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. After a detailed, word-by-word explanation of the introductory chapter common to all three sūtras, it explains the structure they also all share in terms of the three approaches or “gateways”—brief, intermediate, and detailed—ending with an explanation of the passage known as the “Maitreya chapter” found only in the Eighteen Thousand Line and Twenty-Five Thousand Line sūtras. It goes by many different titles, and its authorship has never been conclusively determined, some Tibetans believing it to be by Vasubandhu, and others that it is by Daṃṣṭrāsena.
This commentary was translated by Gareth Sparham under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
I thank the late Gene Smith, who initially encouraged me to undertake this work, and I thank all of those at 84000—Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, the sponsors, and the scholars, translators, editors, and technicians—and all the other indispensable people whose work has made this translation possible.
I thank all the faculty and graduate students in the Group in Buddhist Studies at Berkeley, and Jan Nattier, whose seminars on the Perfection of Wisdom were particularly helpful. At an early stage, Paul Harrison and Ulrich Pagel arranged for me to see a copy of an unpublished Sanskrit manuscript of a sūtra cited in Bṭ3. I thank them for that assistance.
I also take this opportunity to thank the abbot of Drepung Gomang monastery, Losang Gyaltsen, and the retired director of the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Kalsang Damdul, for listening to some of my questions and giving learned and insightful responses.
Finally, I acknowledge the kindness of my mother, Ann Sparham, who recently passed away in her one hundredth year, and my wife Janet Seding.
We gratefully acknowledge the generous sponsorship of Kelvin Lee, Doris Lim, Chang Chen Hsien, Lim Cheng Cheng, Ng Ah Chon and family, Lee Hoi Lang and family, the late Lee Tiang Chuan, and the late Chang Koo Cheng. Their support has helped make the work on this translation possible.
The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand Lines (hereafter Bṭ3) is a line-by-line explanation of the three Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, presenting a structural framework common to all three sūtras that is easy for readers unfamiliar with the Perfection of Wisdom to understand. It should not be confused with the commentary with which it is often associated, The Long Commentary on the One Hundred Thousand (hereafter Bṭ1), which has the same generic name Bṛhaṭṭīkā, the same opening verse of homage, and many similar passages. The two works are grouped together in the Degé Tengyur and are described in Tsultrim Rinchen’s Karchak (dkar chag) of the Degé Tengyur as together constituting the third of the four great “pathbreaker” traditions of interpreting the Perfection of Wisdom, which is characterized by the “three approaches and eleven formulations” (sgo gsum rnam grangs bcu gcig).1
The author of Bṭ3 has not been conclusively determined; some Tibetans say it is by Vasubandhu, while others assert that it is by Daṃṣṭrāsena. It goes by a variety of titles, some calling it The Long Explanation (Bṛhaṭṭīkā), some Well-Trodden Path (Paddhati) or Commentary on the Scripture (Tib. gzhung ’grel), and others [Commentary on] All Three Mother [Scriptures That Is a] Destroyer of Harms (Tib. yum gsum gnod ’joms) or Long [Commentary That Is a] Destroyer of Harms (Tib. gnod ’joms che ba).
The first half of Bṭ3 has a loose internal structure. It begins with a detailed explanation of the introductory chapter and then provides a brief, an intermediate, and a detailed exegesis. The brief exegesis is of the opening statement that comes near the beginning of the second chapter in all three versions of the sūtra, the intermediate exegesis of Chapters 2 to 21 in the Eighteen Thousand, Chapters 2 to 13 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand, and the detailed exegesis of the rest of all three. It ends with an explanation of the chapter spoken to Maitreya, Chapter 83 in the Eighteen Thousand, Chapter 72 in the Twenty-Five Thousand. Some Tibetan writers say a small part at the end is either lost or was not translated into Tibetan.
The earlier parts of Bṭ3 spend considerable time on each word; later parts explain just particular words or paragraphs from longer sections. This means that an ordinary modern reader will, at the least, be able to identify the sections of the sūtras that Bṭ3 is explaining, something that cannot be said of Maitreya’s better known Ornament for the Clear Realizations (Abhisamayālaṃkāra). The Ornament for the Clear Realizations is a magnificent text, arguably a text that has exerted the greatest influence on Tibetan Buddhism, but it is a very difficult one for a modern reader trying to navigate for the first time one of the Long Perfection of Wisdom scriptures.
The Perfection of Wisdom commentary translated here is extant as a complete work only in Tibetan translation. It is likely to be the same as the work listed with the same title in the Denkarma (Tib. ldan dkar ma) and Phangthangma (Tib. ’phang thang ma) catalogs of works translated into Tibetan (early 9th century
From the Tibetan title under which the text appears in catalogs, a Sanskrit title has been reconstructed as Āryaśatasāhasrikāpañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāṣṭadaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitābṛhaṭṭīkā, shortened to Bṛhaṭṭīkā (Bṭ3).3 However, there is no Sanskrit title given either at the beginning of the Tibetan translation or in the colophon, and although Bṭ3 was clearly written in Sanskrit by an Indian author (as detailed below), there is no known surviving Sanskrit manuscript of this work that might attest to its original title. Nor is there, in any extant work in an Indic language, any obvious reference to a text with a comparable title .
As well as its full Tibetan and reconstructed Sanskrit titles, Bṭ3 is also known by several shorter names. One is Commentary on the Scripture (gzhung ’grel), and another is Destroyer of Harms (gnod ’joms). The origin of these monikers is a little complicated to explain.
Indian authors who refer to this text include Haribhadra (eighth century) and Abhayākaragupta (fl. ca.1100). Haribhadra mentions what is thought to be this text (see below) as a work by Vasubandhu, using the title “Well-Trodden Path” (Paddhati) but this was rendered in the Tibetan translation of Haribhadra’s work as “Commentary on the Scripture” (gzhung ’grel).4 However, later Tibetan writers do not agree on whether “well-trodden path” is actually the name of a text.
This same title, Well-Trodden Path/Commentary on the Scripture, is again used by Abhayākaragupta, as mentioned below, in his Intention of the Sage, where he specifically identifies “the Scripture” as The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines. It is also used (and identified with Vasubandhu) in a lesser-known work by Jagattalanivāsin (fl. ca. 1165), An Explanation called “Following the Personal Instructions of the Bhagavatī”,5 that both summarizes the Eight Thousand and follows the “Commentary on the Scripture” (gzhung ’grel).
These titles, Well-Trodden Path or Commentary on the Scripture, as well as the name Destroyer of Harms, both derive from a verse of homage at the beginning of Bṭ3. To further confuse matters, this same verse is found also at the beginning of the other treatise Bṭ3 is grouped with, which we have referred to above (i.1) as Bṭ1—Toh 3807, cataloged immediately before Bṭ3, with a similar title, The Long Commentary on the One Hundred Thousand, reconstructed in Sanskrit as *Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitābṛhaṭṭīkā,6 and often confused with Bṭ3. The verse at the beginning of both treatises, in Tibetan translation, says: I w
ant to compose a Commentary on the Scripture in which the harms have been destroyed.7
When the Tibetan translators render the Sanskrit word paddhati as “Commentary on the Scripture” (gzhung ’grel), this is indeed the contextually appropriate meaning. Still, paddhati in its most basic sense means a “path” or a “well-trodden path” (from pad, “foot,” and dhati, derived with saṃdhi from han, “to strike”). If one takes the paddhati in Bṭ1 and Bṭ3’s verse of homage to mean “path,” the line would then be translated this way:
I want to make a Well-Trodden Path where the thorns [i.e. “the harms”] have been trodden down [i.e. destroyed].8
For this title rendered most literally as “well-trodden path where the thorns have been trodden down,” that is how the alternative rendering Destroyer of Harms, nöjom (gnod ’joms), has become the moniker commonly used for both Bṭ1 and Bṭ3 in Tibet, at least since the fourteenth century, and particularly in Gelukpa commentaries on the Perfection of Wisdom,
The title Destroyer of Harms is, in the case of this text, an abbreviation for the titles Yumsum Nöjom (yum gsum gnod ’joms), [Commentary on the] Three Mother [Scriptures] That Is a Destroyer of Harms, also known as Nöjom Chéwa (gnod ’joms che ba), The Longer [Commentary] That Is a Destroyer of Harms. The latter name distinguishes it from the other Nöjom (Destroyer of Harms), Bṭ1, whose title is an abbreviation for Bumkyi Nöjom (’bum gyi gnod ’joms), [Commentary on the] One Hundred Thousand Line [Scripture] That Is a Destroyer of Harms), also known as Nöjom Chunga (gnod ’joms chung ba), The Shorter [Commentary] That Is a Destroyer of Harms, even though that “shorter” commentary is actually a much longer treatise in terms of the number of folios.
In the absence of an original, authoritative attribution, the identity of the author of Bṭ3 is contested. In different commentaries, histories, and bibliographical works its author, if named at all, is variously said to be Daṃṣṭrāsena, Vasubandhu, the master Vasubandhu, the Middle Way master Vasubandhu, or simply the Nöjom Khenpo (gnod ’joms mkhan po), “the Destroyer of Harms scholar.” The problem of authorship is compounded by the text’s close association with Bṭ1 and the monikers shared by the two works. It is by no means always clear in discussions of the author, especially in early Tibetan Perfection of Wisdom commentaries, whether the work being referred to is Bṭ1 or Bṭ3.
Perhaps one measure of the dearth of definitive evidence is that the two principal candidates for authorship—each with their proponents in the later literature—are scholars who lived many centuries apart. Vasubandhu is the great fourth or fifth century scholar of Abhidharma and Yogācāra, traditionally said to be the half-brother of Asaṅga. Daṃṣṭrāsena, about whom little else is known, was a Kashmiri scholar who lived in the late eighth and early ninth centuries.9 Both have been said, variously, to be the authors of both Bṭ3 and Bṭ1. At the same time it is not very likely that the two works have the same author, as their style and approach are rather different.
Vasubandhu, certainly a prolific author but also one to whom a great many works have been attributed with varying certainty, is likely to have written at least one Prajñāpāramitā commentary. Nevertheless, no such text is counted among the works that are considered his with the highest degree of certainty—those cross-referenced in his own works and commented on by his immediate successors.10 If nevertheless there was such a text, the question is whether it survived as the one translated into Tibetan as Bṭ3 (or possibly Bṭ1), or was lost.
In the eighth century, Haribhadra, in perhaps the first known reference in an extant Sanskrit work to a commentary that might be Bṭ3, refers in a slightly disparaging way to a work by Vasubandhu with the title “Well-Trodden Path” (Paddhati); this title (as mentioned above in i.8) in the Tibetan translation of Haribhadra’s was rendered “Commentary on the Scripture” (gzhung ’grel):
Elevated with pride in his minute knowledge of the sides of the division into being and nonbeing, the master Vasubandhu attained a status that allowed him to explain the topics of the Perfection of Wisdom in the Well-Trodden Path/Commentary on the Scripture.11
As well as linking the name Vasubandhu with the title Well-Trodden Path, with its suggestive reference to the introductory verse shared by Bṭ3 and Bṭ1, it is also noteworthy that Haribhadra says that this Vasubandhu writes with only an understanding of the Mind Only view, not the Middle Way view.
Haribhadra’s work was not translated into Tibetan, however, until the later translation period. Earlier, when the two commentaries were translated, no author seems to have been identified for Bṭ3. Of the two extant early 9th century
We then have no apparent mention of either text until around the start of the twelfth century when Ar Changchup Yeshé (ar byang chub ye shes, ca. 1100) records the view that “there is a Commentary on the Scripture by Vasubandhu that connects the Ornament for the Clear Realizations treatise with the eight-chapter version of The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines, but it is not likely that it has ever been even seen by anyone.”13
Some time later, Bodong Tsöndrü Dorjé (bo dong brtson ’grus rdo rje, fl. ca. twelfth–thirteenth century), in what may be the first mention of the four traditions of interpretation (see i.1) first says that earlier commentaries say “the master Daṃṣṭrāsena’s Long Commentary on the One Hundred Thousand [i.e. Bṭ1]” sets forth one of the four ways to interpret the Perfection of Wisdom, and then, following Haribhadra, refers to “the Commentary on the Twenty-Five Thousand Line Perfection of Wisdom Scripture [i.e. Bṭ3] written by Vasubandhu, who has given an exegesis based on the Mind Only view.”14
In the thirteenth century, the Narthang scholar Chomden Rikpai Raltri (bcom ldan rig pa’i ral gri, 1227–1305), who had access to a large number of manuscripts, as part of a general survey in his Early Survey of Buddhist Literature (bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi ’od) places both works at the start of the section on sūtra commentaries, attributing no author to Bṭ1 but clearly attributing Bṭ3 to Vasubandhu. Later in the same work, he places the Commentary on the Twenty-Five Thousand Scripture among a group of works “attributed by Tibetans to Indians,” and a few folios later says that Bṭ1 is by “Trisong Detsen.”15 But in other works, perhaps of later date, Rikpai Raltri seems also to be the first writer to mention Daṃṣṭrāsena as the author of either of the two texts (though in this case for Bṭ1). In his Historical Evolution of the Works of Maitreya (byams pa dang ’brel ba’i chos kyi byung tshul) (Kano and Nakamura 2009, pp. 131–32), and in his summary explanation of the One Hundred Thousand Line Perfection of Wisdom (shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa rgyan gyi me tog), he differentiates between Bṭ3 and Bṭ1 as being “by the master Vasubandhu and the master Daṃṣṭrāsena.”
His student Upa Losal (dbus pa blo gsal, ca. 1270–1355), in the catalog of the early Narthang Tengyur, writes that Bṭ1 is “accepted as being by Daṃṣṭrāsena” but that Bṭ3 is by Vasubandhu.16
Not much later in the fourteenth century, their younger contemporary Butön (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364) goes one step further than his predecessors in explaining the reasoning underlying the attributions he advocates. In the list of translated texts in his History, he notes that the Phangthangma catalog attributes Bṭ1 to the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen, but says that two other early inventories assert that it is of Indian origin and attribute it to Daṃṣṭrāsena. Then, regarding Bṭ3, he acknowledges that many scholars have attributed it to Daṃṣṭrāsena, but as evidence for it being by Vasubandhu points out that Abhayākaragupta’s (fl. ca.1100) Intention of the Sage (Munimatālaṃkāra) copies passages verbatim from Bṭ3 or cites them as being from “the Commentary on the Twenty-Five Thousand Scripture (nyi khri gzhung ’grel).”17
One such passage in Intention of the Sage linking the commentary to Vasubandhu is the following:
The master Vasubandhu also in the Commentary on the Scripture says: “ ‘Armed with great armor.’ This teaches that the intention is vast from the first thought of awakening.”18
Abhayākaragupta does also identify “the Scripture” referred to using the Well-Trodden Path/Commentary on the Scripture as The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines.19 Indeed, this is corroborated by short sections of a Sanskrit manuscript of Intention of the Sage that have recently been edited and published by Kazuo Kano and Xuezhu Li,20 and these Sanskrit passages have been a useful reference in the present translation, mentioned in several notes.
It is worth noting here that the identification of the monikers Well-Trodden Path (Paddhati) and Commentary on the Scripture (gzhung ’grel) with a commentary “on the Twenty-Five Thousand scripture,” rather than one on all three of the long sūtras, is less of a problem for identification of the commentary than it might appear. The commentary itself makes little mention of the individual sūtras, except in commenting that the “Maitreya chapter” is only present in the Twenty-Five Thousand version, for not only are all three sūtras very similar in their content but also their clear differentiation into different versions defined in their titles by the number of ślokas may have been a relatively late development in the evolution of the Prajñāpāramitā literature.
The other Indian text mentioned above (i.9), written by Jagattalanivāsin, an approximate contemporary of Abhayākaragupta, An Explanation called “Following the Personal Instructions of the Bhagavatī”, affirms very explicitly not only that the Commentary on the Scripture is by Vasubandhu, but also that this Vasubandhu is none other than the wellknown Vasubandhu associated with Asaṅga and Maitreya.21
Dölpopa Sherap Gyaltsen (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292–1361) goes further, saying with confidence in his Sūtra-Based Commentary (mdo lugs ma) that both Bṭ1 and Bṭ3 are by Vasubandhu, and not just any Vasubandhu, but by “the direct student of the Jina Maitreya, the great chariot, the Middle Way master Vasubandhu, … the author of the commentary on Maitreya’s Ornament for the Great Vehicle Sūtras (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra).”22 In this way he unequivocally rejects the slightly disparaging earlier characterization of him by Haribhadra. Nyaön Kunga Pel (nya dbon kun dga’ dpal, 1285–1379), a student of both Butön and Dölpopa, repeats their attributions for the two texts, opines that the two commentaries have not always been properly distinguished from each other, and says that other scholars attribute Bṭ1 to the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen and Bṭ3 to Daṃṣṭrāsena.
Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1356–1419) is probably the most influential proponent for attributing Bṭ1 to Trisong Detsen and Bṭ3 to Daṃṣṭrāsena. At the beginning of his Golden Garland (legs bshad gser phreng), he lists a number of points in support of it (Sparham 2008–13, pp. 7–9). He also strongly disagrees with the judgment that it is written from a Mind-Only perspective.
Shakya Chokden (shAkya mchog ldan, 1428–1507), writing in 1454 in his Garland of Waves (bzhed tshul rba rlabs kyi phreng ba), says “most earlier Tibetan spiritual friends say there are four pathbreakers into the Perfection of Wisdom” and lists the Nöjom [Bṭ1 and Bṭ3] as the third of these four ways. Then he either cites or paraphrases “Butön Rinpoché” as saying:
It is written in the Phangthangkamé Catalog that Trisong Detsen has composed this Explanation of the One Hundred Thousand [Bṭ1] in seventy-eight bundles of pages, but in both the Chimphu Catalog and the Phodrang Tongthangden Catalog it is said to be Indian, so it was composed by Padé. It is written that the one known as the Commentary on All Three Mother Scriptures That Is a Destroyer of Harms [Bṭ3] in twenty-seven bundles has been composed by Pawo (dpa’ bo), but it is the Commentary on the Scripture composed by Vasubandhu, because the citations from the Commentary on the Scripture in Abhayākaragupta’s Intention of the Sage are exactly as they are in this [Bṭ3], and because he [i.e. Vasubandhu] makes an opening promise to compose, with “I want to compose a commentary on that scripture in which the harms have been destroyed.”23
Most likely Padé (dpa’ sde) and Pawo (dpa’ bo) are abbreviations for Daṃṣṭrāsena.
Evidence put forward by Tibetan scholars who support the attribution of Bṭ3 to Daṃṣṭrāsena comes more from internal features of the text itself than from external references to it, and in the absence of much recorded detail about Daṃṣṭrāsena himself and his works tends to concentrate more on refuting the possibility of Vasubandhu’s authorship more than on attempting to substantiate Daṃṣṭrāsena’s.
There is one passage in the text that certainly cannot have been written by the fourth- to fifth-century Vasubandhu who wrote the Treasury of Abhidharma (Abhidharmakośa), Thirty Verses (Triṃśikā), and Twenty Verses (Viṃsatikā), because it references the opinion of Śāntarakṣita, who lived some 300–400 years later. This is among the points made by Tsongkhapa. The passage appears in the versions of Bṭ3 in Tibetan translation in the Narthang, Kangxi, and Golden (gser bris ma) Tengyurs, but strikingly was omitted from the version in the Degé Tengyur.
The passage in question (5.441) comes at the end of a long gloss of the words “during the last of the five hundreds.”24 After explaining that a “five hundred” is one tenth of the five thousand years the doctrine of the Tathāgata lasts, and dividing each of the ten five hundred-year periods into “chapters” or time periods, and associating lower and lower attainments with each subsequent chapter, the author of Bṭ3 then gives another opinion (5.440):
Some say the measure of a human lifespan can be one hundred years. There, in the earlier fifty years, the color, shape, strength, intellect, and so on increase, and in the later fifty years they wane. Similarly, the end of the time period—the time of the waning of the teaching—is like the later fifty years and hence is labeled “the last of the five hundreds.”
Although Bṭ3 does not say so explicitly, in fact this is a citation from Vasubandhu’s Long Commentary on Akṣayamati’s Teaching (Akṣayamatinirdeśaṭīkā).25 In the Narthang and Kangxi versions of Bṭ3, it then says:
When formulated like that [in Vasubandhu’s Long Commentary on Akṣayamati’s Teaching], the duration of the Tathāgata’s teaching is two thousand five hundred years. The two commentaries (ṭīkā) appear to be contradictory. Śāntarakṣita’s intention is that the good Dharma lasts from the Worthy One chapter up to the Meditative Stabilization chapter. There is the explanation in the explanatory tradition and there is this other explanation. In general, there is agreement on five thousand years.
Clearly Vasubandhu could not reference the opinion of Śāntarakṣita. It is presumably for this reason that the passage was removed by the editors of the Degé Tengyur, despite its inclusion in the other, earlier versions, and despite Tsultrim Rinchen’s Degé Tengyur dkar chag only repeating Butön’s relatively open opinion on the attributions of the text to Daṃṣṭrāsena and Vasubandhu.26
Another possible but less obvious objection to Vasubandhu’s authorship that has been pointed out is the commentary’s mention of “the Subcommentary” (4.61), thought to be a reference to a work by one of the two Vimuktisenas. The earlier of the two, Ārya Vimuktisena was—at the very earliest and only according to some accounts—a late student of Vasubandhu. Even in the unlikely event that the commentary in question had actually been written during Vasubandhu’s lifetime, it is improbable that Vasubandhu would have cited it.
One way of explaining the presence of these passages might be to say that the Commentary on the Scripture known to Haribhadra and Abhayākaragupta is by a later Buddhist writer having the name Vasubandhu (like the Tantric Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva).27 Alternatively, it might be that the kernel of Bṭ3, or the tradition of interpretation at the heart of Bṭ3, goes back to the great Vasubandhu, who is then said to be its author, in the same way that Nāgārjuna is said to be the author of the Treatise on the Long Perfection of Wisom (Mppś) (Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, Dazhidu lun).
The problem of the authorship of Bṭ3 is therefore unlikely to be resolved in the absence of any new evidence. Disagreement about it is indirectly linked to controversies that have been intensely debated among Tibetan commentators down the ages, and concern the relationship of the view of the Madhyamaka as expressed by Nāgārjuna and his followers on the one hand, to that of the Yogācāra of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu on the other—both essentially based on the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras—and the interpretation of the second and third turnings of the Dharma Wheel as definitive or provisional. Bṭ3 itself has played a relatively minor role in these debates, but two passages in the commentary that discuss the “three natures,” 4.110–4.111 and 4.541–4.547 are cited by Dölpopa, Shakya Chokden, and others as evidence that the Bṛhaṭṭīka supports an “emptiness of other” interpretation of emptiness. Tsongkhapa, in contrast, strongly opposed all such “emptiness of other” interpretations, while accepting that Bṭ3 puts forward a Madhyamaka view.28 This introduction is not the place to present a detailed account of these complex and enduring doctrinal debates, in which other, better known texts played more important roles. It would be unfair to both sides of the debate to suggest that, in evoking this work, their attribution of it to Vasubandhu or Daṃṣṭrāsena, respectively, was influenced solely by their doctrinal perspectives, but it would also be disingenuous to see no correlation at all; in understanding the work’s significance, its provenance is indeed a crucial element.
For whatever reasons, in any case, both Bṭ1 and Bṭ3 have remained little explored, and Ornament for the Clear Realizations has remained the principal focus of Perfection of Wisdom studies in the Indo-Tibetan scholastic tradition. Nevertheless, we feel that present day readers will find this helpful commentary a useful guide to navigating the long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras and to understanding their many features—regardless of controversies over its author or doctrinal debates about a few of its finer points.
Bṭ3 begins with a detailed explanation of the part of the introduction that is shared with many other scriptures, drawing, in particular, on The Ten Bhūmis (Daśabhūmikasūtra).30 It explains each of the opening words of the Perfection of Wisdom, and then gives a detailed explanation of the epithets of those in the retinue. It references many of the categories in the Perfection of Wisdom that it will explain in greater detail later.
The opening section of Bṭ3 continues with an explanation of the words in the part of the introduction unique to the Perfection of Wisdom and ends with a presentation of the single vehicle system.
There is a brief, an intermediate, and a detailed teaching.
This is the single question, “How then, Lord, should bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms make an effort at the perfection of wisdom?”, to which the Lord responds by remaining silent. It raises four further questions: What is a bodhisattva great being? What is it to want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms? What does “should make an effort” mean? And what is the perfection of wisdom?
This is “an explanation in ultimate truth mode that takes the knowledge of all aspects, that is, the state of the nonconceptual perfection of wisdom, as its point of departure.” It deals with the same four questions, first in a brief exposition and then in a detailed exposition. The intermediate teaching is given the general name “Subhūti’s Chapter,” and covers the sections of the three long sūtras corresponding to the first chapter of the Eight Thousand, which is an explanation of the knowledge of all aspects.
The intermediate teaching’s brief exposition sets forth four practices: the practice of the nonconceptual perfection of wisdom, the practice of the absence of secondary afflictions on the side of awakening, the practice of not harming beings to be matured, and the practice of all the stainless buddhadharmas that are the cause of maturation.
