translation from the Tengyur, we have now activated a new 84000 Reading Room feature that may become a valuable research tool for those involved in the study of canonical Buddhist texts.  It is now possible …
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EVENTS
Teachings on Sūtra | Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche
22 Feb 2023

This Chötrul Düchen Teachings on Sūtra episode features Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche speaking on ‘Aspiration.’ Rinpoche tells the story of the Buddha’s previous life as Samudrareṇu (“Ocean Particle”) in The White Lotus of Compassion (Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka-sutra, Toh 112). 84000 will be publishing the translation later this year.
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NEW PUBLICATION
The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand Lines
21 Feb 2023

The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand Lines is a detailed explanation of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, presenting a structural framework for them that is relatively easy to understand in comparison to most other commentaries based on Maitreya-Asaṅga’s Ornament for the Clear Realizations.
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NEW PUBLICATION
The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla (2)
17 Feb 2023

The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla (2), so called to distinguish it from a longer work with the same title (Toh 62), is a short Great Vehicle sūtra in which the Buddha describes the monks who will bring about the decline of the Dharma.
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NEW PUBLICATION
The Dhāraṇī for a Caitya
3 Feb 2023

The Dhāraṇī for a Caitya is a short manual on the ritual preparation for and casting of small caityas from clay. The ritual has three main parts: a description of the general transformative power of the dhāraṇī, the preparation rituals for the ground and clay, and rituals for the consecration of the cast images.
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NEW PUBLICATION
What Mendicants Hold Most Dear
20 Jan 2023

What Mendicants Hold Most Dear contains the Buddha’s answer to a question by Upāli, the Buddha’s foremost disciple in knowledge and mastery of the Vinaya. Upāli asks the Buddha to teach about the nature, types, and obligations of mendicants and about the meaning of this term.
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NEW PUBLICATION
The Basket without Words, The Illuminator’s Matrix
6 Jan 2023

The Basket without Words, The Illuminator’s Matrix unfolds in Rājagṛha on Vulture Peak, where the Buddha is dwelling with a great assembly. The bodhisattva Viśeṣacintin requests the Buddha to give a teaching on two words and asks him to explain one factor that bodhisattvas should abandon, one quality that encompasses all the foundations of the training when safeguarded by bodhisattvas, and one phenomenon to which thus-gone ones truly and perfectly awaken.
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