The intermediate teaching’s detailed exposition is in eight parts:
Why bodhisattvas endeavor (they want to make themselves familiar with the three vehicles, they want the greatnesses of bodhisattvas, and they want the greatnesses of buddhas) [4.67–4.185].
How bodhisattvas endeavor, explaining chapters 3–5 in the Eighteen Thousand [4.186–4.257] and the rest of chapter 2 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand.
The defining marks of those who endeavor (these are the unfindable intrinsic nature of form and each of the other aggregates and so forth, the unfindable intrinsic nature of them as a collection, the unfindability of their own defining marks, and the unfindable totality of dharmas) [4.258–4.322].
The members of the bodhisattva community who are engaged in the endeavor [4.323–4.401].
The instructions for the endeavor (instructions for making an effort at names that are conventional terms making things known, instructions for making an effort without apprehending beings, instructions for making an effort at not apprehending a word for something, and instructions for making an effort when all dharmas are not apprehended) [4.402–4.473].
The benefits of the endeavor, which are the comprehension of the dharmas that have to be comprehended, the elimination of those that have to be eliminated, the fulfillment in meditation of those that have to be fulfilled, and the direct witness by reaching those that have to be directly witnessed [4.474–4.500].
There are six subdivisions of the endeavor: (1) practice free from the two extremes; (2) practice that does not stand; (3) practice that does not fully grasp dharmas, causal signs, or understanding; (4) practice that has made a full investigation; (5) the practice of method; and (6) practice for quickly fully awakening. The practice for quickly fully awakening is the training in the meditative stabilizations, in not apprehending all dharmas, in the illusion-like, and in skillful means [4.501–4.675].
The last of the eight parts is the discussion that arrives at an authoritative conclusion about the meaning.
The last of these eight parts is a long section in Bṭ3 that explains up to the end of chapter 21 in the Eighteen Thousand and up to the end of chapter 13 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand. First there is a list of twenty-eight or twenty-nine questions [4.678], followed by an exchange between the two principal interlocutors—Subhūti and Śāriputra. Bṭ3’s explanations of the responses to the twenty-eight or twenty-nine questions do not exactly match the enumeration given in the original list. The differences are pointed out later in this introduction and in the notes to the translation. The response to the question, “What is the Great Vehicle?”, occasions a detailed explanation of the purification dharmas under twenty-one categories, starting with the perfections, emptinesses, meditative stabilizations, and thirty-seven dharmas on the side of awakening, and going up to the four detailed and thorough knowledges, the eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha, and the dhāraṇī doors. The intermediate teaching ends with an exposition of the etymology of vehicle, the attributes of the Great Vehicle (that it surpasses the world, is equal to space, does not come or go, and has no beginning or end), and its results.
This takes as its point of departure the knowledge of path aspects, which is to say the bodhisattva’s knowledge, as distinct from a buddha’s knowledge of all aspects, and “teaches the conceptual and nonconceptual perfection of wisdom that is the practice of bodhisattvas.”
The first part, up to Subhūti’s two hundred and seventy-seven questions, divides the three long sūtras into sections that are sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit. First it explains what the perfection of wisdom is, how bodhisattvas should stand in it, and how they should train in it. This section is important in that it makes clear that all three knowledges—the knowledges of a śrāvaka, a bodhisattva, and a buddha—are the practice of the perfection of wisdom. This is the main insight of the exposition in Maitreya’s Ornament for the Clear Realizations. It then explains the sustaining power (adhiṣṭhāna) of a tathāgata, and the greatness of the doctrine. Bṭ3 then gives an exegesis of benefits, merits, rejoicing, dedication, and the praises. It also gives an exegesis of forsaking the perfection of wisdom because of its depth and its purity, a discursus on “the last of the five hundreds,” and an explanation of the works of Māra. Finally, it explains the difference between a new bodhisattva and a seasoned bodhisattva, the signs of those irreversible from progress toward awakening, suchness (reality), a tathāgata (realized one), skillful means, and the argument between Subhūti and Śāriputra over whether it is hard or not hard to become awakened.
The second part explains the responses to the two hundred and seventy-seven questions.
This section provides (1) glosses for each of the words or phrases that set the scene, starting with “Thus did I hear at one time”; (2) glosses for each term in the string of epithets for the “great community of monks,” one of the four branches of the community (monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen) present for the teaching; and (3) glosses for the epithets of the five types of bodhisattvas in the retinue. The explanation of the qualities of the worthy monks provides for a brief overview of the practice and result set forth in the fundamental Buddhist scriptures, and the explanation of the bodhisattvas, based on The Ten Bhūmis, gives a brief overview of the five types of bodhisattva: (1) bodhisattvas with a surpassing intention on the first level, (2) those “who stand in signlessness with effort up to the seventh level, (3) those who effortlessly stand in signlessness… on the eighth level,” (4) bodhisattvas up to the tenth level, and (5) bodhisattvas “obstructed by just a single birth.” It connects the epithets beginning with their “understanding phenomena to be like an illusion,” and so on, with the last of these. There is also a detailed explanation of the four types of dhāraṇī.
This again provides glosses for each word or phrase starting from, “Thereupon the Lord, having himself arranged the lion throne…” The Lord demonstrates miraculous powers of meditative stabilization, miraculous wonder-working powers, and miraculous dharma-illuminating powers. The first is demonstrated by the Lord radiating light, the second with his magical creation of a great tower of flowers and its suspension in the air and so on, and the third with his illuminating the buddhas in different worlds and teaching a gigantic retinue. In the context of the buddhas of the ten directions warning their bodhisattvas traveling to our world that they should “be careful in that buddhafield,” there is a detailed explanation of the five degenerations in Śākyamuni’s buddhafield, that is, in the world in which we live.
Included in this section of the introduction is an exposition of the opening words of the second chapter in all three long sūtras: “When the Lord understood that the world with its celestial beings, Māras and Brahmās, śramaṇas and brahmins, gods, and humans, as well as bodhisattvas, most of them in youthful form, had assembled, he said to venerable Śāriputra…” The great śrāvaka Śāriputra is singled out, rather than a bodhisattva, to make known that “the perfection of wisdom is a shared discourse.” He is singled out even though he is a worthy one, because all worthy ones are finally roused from nirvāṇa to work for the welfare of beings. This occasions a presentation of the single vehicle system explained in The White Lotus of the Good Dharma (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka),31 The Lion’s Roar of Śrīmālādevī (Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanāda), The Questions of Sāgaramati (Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā),32 The Ten Dharmas Sūtra (Daśadharmakasūtra), and in the Maitreya chapters of the Eighteen Thousand and Twenty-Five Thousand.33
The Perfection of Wisdom is divided into three teachings: brief, intermediate, and detailed. The subdivisions of the intermediate teaching are explicitly identified under the heading “exposition in eight parts.” These are:
why bodhisattvas endeavor,
how bodhisattvas endeavor,
the defining marks of those who endeavor,
the subdivisions of those who endeavor,
the instructions for the endeavor,
the benefits of the endeavor,
the subdivisions of the endeavor, and
the specific instruction for coming to an authoritative conclusion about this exposition.
Bṭ3 says there are eleven rounds of teaching. The probable correspondences with the chapters in The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines scripture are given in the notes to the translation [2.17].
This section provides a detailed gloss of each word of the statement, “Here, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms should make an effort at the perfection of wisdom.” Here and throughout Bṭ3 the explanation uses the terminology of the three natures34 characteristic of Yogācāra discourse. These are the imaginary (Skt. parikalpita, Tib. kun brtags), dependent or other-powered (Skt. paratantra, Tib. gzhan dbang), and thoroughly established or final outcome (Skt. pariniṣpanna, Tib. yongs su grub pa); alternatively, they are imaginary, conceptualized (Skt. vikalpita, Tib. rnam par brtags pa), and true dharmic nature (Skt. dharmatā, Tib. chos nyid). Taken together, the three natures give a full description of a phenomenon. For instance, the commentary says [4.543]: “The form ordinary foolish beings take to be defined as an easily breakable or seeable real thing is imaginary form. The aspect in which just that appears as real as an object of consciousness is conceptualized form. Just the bare thoroughly established suchness separated from those two imaginary and conceptualized form aspects is the true dharmic nature of form,” and [1.121] “Imaginary phenomena appear as if they are standing over there away from the consciousness. Dependent phenomena are produced dependent on conditions, like, as a simile, ‘magical creations’ that are produced dependent on the magician.” These are important terms used widely in Bṭ3.
This is in two parts, a brief teaching and a detailed teaching.
This section glosses the words in the first two paragraphs of the Lord’s immediate response to Śāriputra’s original question in chapter 2 of all three long sūtras. The response, a long list, is broken down into (1) the practice of the nonconceptual perfections, (2) the practice of the dharmas on the side of awakening without the secondary afflictions, (3) the practice without harming that brings beings to maturity, and (4) the practice that brings the buddhadharmas to maturity. The practice of the perfections is accomplished with skillful means; the practice of the dharmas on the side of awakening is accomplished through mastering the śrāvaka realizations; compassion accomplishes the practice of bringing beings to maturity; and wisdom accomplishes the practice of fully developing the buddhadharmas.
This explains the rest of chapter 2 and up to the end of chapter 21 in the Eighteen Thousand, chapter 13 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand.
IV.2.A This section glosses the explanation, in chapter 2 of all three long sūtras, of the goals to which the thought of awakening is directed. It explains in three parts the perfection of wisdom for which bodhisattvas endeavor. By endeavoring at the perfection of wisdom (1) they want to make themselves familiar with the three vehicles and achieve that familiarity, (2) they want and achieve the greatnesses of bodhisattvas, and (3) they want and achieve the greatnesses of buddhas. In the context of explaining the line “want to destroy all residual impressions, connections, and afflictions,” the commentary makes clear how the same practice and the same knowledge in the mindstreams of different beings with different motivations and insights differ. It again connects the different goals set forth from the line “want to enter into the secure state of a bodhisattva” with higher and higher bodhisattva levels, and in the context of the line “want to stand in inner emptiness,” gives a long and detailed explanation of each of the sixteen emptinesses. The end of this section investigates how Śākyamuni could both be without lust and still have the wife Yaśodharā and son Rāhula.
IV.2.B This section explains in detail the passage, at the beginning of chapter 3 in the Eighteen Thousand and in chapter 2 of the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand, about how bodhisattvas endeavor by “not seeing” any phenomenon, the name of any phenomenon, seeing itself, or anything that “not seeing” sees. It articulates the relationship between the three natures, the conventional and ultimate realities, and the way names and what they refer to are both connected with, but isolated from, the ultimately real. A bodhisattva with such wisdom eclipses the knowledge of even a billion worthy ones like Śāriputra. Still, the wisdom gained from the basic teachings and the wisdom gained from the Perfection of Wisdom ultimately have no intrinsic nature and are the same. That wisdom is special because of the intention, practice, and work, and because of the complete awakening and turning the wheel of the Dharma that are its result.
IV.2.C This section, under the heading “the defining marks of those who endeavor,” explains a passage in chapter 2 of all three long sūtras as first teaching four practices of emptiness woven around eleven defining marks, and then teaching a further sixteen practices of emptiness. The defining mark is always emptiness. Glossing the line, “you cannot say… that they ‘are engaged’ or ‘are not engaged,’ ” the commentary explains the first of the four practices, the practice of form and so on separately, based on Nāgārjuna’s Root Verses on the Middle Way (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā), teaching that nothing is produced from itself and so on. The second practice, explaining the line “do not see ‘a confluence of form with feeling,’ ” teaches that form and so on, as a collection that locates a bodhisattva, are empty. The third practice, explaining the line “that emptiness of form is not form,” is to see the defining mark of form and so on as empty; and the fourth, explaining the line “form is itself emptiness, and emptiness is form,” is a practice that sees the totality of dharmas, starting with form, as emptiness. The list of sixteen emptinesses begins with an explanation of the line, “they do not see the practice of the perfection of wisdom as either ‘engaged’ or ‘not engaged’ with form.”
The bodhisattva always practicing these emptinesses is at the eighth level, has gained the forbearance for dharmas that are not produced, and is predicted to full awakening by the buddhas.
IV.2.D Those who endeavor at the practice are subdivided into three types: the supreme who arrive from a buddhafield and go to a buddhafield, the middling who arrive from Tuṣita, and the last who arrive from among humans. These are then divided into the forty-four or forty-five members of the community. Following that, the commentary deals briskly with the detailed explanation of the six clairvoyances and the five eyes, and the remainder of chapter 2 up to the end of chapter 5 in the Eighteen Thousand, all of which in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand is included in chapter 2.
IV.2.E This section is an explanation of chapter 6 in the Eighteen Thousand, chapter 3 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand. A bodhisattva, the perfection of wisdom, and awakening ultimately do not exist, but the names are important conventionally because otherwise beings would be deprived of the instructions they need. The Lord, through Subhūti, gives the instructions for making an effort “by using names and conventional terms conventionally,” for making an effort without apprehending beings, for making an effort by not apprehending words for things, and for making an effort when all dharmas cannot be apprehended.
Names for things (their conventional reality) are not other than the ultimate reality of things. The name bodhisattva is not found anywhere. It is “used conventionally as a mere word and conventional term” that is “not produced and does not stop.” Were it produced when the actual thing referred to by the name is produced, it would not be necessary to give it a name, because it would be known automatically. The benefit of such instruction is that it stops the śrāvaka’s attachment to insight, the three doors to liberation, and the perfect analytic understanding of the suchness of dharmas. A bodhisattva avoids all such thought constructions.
The instruction for making an effort without apprehending beings explains the relationship between self and the aggregates and rejects the views of ordinary “cow-herders,” Jains, Vaidikas, Sāṃkhyas, Parivrājakas, Ulūkas, and proponents of Īśvara, as well as the view that the ultimate reality of a bodhisattva is the bodhisattva.
The instruction for making an effort by not apprehending words for things explains “is bodhisattva the word for form?” and so on. The aggregates and the attributes of the aggregates are imaginary names, so they cannot be the bodhisattva.
There is a brief and then a more detailed instruction for making an effort when all dharmas cannot be apprehended. A “bodhisattva” during the course of practice is like the sky that, though earlier clouded over and later cloudless, is just the sky.
IV.2.F The benefits of the endeavor are set forth in chapter 7 in the Eighteen Thousand, chapter 4 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand. They include comprehension of the dharmas that have to be comprehended and those that have to be eliminated, perfecting in meditation those that have to be perfected, and directly witnessing those that have to be directly witnessed.
Thus did I hear P25k
and so on. Because he has been charged with protecting the form body and the true collection of teachings,41 the great noble bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi, asked in the assembly, says to noble Maitreya that this is the explanation of the perfection of wisdom that he has heard, with “Thus did I hear.”
Why does he not say, “Thus has the Lord said”?
It is because the Lord’s tremendous teaching is not within his own range. The Lord teaches[F.2.a] with a single knowledge and in a single instant, simultaneously explaining to trainees of various statuses, intentions, behaviors, beliefs, and faculties, brought together from various world systems, the particulars of the impermanent, suffering, empty, selfless, unproduced, and unceasing, in a state of primordial calm, and naturally in nirvāṇa and so on; the particulars of aggregates, constituents, sense fields, dependent originations, and noble truths and so on; the particulars of the applications of mindfulness, right efforts, legs of miraculous power, and faculties and so on; and the particulars of the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha and so on—in various languages, and with various headings, various words, various miraculous powers, various appearances, and various attainments of results. As it says:42
Śāntamati, the earth element is not as big as the amount of beings known by a buddha’s knowledge,[F.2.b] beings in infinite, innumerable world systems in the ten directions all gathered together—a huge amount. Śāntamati, if all those beings were to gain a human form all at once, and all those beings were to become endowed with the wisdom and knowledge of the elder Śāriputra, and all that Śāriputra-like wisdom and knowledge of all those beings were to be in a single being—if all beings were to become endowed with the wisdom and knowledge as in that analogy, and if, Śāntamati, all those beings were to entertain, judge, and ferret out questions and doubts for an eon, or more than an eon, and all the doubts one person had were not to be the doubts of a second, and, Śāntamati, were they, having in mind all the different doubts of all the beings as in that analogy, to go before the Lord and voice in a finger snap those doubts and questions, the Lord would, with one thought, become mindful of them all, and grasping all the doubts would, by uttering one statement, remove all the doubts and questions. They would all know their own different doubts and questions, and they would all be overjoyed at the Lord’s answers to all their questions.
Given that such a sequence of teachings to trainees by a tathāgata is not totally within the range of bodhisattvas, those who recite43 the Dharma are not able, with their branch sequence, to teach the full range. So those who recite the Dharma expound whatever Dharma is within their range, and based on that say “thus did I hear” to reveal the sequence that came into their hearing, concluding the discourse with[F.3.a] “the Lord said this.” They do not say, “Thus has the Lord said.”
Ultimately the perfection of wisdom is inexpressible, so the lord buddhas do not teach dharmas to others with collections of names, phrases, and speech sounds. The tathāgatas are without thought construction, are spontaneous, are always absorbed in meditative equipoise. Nevertheless, one knows that through the force of earlier prayers, and based on the karma of beings, there are Dharma teachings in this way or that way given to trainees in their own languages. As it says:44
Śāntamati, on the night the Tathāgata fully awakens to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, and up until the night he enters into nirvāṇa, he has not spoken and will not speak even a single syllable. And why? Because, Śāntamati, the Tathāgata is always absorbed in meditative equipoise. The Tathāgata does not breathe in and does not breathe out; he does not have applied thought and does not have sustained thought. Without applied and sustained thought there is no speech. The Tathāgata does not think discursively and does not sustain thought, does not make representations, does not make projections, and does not speak, utter, or make pronouncements, but still beings think, “The Tathāgata is speaking.” Again, the Tathāgata is totally absorbed in meditative equipoise and does not represent anything in verbal projections in any way, but still beings think about the spontaneous words, “The Tathāgata is teaching us the Dharma.”45 When the sounds of the Tathāgata’s statements come from space, beings think, “This sound has come from the mouth of the Tathāgata,”
and so on. It originates from the dharma body. Therefore,[F.3.b] in conclusion, when it comes in that way to a definite end, it says “that is what [the Lord] said” as an act of reverence for the good Dharma.
At one time P25k
means “at one time, whenever that might be.”
Why does it not say an exact time?
Because there is no need to do so. About this, there is no need at all to say words to the effect that it was on this day, on this date, in this month, at this time; and if it is unnecessary it is not right to say it. As for revealing the place, which is a place of worship, it is right to reveal the place in order that beings will increase their merit accumulation by being able to go there, and because there are no disputes about it.
Alternatively, it is so there will be no disputes. Thus, the Tathāgata, appearing in various forms, during just the time span of a single instant, discourses on Dharma in various world systems, in various places, to a variety of trainees—bodhisattvas or others. But given that the wanderers to be trained—bodhisattvas or others—are all gathered as one,46 if you say “at that time the Tathāgata in world system X, in region X…,” this could lead to arguments or uncertainty that “he was in our place Y,” or “he was in our place Z.” Since they were worried about that happening, those who recite the Dharma did not state an exact time.
Alternatively, taking it as saying one time when he was in Rājagṛha, given that he was in Rājagṛha many times, construe it as saying “one time.”
The Lord (bhagavat) P25k
is one who has destroyed (bhagnavat) the four Māras. Or [he is a blessed one] who “has” (vat) an “endowment” (bhaga). Take the endowment as these six: sovereignty, wisdom, fame, glory, merit, and perseverance. Insofar as only a tathāgata ultimately has them all, that one is called “the Lord” or “Blessed One.”[F.4.a]
Dwelt at Rājagṛha— P25k
there are four dwellings: the dwellings of behavior, teaching, absorption, and retreat.
Any work, whatever it is, counted as physical is all the dwelling of the Lord’s behavior.
Any verbal work is the dwelling of the Lord’s teaching.
And any mental work is the other two dwellings: he is always absorbed in meditative equipoise because of being fully absorbed in the meditative stabilizations and the four absorptions, and he is in retreat when he views the world with great compassion, and when the gods and so on arrive.47
He dwelt at Rājagṛha
on Gṛdhrakūṭa Hill. P25k
It says two places because both the lay and religious wings were gathered there, or to teach that the form body and the collection of teachings48 assist the teaching.
To demonstrate that the retainers are complete, it says
with a great community of monks, P25k
and so on. The retainers are the monks and the bodhisattvas and so on. Both are indeed very worthy of donations, but it announces the monks first because they are honored in the world, because the Lord does not separate from them, and because they are common to all the world. It makes the prior general statement, “a great community of monks.” After that it specifies
numbering five thousand monks, P25k
because there is a good connection when you teach the general and then the specific.
Having taught that he had many retainers, to teach their greatness it says about their perfect qualities that they were
all worthy ones… with outflows dried up, P25k
and so on.
It says all of them were worthy ones since they were all “worthy ones,” that is to say, it is teaching that there were no trainees or ordinary persons.[F.4.b] They are “worthy ones” because they have destroyed [from han, “to destroy”] the foe (ari); or [from rah, “to leave”: arahat, “one who has left”] because they will not take rebirth in saṃsāra;49 or they have completed their own purpose (svārtha); or because they are worthy [from arh, “to be worthy”] or capable of being a teacher for others, worthy of being in the Saṅgha Jewel, worthy of many kinds of worship by those foremost in the three realms, and because they uninterruptedly worship and reverence the Tathāgata by offering their practice. Hence, they were all worthy ones.
With outflows dried up— P25k
they are “outflows” because as four phenomena they seep onto the unwholesome roots or soak you with filthy afflictions. The four are the five objects, form and so on, that are sense object outflows; the three causes of existence that are outflows that cause existence; innate and acquired ignorance that are ignorance outflows; and the sixty-two wrong views that are view outflows. Sense object outflows are dried up by the aggregates of nontrainee morality and meditative stabilization; view outflows are dried up by the aggregate of nontrainee wisdom. The aggregate of nontrainee liberation dries up outflows that cause existence. The aggregate of nontrainee knowledge and seeing of liberation dries up ignorance outflows. Alternatively, right view at the path of seeing level, when morality is complete, dries up view outflows; right meditative stabilization at the non-returner path level, when meditative stabilization is complete, dries up sense object outflows; right knowledge and liberation at the worthy one path level, when wisdom is complete, dry up ignorance outflows; and knowledge that they are extinct and will not arise again at the level when liberation is complete dries up outflows that cause existence.
Another alternative is that on the worthy one path, sense object outflows dry up because of comprehending the cause of desire for sense objects; ignorance outflows dry up because of comprehending the cause of volitional factors, because it is said “ignorance is the condition for volitional factors”; view outflows dry up because of comprehending the cause of afflictions;[F.5.a] and outflows that cause existence dry up because of comprehending the causes of the aggregates.
Another alternative is that comprehending the truth of suffering dries up view outflows because all views arise with the five aggregates for appropriation as the objective support; the elimination of the truth of origination dries up sense object outflows; realization of the truth of cessation dries up outflows that cause existence; and the development of the true path dries up ignorance outflows.
Eliminating sense object outflows vanquishes Māra as a god; eliminating outflows that cause existence vanquishes Māra as death; eliminating ignorance outflows vanquishes Māra as afflictions; and eliminating view outflows vanquishes Māra as aggregates. They have conquered the four Māras, so their “outflows are dried up.”
Without afflictions P25k
means without defilement.50 The defilement of action is an affliction because it causes affliction; the defilement of afflictive emotion is because it afflicts; the defilement of aggregates that have come about from karmic maturation is an affliction in the sense of the afflictions to come; and the defilement of birth is because with that as a cause the afflictions come about.
Of these, when ignorance stops, volitional factors stop51 is the absence of the defilement of action; when volitional factors stop, consciousness, name and form, the six sense fields, contact, and feeling stop is the absence of the defilement of karmic maturation;52 and when existence stops, birth, old age, and death stop is the nonexistence of the defilement of birth. Therefore, this teaches that they have eliminated what makes suffering,53 that on account of which there is suffering,54 that which is suffering,55 and what are the causes of suffering.56
Furthermore, by eliminating the defilement of action they reach the happiness of full awakening; by eliminating the defilement of afflictive emotion they reach the happiness free from immorality;[F.5.b] by eliminating the defilement of karmic maturation they reach the happiness of tranquility; and by eliminating the defilement of birth they reach the happiness without aggregates—that is, they reach what makes happiness,57 that on account of which there is happiness,58 that which is happiness,59 and what is the cause of happiness.60 Thus, they are “without afflictions.”
“Worthy ones” teaches their quality of being objects worthy of donations; “with outflows dried up” their quality of purity; and “without afflictions” the absence of suffering. These are the differences among these three.
Fully controlled— P25k
they are “fully controlled” because the world has come under their control; or because they themselves are shown deference by the world because they are a delight; or because they have taken control of their minds; or they have gained the controls. The controls are four: control over miraculous powers, control over their faculties, control over meditative stabilization, and control over wisdom. Their control over miraculous powers gives them control over the world of beings, and over the world that is their container. Their control over their faculties calms their conduct and produces the world’s delight; their control over meditative stabilization brings their mind under control; and their control over wisdom cuts afflictions, action, and maturation, freeing them from bonds so that, in control of themselves, they gain control. Because they control their faculties, they gain the dwelling61 of the level of conduct; because they control meditative stabilization, they gain the dwelling of the gods and the dwelling of Brahmā; because they control miraculous powers, they gain the dwelling with the play of clairvoyance; and because they control wisdom,62 they gain the dwelling of noble beings. Because they control their faculties, they have a complete attainment of the aggregate of morality; because they control miraculous powers, they have a complete attainment of the aggregate of meditative stabilization; because they control meditative stabilization, they have a complete attainment of the aggregate of wisdom; and because they control wisdom[F.6.a] they have a complete attainment of the aggregate of liberation. Morality emancipates from the bonds of bad conduct; meditative stabilization emancipates from the bonds of craving;63 wisdom emancipates from the bonds of bad views; and liberation emancipates from the bonds of what causes existence. So, because they are emancipated from bonds they have self-control; and because they have self-control they gain autonomy, hence they are “fully controlled.”
They are
with their minds well freed P25k
teaches that they are without any defilement on the side of craving;
and their wisdom well freed P25k
teaches that they are without any defilement on the side of ignorance. Thus, they are “with their minds well freed and their wisdom well freed.” Because they are free from attachment they have mental freedom and hence “their minds are well freed”; because they are free from ignorance they have the freedom of wisdom and hence “their wisdom is well freed.” Mental freedom is the meditative stabilizations and absorptions gained from eliminating primary and secondary afflictions on the side of craving; the freedom of wisdom is the path of the worthy one gained from eliminating all afflictions on the side of ignorance. There, when they gain mental freedom they are freed from obstructions to absorption; when they gain the freedom of wisdom they are freed from obstructions that are afflictions. Those free in both ways are “with their minds well freed and their wisdom well freed.”
They are
thoroughbreds P25k
on account of being fearless.64 Because of their fearlessnesses, a sūtra says “there are five thoroughbreds: a dominant bull in a herd, free from the anxiety caused by terror of lightning strikes and so on; an elephant and a thoroughbred horse that do not fear battle; a thoroughbred lion that does not fear another’s attack;[F.6.b] and a thoroughbred worthy one without fear of death. In short, there are four terrors: being in terror of suffering, in terror of the fearsome, in terror of worldly dharmas, and in terror of ignorance. Those in whom those terrors are absent gain ease, gain a state without terrors, gain fearlessness, and gain relief,” respectively. Because they have no pain, lamentation, suffering, mental anguish, and so on, they have no pain and hence are not in terror of suffering. Because they have no fear of self-criticism, criticism from another, bad rebirth, penury,65 chastisement, no epitaph, or death, they are not in terror of the fearsome. Because they are not tainted with attaining and not attaining, fame and infamy, praise and blame, pleasure and pain they are not in terror of fearsome worldly dharmas. Because they are not blocked by ignorance, doubt, and wrong understanding they are not in terror of ignorance. Hence they are without terror and therefore “thoroughbreds.”
They are
great bull elephants, P25k
that is, they have a magnificent bearing. Some have the three knowledges, some have gained detailed and thorough knowledge, some have gained the six clairvoyances, some have a prediction of knowledge,66 and some have a single focus—that is, they have obtained an attribute through which they have gained a special state and hence are “great bull elephants.”67
With their work done, their task accomplished P25k
teaches the state of full completion. What they definitely have to do is their “work”; ancillary work is their “task.” Their main work is freedom from all suffering, by fully completing morality, meditative stabilization, and wisdom.68 They are those “with their work done” when those are fully completed.[F.7.a] The work of fully completing the different ways of gaining a livelihood—the livelihood of those desiring little, the livelihood of those with contentment, the livelihood of those doing the ascetic practices, the livelihood of those who cause perfect delight and so on—is the “task,” in the sense that it is connected with what one personally wants to do. They are those with “their task accomplished” when those are fully completed. Thus “with their work done, their task accomplished” teaches the state of full completion of all that has to be accomplished.
They are those
with their burden laid down. P25k
There are four “burdens”: the burden of the aggregates, the burden of afflictions, the burden of an avowed aim, and the burden of practice. They are burdens because they have to be laid down, eliminated, carried out, and completed, respectively. They lay down the burden of the aggregates by understanding suffering; they lay down the burden of afflictions by removing origination; they lay down the burden of an avowed aim by having meditated on the path; and they lay down the burden of practice by actualizing cessation. There, they gain the happiness where there are no aggregates by forsaking the burden of the aggregates; they gain the happiness of liberation by forsaking the burden of afflictions; they gain the happiness of full awakening by perfectly completing the burden of an avowed aim; and they gain the happiness of tranquility by fully completing the burden of practice. Hence “with their burden laid down” teaches the attainment of happiness when the burdens have been laid down.
They are those
with their own goal accomplished. P25k
There are two “goals” of “their own” that are “accomplished”: eliminating harm and reaching the goal. The elimination of all the defiling obscurations that comes about from eliminating ignorance is eliminating harm; the nirvāṇa that is gained from the production of all knowledge is gaining the goal.
They are those
with the fetters that bound them to existence broken. P25k
The fetters69 that cause birth in existence are “cause-of-existence fetters.” They fetter or bind one to existence and to being human.[F.7.b] From the nine of them, correct view without outflows eliminates three (the fetters of wrong view, grasping-as-absolute, and doubt); attainment of absorption into the meditative stabilization without outflows eliminates three (the fetters of envy, jealousy, and anger), and, of the attachment that fetters to existence, the single side included in the desire realm; and the knowledge of the worthy one’s path eliminates three (the fetters of pride, ignorance, and attachment to existence). Therefore, it says “with the fetters that bound them to existence broken.”
They are those
with their hearts well freed by perfect understanding.70 P25k
Knowing is fully understanding and realizing, which is to say, they are those “with their heart well freed by perfect realization.” Alternatively, construe “freed” as belief in the teaching of the doctrine of the three vehicles, in the four truths, in the dharmas on the side of awakening and so on, or, alternatively, their minds are well freed by the eight deliverances.
Those
in perfect control of their whole mind71 P25k
are those who have perfect mastery over all the absorptions. Alternatively, those with perfect mastery over the nine successive absorption stations72 are “in perfect control of their whole mind,”73 being “in” a state of mastery over becoming absorbed in, abiding in, emerging from, and remaining dispassionate in cessation and meditative stabilization, by becoming absorbed and so on where they want, into what they want, and for as long as they want; becoming absorbed in and emerging in conforming order and nonconforming order, direct and reverse order, going and returning; bringing together the factors of concentration, having the objects of absorption,[F.8.a] and having the factors and objects;74 uniting factors, uniting objects, and uniting factors and objects; and combining one, combining two, not combining two, and so on, respectively.75
Construe the stated qualities as follows:
They are all worthy ones. Why? Because their outflows are dried up. Their outflows are dried up because they are without afflictions. They are without afflictions because they are fully controlled. They are fully controlled because their minds are well freed. Their minds are well freed because their wisdom is well freed. Their wisdom is well freed because they are thoroughbreds. They are thoroughbreds because they are great bull elephants. They are great bull elephants because their work is done. Their work is done because their task is accomplished. Their task is accomplished because their burden is laid down. Their burden is laid down because their own goal is accomplished. Their own goal is accomplished because they are those with the fetters that bound them to existence broken. They are those with the fetters that bound them to existence broken because their hearts are well freed by perfect understanding. And their hearts are well freed by perfect understanding because they are in perfect control of their whole mind.76
The teaching about their good qualities is
all of whom had acquired the dhāraṇīs P25k
and so on. There are five types of bodhisattvas: those with a surpassing intention, those who stand in signlessness with effort, those who effortlessly stand in signlessness, those who have entered into the certain course of conduct, and those obstructed by just a single birth.77 They are all included in these. Those with a surpassing intention are on the first bodhisattva level; those who stand in signlessness with effort are up to the seventh level; those who effortlessly stand in signlessness are on the eighth level; those who have entered into the certain course of conduct78 are up to the tenth level; and from then on they are obstructed by just a single birth. They are all included in these.
They have
acquired the dhāraṇīs. P25k
It is a dhāraṇī because it causes them to bear the meaning in mind. There are four dhāraṇīs: a dhāraṇī that causes bodhisattvas to obtain forbearance, secret mantra dhāraṇī, word or doctrine dhāraṇī, and meaning dhāraṇī.
What is a dhāraṇī that acts as a cause for bodhisattvas to obtain forbearance?
Bodhisattvas who have earlier completed the causes on the devoted course of conduct level by always leading a life of isolation, eating in moderation, restraining their senses, not starting up a conversation with just anybody, and trying not to fall off to sleep in order to produce a bodhisattva’s forbearance bear in mind those secret mantra base79 letters, or words—tadyathā | i ṭi mi ṭi | ki ṭi vi kṣānti | pā da ni svā hā and so on—that they say. They wonder, “What do these secret mantra bases mean? What are the actual meanings of the expression and what’s expressed?” After thus contemplating for a long time they see no meaning in what is being expressed. Seeing no meaning, they ascertain perfectly, “There is no meaning at all being expressed[F.9.a] in those secret mantra bases. It is certain that just the absence of an expressed meaning is the meaning of those secret mantra bases. The intrinsic absence of an expressed meaning is their meaning.” They meditate on those secret mantra bases as free from an essential expression and what is expressed. Having meditated well on those secret mantra bases free from expression and what is expressed, they perfectly ascertain that in the same fashion all dharmas are free from an essential expression and what is expressed. They think, “Just as these secret mantra bases are free from an essential expression and what is expressed, all dharmas are similarly inexpressible, so their basic nature is inexpressible.” Thus, they determine that all dharmas, in their basic nature free from an essential expression and what is expressed, are by nature inexpressible. When they have determined that, they see that all dharmas are empty of a falsely imagined nature. When they see that, they realize the essential inexpressible nature of all dharmas, on account of which a great joy arises. Because of that, they are then those who have “acquired the dhāraṇis.” Then just because of acquiring the dhāraṇīs, with that as the cause, there immediately comes into being for the bodhisattva a great forbearance in harmony with the production of the first Pramuditā level, a forbearance so called because it is able to bear the ultimate. Such a forbearance, when it arises, is dhāraṇī knowledge. Not long after they have produced that dhāraṇī forbearance they reach the Pramuditā level of those with surpassing aspiration. Therefore, you should know that this dhāraṇī forbearance is included in the devoted course of conduct level.
What is the secret mantra dhāraṇī of bodhisattvas?80
The mastery of meditative stabilization capable of exerting controlling power[F.9.b] is secret mantra dhāraṇī. Thus, bodhisattvas have to accumulate knowledge during the first incalculable eon. After the passing of that incalculable eon they reach the first level. On that level they engage in the purification81 for knowledge, and gain mastery over the attainment of practiced meditative stabilizations and absorptions. The force produced by the meditative stabilization faculty and the force produced by earlier prayers exert controlling power over the secret mantra bases, so the force of the meditative stabilization, concentrating on “may these secret mantra bases stop all the plagues, problems, diseases, and strife of beings,” stops plagues and problems. That is the way those secret mantra bases exerting controlling power are accomplished, becoming supreme and solidly efficacious. Similarly, bodhisattva great beings stationed on the higher levels fully accomplish for the sake of this or that need of beings the secret mantra words exerting controlling power in whatever way necessary. Since this is the case, they are “secret mantra dhāraṇīs,” because with such mastery of the meditative stabilization they bear the secret mantras in mind. The secret mantra bases that are objects of those dhāraṇī faculties are also “dhāraṇīs” because they are the objects of those dhāraṇīs.
Among them, what is doctrine dhāraṇī?
Doctrine dhāraṇī is the recollection82 and wisdom that bear in mind and do not forget, even after a long time, the infinite, incalculable, immeasurable doctrines included in the collection of words, the collection of phrases, and the collection of speech sounds that bodhisattvas never understood or heard before, when they have reached the levels and are listening to the doctrines of the buddhas and bodhisattvas.[F.10.a]
Among them, what is meaning dhāraṇī?
Meaning dhāraṇī is recollection and wisdom, taken as one, that bear in mind and do not forget the infinite, incalculable, immeasurable meanings of the doctrines those bodhisattvas have borne in mind like that for an immeasurable time.
Among them, the aforementioned dhāraṇī in the form of forbearance is of those who have earlier completed the causes, so they gain it on the devoted course of conduct level. They gain the remaining three on the first level and so on, having passed beyond the first countless eon. About them a sūtra says, “Bodhisattva great beings who possess four dharmas are perfect in dhāraṇī.” Those who have “acquired the dhāraṇīs” have the four dharmas. The four dharmas are “disdain for sense objects, absence of envy, giving up everything, and joy in the Dharma in the Bodhisattvapiṭaka and so on, which stop the four on the side opposing the equality of self and others—excessive attachment to sense objects, envy, miserliness, and lack of enthusiasm for the joy of the Dharma.” According to the sequence set forth in another sūtra,83 on the first level they have acquired the superior location dhāraṇī because through its force they have become a location for all holy, special qualities; on the second, the stainless, because through its force they have pure morality; on the third, the extremely stable, because through its force the perfect power of patience free from all mental disturbances is stabilized; on the fourth, the hard to conquer, because through its force one is unconquerable by all Māras and opponents; on the fifth, the good quality mind ornament dhāraṇī; on the sixth,[F.10.b] the lamp for the knowledge maṇḍala; on the seventh, the becoming distinguished; on the eighth, the nonconceptual; on the ninth, the infinitely-doored; and on the tenth, the inexhaustible basket dhāraṇī. Hence, they have “acquired the dhāraṇīs” because on each of those different levels they gain a myriad of infinite, incalculable, immeasurable dhāraṇīs. Therefore, because such good qualities as these are shared in common with the devoted course of conduct level, it speaks of them like this.
Alternatively, when they have become familiar with all the syllables in this perfection of wisdom, they become causes for the realization of all dharmas. Thus, a is the first letter in anutpannatva, “nonproduction,” in “all dharmas are unproduced.” When, having superimposed the meaning of nonproduction on the a, bodhisattvas consider that it means nonproduction, and through the practice of calm abiding and special insight their meditation becomes perfect, then just the single letter a appears, through the force of habituation, in the form of the nonproduction of all dharmas. In this manner a is the cause of the realization of all dharmas. Thus, when they meditate on just this a based on its meaning of nonproduction, nonorigination, the intrinsic nature of a nonexistent thing, noncessation, and so on, it is the cause of the analytic realization of each dharma. Thus it says,84
What are the dhāraṇī doors? The sameness of all letters and syllables, the sameness of all spoken words, the syllable-doors, the syllable-entrances. What then are the syllable-doors, the syllable-entrances? The syllable a is the door to all dharmas being unproduced from the very beginning (ādy-anutpannatvād); ra is a door to the insight that all dharmas are without dirt (rajas), P25kP18k
and so on.
Thus, based on those syllables, wisdom and recollection arise that realize all dharmas. Because they bear the meaning of those in mind they are “dhāraṇīs.” The forbearance that takes the ultimate as its objective support is produced from those dhāraṇīs as its cause.[F.11.a] Both that recollection and wisdom are called the forbearance dhāraṇī.
Again, when bodhisattvas become very familiar with all the combinations of just those syllables strung together, they become the causes for perfectly bearing in mind the streams of Dharma expounded swiftly and continuously by buddhas and bodhisattvas, and their meanings. When they have become extremely familiar with those collections of words, collections of phrases, and collections of speech sounds, that recollection and wisdom is called doctrine dhāraṇī and meaning dhāraṇī.
Furthermore, when bodhisattvas have perfectly meditated on just those syllables, they bestow everything like a wish-fulfilling gem. Thus, when the force of meditative stabilization and the force of earlier prayers exert sustaining power over those syllables, they become the means to do everything that has to be done—the necessary stopping of all problems and purifying of all wrongs and so on. At that time, just that knowledge that exerts sustaining power over the syllables is called secret mantra dhāraṇī.85 Because they are those dhāraṇīs’ necessary objective supports, the syllables are also called dhāraṇīs.
The explanation of the man [in mantra] is “knowledge” [from the root man], and the tra is “protect” [from the root trai], so knowledge and compassion are mantra. The syllables are also mantra because they are in harmony with just them as their cause.
Again, because they eliminate ignorance (avidyā) and produce knowledge, just those are also called knowledge (vidyā).
They are bases [ādhāraṇī] for the stage of the knowledge of all aspects, hence they are bases. And so they get the names dhāraṇī secret mantra bases [mantrādhāraṇī] and vidyā secret mantra bases [vidyādhāraṇī].
Among those, bodhisattvas obtain the aforementioned forbearance dhāraṇī through the force of effort when the devoted course of conduct level is completed.86 The remaining three dhāraṇīs are produced through the power of prayer. On the first level, even though small they are still stable.87[F.11.b] From then on, all those dhāraṇīs are produced at a greater and greater level of excellence. Hence they have “acquired the dhāraṇīs.”
Those bodhisattvas who have acquired the dhāraṇīs, having meditated well on the noble truths and the dependent originations, gradually, on the first and second level and so on as explained in the noble sūtra The Ten Bhūmis,88 with that as the cause, become
dwellers in emptiness P25k
of a person and in the emptiness of dharmas. When they have thus grasped and meditated on that emptiness marked as omnipresent and so on,89 the emptiness gateway to liberation opens. When they have mastered emptiness, the earlier things such as water, wind, fire, moon, sun, mountains, oceans, lakes, woods, regions, districts, and so on that each appeared separately as a causal sign of a phenomenon, whatever they are, do not appear separately—they appear in the form of signlessness. At that point the signlessness gateway to liberation opens.
For those who thus dwell in the gateway of signlessness free from all causal signs there is no appearance of all three realms as three realms, and they do not desire anything there. Free from any desire for these, they do not wish for them in their minds, at which point the wishlessness gateway to liberation opens for them. When they have thus taken up in meditation the emptiness door to liberation, they dwell in the emptiness meditative stabilization. When they have thus taken up in meditation the signlessness gateway to liberation, they are free from any other experiential domain, so their range is the signless. When they see the three realms as do those who have no wishes, they do not fashion the three realms as worth wishing for. Thus, they are
dwellers in emptiness, their range the signless, and who had not fashioned any wishes.[F.12.a] P25k
Those who thus dwell well in the meditative stabilizations that are the gateways to liberation calm all elaborations,90 so for them four types of forbearance for sameness come about. They have no conception of self and other, so they have forbearance for self and others being the same; they have no attachment or aversion, so they have forbearance for compounded phenomena being the same; because they are nothing more than suchness, they have forbearance for all phenomena being the same; and because they think nirvāṇa and saṃsāra are the same, they have forbearance for nonabiding sameness.
From having thus produced and become habituated to the four forbearances for sameness, ten further samenesses gradually, as explained in The Ten Bhūmis, occur:91 signless sameness; markless sameness; unproduced sameness; unoriginated sameness; isolated sameness; calm-from-the-beginning sameness; unelaborated sameness; no forsaking or appropriating sameness; sameness as an illusion, a dream, an apparition, an echo, the reflection of the moon in water, a reflection in a mirror, or a magical creation; and existent and nonexistent sameness.
The unelaborated dharma-constituent free from imaginary aspects is not within the range of any consciousness with causal signs or conceptualization; it is within the range of nonconceptual knowledge. Hence all dharmas are said to be signless. Therefore, because all phenomena have the thoroughly established for their nature, there is signless sameness.92
Imaginary phenomena in the form of language and subject matter, the subject as the one who grasps and the object that is grasped are totally nonexistent so the imaginary mark is no mark, hence all are the same[F.12.b] insofar as they have no mark.
The ultimate thoroughly established nature is not produced from itself and is not produced from causes and conditions, hence there is an unproduced sameness, and an unoriginated sameness.93
The nature of suchness is free from afflictions and defilements, and free from the defilement of birth, therefore all phenomena are essentially isolated, hence there is an isolated sameness.94
The nature of suchness is not produced earlier and does not cease at the end, so all phenomena are unproduced and unceasing, hence there is a calm-from-the-beginning sameness.
The subject of that ultimate nature is unelaborated perfect knowledge because it has that as its object. All phenomena are unelaborated, hence there is an unelaborated sameness.
That ultimate nature is unmade. Ultimately there is no forsaking of one form of life and one set of aggregates and appropriating another set of aggregates. So, because there is no forsaking or appropriating, there is a no forsaking or appropriating sameness.
Those imaginaries do not have an intrinsic nature that is dual in nature,95 so they are similar to an illusion and so on, hence there is a sameness as an illusion and so on.
The thoroughly established nature does not exist as a falsely imagined existent nature and is not something nonexistent like a rabbit’s horns and so on either. Therefore, it is neither, hence there is an existent and nonexistent sameness.
Because they thus realize the ten marks of sameness, they
had acquired forbearance for the sameness of all dharmas. P25k
Those dwelling in the three meditative stabilizations that are gateways to liberation, endowed with a realization of the tenfold sameness, behold beings without a protector and feel great[F.13.a] compassion for them. Thus, those learned in the ultimate are yet seized by compassion and confront cyclic existence when they are inclined toward nirvāṇa. And so those who avoid cyclic existence and mentally confront nirvāṇa with the practice of wisdom, and avoid nirvāṇa and confront cyclic existence with the practice of compassion, gradually, as explained in The Ten Bhūmis,96 come to have a proper way of paying attention. This naturally weak and unowned compounded aggregate comes about because of possessing afflictions, and conditions being complete, but it cannot come about when there is no possession of afflictions and when conditions are not complete. Hence they think, “I have to make possession of the afflictions and completion of the conditions nonexistent; but beings who have no protector would then come to be ignored, so, in order to be of benefit to beings, I should not completely and totally put an end to the compounded aggregate.” In regard to those endowed with such wisdom and compassion dwelling in this attention, they actualize by way of appearance “standing unattached in the perfection of wisdom.”97 This knowledge is “forbearance conforming to the practice.”98 Thus standing in the perfection of wisdom, an appearance marked by standing without attachment, standing completely in this dhāraṇī knowledge, they even rule as wheel-turning emperors for the sake of beings, even as they pursue life without attachment. They demonstrate many types of enjoyment of sense pleasures, again doing so without attachment to them. They accumulate a wealth of worldly belongings for the sake of beings, without attachment to them. They cultivate the thirty-seven dharmas on the side of awakening, cultivating them without attachment to nirvāṇa. They meditate on uncompounded suchness, again meditating[F.13.b] without attachment to it. Because they have thus acquired the special knowledge of dhāraṇī that makes such skillful means paramount, they are those who
had acquired the dhāraṇī of nonattachment. P25k
When they thus stand by standing without attachment, thinking that both cyclic existence and nirvāṇa are the same, exerting themselves totally for the sake of beings alone, they enter into the concentrations, deliverances, meditative stabilizations, and absorptions in order to help beings, but they do not take birth through their force. They transform those concentrations, deliverances, meditative stabilizations, and absorptions into just what will be of help to beings. Having thus transformed them for the sake of beings they produce the six clairvoyances: knowledge of the performance of miraculous powers, the divine eye, the divine ear, knowledge of the ways of thinking, knowledge that recollects previous existences, and knowledge that makes directly known the extinction of outflows.99
Among these, knowledge of the performance of miraculous powers is of two types: transformative and magically creative. Among these, the transformative is causing the act of [the earth] moving, the act of [fire] burning, the act of the rain raining, and the act of [space] being pervasive;100 the act of changing one thing into something else; going, coming [through walls, etc.], shrinking or expanding; swallowing any physical object;101 appearing before anyone suitable, the act of appearing, the act of disappearing, or the act of controlling; eclipsing an opponent’s miraculous powers; and giving confidence, giving recollection, giving happiness, giving light, and anything else like those. The bodhisattvas do whatever beings require.
As for the magically creative, they are of three types: magically created bodies, magically created speech, and magically created[F.14.a] objects.
Among them, magically created bodies are any of the many types of magical creations that bodhisattvas demonstrate for the sake of beings: the appearances of gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell beings, and of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas. They succeed in magically creating these different appearances for the sake of an infinite, incalculable number of beings instantaneously and simultaneously in an infinite, incalculable number of worlds in the ten directions.
What is magically created speech? Here bodhisattvas make magically created sounds that are heard by gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, śrāvakas, and bodhisattvas assembled and arrayed as a retinue within the encircling girdle of mountains, up to as far away as the first thousandfold world system, the millionfold and the billionfold world systems, and an infinite, incalculable number of worlds in the ten directions. With those sounds they teach the Dharma to all beings in many ways. With other magical creations they set them to work, cause the sky to emit the sound of Dharma teachings, and exhort those who incline toward various objects.
What are magically created objects? For the sake of poverty-stricken beings, bodhisattvas magically create food, drink, transportation, clothes, jewels, pearls, vaiḍūrya,102 and so on. To the extent they are needed, to that extent they come about, lasting as long as the power sustaining their truth is exerted. Thus, through their knowledge of miraculous powers[F.14.b] they help beings. Having motivated them with miraculous wonder-working powers, they introduce them to Buddhist doctrine. And they also help suffering beings in many other ways.
With knowledge that recollects previous existences they recollect the earlier behavior of beings, know what agrees with them, and teach them Buddhist doctrine. Alternatively, they recollect the supreme, marvelous behavior of bodhisattvas and demonstrate it perfectly, to perfectly engender faith in beings. They demonstrate to proponents of eternalism and nihilism what happened previously and destroy their views. With that knowledge they recollect their own previous existences; they also recollect the previous suffering existences of others, and they also cause others to recollect their previous suffering existences.
With their divine ear they hear the pitiful sounds of suffering beings in hell, among the animals, the ghosts, and humans, and work to relieve their pains; or they hear different Dharma teachings in various buddhafields, or right here; or they hear many different sounds urging them on.
With their divine eye bodhisattvas see the variety of wholesome and unwholesome behaviors of beings in the ten directions and do what is appropriate. They also behold many teachings of Dharma in many retinues of tathāgatas in the many different buddhafields.
With knowledge of others’ thoughts they know others’ greed, hatred, and so on accompanying their thoughts and do what is appropriate. They know the different faculties, behaviors, dispositions, propensities,[F.15.a] and so on of beings and teach the Dharma appropriately.
With knowledge of the extinction of outflows bodhisattvas know perfectly and properly that their own and others’ afflictions are extinguished, and they know perfectly and properly whether or not they have attained the extinction of their own afflictions, and whether or not others have attained the extinction of their afflictions. They also know perfectly what is and is not the means to extinguish their own and others’ afflictions and outflows. They know perfectly whether others’ attainment of the extinction of outflows is an unfounded conceit or is true. Perfectly knowing all that, bodhisattvas themselves realize the extinction of outflows. Bodhisattvas know perfectly things with and without outflows, and with just the knowledge of the extinction of outflows they stay together with all the afflicted dharmas with outflows, without themselves becoming defiled.
Bodhisattvas have these six clairvoyances in lifetime after lifetime. Even when they are reborn as animals they do not lose them, so they are
with imperishable clairvoyant knowledges.103 P25k
Bodhisattvas who have these six clairvoyances make an effort to help beings, and those beings they have helped experience a simultaneously arising pleasure, so they listen to the bodhisattva’s speech. Even at the cost of their life they do not go against the advice and instruction. Furthermore, they skillfully get Māra’s minions or tīrthikas and so on who bear ill will toward them to take their advice and instructions to heart. They even get those who are unwilling to listen to what they have to say by threatening them with splitting headaches and so on.[F.15.b] Bodhisattvas always see when it is the right time and it is not the right time and so on. Among the classes of beings there are none who are offended by the speech of the bodhisattvas. This is the very nature of the power of the dedication of the merit from the four ways of gathering a retinue and the merit of the perfections. Hence they are
with speech worth listening to.104 P25k
To teach that bodhisattvas with these good qualities have a pure practice it says they are
not hypocrites P25k
and so on.105
It is impossible that those who have earlier entered onto a bodhisattva level would pursue wrong livelihoods, and this is particularly more so the case on the Vimalā level and so on.106 So why teach here that on the seventh level there is no pursuit of wrong livelihoods?
There is no fault. Even though on lower levels they have already eliminated them, behavior that is pursued with effort is perfected here, so it has to be taught at the end.107 You should not take bodhisattvas standing on the seventh level as “with afflictions” and you should not take them as “without afflictions” either, because right there they absolutely eliminate afflictive behavior. Thus, the purity of their surpassing aspiration informs their physical actions, verbal actions, and mental actions. This total nonarising of all the physical, verbal, and mental actions that the tathāgatas criticize is a quality of the seventh level. Hence, to demonstrate that they do not engage in the physical actions of wrong livelihood it says they are “not hypocrites.” Because of wanting to gain something, the demonstration of a physical action that is a way of impressing another is called hypocrisy.108
To demonstrate that they have no impure mental actions it says they are
without thoughts of reputation and gain.109 P25k
Praise, citation, renown, and “reputation” are synonymous. They are so called because they are without thoughts of gain or respect.
Having taught that they have no impure practices, to teach that they have purified practices it says they are
Dharma teachers without thought of compensation.110 P25k
This is said of those stirred by compassion and endowed with a thinking mind honed by wisdom who teach Dharma to help beings.
Thus, having taught in these ways the qualities of those from the seventh level on down who practice signlessness with effort, now it says they are
with perfect forbearance for the deep dharmas P25k
and so on, to teach the quality of standing effortlessly in signlessness. Thus, from the eighth level on up bodhisattvas cut the continuum of all effort and pass beyond all causal signs and conceptualization. They do so in a carefree way, without any effort at all. But even though they are totally at peace and expend no energy, they live a life for the sake of others because of the force of their previous prayers, and they realize the practices on the side of awakening.
To teach that on the eighth level they have gained forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas, it says they are those “with perfect forbearance for the deep dharmas.” Thus,111
completely free from the conceptual discriminations of mind, thinking mind, and consciousness, unhindered like space, with the comprehension of the wide-open nature they have gained forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas. O bodhisattvas! The moment bodhisattvas with such a forbearance for that have reached the Acalā level, they gain the bodhisattva’s deep stations[F.16.b] that are hard to understand,112 undifferentiated, free from all causal signs,
and so on. There are no other stations deeper than such deep stations of bodhisattvas, so it says they have “perfect forbearance for the deep dharmas.”
Wherever they go, bodhisattvas who have gained such forbearance go with fearlessness113 and without trepidation, be it into a retinue of persons of royal caste, brahmins, persons of business caste, persons of low caste, gods, or Brahmās, or into a retinue of monks, nuns, tīrthikas, or Māras, and speak without feeling shy.114 And why? It is because they have gained forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas and therefore fully realize the nonproduction aspect of all dharmas. Therefore, they do not have the fear that comes from not knowing something when in the midst of a retinue. Apart from their residual impressions, they have eliminated all affliction, seeing it has not been produced, so they do not have the fear that comes from the afflictions. Hence it says they
had obtained the fearlessnesses.P25k
They have
cut the continuum of karmic obscuration. P25k
When it comes to their future lives, apart from the sorts of births they demonstrate because of compassion, as soon as they have attained this forbearance they have cut the continuum of the karmic obscurations that ripen into good or bad forms of life.
They are
skillful in expounding the analysis of investigations into phenomena.115 P25k
“Phenomena” are the aggregates, constituents, and so on, or dharmas known by special insight;[F.17.a] the applications of mindfulness, the right efforts, and so on, or the dharmas on the side of awakening; the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and so on, or the buddhadharmas; and the result of the stream enterer path and so on, or gained dharmas. “Investigations” of them are into marks, functions, causes, results, number, proper meditative experiences, faulty ones, elements, defilements, purifications, comprehensions of suffering, eliminations of origins, cessations to be actualized, and cultivations of paths. They are also investigations into the outer dharmas: world systems arise like this, will perish like this, have perished like this; they form like this, they perish for that length of time, they stay like that,116 they last this length of time; these are hell beings, these are birthplaces of animals, these are ghosts, these are humans, these are in the desire realm, these in the form realm, these in the formless realm; these are how many of the smallest earth, water, fire, and wind atoms there are; just this is the measure of the height, breadth, width, and depth of the earth and so on; and just these are the four continents, just this is a thousand of them, just this is a million, and just this a billion. Similarly, the investigations are the sort that investigate the intentions, propensities, behaviors, beliefs, and faculties of all the worlds: who is less at fault, who more; who is in a lineage, who is not; who is definitely in a lineage, who is not; who is a candidate, who is not; who is mature, who is not; and who is free and who is not. These are[F.17.b] the “investigations into phenomena.” To “analyze” is to divide those phenomena described earlier into specific categories: “these are the aggregates, these the constituents, these the sense fields,” and so on. There are the categories117 when they have all been categorized, when they have been divided into many specific types. To “expound” is to teach them and make them understandable to others. “Skill” is intelligence. “Investigation into phenomena” is detailed and thorough knowledge of phenomena; “categorization,” or analysis, is detailed and thorough knowledge of content; “expounding” is detailed and thorough knowledge of languages; and “skill in expounding” is detailed and thorough knowledge of ready speech. Thus, it says they are “skillful in expounding the analysis of investigations into phenomena.”
Having thus taught the eighth level qualities, to teach the qualities of the practice on the levels above, on the levels of those who are destined,118 it says they are those
with the prayer that is a vow made during an asaṃkhyeya of eons really fully carried out.119 P25k
These are bodhisattvas whose “prayer that is a vow” made during “an asaṃkhyeya of eons” has been “really fully carried out.”
What is this teaching? There are no appearances of inner physical bodies anywhere at all after the forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas has been gained. The body of names120 does not operate in the form of intention, thinking mind, and consciousness; it remains perfectly in the form of emptiness. External dharmas—the three realms—do not appear at all; they are in a state of liberation that is the element of signlessness. For those who thus abide perfectly extinguished in suchness, no effort, movement, false projection, or thought construction occurs.
If those great beings thus dwell totally in nirvāṇa,[F.18.a] in the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, in primordial calm, in the intrinsic nature of the dharma-constituent, they would subsequently veer away from the attributes that would make them a buddha and from the welfare of beings.
Response: The perfection of prayer that has been made complete during two incalculable eons, together with skillful means, becomes a concordant cause of compassion on account of which, at that time, in order not to veer away the maturation is developed,121 and those bodhisattvas again enter into the conventional. Those bodhisattvas who have entered into the conventional apprehend all inner and outer worlds just as at an earlier time. At that time, they practice the bodhisattva’s course of conduct and so on.
Qualm: In that case, since at this level all affliction that is the origin of suffering does not exist, they do not accumulate the karma that gives rise to future lives. The force of the karma they accumulated previously is extinguished, as it is for worthy ones, so, given that a maturation cannot be apprehended in the absence of karma, how are they going to appropriate another future life? And given that above that level they are sure to swiftly and effortlessly reach the Tathāgata level in a single countless eon, how, in that case and during that period of time, will they abide in the form of anyone?
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. After a detailed, word-by-word explanation of the introductory chapter common to all three sūtras, it explains the structure they also all share in terms of the three approaches or “gateways”—brief, intermediate, and detailed—ending with an explanation of the passage known as the “Maitreya chapter” found only in the Eighteen Thousand Line and Twenty-Five Thousand Line sūtras. It goes by many different titles, and its authorship has never been conclusively determined, some Tibetans believing it to be by Vasubandhu, and others that it is by Daṃṣṭrāsena.
This commentary was translated by Gareth Sparham under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
I thank the late Gene Smith, who initially encouraged me to undertake this work, and I thank all of those at 84000—Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, the sponsors, and the scholars, translators, editors, and technicians—and all the other indispensable people whose work has made this translation possible.
I thank all the faculty and graduate students in the Group in Buddhist Studies at Berkeley, and Jan Nattier, whose seminars on the Perfection of Wisdom were particularly helpful. At an early stage, Paul Harrison and Ulrich Pagel arranged for me to see a copy of an unpublished Sanskrit manuscript of a sūtra cited in Bṭ3. I thank them for that assistance.
I also take this opportunity to thank the abbot of Drepung Gomang monastery, Losang Gyaltsen, and the retired director of the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, Kalsang Damdul, for listening to some of my questions and giving learned and insightful responses.
Finally, I acknowledge the kindness of my mother, Ann Sparham, who recently passed away in her one hundredth year, and my wife Janet Seding.
We gratefully acknowledge the generous sponsorship of Kelvin Lee, Doris Lim, Chang Chen Hsien, Lim Cheng Cheng, Ng Ah Chon and family, Lee Hoi Lang and family, the late Lee Tiang Chuan, and the late Chang Koo Cheng. Their support has helped make the work on this translation possible.
The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand Lines (hereafter Bṭ3) is a line-by-line explanation of the three Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, presenting a structural framework common to all three sūtras that is easy for readers unfamiliar with the Perfection of Wisdom to understand. It should not be confused with the commentary with which it is often associated, The Long Commentary on the One Hundred Thousand (hereafter Bṭ1), which has the same generic name Bṛhaṭṭīkā, the same opening verse of homage, and many similar passages. The two works are grouped together in the Degé Tengyur and are described in Tsultrim Rinchen’s Karchak (dkar chag) of the Degé Tengyur as together constituting the third of the four great “pathbreaker” traditions of interpreting the Perfection of Wisdom, which is characterized by the “three approaches and eleven formulations” (sgo gsum rnam grangs bcu gcig).1
The author of Bṭ3 has not been conclusively determined; some Tibetans say it is by Vasubandhu, while others assert that it is by Daṃṣṭrāsena. It goes by a variety of titles, some calling it The Long Explanation (Bṛhaṭṭīkā), some Well-Trodden Path (Paddhati) or Commentary on the Scripture (Tib. gzhung ’grel), and others [Commentary on] All Three Mother [Scriptures That Is a] Destroyer of Harms (Tib. yum gsum gnod ’joms) or Long [Commentary That Is a] Destroyer of Harms (Tib. gnod ’joms che ba).
The first half of Bṭ3 has a loose internal structure. It begins with a detailed explanation of the introductory chapter and then provides a brief, an intermediate, and a detailed exegesis. The brief exegesis is of the opening statement that comes near the beginning of the second chapter in all three versions of the sūtra, the intermediate exegesis of Chapters 2 to 21 in the Eighteen Thousand, Chapters 2 to 13 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand, and the detailed exegesis of the rest of all three. It ends with an explanation of the chapter spoken to Maitreya, Chapter 83 in the Eighteen Thousand, Chapter 72 in the Twenty-Five Thousand. Some Tibetan writers say a small part at the end is either lost or was not translated into Tibetan.
The earlier parts of Bṭ3 spend considerable time on each word; later parts explain just particular words or paragraphs from longer sections. This means that an ordinary modern reader will, at the least, be able to identify the sections of the sūtras that Bṭ3 is explaining, something that cannot be said of Maitreya’s better known Ornament for the Clear Realizations (Abhisamayālaṃkāra). The Ornament for the Clear Realizations is a magnificent text, arguably a text that has exerted the greatest influence on Tibetan Buddhism, but it is a very difficult one for a modern reader trying to navigate for the first time one of the Long Perfection of Wisdom scriptures.
The Perfection of Wisdom commentary translated here is extant as a complete work only in Tibetan translation. It is likely to be the same as the work listed with the same title in the Denkarma (Tib. ldan dkar ma) and Phangthangma (Tib. ’phang thang ma) catalogs of works translated into Tibetan (early 9th century
From the Tibetan title under which the text appears in catalogs, a Sanskrit title has been reconstructed as Āryaśatasāhasrikāpañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāṣṭadaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitābṛhaṭṭīkā, shortened to Bṛhaṭṭīkā (Bṭ3).3 However, there is no Sanskrit title given either at the beginning of the Tibetan translation or in the colophon, and although Bṭ3 was clearly written in Sanskrit by an Indian author (as detailed below), there is no known surviving Sanskrit manuscript of this work that might attest to its original title. Nor is there, in any extant work in an Indic language, any obvious reference to a text with a comparable title .
As well as its full Tibetan and reconstructed Sanskrit titles, Bṭ3 is also known by several shorter names. One is Commentary on the Scripture (gzhung ’grel), and another is Destroyer of Harms (gnod ’joms). The origin of these monikers is a little complicated to explain.
Indian authors who refer to this text include Haribhadra (eighth century) and Abhayākaragupta (fl. ca.1100). Haribhadra mentions what is thought to be this text (see below) as a work by Vasubandhu, using the title “Well-Trodden Path” (Paddhati) but this was rendered in the Tibetan translation of Haribhadra’s work as “Commentary on the Scripture” (gzhung ’grel).4 However, later Tibetan writers do not agree on whether “well-trodden path” is actually the name of a text.
This same title, Well-Trodden Path/Commentary on the Scripture, is again used by Abhayākaragupta, as mentioned below, in his Intention of the Sage, where he specifically identifies “the Scripture” as The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines. It is also used (and identified with Vasubandhu) in a lesser-known work by Jagattalanivāsin (fl. ca. 1165), An Explanation called “Following the Personal Instructions of the Bhagavatī”,5 that both summarizes the Eight Thousand and follows the “Commentary on the Scripture” (gzhung ’grel).
These titles, Well-Trodden Path or Commentary on the Scripture, as well as the name Destroyer of Harms, both derive from a verse of homage at the beginning of Bṭ3. To further confuse matters, this same verse is found also at the beginning of the other treatise Bṭ3 is grouped with, which we have referred to above (i.1) as Bṭ1—Toh 3807, cataloged immediately before Bṭ3, with a similar title, The Long Commentary on the One Hundred Thousand, reconstructed in Sanskrit as *Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitābṛhaṭṭīkā,6 and often confused with Bṭ3. The verse at the beginning of both treatises, in Tibetan translation, says: I w
ant to compose a Commentary on the Scripture in which the harms have been destroyed.7
When the Tibetan translators render the Sanskrit word paddhati as “Commentary on the Scripture” (gzhung ’grel), this is indeed the contextually appropriate meaning. Still, paddhati in its most basic sense means a “path” or a “well-trodden path” (from pad, “foot,” and dhati, derived with saṃdhi from han, “to strike”). If one takes the paddhati in Bṭ1 and Bṭ3’s verse of homage to mean “path,” the line would then be translated this way:
I want to make a Well-Trodden Path where the thorns [i.e. “the harms”] have been trodden down [i.e. destroyed].8
For this title rendered most literally as “well-trodden path where the thorns have been trodden down,” that is how the alternative rendering Destroyer of Harms, nöjom (gnod ’joms), has become the moniker commonly used for both Bṭ1 and Bṭ3 in Tibet, at least since the fourteenth century, and particularly in Gelukpa commentaries on the Perfection of Wisdom,
The title Destroyer of Harms is, in the case of this text, an abbreviation for the titles Yumsum Nöjom (yum gsum gnod ’joms), [Commentary on the] Three Mother [Scriptures] That Is a Destroyer of Harms, also known as Nöjom Chéwa (gnod ’joms che ba), The Longer [Commentary] That Is a Destroyer of Harms. The latter name distinguishes it from the other Nöjom (Destroyer of Harms), Bṭ1, whose title is an abbreviation for Bumkyi Nöjom (’bum gyi gnod ’joms), [Commentary on the] One Hundred Thousand Line [Scripture] That Is a Destroyer of Harms), also known as Nöjom Chunga (gnod ’joms chung ba), The Shorter [Commentary] That Is a Destroyer of Harms, even though that “shorter” commentary is actually a much longer treatise in terms of the number of folios.
In the absence of an original, authoritative attribution, the identity of the author of Bṭ3 is contested. In different commentaries, histories, and bibliographical works its author, if named at all, is variously said to be Daṃṣṭrāsena, Vasubandhu, the master Vasubandhu, the Middle Way master Vasubandhu, or simply the Nöjom Khenpo (gnod ’joms mkhan po), “the Destroyer of Harms scholar.” The problem of authorship is compounded by the text’s close association with Bṭ1 and the monikers shared by the two works. It is by no means always clear in discussions of the author, especially in early Tibetan Perfection of Wisdom commentaries, whether the work being referred to is Bṭ1 or Bṭ3.
Perhaps one measure of the dearth of definitive evidence is that the two principal candidates for authorship—each with their proponents in the later literature—are scholars who lived many centuries apart. Vasubandhu is the great fourth or fifth century scholar of Abhidharma and Yogācāra, traditionally said to be the half-brother of Asaṅga. Daṃṣṭrāsena, about whom little else is known, was a Kashmiri scholar who lived in the late eighth and early ninth centuries.9 Both have been said, variously, to be the authors of both Bṭ3 and Bṭ1. At the same time it is not very likely that the two works have the same author, as their style and approach are rather different.
Vasubandhu, certainly a prolific author but also one to whom a great many works have been attributed with varying certainty, is likely to have written at least one Prajñāpāramitā commentary. Nevertheless, no such text is counted among the works that are considered his with the highest degree of certainty—those cross-referenced in his own works and commented on by his immediate successors.10 If nevertheless there was such a text, the question is whether it survived as the one translated into Tibetan as Bṭ3 (or possibly Bṭ1), or was lost.
In the eighth century, Haribhadra, in perhaps the first known reference in an extant Sanskrit work to a commentary that might be Bṭ3, refers in a slightly disparaging way to a work by Vasubandhu with the title “Well-Trodden Path” (Paddhati); this title (as mentioned above in i.8) in the Tibetan translation of Haribhadra’s was rendered “Commentary on the Scripture” (gzhung ’grel):
Elevated with pride in his minute knowledge of the sides of the division into being and nonbeing, the master Vasubandhu attained a status that allowed him to explain the topics of the Perfection of Wisdom in the Well-Trodden Path/Commentary on the Scripture.11
As well as linking the name Vasubandhu with the title Well-Trodden Path, with its suggestive reference to the introductory verse shared by Bṭ3 and Bṭ1, it is also noteworthy that Haribhadra says that this Vasubandhu writes with only an understanding of the Mind Only view, not the Middle Way view.
Haribhadra’s work was not translated into Tibetan, however, until the later translation period. Earlier, when the two commentaries were translated, no author seems to have been identified for Bṭ3. Of the two extant early 9th century
We then have no apparent mention of either text until around the start of the twelfth century when Ar Changchup Yeshé (ar byang chub ye shes, ca. 1100) records the view that “there is a Commentary on the Scripture by Vasubandhu that connects the Ornament for the Clear Realizations treatise with the eight-chapter version of The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines, but it is not likely that it has ever been even seen by anyone.”13
Some time later, Bodong Tsöndrü Dorjé (bo dong brtson ’grus rdo rje, fl. ca. twelfth–thirteenth century), in what may be the first mention of the four traditions of interpretation (see i.1) first says that earlier commentaries say “the master Daṃṣṭrāsena’s Long Commentary on the One Hundred Thousand [i.e. Bṭ1]” sets forth one of the four ways to interpret the Perfection of Wisdom, and then, following Haribhadra, refers to “the Commentary on the Twenty-Five Thousand Line Perfection of Wisdom Scripture [i.e. Bṭ3] written by Vasubandhu, who has given an exegesis based on the Mind Only view.”14
In the thirteenth century, the Narthang scholar Chomden Rikpai Raltri (bcom ldan rig pa’i ral gri, 1227–1305), who had access to a large number of manuscripts, as part of a general survey in his Early Survey of Buddhist Literature (bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi ’od) places both works at the start of the section on sūtra commentaries, attributing no author to Bṭ1 but clearly attributing Bṭ3 to Vasubandhu. Later in the same work, he places the Commentary on the Twenty-Five Thousand Scripture among a group of works “attributed by Tibetans to Indians,” and a few folios later says that Bṭ1 is by “Trisong Detsen.”15 But in other works, perhaps of later date, Rikpai Raltri seems also to be the first writer to mention Daṃṣṭrāsena as the author of either of the two texts (though in this case for Bṭ1). In his Historical Evolution of the Works of Maitreya (byams pa dang ’brel ba’i chos kyi byung tshul) (Kano and Nakamura 2009, pp. 131–32), and in his summary explanation of the One Hundred Thousand Line Perfection of Wisdom (shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa rgyan gyi me tog), he differentiates between Bṭ3 and Bṭ1 as being “by the master Vasubandhu and the master Daṃṣṭrāsena.”
His student Upa Losal (dbus pa blo gsal, ca. 1270–1355), in the catalog of the early Narthang Tengyur, writes that Bṭ1 is “accepted as being by Daṃṣṭrāsena” but that Bṭ3 is by Vasubandhu.16
Not much later in the fourteenth century, their younger contemporary Butön (bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364) goes one step further than his predecessors in explaining the reasoning underlying the attributions he advocates. In the list of translated texts in his History, he notes that the Phangthangma catalog attributes Bṭ1 to the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen, but says that two other early inventories assert that it is of Indian origin and attribute it to Daṃṣṭrāsena. Then, regarding Bṭ3, he acknowledges that many scholars have attributed it to Daṃṣṭrāsena, but as evidence for it being by Vasubandhu points out that Abhayākaragupta’s (fl. ca.1100) Intention of the Sage (Munimatālaṃkāra) copies passages verbatim from Bṭ3 or cites them as being from “the Commentary on the Twenty-Five Thousand Scripture (nyi khri gzhung ’grel).”17
One such passage in Intention of the Sage linking the commentary to Vasubandhu is the following:
The master Vasubandhu also in the Commentary on the Scripture says: “ ‘Armed with great armor.’ This teaches that the intention is vast from the first thought of awakening.”18
Abhayākaragupta does also identify “the Scripture” referred to using the Well-Trodden Path/Commentary on the Scripture as The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines.19 Indeed, this is corroborated by short sections of a Sanskrit manuscript of Intention of the Sage that have recently been edited and published by Kazuo Kano and Xuezhu Li,20 and these Sanskrit passages have been a useful reference in the present translation, mentioned in several notes.
It is worth noting here that the identification of the monikers Well-Trodden Path (Paddhati) and Commentary on the Scripture (gzhung ’grel) with a commentary “on the Twenty-Five Thousand scripture,” rather than one on all three of the long sūtras, is less of a problem for identification of the commentary than it might appear. The commentary itself makes little mention of the individual sūtras, except in commenting that the “Maitreya chapter” is only present in the Twenty-Five Thousand version, for not only are all three sūtras very similar in their content but also their clear differentiation into different versions defined in their titles by the number of ślokas may have been a relatively late development in the evolution of the Prajñāpāramitā literature.
The other Indian text mentioned above (i.9), written by Jagattalanivāsin, an approximate contemporary of Abhayākaragupta, An Explanation called “Following the Personal Instructions of the Bhagavatī”, affirms very explicitly not only that the Commentary on the Scripture is by Vasubandhu, but also that this Vasubandhu is none other than the wellknown Vasubandhu associated with Asaṅga and Maitreya.21
Dölpopa Sherap Gyaltsen (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292–1361) goes further, saying with confidence in his Sūtra-Based Commentary (mdo lugs ma) that both Bṭ1 and Bṭ3 are by Vasubandhu, and not just any Vasubandhu, but by “the direct student of the Jina Maitreya, the great chariot, the Middle Way master Vasubandhu, … the author of the commentary on Maitreya’s Ornament for the Great Vehicle Sūtras (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra).”22 In this way he unequivocally rejects the slightly disparaging earlier characterization of him by Haribhadra. Nyaön Kunga Pel (nya dbon kun dga’ dpal, 1285–1379), a student of both Butön and Dölpopa, repeats their attributions for the two texts, opines that the two commentaries have not always been properly distinguished from each other, and says that other scholars attribute Bṭ1 to the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen and Bṭ3 to Daṃṣṭrāsena.
Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa, 1356–1419) is probably the most influential proponent for attributing Bṭ1 to Trisong Detsen and Bṭ3 to Daṃṣṭrāsena. At the beginning of his Golden Garland (legs bshad gser phreng), he lists a number of points in support of it (Sparham 2008–13, pp. 7–9). He also strongly disagrees with the judgment that it is written from a Mind-Only perspective.
Shakya Chokden (shAkya mchog ldan, 1428–1507), writing in 1454 in his Garland of Waves (bzhed tshul rba rlabs kyi phreng ba), says “most earlier Tibetan spiritual friends say there are four pathbreakers into the Perfection of Wisdom” and lists the Nöjom [Bṭ1 and Bṭ3] as the third of these four ways. Then he either cites or paraphrases “Butön Rinpoché” as saying:
It is written in the Phangthangkamé Catalog that Trisong Detsen has composed this Explanation of the One Hundred Thousand [Bṭ1] in seventy-eight bundles of pages, but in both the Chimphu Catalog and the Phodrang Tongthangden Catalog it is said to be Indian, so it was composed by Padé. It is written that the one known as the Commentary on All Three Mother Scriptures That Is a Destroyer of Harms [Bṭ3] in twenty-seven bundles has been composed by Pawo (dpa’ bo), but it is the Commentary on the Scripture composed by Vasubandhu, because the citations from the Commentary on the Scripture in Abhayākaragupta’s Intention of the Sage are exactly as they are in this [Bṭ3], and because he [i.e. Vasubandhu] makes an opening promise to compose, with “I want to compose a commentary on that scripture in which the harms have been destroyed.”23
Most likely Padé (dpa’ sde) and Pawo (dpa’ bo) are abbreviations for Daṃṣṭrāsena.
Evidence put forward by Tibetan scholars who support the attribution of Bṭ3 to Daṃṣṭrāsena comes more from internal features of the text itself than from external references to it, and in the absence of much recorded detail about Daṃṣṭrāsena himself and his works tends to concentrate more on refuting the possibility of Vasubandhu’s authorship more than on attempting to substantiate Daṃṣṭrāsena’s.
There is one passage in the text that certainly cannot have been written by the fourth- to fifth-century Vasubandhu who wrote the Treasury of Abhidharma (Abhidharmakośa), Thirty Verses (Triṃśikā), and Twenty Verses (Viṃsatikā), because it references the opinion of Śāntarakṣita, who lived some 300–400 years later. This is among the points made by Tsongkhapa. The passage appears in the versions of Bṭ3 in Tibetan translation in the Narthang, Kangxi, and Golden (gser bris ma) Tengyurs, but strikingly was omitted from the version in the Degé Tengyur.
The passage in question (5.441) comes at the end of a long gloss of the words “during the last of the five hundreds.”24 After explaining that a “five hundred” is one tenth of the five thousand years the doctrine of the Tathāgata lasts, and dividing each of the ten five hundred-year periods into “chapters” or time periods, and associating lower and lower attainments with each subsequent chapter, the author of Bṭ3 then gives another opinion (5.440):
Some say the measure of a human lifespan can be one hundred years. There, in the earlier fifty years, the color, shape, strength, intellect, and so on increase, and in the later fifty years they wane. Similarly, the end of the time period—the time of the waning of the teaching—is like the later fifty years and hence is labeled “the last of the five hundreds.”
Although Bṭ3 does not say so explicitly, in fact this is a citation from Vasubandhu’s Long Commentary on Akṣayamati’s Teaching (Akṣayamatinirdeśaṭīkā).25 In the Narthang and Kangxi versions of Bṭ3, it then says:
When formulated like that [in Vasubandhu’s Long Commentary on Akṣayamati’s Teaching], the duration of the Tathāgata’s teaching is two thousand five hundred years. The two commentaries (ṭīkā) appear to be contradictory. Śāntarakṣita’s intention is that the good Dharma lasts from the Worthy One chapter up to the Meditative Stabilization chapter. There is the explanation in the explanatory tradition and there is this other explanation. In general, there is agreement on five thousand years.
Clearly Vasubandhu could not reference the opinion of Śāntarakṣita. It is presumably for this reason that the passage was removed by the editors of the Degé Tengyur, despite its inclusion in the other, earlier versions, and despite Tsultrim Rinchen’s Degé Tengyur dkar chag only repeating Butön’s relatively open opinion on the attributions of the text to Daṃṣṭrāsena and Vasubandhu.26
Another possible but less obvious objection to Vasubandhu’s authorship that has been pointed out is the commentary’s mention of “the Subcommentary” (4.61), thought to be a reference to a work by one of the two Vimuktisenas. The earlier of the two, Ārya Vimuktisena was—at the very earliest and only according to some accounts—a late student of Vasubandhu. Even in the unlikely event that the commentary in question had actually been written during Vasubandhu’s lifetime, it is improbable that Vasubandhu would have cited it.
One way of explaining the presence of these passages might be to say that the Commentary on the Scripture known to Haribhadra and Abhayākaragupta is by a later Buddhist writer having the name Vasubandhu (like the Tantric Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva).27 Alternatively, it might be that the kernel of Bṭ3, or the tradition of interpretation at the heart of Bṭ3, goes back to the great Vasubandhu, who is then said to be its author, in the same way that Nāgārjuna is said to be the author of the Treatise on the Long Perfection of Wisom (Mppś) (Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, Dazhidu lun).
The problem of the authorship of Bṭ3 is therefore unlikely to be resolved in the absence of any new evidence. Disagreement about it is indirectly linked to controversies that have been intensely debated among Tibetan commentators down the ages, and concern the relationship of the view of the Madhyamaka as expressed by Nāgārjuna and his followers on the one hand, to that of the Yogācāra of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu on the other—both essentially based on the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras—and the interpretation of the second and third turnings of the Dharma Wheel as definitive or provisional. Bṭ3 itself has played a relatively minor role in these debates, but two passages in the commentary that discuss the “three natures,” 4.110–4.111 and 4.541–4.547 are cited by Dölpopa, Shakya Chokden, and others as evidence that the Bṛhaṭṭīka supports an “emptiness of other” interpretation of emptiness. Tsongkhapa, in contrast, strongly opposed all such “emptiness of other” interpretations, while accepting that Bṭ3 puts forward a Madhyamaka view.28 This introduction is not the place to present a detailed account of these complex and enduring doctrinal debates, in which other, better known texts played more important roles. It would be unfair to both sides of the debate to suggest that, in evoking this work, their attribution of it to Vasubandhu or Daṃṣṭrāsena, respectively, was influenced solely by their doctrinal perspectives, but it would also be disingenuous to see no correlation at all; in understanding the work’s significance, its provenance is indeed a crucial element.
For whatever reasons, in any case, both Bṭ1 and Bṭ3 have remained little explored, and Ornament for the Clear Realizations has remained the principal focus of Perfection of Wisdom studies in the Indo-Tibetan scholastic tradition. Nevertheless, we feel that present day readers will find this helpful commentary a useful guide to navigating the long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras and to understanding their many features—regardless of controversies over its author or doctrinal debates about a few of its finer points.
Bṭ3 begins with a detailed explanation of the part of the introduction that is shared with many other scriptures, drawing, in particular, on The Ten Bhūmis (Daśabhūmikasūtra).30 It explains each of the opening words of the Perfection of Wisdom, and then gives a detailed explanation of the epithets of those in the retinue. It references many of the categories in the Perfection of Wisdom that it will explain in greater detail later.
The opening section of Bṭ3 continues with an explanation of the words in the part of the introduction unique to the Perfection of Wisdom and ends with a presentation of the single vehicle system.
There is a brief, an intermediate, and a detailed teaching.
This is the single question, “How then, Lord, should bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms make an effort at the perfection of wisdom?”, to which the Lord responds by remaining silent. It raises four further questions: What is a bodhisattva great being? What is it to want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms? What does “should make an effort” mean? And what is the perfection of wisdom?
This is “an explanation in ultimate truth mode that takes the knowledge of all aspects, that is, the state of the nonconceptual perfection of wisdom, as its point of departure.” It deals with the same four questions, first in a brief exposition and then in a detailed exposition. The intermediate teaching is given the general name “Subhūti’s Chapter,” and covers the sections of the three long sūtras corresponding to the first chapter of the Eight Thousand, which is an explanation of the knowledge of all aspects.
The intermediate teaching’s brief exposition sets forth four practices: the practice of the nonconceptual perfection of wisdom, the practice of the absence of secondary afflictions on the side of awakening, the practice of not harming beings to be matured, and the practice of all the stainless buddhadharmas that are the cause of maturation.
The intermediate teaching’s detailed exposition is in eight parts:
Why bodhisattvas endeavor (they want to make themselves familiar with the three vehicles, they want the greatnesses of bodhisattvas, and they want the greatnesses of buddhas) [4.67–4.185].
How bodhisattvas endeavor, explaining chapters 3–5 in the Eighteen Thousand [4.186–4.257] and the rest of chapter 2 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand.
The defining marks of those who endeavor (these are the unfindable intrinsic nature of form and each of the other aggregates and so forth, the unfindable intrinsic nature of them as a collection, the unfindability of their own defining marks, and the unfindable totality of dharmas) [4.258–4.322].
The members of the bodhisattva community who are engaged in the endeavor [4.323–4.401].
The instructions for the endeavor (instructions for making an effort at names that are conventional terms making things known, instructions for making an effort without apprehending beings, instructions for making an effort at not apprehending a word for something, and instructions for making an effort when all dharmas are not apprehended) [4.402–4.473].
The benefits of the endeavor, which are the comprehension of the dharmas that have to be comprehended, the elimination of those that have to be eliminated, the fulfillment in meditation of those that have to be fulfilled, and the direct witness by reaching those that have to be directly witnessed [4.474–4.500].
There are six subdivisions of the endeavor: (1) practice free from the two extremes; (2) practice that does not stand; (3) practice that does not fully grasp dharmas, causal signs, or understanding; (4) practice that has made a full investigation; (5) the practice of method; and (6) practice for quickly fully awakening. The practice for quickly fully awakening is the training in the meditative stabilizations, in not apprehending all dharmas, in the illusion-like, and in skillful means [4.501–4.675].
The last of the eight parts is the discussion that arrives at an authoritative conclusion about the meaning.
The last of these eight parts is a long section in Bṭ3 that explains up to the end of chapter 21 in the Eighteen Thousand and up to the end of chapter 13 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand. First there is a list of twenty-eight or twenty-nine questions [4.678], followed by an exchange between the two principal interlocutors—Subhūti and Śāriputra. Bṭ3’s explanations of the responses to the twenty-eight or twenty-nine questions do not exactly match the enumeration given in the original list. The differences are pointed out later in this introduction and in the notes to the translation. The response to the question, “What is the Great Vehicle?”, occasions a detailed explanation of the purification dharmas under twenty-one categories, starting with the perfections, emptinesses, meditative stabilizations, and thirty-seven dharmas on the side of awakening, and going up to the four detailed and thorough knowledges, the eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha, and the dhāraṇī doors. The intermediate teaching ends with an exposition of the etymology of vehicle, the attributes of the Great Vehicle (that it surpasses the world, is equal to space, does not come or go, and has no beginning or end), and its results.
This takes as its point of departure the knowledge of path aspects, which is to say the bodhisattva’s knowledge, as distinct from a buddha’s knowledge of all aspects, and “teaches the conceptual and nonconceptual perfection of wisdom that is the practice of bodhisattvas.”
The first part, up to Subhūti’s two hundred and seventy-seven questions, divides the three long sūtras into sections that are sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit. First it explains what the perfection of wisdom is, how bodhisattvas should stand in it, and how they should train in it. This section is important in that it makes clear that all three knowledges—the knowledges of a śrāvaka, a bodhisattva, and a buddha—are the practice of the perfection of wisdom. This is the main insight of the exposition in Maitreya’s Ornament for the Clear Realizations. It then explains the sustaining power (adhiṣṭhāna) of a tathāgata, and the greatness of the doctrine. Bṭ3 then gives an exegesis of benefits, merits, rejoicing, dedication, and the praises. It also gives an exegesis of forsaking the perfection of wisdom because of its depth and its purity, a discursus on “the last of the five hundreds,” and an explanation of the works of Māra. Finally, it explains the difference between a new bodhisattva and a seasoned bodhisattva, the signs of those irreversible from progress toward awakening, suchness (reality), a tathāgata (realized one), skillful means, and the argument between Subhūti and Śāriputra over whether it is hard or not hard to become awakened.
The second part explains the responses to the two hundred and seventy-seven questions.
This section provides (1) glosses for each of the words or phrases that set the scene, starting with “Thus did I hear at one time”; (2) glosses for each term in the string of epithets for the “great community of monks,” one of the four branches of the community (monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen) present for the teaching; and (3) glosses for the epithets of the five types of bodhisattvas in the retinue. The explanation of the qualities of the worthy monks provides for a brief overview of the practice and result set forth in the fundamental Buddhist scriptures, and the explanation of the bodhisattvas, based on The Ten Bhūmis, gives a brief overview of the five types of bodhisattva: (1) bodhisattvas with a surpassing intention on the first level, (2) those “who stand in signlessness with effort up to the seventh level, (3) those who effortlessly stand in signlessness… on the eighth level,” (4) bodhisattvas up to the tenth level, and (5) bodhisattvas “obstructed by just a single birth.” It connects the epithets beginning with their “understanding phenomena to be like an illusion,” and so on, with the last of these. There is also a detailed explanation of the four types of dhāraṇī.
This again provides glosses for each word or phrase starting from, “Thereupon the Lord, having himself arranged the lion throne…” The Lord demonstrates miraculous powers of meditative stabilization, miraculous wonder-working powers, and miraculous dharma-illuminating powers. The first is demonstrated by the Lord radiating light, the second with his magical creation of a great tower of flowers and its suspension in the air and so on, and the third with his illuminating the buddhas in different worlds and teaching a gigantic retinue. In the context of the buddhas of the ten directions warning their bodhisattvas traveling to our world that they should “be careful in that buddhafield,” there is a detailed explanation of the five degenerations in Śākyamuni’s buddhafield, that is, in the world in which we live.
Included in this section of the introduction is an exposition of the opening words of the second chapter in all three long sūtras: “When the Lord understood that the world with its celestial beings, Māras and Brahmās, śramaṇas and brahmins, gods, and humans, as well as bodhisattvas, most of them in youthful form, had assembled, he said to venerable Śāriputra…” The great śrāvaka Śāriputra is singled out, rather than a bodhisattva, to make known that “the perfection of wisdom is a shared discourse.” He is singled out even though he is a worthy one, because all worthy ones are finally roused from nirvāṇa to work for the welfare of beings. This occasions a presentation of the single vehicle system explained in The White Lotus of the Good Dharma (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka),31 The Lion’s Roar of Śrīmālādevī (Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanāda), The Questions of Sāgaramati (Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā),32 The Ten Dharmas Sūtra (Daśadharmakasūtra), and in the Maitreya chapters of the Eighteen Thousand and Twenty-Five Thousand.33
The Perfection of Wisdom is divided into three teachings: brief, intermediate, and detailed. The subdivisions of the intermediate teaching are explicitly identified under the heading “exposition in eight parts.” These are:
why bodhisattvas endeavor,
how bodhisattvas endeavor,
the defining marks of those who endeavor,
the subdivisions of those who endeavor,
the instructions for the endeavor,
the benefits of the endeavor,
the subdivisions of the endeavor, and
the specific instruction for coming to an authoritative conclusion about this exposition.
Bṭ3 says there are eleven rounds of teaching. The probable correspondences with the chapters in The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines scripture are given in the notes to the translation [2.17].
This section provides a detailed gloss of each word of the statement, “Here, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms should make an effort at the perfection of wisdom.” Here and throughout Bṭ3 the explanation uses the terminology of the three natures34 characteristic of Yogācāra discourse. These are the imaginary (Skt. parikalpita, Tib. kun brtags), dependent or other-powered (Skt. paratantra, Tib. gzhan dbang), and thoroughly established or final outcome (Skt. pariniṣpanna, Tib. yongs su grub pa); alternatively, they are imaginary, conceptualized (Skt. vikalpita, Tib. rnam par brtags pa), and true dharmic nature (Skt. dharmatā, Tib. chos nyid). Taken together, the three natures give a full description of a phenomenon. For instance, the commentary says [4.543]: “The form ordinary foolish beings take to be defined as an easily breakable or seeable real thing is imaginary form. The aspect in which just that appears as real as an object of consciousness is conceptualized form. Just the bare thoroughly established suchness separated from those two imaginary and conceptualized form aspects is the true dharmic nature of form,” and [1.121] “Imaginary phenomena appear as if they are standing over there away from the consciousness. Dependent phenomena are produced dependent on conditions, like, as a simile, ‘magical creations’ that are produced dependent on the magician.” These are important terms used widely in Bṭ3.
This is in two parts, a brief teaching and a detailed teaching.
This section glosses the words in the first two paragraphs of the Lord’s immediate response to Śāriputra’s original question in chapter 2 of all three long sūtras. The response, a long list, is broken down into (1) the practice of the nonconceptual perfections, (2) the practice of the dharmas on the side of awakening without the secondary afflictions, (3) the practice without harming that brings beings to maturity, and (4) the practice that brings the buddhadharmas to maturity. The practice of the perfections is accomplished with skillful means; the practice of the dharmas on the side of awakening is accomplished through mastering the śrāvaka realizations; compassion accomplishes the practice of bringing beings to maturity; and wisdom accomplishes the practice of fully developing the buddhadharmas.
This explains the rest of chapter 2 and up to the end of chapter 21 in the Eighteen Thousand, chapter 13 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand.
IV.2.A This section glosses the explanation, in chapter 2 of all three long sūtras, of the goals to which the thought of awakening is directed. It explains in three parts the perfection of wisdom for which bodhisattvas endeavor. By endeavoring at the perfection of wisdom (1) they want to make themselves familiar with the three vehicles and achieve that familiarity, (2) they want and achieve the greatnesses of bodhisattvas, and (3) they want and achieve the greatnesses of buddhas. In the context of explaining the line “want to destroy all residual impressions, connections, and afflictions,” the commentary makes clear how the same practice and the same knowledge in the mindstreams of different beings with different motivations and insights differ. It again connects the different goals set forth from the line “want to enter into the secure state of a bodhisattva” with higher and higher bodhisattva levels, and in the context of the line “want to stand in inner emptiness,” gives a long and detailed explanation of each of the sixteen emptinesses. The end of this section investigates how Śākyamuni could both be without lust and still have the wife Yaśodharā and son Rāhula.
IV.2.B This section explains in detail the passage, at the beginning of chapter 3 in the Eighteen Thousand and in chapter 2 of the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand, about how bodhisattvas endeavor by “not seeing” any phenomenon, the name of any phenomenon, seeing itself, or anything that “not seeing” sees. It articulates the relationship between the three natures, the conventional and ultimate realities, and the way names and what they refer to are both connected with, but isolated from, the ultimately real. A bodhisattva with such wisdom eclipses the knowledge of even a billion worthy ones like Śāriputra. Still, the wisdom gained from the basic teachings and the wisdom gained from the Perfection of Wisdom ultimately have no intrinsic nature and are the same. That wisdom is special because of the intention, practice, and work, and because of the complete awakening and turning the wheel of the Dharma that are its result.
IV.2.C This section, under the heading “the defining marks of those who endeavor,” explains a passage in chapter 2 of all three long sūtras as first teaching four practices of emptiness woven around eleven defining marks, and then teaching a further sixteen practices of emptiness. The defining mark is always emptiness. Glossing the line, “you cannot say… that they ‘are engaged’ or ‘are not engaged,’ ” the commentary explains the first of the four practices, the practice of form and so on separately, based on Nāgārjuna’s Root Verses on the Middle Way (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā), teaching that nothing is produced from itself and so on. The second practice, explaining the line “do not see ‘a confluence of form with feeling,’ ” teaches that form and so on, as a collection that locates a bodhisattva, are empty. The third practice, explaining the line “that emptiness of form is not form,” is to see the defining mark of form and so on as empty; and the fourth, explaining the line “form is itself emptiness, and emptiness is form,” is a practice that sees the totality of dharmas, starting with form, as emptiness. The list of sixteen emptinesses begins with an explanation of the line, “they do not see the practice of the perfection of wisdom as either ‘engaged’ or ‘not engaged’ with form.”
The bodhisattva always practicing these emptinesses is at the eighth level, has gained the forbearance for dharmas that are not produced, and is predicted to full awakening by the buddhas.
IV.2.D Those who endeavor at the practice are subdivided into three types: the supreme who arrive from a buddhafield and go to a buddhafield, the middling who arrive from Tuṣita, and the last who arrive from among humans. These are then divided into the forty-four or forty-five members of the community. Following that, the commentary deals briskly with the detailed explanation of the six clairvoyances and the five eyes, and the remainder of chapter 2 up to the end of chapter 5 in the Eighteen Thousand, all of which in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand is included in chapter 2.
IV.2.E This section is an explanation of chapter 6 in the Eighteen Thousand, chapter 3 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand. A bodhisattva, the perfection of wisdom, and awakening ultimately do not exist, but the names are important conventionally because otherwise beings would be deprived of the instructions they need. The Lord, through Subhūti, gives the instructions for making an effort “by using names and conventional terms conventionally,” for making an effort without apprehending beings, for making an effort by not apprehending words for things, and for making an effort when all dharmas cannot be apprehended.
Names for things (their conventional reality) are not other than the ultimate reality of things. The name bodhisattva is not found anywhere. It is “used conventionally as a mere word and conventional term” that is “not produced and does not stop.” Were it produced when the actual thing referred to by the name is produced, it would not be necessary to give it a name, because it would be known automatically. The benefit of such instruction is that it stops the śrāvaka’s attachment to insight, the three doors to liberation, and the perfect analytic understanding of the suchness of dharmas. A bodhisattva avoids all such thought constructions.
The instruction for making an effort without apprehending beings explains the relationship between self and the aggregates and rejects the views of ordinary “cow-herders,” Jains, Vaidikas, Sāṃkhyas, Parivrājakas, Ulūkas, and proponents of Īśvara, as well as the view that the ultimate reality of a bodhisattva is the bodhisattva.
The instruction for making an effort by not apprehending words for things explains “is bodhisattva the word for form?” and so on. The aggregates and the attributes of the aggregates are imaginary names, so they cannot be the bodhisattva.
There is a brief and then a more detailed instruction for making an effort when all dharmas cannot be apprehended. A “bodhisattva” during the course of practice is like the sky that, though earlier clouded over and later cloudless, is just the sky.
IV.2.F The benefits of the endeavor are set forth in chapter 7 in the Eighteen Thousand, chapter 4 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand. They include comprehension of the dharmas that have to be comprehended and those that have to be eliminated, perfecting in meditation those that have to be perfected, and directly witnessing those that have to be directly witnessed.
Thus did I hear P25k
and so on. Because he has been charged with protecting the form body and the true collection of teachings,41 the great noble bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi, asked in the assembly, says to noble Maitreya that this is the explanation of the perfection of wisdom that he has heard, with “Thus did I hear.”
Why does he not say, “Thus has the Lord said”?
It is because the Lord’s tremendous teaching is not within his own range. The Lord teaches[F.2.a] with a single knowledge and in a single instant, simultaneously explaining to trainees of various statuses, intentions, behaviors, beliefs, and faculties, brought together from various world systems, the particulars of the impermanent, suffering, empty, selfless, unproduced, and unceasing, in a state of primordial calm, and naturally in nirvāṇa and so on; the particulars of aggregates, constituents, sense fields, dependent originations, and noble truths and so on; the particulars of the applications of mindfulness, right efforts, legs of miraculous power, and faculties and so on; and the particulars of the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha and so on—in various languages, and with various headings, various words, various miraculous powers, various appearances, and various attainments of results. As it says:42
Śāntamati, the earth element is not as big as the amount of beings known by a buddha’s knowledge,[F.2.b] beings in infinite, innumerable world systems in the ten directions all gathered together—a huge amount. Śāntamati, if all those beings were to gain a human form all at once, and all those beings were to become endowed with the wisdom and knowledge of the elder Śāriputra, and all that Śāriputra-like wisdom and knowledge of all those beings were to be in a single being—if all beings were to become endowed with the wisdom and knowledge as in that analogy, and if, Śāntamati, all those beings were to entertain, judge, and ferret out questions and doubts for an eon, or more than an eon, and all the doubts one person had were not to be the doubts of a second, and, Śāntamati, were they, having in mind all the different doubts of all the beings as in that analogy, to go before the Lord and voice in a finger snap those doubts and questions, the Lord would, with one thought, become mindful of them all, and grasping all the doubts would, by uttering one statement, remove all the doubts and questions. They would all know their own different doubts and questions, and they would all be overjoyed at the Lord’s answers to all their questions.
Given that such a sequence of teachings to trainees by a tathāgata is not totally within the range of bodhisattvas, those who recite43 the Dharma are not able, with their branch sequence, to teach the full range. So those who recite the Dharma expound whatever Dharma is within their range, and based on that say “thus did I hear” to reveal the sequence that came into their hearing, concluding the discourse with[F.3.a] “the Lord said this.” They do not say, “Thus has the Lord said.”
Ultimately the perfection of wisdom is inexpressible, so the lord buddhas do not teach dharmas to others with collections of names, phrases, and speech sounds. The tathāgatas are without thought construction, are spontaneous, are always absorbed in meditative equipoise. Nevertheless, one knows that through the force of earlier prayers, and based on the karma of beings, there are Dharma teachings in this way or that way given to trainees in their own languages. As it says:44
Śāntamati, on the night the Tathāgata fully awakens to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, and up until the night he enters into nirvāṇa, he has not spoken and will not speak even a single syllable. And why? Because, Śāntamati, the Tathāgata is always absorbed in meditative equipoise. The Tathāgata does not breathe in and does not breathe out; he does not have applied thought and does not have sustained thought. Without applied and sustained thought there is no speech. The Tathāgata does not think discursively and does not sustain thought, does not make representations, does not make projections, and does not speak, utter, or make pronouncements, but still beings think, “The Tathāgata is speaking.” Again, the Tathāgata is totally absorbed in meditative equipoise and does not represent anything in verbal projections in any way, but still beings think about the spontaneous words, “The Tathāgata is teaching us the Dharma.”45 When the sounds of the Tathāgata’s statements come from space, beings think, “This sound has come from the mouth of the Tathāgata,”
and so on. It originates from the dharma body. Therefore,[F.3.b] in conclusion, when it comes in that way to a definite end, it says “that is what [the Lord] said” as an act of reverence for the good Dharma.
At one time P25k
means “at one time, whenever that might be.”
Why does it not say an exact time?
Because there is no need to do so. About this, there is no need at all to say words to the effect that it was on this day, on this date, in this month, at this time; and if it is unnecessary it is not right to say it. As for revealing the place, which is a place of worship, it is right to reveal the place in order that beings will increase their merit accumulation by being able to go there, and because there are no disputes about it.
Alternatively, it is so there will be no disputes. Thus, the Tathāgata, appearing in various forms, during just the time span of a single instant, discourses on Dharma in various world systems, in various places, to a variety of trainees—bodhisattvas or others. But given that the wanderers to be trained—bodhisattvas or others—are all gathered as one,46 if you say “at that time the Tathāgata in world system X, in region X…,” this could lead to arguments or uncertainty that “he was in our place Y,” or “he was in our place Z.” Since they were worried about that happening, those who recite the Dharma did not state an exact time.
Alternatively, taking it as saying one time when he was in Rājagṛha, given that he was in Rājagṛha many times, construe it as saying “one time.”
The Lord (bhagavat) P25k
is one who has destroyed (bhagnavat) the four Māras. Or [he is a blessed one] who “has” (vat) an “endowment” (bhaga). Take the endowment as these six: sovereignty, wisdom, fame, glory, merit, and perseverance. Insofar as only a tathāgata ultimately has them all, that one is called “the Lord” or “Blessed One.”[F.4.a]
Dwelt at Rājagṛha— P25k
there are four dwellings: the dwellings of behavior, teaching, absorption, and retreat.
Any work, whatever it is, counted as physical is all the dwelling of the Lord’s behavior.
Any verbal work is the dwelling of the Lord’s teaching.
And any mental work is the other two dwellings: he is always absorbed in meditative equipoise because of being fully absorbed in the meditative stabilizations and the four absorptions, and he is in retreat when he views the world with great compassion, and when the gods and so on arrive.47
He dwelt at Rājagṛha
on Gṛdhrakūṭa Hill. P25k
It says two places because both the lay and religious wings were gathered there, or to teach that the form body and the collection of teachings48 assist the teaching.
To demonstrate that the retainers are complete, it says
with a great community of monks, P25k
and so on. The retainers are the monks and the bodhisattvas and so on. Both are indeed very worthy of donations, but it announces the monks first because they are honored in the world, because the Lord does not separate from them, and because they are common to all the world. It makes the prior general statement, “a great community of monks.” After that it specifies
numbering five thousand monks, P25k
because there is a good connection when you teach the general and then the specific.
Having taught that he had many retainers, to teach their greatness it says about their perfect qualities that they were
all worthy ones… with outflows dried up, P25k
and so on.
It says all of them were worthy ones since they were all “worthy ones,” that is to say, it is teaching that there were no trainees or ordinary persons.[F.4.b] They are “worthy ones” because they have destroyed [from han, “to destroy”] the foe (ari); or [from rah, “to leave”: arahat, “one who has left”] because they will not take rebirth in saṃsāra;49 or they have completed their own purpose (svārtha); or because they are worthy [from arh, “to be worthy”] or capable of being a teacher for others, worthy of being in the Saṅgha Jewel, worthy of many kinds of worship by those foremost in the three realms, and because they uninterruptedly worship and reverence the Tathāgata by offering their practice. Hence, they were all worthy ones.
With outflows dried up— P25k
they are “outflows” because as four phenomena they seep onto the unwholesome roots or soak you with filthy afflictions. The four are the five objects, form and so on, that are sense object outflows; the three causes of existence that are outflows that cause existence; innate and acquired ignorance that are ignorance outflows; and the sixty-two wrong views that are view outflows. Sense object outflows are dried up by the aggregates of nontrainee morality and meditative stabilization; view outflows are dried up by the aggregate of nontrainee wisdom. The aggregate of nontrainee liberation dries up outflows that cause existence. The aggregate of nontrainee knowledge and seeing of liberation dries up ignorance outflows. Alternatively, right view at the path of seeing level, when morality is complete, dries up view outflows; right meditative stabilization at the non-returner path level, when meditative stabilization is complete, dries up sense object outflows; right knowledge and liberation at the worthy one path level, when wisdom is complete, dry up ignorance outflows; and knowledge that they are extinct and will not arise again at the level when liberation is complete dries up outflows that cause existence.
Another alternative is that on the worthy one path, sense object outflows dry up because of comprehending the cause of desire for sense objects; ignorance outflows dry up because of comprehending the cause of volitional factors, because it is said “ignorance is the condition for volitional factors”; view outflows dry up because of comprehending the cause of afflictions;[F.5.a] and outflows that cause existence dry up because of comprehending the causes of the aggregates.
Another alternative is that comprehending the truth of suffering dries up view outflows because all views arise with the five aggregates for appropriation as the objective support; the elimination of the truth of origination dries up sense object outflows; realization of the truth of cessation dries up outflows that cause existence; and the development of the true path dries up ignorance outflows.
Eliminating sense object outflows vanquishes Māra as a god; eliminating outflows that cause existence vanquishes Māra as death; eliminating ignorance outflows vanquishes Māra as afflictions; and eliminating view outflows vanquishes Māra as aggregates. They have conquered the four Māras, so their “outflows are dried up.”
Without afflictions P25k
means without defilement.50 The defilement of action is an affliction because it causes affliction; the defilement of afflictive emotion is because it afflicts; the defilement of aggregates that have come about from karmic maturation is an affliction in the sense of the afflictions to come; and the defilement of birth is because with that as a cause the afflictions come about.
Of these, when ignorance stops, volitional factors stop51 is the absence of the defilement of action; when volitional factors stop, consciousness, name and form, the six sense fields, contact, and feeling stop is the absence of the defilement of karmic maturation;52 and when existence stops, birth, old age, and death stop is the nonexistence of the defilement of birth. Therefore, this teaches that they have eliminated what makes suffering,53 that on account of which there is suffering,54 that which is suffering,55 and what are the causes of suffering.56
Furthermore, by eliminating the defilement of action they reach the happiness of full awakening; by eliminating the defilement of afflictive emotion they reach the happiness free from immorality;[F.5.b] by eliminating the defilement of karmic maturation they reach the happiness of tranquility; and by eliminating the defilement of birth they reach the happiness without aggregates—that is, they reach what makes happiness,57 that on account of which there is happiness,58 that which is happiness,59 and what is the cause of happiness.60 Thus, they are “without afflictions.”
“Worthy ones” teaches their quality of being objects worthy of donations; “with outflows dried up” their quality of purity; and “without afflictions” the absence of suffering. These are the differences among these three.
Fully controlled— P25k
they are “fully controlled” because the world has come under their control; or because they themselves are shown deference by the world because they are a delight; or because they have taken control of their minds; or they have gained the controls. The controls are four: control over miraculous powers, control over their faculties, control over meditative stabilization, and control over wisdom. Their control over miraculous powers gives them control over the world of beings, and over the world that is their container. Their control over their faculties calms their conduct and produces the world’s delight; their control over meditative stabilization brings their mind under control; and their control over wisdom cuts afflictions, action, and maturation, freeing them from bonds so that, in control of themselves, they gain control. Because they control their faculties, they gain the dwelling61 of the level of conduct; because they control meditative stabilization, they gain the dwelling of the gods and the dwelling of Brahmā; because they control miraculous powers, they gain the dwelling with the play of clairvoyance; and because they control wisdom,62 they gain the dwelling of noble beings. Because they control their faculties, they have a complete attainment of the aggregate of morality; because they control miraculous powers, they have a complete attainment of the aggregate of meditative stabilization; because they control meditative stabilization, they have a complete attainment of the aggregate of wisdom; and because they control wisdom[F.6.a] they have a complete attainment of the aggregate of liberation. Morality emancipates from the bonds of bad conduct; meditative stabilization emancipates from the bonds of craving;63 wisdom emancipates from the bonds of bad views; and liberation emancipates from the bonds of what causes existence. So, because they are emancipated from bonds they have self-control; and because they have self-control they gain autonomy, hence they are “fully controlled.”
They are
with their minds well freed P25k
teaches that they are without any defilement on the side of craving;
and their wisdom well freed P25k
teaches that they are without any defilement on the side of ignorance. Thus, they are “with their minds well freed and their wisdom well freed.” Because they are free from attachment they have mental freedom and hence “their minds are well freed”; because they are free from ignorance they have the freedom of wisdom and hence “their wisdom is well freed.” Mental freedom is the meditative stabilizations and absorptions gained from eliminating primary and secondary afflictions on the side of craving; the freedom of wisdom is the path of the worthy one gained from eliminating all afflictions on the side of ignorance. There, when they gain mental freedom they are freed from obstructions to absorption; when they gain the freedom of wisdom they are freed from obstructions that are afflictions. Those free in both ways are “with their minds well freed and their wisdom well freed.”
They are
thoroughbreds P25k
on account of being fearless.64 Because of their fearlessnesses, a sūtra says “there are five thoroughbreds: a dominant bull in a herd, free from the anxiety caused by terror of lightning strikes and so on; an elephant and a thoroughbred horse that do not fear battle; a thoroughbred lion that does not fear another’s attack;[F.6.b] and a thoroughbred worthy one without fear of death. In short, there are four terrors: being in terror of suffering, in terror of the fearsome, in terror of worldly dharmas, and in terror of ignorance. Those in whom those terrors are absent gain ease, gain a state without terrors, gain fearlessness, and gain relief,” respectively. Because they have no pain, lamentation, suffering, mental anguish, and so on, they have no pain and hence are not in terror of suffering. Because they have no fear of self-criticism, criticism from another, bad rebirth, penury,65 chastisement, no epitaph, or death, they are not in terror of the fearsome. Because they are not tainted with attaining and not attaining, fame and infamy, praise and blame, pleasure and pain they are not in terror of fearsome worldly dharmas. Because they are not blocked by ignorance, doubt, and wrong understanding they are not in terror of ignorance. Hence they are without terror and therefore “thoroughbreds.”
They are
great bull elephants, P25k
that is, they have a magnificent bearing. Some have the three knowledges, some have gained detailed and thorough knowledge, some have gained the six clairvoyances, some have a prediction of knowledge,66 and some have a single focus—that is, they have obtained an attribute through which they have gained a special state and hence are “great bull elephants.”67
With their work done, their task accomplished P25k
teaches the state of full completion. What they definitely have to do is their “work”; ancillary work is their “task.” Their main work is freedom from all suffering, by fully completing morality, meditative stabilization, and wisdom.68 They are those “with their work done” when those are fully completed.[F.7.a] The work of fully completing the different ways of gaining a livelihood—the livelihood of those desiring little, the livelihood of those with contentment, the livelihood of those doing the ascetic practices, the livelihood of those who cause perfect delight and so on—is the “task,” in the sense that it is connected with what one personally wants to do. They are those with “their task accomplished” when those are fully completed. Thus “with their work done, their task accomplished” teaches the state of full completion of all that has to be accomplished.
They are those
with their burden laid down. P25k
There are four “burdens”: the burden of the aggregates, the burden of afflictions, the burden of an avowed aim, and the burden of practice. They are burdens because they have to be laid down, eliminated, carried out, and completed, respectively. They lay down the burden of the aggregates by understanding suffering; they lay down the burden of afflictions by removing origination; they lay down the burden of an avowed aim by having meditated on the path; and they lay down the burden of practice by actualizing cessation. There, they gain the happiness where there are no aggregates by forsaking the burden of the aggregates; they gain the happiness of liberation by forsaking the burden of afflictions; they gain the happiness of full awakening by perfectly completing the burden of an avowed aim; and they gain the happiness of tranquility by fully completing the burden of practice. Hence “with their burden laid down” teaches the attainment of happiness when the burdens have been laid down.
They are those
with their own goal accomplished. P25k
There are two “goals” of “their own” that are “accomplished”: eliminating harm and reaching the goal. The elimination of all the defiling obscurations that comes about from eliminating ignorance is eliminating harm; the nirvāṇa that is gained from the production of all knowledge is gaining the goal.
They are those
with the fetters that bound them to existence broken. P25k
The fetters69 that cause birth in existence are “cause-of-existence fetters.” They fetter or bind one to existence and to being human.[F.7.b] From the nine of them, correct view without outflows eliminates three (the fetters of wrong view, grasping-as-absolute, and doubt); attainment of absorption into the meditative stabilization without outflows eliminates three (the fetters of envy, jealousy, and anger), and, of the attachment that fetters to existence, the single side included in the desire realm; and the knowledge of the worthy one’s path eliminates three (the fetters of pride, ignorance, and attachment to existence). Therefore, it says “with the fetters that bound them to existence broken.”
They are those
with their hearts well freed by perfect understanding.70 P25k
Knowing is fully understanding and realizing, which is to say, they are those “with their heart well freed by perfect realization.” Alternatively, construe “freed” as belief in the teaching of the doctrine of the three vehicles, in the four truths, in the dharmas on the side of awakening and so on, or, alternatively, their minds are well freed by the eight deliverances.
Those
in perfect control of their whole mind71 P25k
are those who have perfect mastery over all the absorptions. Alternatively, those with perfect mastery over the nine successive absorption stations72 are “in perfect control of their whole mind,”73 being “in” a state of mastery over becoming absorbed in, abiding in, emerging from, and remaining dispassionate in cessation and meditative stabilization, by becoming absorbed and so on where they want, into what they want, and for as long as they want; becoming absorbed in and emerging in conforming order and nonconforming order, direct and reverse order, going and returning; bringing together the factors of concentration, having the objects of absorption,[F.8.a] and having the factors and objects;74 uniting factors, uniting objects, and uniting factors and objects; and combining one, combining two, not combining two, and so on, respectively.75
Construe the stated qualities as follows:
They are all worthy ones. Why? Because their outflows are dried up. Their outflows are dried up because they are without afflictions. They are without afflictions because they are fully controlled. They are fully controlled because their minds are well freed. Their minds are well freed because their wisdom is well freed. Their wisdom is well freed because they are thoroughbreds. They are thoroughbreds because they are great bull elephants. They are great bull elephants because their work is done. Their work is done because their task is accomplished. Their task is accomplished because their burden is laid down. Their burden is laid down because their own goal is accomplished. Their own goal is accomplished because they are those with the fetters that bound them to existence broken. They are those with the fetters that bound them to existence broken because their hearts are well freed by perfect understanding. And their hearts are well freed by perfect understanding because they are in perfect control of their whole mind.76
The teaching about their good qualities is
all of whom had acquired the dhāraṇīs P25k
and so on. There are five types of bodhisattvas: those with a surpassing intention, those who stand in signlessness with effort, those who effortlessly stand in signlessness, those who have entered into the certain course of conduct, and those obstructed by just a single birth.77 They are all included in these. Those with a surpassing intention are on the first bodhisattva level; those who stand in signlessness with effort are up to the seventh level; those who effortlessly stand in signlessness are on the eighth level; those who have entered into the certain course of conduct78 are up to the tenth level; and from then on they are obstructed by just a single birth. They are all included in these.
They have
acquired the dhāraṇīs. P25k
It is a dhāraṇī because it causes them to bear the meaning in mind. There are four dhāraṇīs: a dhāraṇī that causes bodhisattvas to obtain forbearance, secret mantra dhāraṇī, word or doctrine dhāraṇī, and meaning dhāraṇī.
What is a dhāraṇī that acts as a cause for bodhisattvas to obtain forbearance?
Bodhisattvas who have earlier completed the causes on the devoted course of conduct level by always leading a life of isolation, eating in moderation, restraining their senses, not starting up a conversation with just anybody, and trying not to fall off to sleep in order to produce a bodhisattva’s forbearance bear in mind those secret mantra base79 letters, or words—tadyathā | i ṭi mi ṭi | ki ṭi vi kṣānti | pā da ni svā hā and so on—that they say. They wonder, “What do these secret mantra bases mean? What are the actual meanings of the expression and what’s expressed?” After thus contemplating for a long time they see no meaning in what is being expressed. Seeing no meaning, they ascertain perfectly, “There is no meaning at all being expressed[F.9.a] in those secret mantra bases. It is certain that just the absence of an expressed meaning is the meaning of those secret mantra bases. The intrinsic absence of an expressed meaning is their meaning.” They meditate on those secret mantra bases as free from an essential expression and what is expressed. Having meditated well on those secret mantra bases free from expression and what is expressed, they perfectly ascertain that in the same fashion all dharmas are free from an essential expression and what is expressed. They think, “Just as these secret mantra bases are free from an essential expression and what is expressed, all dharmas are similarly inexpressible, so their basic nature is inexpressible.” Thus, they determine that all dharmas, in their basic nature free from an essential expression and what is expressed, are by nature inexpressible. When they have determined that, they see that all dharmas are empty of a falsely imagined nature. When they see that, they realize the essential inexpressible nature of all dharmas, on account of which a great joy arises. Because of that, they are then those who have “acquired the dhāraṇis.” Then just because of acquiring the dhāraṇīs, with that as the cause, there immediately comes into being for the bodhisattva a great forbearance in harmony with the production of the first Pramuditā level, a forbearance so called because it is able to bear the ultimate. Such a forbearance, when it arises, is dhāraṇī knowledge. Not long after they have produced that dhāraṇī forbearance they reach the Pramuditā level of those with surpassing aspiration. Therefore, you should know that this dhāraṇī forbearance is included in the devoted course of conduct level.
What is the secret mantra dhāraṇī of bodhisattvas?80
The mastery of meditative stabilization capable of exerting controlling power[F.9.b] is secret mantra dhāraṇī. Thus, bodhisattvas have to accumulate knowledge during the first incalculable eon. After the passing of that incalculable eon they reach the first level. On that level they engage in the purification81 for knowledge, and gain mastery over the attainment of practiced meditative stabilizations and absorptions. The force produced by the meditative stabilization faculty and the force produced by earlier prayers exert controlling power over the secret mantra bases, so the force of the meditative stabilization, concentrating on “may these secret mantra bases stop all the plagues, problems, diseases, and strife of beings,” stops plagues and problems. That is the way those secret mantra bases exerting controlling power are accomplished, becoming supreme and solidly efficacious. Similarly, bodhisattva great beings stationed on the higher levels fully accomplish for the sake of this or that need of beings the secret mantra words exerting controlling power in whatever way necessary. Since this is the case, they are “secret mantra dhāraṇīs,” because with such mastery of the meditative stabilization they bear the secret mantras in mind. The secret mantra bases that are objects of those dhāraṇī faculties are also “dhāraṇīs” because they are the objects of those dhāraṇīs.
Among them, what is doctrine dhāraṇī?
Doctrine dhāraṇī is the recollection82 and wisdom that bear in mind and do not forget, even after a long time, the infinite, incalculable, immeasurable doctrines included in the collection of words, the collection of phrases, and the collection of speech sounds that bodhisattvas never understood or heard before, when they have reached the levels and are listening to the doctrines of the buddhas and bodhisattvas.[F.10.a]
Among them, what is meaning dhāraṇī?
Meaning dhāraṇī is recollection and wisdom, taken as one, that bear in mind and do not forget the infinite, incalculable, immeasurable meanings of the doctrines those bodhisattvas have borne in mind like that for an immeasurable time.
Among them, the aforementioned dhāraṇī in the form of forbearance is of those who have earlier completed the causes, so they gain it on the devoted course of conduct level. They gain the remaining three on the first level and so on, having passed beyond the first countless eon. About them a sūtra says, “Bodhisattva great beings who possess four dharmas are perfect in dhāraṇī.” Those who have “acquired the dhāraṇīs” have the four dharmas. The four dharmas are “disdain for sense objects, absence of envy, giving up everything, and joy in the Dharma in the Bodhisattvapiṭaka and so on, which stop the four on the side opposing the equality of self and others—excessive attachment to sense objects, envy, miserliness, and lack of enthusiasm for the joy of the Dharma.” According to the sequence set forth in another sūtra,83 on the first level they have acquired the superior location dhāraṇī because through its force they have become a location for all holy, special qualities; on the second, the stainless, because through its force they have pure morality; on the third, the extremely stable, because through its force the perfect power of patience free from all mental disturbances is stabilized; on the fourth, the hard to conquer, because through its force one is unconquerable by all Māras and opponents; on the fifth, the good quality mind ornament dhāraṇī; on the sixth,[F.10.b] the lamp for the knowledge maṇḍala; on the seventh, the becoming distinguished; on the eighth, the nonconceptual; on the ninth, the infinitely-doored; and on the tenth, the inexhaustible basket dhāraṇī. Hence, they have “acquired the dhāraṇīs” because on each of those different levels they gain a myriad of infinite, incalculable, immeasurable dhāraṇīs. Therefore, because such good qualities as these are shared in common with the devoted course of conduct level, it speaks of them like this.
Alternatively, when they have become familiar with all the syllables in this perfection of wisdom, they become causes for the realization of all dharmas. Thus, a is the first letter in anutpannatva, “nonproduction,” in “all dharmas are unproduced.” When, having superimposed the meaning of nonproduction on the a, bodhisattvas consider that it means nonproduction, and through the practice of calm abiding and special insight their meditation becomes perfect, then just the single letter a appears, through the force of habituation, in the form of the nonproduction of all dharmas. In this manner a is the cause of the realization of all dharmas. Thus, when they meditate on just this a based on its meaning of nonproduction, nonorigination, the intrinsic nature of a nonexistent thing, noncessation, and so on, it is the cause of the analytic realization of each dharma. Thus it says,84
What are the dhāraṇī doors? The sameness of all letters and syllables, the sameness of all spoken words, the syllable-doors, the syllable-entrances. What then are the syllable-doors, the syllable-entrances? The syllable a is the door to all dharmas being unproduced from the very beginning (ādy-anutpannatvād); ra is a door to the insight that all dharmas are without dirt (rajas), P25kP18k
and so on.
Thus, based on those syllables, wisdom and recollection arise that realize all dharmas. Because they bear the meaning of those in mind they are “dhāraṇīs.” The forbearance that takes the ultimate as its objective support is produced from those dhāraṇīs as its cause.[F.11.a] Both that recollection and wisdom are called the forbearance dhāraṇī.
Again, when bodhisattvas become very familiar with all the combinations of just those syllables strung together, they become the causes for perfectly bearing in mind the streams of Dharma expounded swiftly and continuously by buddhas and bodhisattvas, and their meanings. When they have become extremely familiar with those collections of words, collections of phrases, and collections of speech sounds, that recollection and wisdom is called doctrine dhāraṇī and meaning dhāraṇī.
Furthermore, when bodhisattvas have perfectly meditated on just those syllables, they bestow everything like a wish-fulfilling gem. Thus, when the force of meditative stabilization and the force of earlier prayers exert sustaining power over those syllables, they become the means to do everything that has to be done—the necessary stopping of all problems and purifying of all wrongs and so on. At that time, just that knowledge that exerts sustaining power over the syllables is called secret mantra dhāraṇī.85 Because they are those dhāraṇīs’ necessary objective supports, the syllables are also called dhāraṇīs.
The explanation of the man [in mantra] is “knowledge” [from the root man], and the tra is “protect” [from the root trai], so knowledge and compassion are mantra. The syllables are also mantra because they are in harmony with just them as their cause.
Again, because they eliminate ignorance (avidyā) and produce knowledge, just those are also called knowledge (vidyā).
They are bases [ādhāraṇī] for the stage of the knowledge of all aspects, hence they are bases. And so they get the names dhāraṇī secret mantra bases [mantrādhāraṇī] and vidyā secret mantra bases [vidyādhāraṇī].
Among those, bodhisattvas obtain the aforementioned forbearance dhāraṇī through the force of effort when the devoted course of conduct level is completed.86 The remaining three dhāraṇīs are produced through the power of prayer. On the first level, even though small they are still stable.87[F.11.b] From then on, all those dhāraṇīs are produced at a greater and greater level of excellence. Hence they have “acquired the dhāraṇīs.”
Those bodhisattvas who have acquired the dhāraṇīs, having meditated well on the noble truths and the dependent originations, gradually, on the first and second level and so on as explained in the noble sūtra The Ten Bhūmis,88 with that as the cause, become
dwellers in emptiness P25k
of a person and in the emptiness of dharmas. When they have thus grasped and meditated on that emptiness marked as omnipresent and so on,89 the emptiness gateway to liberation opens. When they have mastered emptiness, the earlier things such as water, wind, fire, moon, sun, mountains, oceans, lakes, woods, regions, districts, and so on that each appeared separately as a causal sign of a phenomenon, whatever they are, do not appear separately—they appear in the form of signlessness. At that point the signlessness gateway to liberation opens.
For those who thus dwell in the gateway of signlessness free from all causal signs there is no appearance of all three realms as three realms, and they do not desire anything there. Free from any desire for these, they do not wish for them in their minds, at which point the wishlessness gateway to liberation opens for them. When they have thus taken up in meditation the emptiness door to liberation, they dwell in the emptiness meditative stabilization. When they have thus taken up in meditation the signlessness gateway to liberation, they are free from any other experiential domain, so their range is the signless. When they see the three realms as do those who have no wishes, they do not fashion the three realms as worth wishing for. Thus, they are
dwellers in emptiness, their range the signless, and who had not fashioned any wishes.[F.12.a] P25k
Those who thus dwell well in the meditative stabilizations that are the gateways to liberation calm all elaborations,90 so for them four types of forbearance for sameness come about. They have no conception of self and other, so they have forbearance for self and others being the same; they have no attachment or aversion, so they have forbearance for compounded phenomena being the same; because they are nothing more than suchness, they have forbearance for all phenomena being the same; and because they think nirvāṇa and saṃsāra are the same, they have forbearance for nonabiding sameness.
From having thus produced and become habituated to the four forbearances for sameness, ten further samenesses gradually, as explained in The Ten Bhūmis, occur:91 signless sameness; markless sameness; unproduced sameness; unoriginated sameness; isolated sameness; calm-from-the-beginning sameness; unelaborated sameness; no forsaking or appropriating sameness; sameness as an illusion, a dream, an apparition, an echo, the reflection of the moon in water, a reflection in a mirror, or a magical creation; and existent and nonexistent sameness.
The unelaborated dharma-constituent free from imaginary aspects is not within the range of any consciousness with causal signs or conceptualization; it is within the range of nonconceptual knowledge. Hence all dharmas are said to be signless. Therefore, because all phenomena have the thoroughly established for their nature, there is signless sameness.92
Imaginary phenomena in the form of language and subject matter, the subject as the one who grasps and the object that is grasped are totally nonexistent so the imaginary mark is no mark, hence all are the same[F.12.b] insofar as they have no mark.
The ultimate thoroughly established nature is not produced from itself and is not produced from causes and conditions, hence there is an unproduced sameness, and an unoriginated sameness.93
The nature of suchness is free from afflictions and defilements, and free from the defilement of birth, therefore all phenomena are essentially isolated, hence there is an isolated sameness.94
The nature of suchness is not produced earlier and does not cease at the end, so all phenomena are unproduced and unceasing, hence there is a calm-from-the-beginning sameness.
The subject of that ultimate nature is unelaborated perfect knowledge because it has that as its object. All phenomena are unelaborated, hence there is an unelaborated sameness.
That ultimate nature is unmade. Ultimately there is no forsaking of one form of life and one set of aggregates and appropriating another set of aggregates. So, because there is no forsaking or appropriating, there is a no forsaking or appropriating sameness.
Those imaginaries do not have an intrinsic nature that is dual in nature,95 so they are similar to an illusion and so on, hence there is a sameness as an illusion and so on.
The thoroughly established nature does not exist as a falsely imagined existent nature and is not something nonexistent like a rabbit’s horns and so on either. Therefore, it is neither, hence there is an existent and nonexistent sameness.
Because they thus realize the ten marks of sameness, they
had acquired forbearance for the sameness of all dharmas. P25k
Those dwelling in the three meditative stabilizations that are gateways to liberation, endowed with a realization of the tenfold sameness, behold beings without a protector and feel great[F.13.a] compassion for them. Thus, those learned in the ultimate are yet seized by compassion and confront cyclic existence when they are inclined toward nirvāṇa. And so those who avoid cyclic existence and mentally confront nirvāṇa with the practice of wisdom, and avoid nirvāṇa and confront cyclic existence with the practice of compassion, gradually, as explained in The Ten Bhūmis,96 come to have a proper way of paying attention. This naturally weak and unowned compounded aggregate comes about because of possessing afflictions, and conditions being complete, but it cannot come about when there is no possession of afflictions and when conditions are not complete. Hence they think, “I have to make possession of the afflictions and completion of the conditions nonexistent; but beings who have no protector would then come to be ignored, so, in order to be of benefit to beings, I should not completely and totally put an end to the compounded aggregate.” In regard to those endowed with such wisdom and compassion dwelling in this attention, they actualize by way of appearance “standing unattached in the perfection of wisdom.”97 This knowledge is “forbearance conforming to the practice.”98 Thus standing in the perfection of wisdom, an appearance marked by standing without attachment, standing completely in this dhāraṇī knowledge, they even rule as wheel-turning emperors for the sake of beings, even as they pursue life without attachment. They demonstrate many types of enjoyment of sense pleasures, again doing so without attachment to them. They accumulate a wealth of worldly belongings for the sake of beings, without attachment to them. They cultivate the thirty-seven dharmas on the side of awakening, cultivating them without attachment to nirvāṇa. They meditate on uncompounded suchness, again meditating[F.13.b] without attachment to it. Because they have thus acquired the special knowledge of dhāraṇī that makes such skillful means paramount, they are those who
had acquired the dhāraṇī of nonattachment. P25k
When they thus stand by standing without attachment, thinking that both cyclic existence and nirvāṇa are the same, exerting themselves totally for the sake of beings alone, they enter into the concentrations, deliverances, meditative stabilizations, and absorptions in order to help beings, but they do not take birth through their force. They transform those concentrations, deliverances, meditative stabilizations, and absorptions into just what will be of help to beings. Having thus transformed them for the sake of beings they produce the six clairvoyances: knowledge of the performance of miraculous powers, the divine eye, the divine ear, knowledge of the ways of thinking, knowledge that recollects previous existences, and knowledge that makes directly known the extinction of outflows.99
Among these, knowledge of the performance of miraculous powers is of two types: transformative and magically creative. Among these, the transformative is causing the act of [the earth] moving, the act of [fire] burning, the act of the rain raining, and the act of [space] being pervasive;100 the act of changing one thing into something else; going, coming [through walls, etc.], shrinking or expanding; swallowing any physical object;101 appearing before anyone suitable, the act of appearing, the act of disappearing, or the act of controlling; eclipsing an opponent’s miraculous powers; and giving confidence, giving recollection, giving happiness, giving light, and anything else like those. The bodhisattvas do whatever beings require.
As for the magically creative, they are of three types: magically created bodies, magically created speech, and magically created[F.14.a] objects.
Among them, magically created bodies are any of the many types of magical creations that bodhisattvas demonstrate for the sake of beings: the appearances of gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell beings, and of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas. They succeed in magically creating these different appearances for the sake of an infinite, incalculable number of beings instantaneously and simultaneously in an infinite, incalculable number of worlds in the ten directions.
What is magically created speech? Here bodhisattvas make magically created sounds that are heard by gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, śrāvakas, and bodhisattvas assembled and arrayed as a retinue within the encircling girdle of mountains, up to as far away as the first thousandfold world system, the millionfold and the billionfold world systems, and an infinite, incalculable number of worlds in the ten directions. With those sounds they teach the Dharma to all beings in many ways. With other magical creations they set them to work, cause the sky to emit the sound of Dharma teachings, and exhort those who incline toward various objects.
What are magically created objects? For the sake of poverty-stricken beings, bodhisattvas magically create food, drink, transportation, clothes, jewels, pearls, vaiḍūrya,102 and so on. To the extent they are needed, to that extent they come about, lasting as long as the power sustaining their truth is exerted. Thus, through their knowledge of miraculous powers[F.14.b] they help beings. Having motivated them with miraculous wonder-working powers, they introduce them to Buddhist doctrine. And they also help suffering beings in many other ways.
With knowledge that recollects previous existences they recollect the earlier behavior of beings, know what agrees with them, and teach them Buddhist doctrine. Alternatively, they recollect the supreme, marvelous behavior of bodhisattvas and demonstrate it perfectly, to perfectly engender faith in beings. They demonstrate to proponents of eternalism and nihilism what happened previously and destroy their views. With that knowledge they recollect their own previous existences; they also recollect the previous suffering existences of others, and they also cause others to recollect their previous suffering existences.
With their divine ear they hear the pitiful sounds of suffering beings in hell, among the animals, the ghosts, and humans, and work to relieve their pains; or they hear different Dharma teachings in various buddhafields, or right here; or they hear many different sounds urging them on.
With their divine eye bodhisattvas see the variety of wholesome and unwholesome behaviors of beings in the ten directions and do what is appropriate. They also behold many teachings of Dharma in many retinues of tathāgatas in the many different buddhafields.
With knowledge of others’ thoughts they know others’ greed, hatred, and so on accompanying their thoughts and do what is appropriate. They know the different faculties, behaviors, dispositions, propensities,[F.15.a] and so on of beings and teach the Dharma appropriately.
With knowledge of the extinction of outflows bodhisattvas know perfectly and properly that their own and others’ afflictions are extinguished, and they know perfectly and properly whether or not they have attained the extinction of their own afflictions, and whether or not others have attained the extinction of their afflictions. They also know perfectly what is and is not the means to extinguish their own and others’ afflictions and outflows. They know perfectly whether others’ attainment of the extinction of outflows is an unfounded conceit or is true. Perfectly knowing all that, bodhisattvas themselves realize the extinction of outflows. Bodhisattvas know perfectly things with and without outflows, and with just the knowledge of the extinction of outflows they stay together with all the afflicted dharmas with outflows, without themselves becoming defiled.
Bodhisattvas have these six clairvoyances in lifetime after lifetime. Even when they are reborn as animals they do not lose them, so they are
with imperishable clairvoyant knowledges.103 P25k
Bodhisattvas who have these six clairvoyances make an effort to help beings, and those beings they have helped experience a simultaneously arising pleasure, so they listen to the bodhisattva’s speech. Even at the cost of their life they do not go against the advice and instruction. Furthermore, they skillfully get Māra’s minions or tīrthikas and so on who bear ill will toward them to take their advice and instructions to heart. They even get those who are unwilling to listen to what they have to say by threatening them with splitting headaches and so on.[F.15.b] Bodhisattvas always see when it is the right time and it is not the right time and so on. Among the classes of beings there are none who are offended by the speech of the bodhisattvas. This is the very nature of the power of the dedication of the merit from the four ways of gathering a retinue and the merit of the perfections. Hence they are
with speech worth listening to.104 P25k
To teach that bodhisattvas with these good qualities have a pure practice it says they are
not hypocrites P25k
and so on.105
It is impossible that those who have earlier entered onto a bodhisattva level would pursue wrong livelihoods, and this is particularly more so the case on the Vimalā level and so on.106 So why teach here that on the seventh level there is no pursuit of wrong livelihoods?
There is no fault. Even though on lower levels they have already eliminated them, behavior that is pursued with effort is perfected here, so it has to be taught at the end.107 You should not take bodhisattvas standing on the seventh level as “with afflictions” and you should not take them as “without afflictions” either, because right there they absolutely eliminate afflictive behavior. Thus, the purity of their surpassing aspiration informs their physical actions, verbal actions, and mental actions. This total nonarising of all the physical, verbal, and mental actions that the tathāgatas criticize is a quality of the seventh level. Hence, to demonstrate that they do not engage in the physical actions of wrong livelihood it says they are “not hypocrites.” Because of wanting to gain something, the demonstration of a physical action that is a way of impressing another is called hypocrisy.108
To demonstrate that they have no impure mental actions it says they are
without thoughts of reputation and gain.109 P25k
Praise, citation, renown, and “reputation” are synonymous. They are so called because they are without thoughts of gain or respect.
Having taught that they have no impure practices, to teach that they have purified practices it says they are
Dharma teachers without thought of compensation.110 P25k
This is said of those stirred by compassion and endowed with a thinking mind honed by wisdom who teach Dharma to help beings.
Thus, having taught in these ways the qualities of those from the seventh level on down who practice signlessness with effort, now it says they are
with perfect forbearance for the deep dharmas P25k
and so on, to teach the quality of standing effortlessly in signlessness. Thus, from the eighth level on up bodhisattvas cut the continuum of all effort and pass beyond all causal signs and conceptualization. They do so in a carefree way, without any effort at all. But even though they are totally at peace and expend no energy, they live a life for the sake of others because of the force of their previous prayers, and they realize the practices on the side of awakening.
To teach that on the eighth level they have gained forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas, it says they are those “with perfect forbearance for the deep dharmas.” Thus,111
completely free from the conceptual discriminations of mind, thinking mind, and consciousness, unhindered like space, with the comprehension of the wide-open nature they have gained forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas. O bodhisattvas! The moment bodhisattvas with such a forbearance for that have reached the Acalā level, they gain the bodhisattva’s deep stations[F.16.b] that are hard to understand,112 undifferentiated, free from all causal signs,
and so on. There are no other stations deeper than such deep stations of bodhisattvas, so it says they have “perfect forbearance for the deep dharmas.”
Wherever they go, bodhisattvas who have gained such forbearance go with fearlessness113 and without trepidation, be it into a retinue of persons of royal caste, brahmins, persons of business caste, persons of low caste, gods, or Brahmās, or into a retinue of monks, nuns, tīrthikas, or Māras, and speak without feeling shy.114 And why? It is because they have gained forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas and therefore fully realize the nonproduction aspect of all dharmas. Therefore, they do not have the fear that comes from not knowing something when in the midst of a retinue. Apart from their residual impressions, they have eliminated all affliction, seeing it has not been produced, so they do not have the fear that comes from the afflictions. Hence it says they
had obtained the fearlessnesses.P25k
They have
cut the continuum of karmic obscuration. P25k
When it comes to their future lives, apart from the sorts of births they demonstrate because of compassion, as soon as they have attained this forbearance they have cut the continuum of the karmic obscurations that ripen into good or bad forms of life.
They are
skillful in expounding the analysis of investigations into phenomena.115 P25k
“Phenomena” are the aggregates, constituents, and so on, or dharmas known by special insight;[F.17.a] the applications of mindfulness, the right efforts, and so on, or the dharmas on the side of awakening; the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and so on, or the buddhadharmas; and the result of the stream enterer path and so on, or gained dharmas. “Investigations” of them are into marks, functions, causes, results, number, proper meditative experiences, faulty ones, elements, defilements, purifications, comprehensions of suffering, eliminations of origins, cessations to be actualized, and cultivations of paths. They are also investigations into the outer dharmas: world systems arise like this, will perish like this, have perished like this; they form like this, they perish for that length of time, they stay like that,116 they last this length of time; these are hell beings, these are birthplaces of animals, these are ghosts, these are humans, these are in the desire realm, these in the form realm, these in the formless realm; these are how many of the smallest earth, water, fire, and wind atoms there are; just this is the measure of the height, breadth, width, and depth of the earth and so on; and just these are the four continents, just this is a thousand of them, just this is a million, and just this a billion. Similarly, the investigations are the sort that investigate the intentions, propensities, behaviors, beliefs, and faculties of all the worlds: who is less at fault, who more; who is in a lineage, who is not; who is definitely in a lineage, who is not; who is a candidate, who is not; who is mature, who is not; and who is free and who is not. These are[F.17.b] the “investigations into phenomena.” To “analyze” is to divide those phenomena described earlier into specific categories: “these are the aggregates, these the constituents, these the sense fields,” and so on. There are the categories117 when they have all been categorized, when they have been divided into many specific types. To “expound” is to teach them and make them understandable to others. “Skill” is intelligence. “Investigation into phenomena” is detailed and thorough knowledge of phenomena; “categorization,” or analysis, is detailed and thorough knowledge of content; “expounding” is detailed and thorough knowledge of languages; and “skill in expounding” is detailed and thorough knowledge of ready speech. Thus, it says they are “skillful in expounding the analysis of investigations into phenomena.”
Having thus taught the eighth level qualities, to teach the qualities of the practice on the levels above, on the levels of those who are destined,118 it says they are those
with the prayer that is a vow made during an asaṃkhyeya of eons really fully carried out.119 P25k
These are bodhisattvas whose “prayer that is a vow” made during “an asaṃkhyeya of eons” has been “really fully carried out.”
What is this teaching? There are no appearances of inner physical bodies anywhere at all after the forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas has been gained. The body of names120 does not operate in the form of intention, thinking mind, and consciousness; it remains perfectly in the form of emptiness. External dharmas—the three realms—do not appear at all; they are in a state of liberation that is the element of signlessness. For those who thus abide perfectly extinguished in suchness, no effort, movement, false projection, or thought construction occurs.
If those great beings thus dwell totally in nirvāṇa,[F.18.a] in the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, in primordial calm, in the intrinsic nature of the dharma-constituent, they would subsequently veer away from the attributes that would make them a buddha and from the welfare of beings.
Response: The perfection of prayer that has been made complete during two incalculable eons, together with skillful means, becomes a concordant cause of compassion on account of which, at that time, in order not to veer away the maturation is developed,121 and those bodhisattvas again enter into the conventional. Those bodhisattvas who have entered into the conventional apprehend all inner and outer worlds just as at an earlier time. At that time, they practice the bodhisattva’s course of conduct and so on.
Qualm: In that case, since at this level all affliction that is the origin of suffering does not exist, they do not accumulate the karma that gives rise to future lives. The force of the karma they accumulated previously is extinguished, as it is for worthy ones, so, given that a maturation cannot be apprehended in the absence of karma, how are they going to appropriate another future life? And given that above that level they are sure to swiftly and effortlessly reach the Tathāgata level in a single countless eon, how, in that case and during that period of time, will they abide in the form of anyone?
Degé Tengyur vol. 213 (dkar chag, shrI), F.432b–433a. The four great “pathbreaker” traditions of interpretation (shing rta chen po’i srol bzhi or shing rta’i srol ’byed bzhi) are: (1) the Ornament for the Clear Realizations and all the commentaries based on it, (2) the Madhyamaka “corpus based on reasoning” (dbu ma rig pa’i tshogs, i.e. Nāgārjuna’s writings categorized as the Yuktikāya and by extension the Madhyamaka treatises in general), (3) the two Bṛhaṭṭīka commentaries discussed here, and (4) Dignāga’s Prajñāpāramitāsaṃgrahakārikā (Toh 3809, also known as the Piṇḍārthasaṃgraha), said to be characterized by its thirty-two topics, and its subcommentary the Prajñāpāramitāsaṃgrahakārikāvivaraṇa (Toh 3810).
Denkarma, folio 305.a.6; see also Herrmann-Pfandt, pp. 293-294, no. 515. Phangthangma 2003, p. 35. The only substantial difference in the titles, as with so many canonical texts, is that “noble” is added as an honorific in present editions of the Tibetan canon.
Among modern writers, Lama Chimpa and Alaka Chattopadhyaya (1997), Kazuo Kano and Xuezhu Li (2012, 2014), and Karl Brunnhölzl (2011b) use the title Bṛhaṭṭīkā.
Bhagavatyāmnāyānusāriṇīnāmavyākhyā (bcom ldan ’das ma’i man ngag gi rjes su ’brang ba zhes bya ba’i rnam par bshad pa), Toh 3811.
One may understand the verse as follows: “Having reverently (gus par, ādārāt) bowed (phyag ’tshal te, namaskṛ) to the Mother of Victors (rgyal ba’i yum, jinajananī), the foremost perfection (pha rol phyin pa’i gtso, pāramitāgrā) in the form of wisdom (shes rab bdag nyid, prajñātmakā), I want to make (bya bar ’dod, cikīrṣitā) a Path (gzhung ’grel, paddhati) there on which the Thorns Have Been Trodden Down (gnod ’joms, marditakaṇṭakā) so the later scriptures (bla ma’i lung, uttarāgama) will be of benefit to me (bdag la phan pa’i phyir, ātmahitāya).” Alternative translation of the last part: “because the tradition of the gurus (bla ma’i lung, gurvāgama) has been of benefit to me (bdag la phan pa’i phyir, ātmahitāt).”
In their translation of Tāranātha’s History, Lama Chimpa and Alaka Chattopadhyaya (1997: p. 268) say, “Daṃstrāsena (mche ba’i sde) lived during the time of Devapāla [i.e. late eighth, early ninth century],” and in an additional note (1997: p. 417, n. 54) say he is the author of both Bṭ3 and Bṭ1 and that his “name occurs in various forms: ācārya Diṣṭasena, Daṃṣṭasena, Daṃṣṭasyana, etc.”
Denkarma, folio 305.a, and Phangthangma 2003, p. 35 (for Bṭ3) and 54 (for Bṭ1); see also Herrmann-Pfandt, pp. 293-294, nos. 514 (Bṭ1) and 515 (Bṭ3).
bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi ’od, 24a3–4: ’bum nyi khri brgyad [sic] stong pa’i rgya cher bshad pa slob dpon dbyig gnyen gyis mdzad pa; 72a6–72b1: nyi khri gzhung ’grel dang… bod kyis rgya gar ba la kha ’phangs pa yod; 75a1: dpal lha btsan po khri srong lde btsan gyis ’bum gyi rgya cher ’grel pa. See also Schaeffer and Van der Kuijp, 2009, pp 154, 258, and 263 respectively.
38b: “rgyal ba’i yum stong phrag brgya pa’i ’grel pa chen po slob dpon mche ba’i sdes mdzad par grags pa… rgyal ba’i yum stong phrag brgya pa dang/ nyi khri lnga stong pa dang/ khri brgyad stong pa rnams kyi gzhung gi ’grel pa slob dpon chen po dbyig gnyen gyis mdzad pa.”
Butön History of Buddhism 156a7: “’di daM STa se nas byas zer ba mang mod kyi ’di ni dbyig gnyen gyi gzhung ’grel yin te thub pa dgongs rgyan la sogs par nyi khri gzhung ’grel las drangs pa’i tshig rnams der ji lta ba bzhin snang ba’i phyir dang / dbur yang / ’di yig gzhung ’grel gnod ’joms bya bar ’dod/ ces ’byung ba’i phyir ro.”
Munimatālaṃkāra, Degé Tengyur vol. 109 (dbu ma, a), 184a2–4 slob dpon dbyig gnyen gyis kyang gzhung ’grel du go cha chen po bgos pa zhes pa ni sems dang po bskyed pa nas bzung nas bsam pa rgya che bar bstan pa’o. The words cited and then glossed by Abhayākaragupta are found at khri brgyad 13.2.
Bhagavatyāmnāyānusāriṇīnāmavyākhyā (bcom ldan ’das ma’i man ngag gi rjes su ’brang ba zhes bya ba’i rnam par bshad pa), Toh 3811, 316b–317b.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i don mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan gyi tshig le’ur byas pa’i ’grel pa mdo lugs ma, 2011 vol. 4, 2–3 rgyal ba byams pa’i dngos slob shing rta chen po slob dpon dbu ma pa dbyig gnyen gyi zhal snga nas kyang / ’bum pa dang / nyi khri lnga stong pa dang / khri brgyad stong pa ste /yum rgyas ’bring bsdus pa gsum gyi gzhung ’grel gnod ’joms; 20, mdo sde rgyan gyi ’grel par slob dpon dbu ma pa chen po dbyig gnyen.
bzhed tshul rba rlabs kyi phreng ba, 167.3–168.3, spyir bshad pa dang / byed brag bstan bcos ’di ji ltar bkrol ba’i tshul gnyis las/ dang po la/ bod lnga rabs kyi dge ba’i bshes gnyen phal mo che ni/ dngos bstan stong nyid kyi rim pa gsal bar ston pa dbu ma rigs pa’i tshogs/ sbas don mngon rtogs kyi rim pa gsal bar ston pa mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan/ sgo gsum rnam grangs bcu gcig gi sgo nas yum gyi don ston pa gnod ’joms/ yang gtso bo’i don sum cu rtsa gnyis su brgyad stong pa’i don bsdus nas ston pa brgyad stong don bsdus te/ shing rta’i srol ’byed chen po bzhi yin zer to // chos rje thams cad mkhyen pas ni/ bzhi yin zhes smra ba ni mi ’thad de/ snga ma gnyis las srol ’byed gzhan min pa’i phyir zhes gsung / gsung ’di la brten nas gung TIk tu/ ’grel byed gzhan gnyis kyang de gnyis kyi rjes su ’brang ba’i phyir/ zhes bris pa ni rtsing po ste/ snga ma gnyis kyis dbu mar bkrol la/ phyi ma gnyis kyis sems tsam du bkrol ba’i phyir ro // ’di la bu ston rin po che na re/ stong phrag brgyad pa’i bshad pa bam po bdun cu rtsa brgyad pa ’di/ ’phang thang ka me dkar [emend chug to] chag tu khri srong lde btsan gyis byas par bris mod/ ’ching phu’i dkar chag dang / pho brang stong thang ldan dkar gyi dkar chag dang gnyis su/ rgya gar mar bshad pas dpa’ sdes mdzad pa yin no/ yum gsum ga’i gnod ’joms su grags pa bam po nyi shu rtsa bdun pa ’di la dpa’ bos byas par bris mod/ ’di ni dbyig gnyen gyis mdzad pa’i gzhung ’grel yin te/ thub dgongs su/ gzhung ’grel gyi lung drangs pa rnams ji lta ba bzhin ’dir snang ba’i phyir dang / ’di’i gzhung ’grel gnod ’joms bya bar ’dod/ ces brtoms par dam bca’ mdzad pa’i phyir/ ’di la yum gsum gnod ’joms su grags kyang / rgyas ’bring gnyis dang / khri brgyad stong pa’i bshad pa yin no zhes gsung.
In a note, Jens Braarvig (vol. 2, 587–89) cites the passage from Vasubandhu’s Akṣayamatinirdeśaṭīkā, ’phags pa blo gros mi zad pas bstan pa rgya cher ’grel pa, Degé Tengyur (mdo ’grel, ci), 268r4–269r3 and provides an excellent translation.
Degé Tengyur dkar chag 432.a: ’di la kun mkhyen bus kha cig daM StrA se nas mdzad zer mod kyi/ slob dpon dbyig gnyen gyis mdzad pa’i gzhung gi ’grel par bzhed pa nyid ’thad par rtogs. Note also that this passage was not only present in the other seventeenth and eighteenth century Tengyurs but had been witnessed in the original, early Narthang (fourteenth century).
For example, Tāranātha’s History notes the existence of an Abhidharma scholar named Vasubandhu, a contemporary of Līlāvajra during the Pāla period (Lama Chimpa and Alaka Chattopadhyaya 1997: p. 271).
For more detail and further references, see Ruegg 1969 La Théorie p. 325 et seq.; Hookham 1991 pp. 149–54; and Brunnhölzl 2010 pp. 692–4 n99.
See Peter Alan Roberts, trans., The Ten Bhumis Toh 44-31, (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021).
See Peter Alan Roberts, trans., The White Lotus of the Good Dharma Toh 113, (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018).
See Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., The Questions of Sāgaramati, Toh 152, (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020).
David Fiordalis and Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans., The Secrets of the Realized Ones, Toh 47 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023).
These are the three questions at 19.2 in the Eighteen Thousand and the first paragraph of chapter 11 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand.
We first began translating Bṭ3, making notes of the differences with The Long Commentary on the One Hundred Thousand (Bṭ1), with the idea of possibly identifying an early Tibetan version of a Long Perfection of Wisdom scripture. We mistakenly thought that by carefully comparing the citations in Bṭ3 with the late Stefano Zacchetti’s Sanskrit edition of the beginning of a Long Perfection of Wisdom scripture, we would find a more authentic original version to translate. We came to realize that the Degé edition was as authentic as any other.
The translators have inserted into the text here the notation bam po dang po (the “first bam po,” or bundle of pages equal to about 300 lines of original text), together with their own homage.
Alternatively, bdag la phan pa’i phyir could be rendered “In order that the tradition of the gurus will be of benefit to me.”
Below, Bṭ3 4.1184 cites the work from which this is an extract as de bzhin gshegs pa’i gsang ba’i mdo (Tathāgataguhyakasūtra) [Secrets of the Tathāgatas Sūtra]. This would appear to be Toh 47, de bzhin gshegs pa’i gsang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pa bstan pa (Tathāgatācintyaguhyanirdeśa) [The Secrets of the Realized Ones]. This citation is found in the Degé Kangyur (dkon brtsegs, ka), F.142.a–142.b.
I have used “recite” in place of the Tib yang dag par sdud pa (“gather”) in order to convey the meaning of gīti in the Skt saṃgīti.
By design or accident, the subsequent few sentences in the Tathāgatācintyaguhyanirdeśa, Degé Kangyur (dkon brtsegs, ka), [F.133.a], have been omitted from this citation: “They think, ‘We have comprehended the doctrine of the Tathāgata.’ In regard to that, furthermore, the Tathāgata is without thought construction and remains in a state of equanimity. Śāntamati, sounds are not produced from the Tathāgata’s teeth, lips, palate, or tongue and yet sounds sound forth.” bdag cag ni de bzhin gshegs pa’i chos bstan pa kun shes so snyam mo/ /de la yang de bzhin gshegs pa ni rnam par mi rtog cing btang snyoms su mdzad do// zhi ba’i blo gros/ de bzhin gshegs pa’i tshems dang / sgros dang / zhal gyi rkan dang / ljags dang / zhal gyi sgo nas sgra ’byung ba yang med la/ ’byung bar yang grag go.
That is, he remains deep in meditation while yet pervading the scene with his benevolent presence.
Alternatively, this might be from ara (“spoke”) and han, where the spokes are the twelve links of dependent origination that constitute the beginning and end of suffering existence (Ñāṇamoli, VII,23).
nyon mongs (kleśa) is rendered “affliction” and “afflictive emotion”; kun nas nyon mongs pa (saṃkliṣṭa) “defilement.” Both are from the root kliś, “to cause pain.” The categories taught by a tathāgata that together make up an exhaustive and complete explanation of suffering and the release from suffering are called dharmas. The list of good and bad dharmas starting with form is divided up into saṃkliṣṭa (“defilement”) and vyavadāna (“purification”). The defilement dharmas are here divided into four: karma, affliction, aggregates, and birth.
These are the twelve links of dependent origination that constitute the beginning and end of suffering existence.
Either “when feeling stops, craving and appropriation stop” is obvious, or else a line has dropped out of the text here.
D bzhugs pa (perhaps a play on the similarity between the roots vaś (“to control”) and vas (“to dwell”)); K, N zhugs pa.
This is in the Tib translation of Ratnākaraśānti’s Sāratamā (Seton, Appendix II, 24.23) but not in Jaini (1972).
The same gloss is in both Haribhadra (Wogihara, 9.24) and Ratnākaraśānti (Seton, Appendix I, 34).
This translation is taken from MDPL 415, s.v. samyagājñāsuvimuktacitta. More literally yang dag par (samyak), “perfect”; (kun) shes pa (ājñā), “fully understand”; and sems (citta), “thought” or “mind.”
Ratnākaraśānti’s Sāratamā, Degé Tengyur (shes phyin, tha), 10b3 (cf. Seton, Appendix I, 36) takes cetovaśin as the mind through which there is mastery of all meditative stabilizations; sarvacetovaśin as a karmadhāriya compound, “all minds through which there is mastery of all meditative stabilizations”; paramapāram (dam pa’i pha rol, “the farther shore that is the farthest,” “perfection”) as their limit; and the i [in itā] as “gone”; hence paramapāramitā: “because they have gone and are in a state that has gone to the limit of mental mastery.”
These are the four concentrations (dhyāna) and four formless absorptions (ārūpyasamāpatti), and the cessation of perception and feeling (saṃjñāvedayitanirodha).
The translation “object” for dmigs pa and “factor” for yan lag is taken from the Path of Purification (Ñāṇamoli, XII, 2–12).
This is a summary of meditative states. The branches of the concentrations are given below (khri brgyad 16.71), as well as the objects of the formless absorptions (khri brgyad 16.76), and the siṃhavijṛṃbhita and viṣkandaka meditative stabilizations (khri brgyad 3.75, cf. n.79). Abhidharmakośa 6.42a ff. Pruden (975 ff.) gives the non-Great Vehicle explanation of combination meditation. Abhisamayālaṃkāra 5.22–23 (Amano, pp. 92–93) gives the Great Vehicle explanation. Sparham (2008–13, vol. 4, pp. 81–92) provides a detailed investigation of both. The word for “combination” here, spel ma (miśraka), renders ākīryate at Abhidharmakośa 6.42a.
This division of bodhisattvas is also in Daśabalaśrīmitra’s Saṃskṛtāsaṃskṛtaviniścaya, Degé Tengyur (dbu ma, ha), 166b7.
These are the bodhisattvas on the niyatacaryābhūmi (“course of conduct level of those who are destined or certain [to be awakened]”) explained below (1.98). Lamotte (Mppś English, III, p. 1230 n. 584) gives a number of references to its usage. In general, the niyata (“certain,” “of those who are destined”) level means assured of awakening, but etymologically it is also where the bodhisattva enters into the niyāma/nyāma (skyon med pa, literally “faultlessness”), “the fixed state of a bodhisattva”; MDPL “bodhisattva’s distinctive way of salvation.”
The gzhi here probably renders ādhāra, as below as a dual ādhāraṇī (perhaps referencing wisdom and method), providing a creative explanation, a traditional etymology for dhāraṇī.
There is a passage similar to this in Mañjuśrīkīrti’s Samādhirājasūtraṭīkākīrtimālā, Degé Tengyur (mdo ’grel, nyi), 3b3 ff. Tāranātha (Chimpa and Chattopadhyaya, p. 268) says Mañjuśrīkīrti and Daṃṣṭrāsena were contemporaries during the time of Dharmapāla; Régamey (1990, p. 22) says Mañjuśrīkīrti embraces the trisvabhāva (“three natures”) doctrine, a doctrine evident in the Bṭ3.
Here “purification” renders yongs su sbyong ba; MDPL, s.v. parikarma (“preparation”). The Ten Bhūmis systematically renders pariśodhana by yongs su sbyong ba.
Akṣayamatinirdeśa (Braarvig, chapter 5 ff.) The title below (Bṭ3 4.101) is blo gros mi zad pa’i mdo (Akṣayamatisūtra). See Jens Braarvig and David Welsh, trans., The Teaching of Akṣayamati, Toh 175 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020). It is also called the Akṣayamatiparipṛcchā (“The Questions of Akṣayamati”).
Gilgit 351.1–2 tatra katamāni dhāraṇīmukhāni yad utākṣarasamatā bhāṣyasamatā akṣaramukham akṣarapraveśaḥ. “What are the dhāraṇī doors, that is to say, the sameness of syllables, the sameness of spoken words, a syllable door, and a syllable entrance?” ’bum 9.70 (Ghoṣa 1450); nyi khri 9.44; khri brgyad 16.98 differs slightly as does PSP 1-2:85; LSPW pp. 211–12. Cf. the explanation below (Bṭ3 4.1034).
Alternatively, byin gyis rlob pa’i shes pa de nyid… means “just [those letters] over which the sustaining power of the knowledge has been exerted are secret mantra dhāraṇī. ”
Cf. the Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra) 18.71–73, “Dhāraṇī is from result, habituation to listening, and also meditative stabilization. It is limited and big, and the big is of three sorts.”
Emend D bstan to brtan. This elliptical statement is probably based on the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra’s subdivision of dhāraṇīs contingent on small, middling, and big meditative stabilization.
Cf. Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes (Madhyāntavibhāga) 2.14–16 (Obermiller 1932–33, p. 53; Sparham 2008–13, vol. 1, pp. 438–40).
“Elaboration” (spros pa, prapañca) does not have a single meaning. Nāgārjuna’s Treatise on the Middle Way (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā) (de Jong edition), verse 18.5, is helpful: karmakleśakṣayān mokṣaḥ karmakleśā vikalpataḥ / te prapañcāt prapañcas tu śūnyatāyāṃ nirudhyate: “Freedom is from the karma and afflictive emotion coming to an end; karma and afflictive emotion are from thought construction; that is from elaboration. As for elaboration, it is stopped in emptiness.”)
The Ten Bhūmis, 1.439 (Roberts 2021b); “The bodhisattva who has completed the path of the fifth bodhisattva bhūmi enters the sixth bodhisattva bhūmi. He enters it through the ten kinds of sameness of phenomena. What are these ten? He enters the sixth bhūmi through these ten kinds of sameness: (1) the sameness of all phenomena in being without features; (2) the sameness of all phenomena in being without characteristics; (3) the sameness of all phenomena in being without birth; (4) the sameness of all phenomena in being without production; (5) the sameness of all phenomena in being isolated; (6) the sameness of all phenomena in being primordially pure; (7) the sameness of all phenomena in being without elaboration; (8) the sameness of all phenomena being without adoption and without rejection; (9) the sameness of all phenomena in being like illusions, dreams, hallucinations, echoes, the moon on water, reflections, and apparitions; and (10) the sameness of all phenomena being without the duality of existence and nonexistence.” (see also Rahder, p. 46; Honda, p. 186.) This is explained in Vasubandhu’s Explanation of The Ten Bhūmis (Āryadaśabhūmivyākhyāna) ’phags pa sa bcu pa’i rnam par bshad pa, 196a7 ff. The Level of a Bodhisattva (Bodhisattvabhūmi) rnal ’byor spyod pa’i sa las byang chub sems dpa’i sa, 178a4 ff. has dngos po yod pa dang dngos po med pa gnyis su med pa for the tenth sameness. Sthiramati in his Explanation of the Commentary on the Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras (Sūtrālaṃkāravṛttibhāṣya), mdo sde rgyan gyi ’grel bshad, tsi, 249a7 ff. has chos thams cad dngos po yod pa dang dngos po med pa dang gnyi ga ma yin pa for the last of the ten, “[not] existent, nonexistent, [both, or neither].”
pariniṣpanna (“thoroughly established”) also has the sense of “the final outcome.” All phenomena, seen from the perspective of their final outcome, are the same insofar as they are not produced and have no origin.
That is to say, all phenomena are the same insofar as they are isolated from, or do not have, a causal sign that makes them the object of afflictions like greed and so on, the actions motivated by those, or the birth that comes about because of those.
Alternatively, “Those imaginaries are not in their intrinsic nature in the form of the two basic [dependent and thoroughly established] natures.”
Explanation of The Ten Bhūmis, 197a1–2: rjes su mthun pa zhes bya ba ni de ma thob bo zhes bya ba’i tshig gis na mi skye ba’i chos la bzod pa’i sgo dang mthun pa ste. The point here is that at the sixth bodhisattva level the knowledge is not yet the forbearance for dharmas that are not produced, which is developed at the eighth level.
The Sanskrit literally means “attainment,” and is used to refer specifically to meditative attainment and to particular meditative states. The Tibetan translators interpreted it as sama-āpatti, which suggests the idea of “equal” or “level”; however, they also parsed it as sam-āpatti, in which case it would have the sense of “concentration” or “absorption,” much like samādhi, but with the added sense of “attainment.”
Lit. “Immovable.” The eighth level of accomplishment pertaining to bodhisattvas. See “ten bodhisattva levels.”
The essentially pure nature of mind is obscured and afflicted by various psychological defilements, which destroy the mind’s peace and composure and lead to unwholesome deeds of body, speech, and mind, acting as causes for continued existence in saṃsāra. Included among them are the primary afflictions of desire (rāga), anger (dveṣa), and ignorance (moha). It is said that there are eighty-four thousand of these negative mental qualities, for which the eighty-four thousand categories of the Buddha’s teachings serve as the antidote.
Kleśa is also commonly translated as “negative emotions,” “disturbing emotions,” and so on. The Pāli kilesa, Middle Indic kileśa, and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit kleśa all primarily mean “stain” or “defilement.” The translation “affliction” is a secondary development that derives from the more general (non-Buddhist) classical understanding of √kliś (“to harm,” “to afflict”). Both meanings are noted by Buddhist commentators.
The essentially pure nature of mind is obscured and afflicted by various psychological defilements, which destroy the mind’s peace and composure and lead to unwholesome deeds of body, speech, and mind, acting as causes for continued existence in saṃsāra. Included among them are the primary afflictions of desire (rāga), anger (dveṣa), and ignorance (avidyā). It is said that there are eighty-four thousand of these negative mental qualities, for which the eighty-four thousand categories of the Buddha’s teachings serve as the antidote.
Kleśa is also commonly translated as “negative emotions,” “disturbing emotions,” and so on. The Pāli kilesa, Middle Indic kileśa, and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit kleśa all primarily mean “stain” or “defilement.” The translation “affliction” is a secondary development that derives from the more general (non-Buddhist) classical understanding of √kliś (“to harm,“ “to afflict”). Both meanings are noted by Buddhist commentators.
Also rendered here as afflictive emotion.
Lit. a “heap” or “pile.” The five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, volitional factors, and consciousness. On the individual level the five aggregates refer to the basis upon which the mistaken idea of a self is projected.
However, in this text, five pure or uncontaminated aggregates are also listed, namely: the aggregate of morality, the aggregate of meditative stabilization, the aggregate of wisdom, the aggregate of liberation, and the aggregate of knowledge and seeing of liberation.
A major śrāvaka disciple and personal attendant of the Buddha Śākyamuni during the last twenty-five years of his life. He was a cousin of the Buddha (according to the Mahāvastu, he was a son of Śuklodana, one of the brothers of King Śuddhodana, which means he was a brother of Devadatta; other sources say he was a son of Amṛtodana, another brother of King Śuddhodana, which means he would have been a brother of Aniruddha).
Ānanda, having always been in the Buddha’s presence, is said to have memorized all the teachings he heard and is celebrated for having recited all the Buddha’s teachings by memory at the first council of the Buddhist saṅgha, thus preserving the teachings after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. The phrase “Thus did I hear at one time,” found at the beginning of the sūtras, usually stands for his recitation of the teachings. He became a patriarch after the passing of Mahākāśyapa.
Literally, “infinite,” but here used to refer to a very large number.
The extreme philosophical view that rejects rebirth and the law of karma by considering that causes (and thus actions) do not have effects and that the self, being the same as one or all of the aggregates (skandhas), ends at death. Commonly translated as “nihilism” or, more literally, as “view of annihilation.” It is often mentioned along with its opposite view, the extreme of eternalism or permanence.
See “four applications of mindfulness.”
dmigs (pa) translates a number of Sanskrit terms, including ālambana, upalabdhi, and ālambate. These terms commonly refer to the apprehending of a subject, an object, and the relationships that exist between them. The term may also be translated as “referentiality,” meaning a system based on the existence of referent objects, referent subjects, and the referential relationships that exist between them. As part of their doctrine of “threefold nonapprehending/nonreferentiality” (’khor gsum mi dmigs pa), Mahāyāna Buddhists famously assert that all three categories of apprehending lack substantiality.
This term, although commonly translated as “appropriation,” also means “grasping” or “clinging,” but it has a particular meaning as the ninth of the twelve links of dependent origination, situated between craving (tṛṣṇā, sred pa) and becoming or existence (bhava, srid pa). In some texts, four types of appropriation (upādāna) are listed: that of desire (rāga), view (dṛṣṭi), rules and observances as paramount (śīlavrataparāmarśa), and belief in a self (ātmavāda).
A buddhafield.
See “noble being.”
The quality or condition of things as they really are, which cannot be conveyed in conceptual, dualistic terms. Akin to other terms rendered here as “suchness,” “the real,” and so on.
Asaṃkhyeya and other specific, extremely large numbers that have separate values and are not actually synonymous with “infinite” are left untranslated in contexts where the difference between them is a salient factor. On the number asaṃkhyeya (“incalculable”), see also Abhidharmakośa 3.93.
Indian commentator from the late fourth– early fifth centuries; closely associated with the works of Maitreya and the Yogācāra philosophical school.
Lit. “Eighth level,” sometimes rendered “Eighth Lowest.” The third of the ten levels traversed by all practitioners, from the level of an ordinary person until reaching buddhahood. See “ten levels.”
A type of nonhuman being whose precise status is subject to different views, but is included as one of the six classes of beings in the sixfold classification of realms of rebirth. In the Buddhist context, asuras are powerful beings said to be dominated by envy, ambition, and hostility. They are also known in the pre-Buddhist and pre-Vedic mythologies of India and Iran, and feature prominently in Vedic and post-Vedic Brahmanical mythology, as well as in the Buddhist tradition. In these traditions, asuras are often described as being engaged in interminable conflict with the devas (gods).
The lowest and most severe among the eight hot hell realms. It is characterized as endless not only in terms of the torment undergone there, but also because of the ceaseless chain of actions and effects experienced, the long lifespan of its denizens, and their being so intensely crowded together that there is no physical space between them.
See “intrinsic nature.”
The meaning of this term is made clear in chapter 33, when the value of a bodhisattva practicing the perfection of wisdom is compared with other meritorious acts; cf. Mppś 2248, Mppś English p. 1858.
As an example: a gold coin is a “basis.” Given into the hand of a pauper (the “action”) it becomes a basis for action that makes merit (puṇyakriyāvastu). It becomes that because of the giver’s aim—stopping the pauper’s hunger. The same gold coin (the basis, Skt vastu), remaining in a person’s pocket, remains a basis as the term is used in the fundamental Buddhist scriptures—a place (vastu) where the renunciant is to avoid attachment, but not a basis of meritorious action (puṇyakriyāvastu). The bsod nams bya ba (puṇyakriyā), “meritorious action” or work that produces merit, makes the basis into something (the basis) that now is achieving the aim.
One of the five or six classes of sentient beings. Birth in hell is considered to be the karmic fruition of past anger and harmful actions. According to Buddhist tradition there are eighteen different hells, namely eight hot hells and eight cold hells, as well as neighboring and ephemeral hells, all of them tormented by increasing levels of unimaginable suffering.
A being who is dedicated to the cultivation and fulfilment of the altruistic intention to attain perfect buddhahood, traversing the ten bodhisattva levels (daśabhūmi, sa bcu). Bodhisattvas purposely opt to remain within cyclic existence in order to liberate all sentient beings, instead of simply seeking personal freedom from suffering. In terms of the view, they realize both the selflessness of persons and the selflessness of phenomena.
The ninth of the ten levels traversed by all practitioners, from the level of an ordinary person until reaching buddhahood. When rendered in the plural, it is understood as a reference to all levels of accomplishment pertaining to bodhisattvas. See “ten levels” and “ten bodhisattva levels.”
A high-ranking deity presiding over a divine world; he is also considered to be the lord of the Sahā world (our universe). Though not considered a creator god in Buddhism, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two gods (the other being Indra/Śakra) said to have first exhorted the Buddha Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma. The particular heavens found in the form realm over which Brahmā rules are often some of the most sought-after realms of higher rebirth in Buddhist literature. Since there are many universes or world systems, there are also multiple Brahmās presiding over them. His most frequent epithets are “Lord of the Sahā World” (sahāṃpati) and Great Brahmā (mahābrahman).
A collective name for the first three heavens of the form realm, which correspond to the first concentration (dhyāna): Brahmakāyika, Brahmapurohita, and Mahābrahmā (also called Brahmapārṣadya). These are ruled over by the god Brahmā, who believes himself to be the creator of the universe. According to some sources, it can also be a general reference to all the heavens in the form realm and formless realm.
A member of the highest of the four castes in Indian society, which is closely associated with religious vocations.
The tenth and last of the ten levels traversed by all practitioners, from the level of an ordinary person until reaching buddhahood. See “ten levels.”
The term can mean “teachings of the Buddha” or “buddha qualities.” In the latter sense, it is sometimes used as a general term, and sometimes it refers to sets such as the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the four detailed and thorough knowledges, the eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha, and so forth; or, more specifically, to another set of eighteen: the ten powers; the four fearlessnesses; mindfulness of body, speech, and mind; and great compassion.
The Tibetan translates both stūpa and caitya with the same word, mchod rten, meaning “basis” or “recipient” of “offerings” or “veneration.” Pali: cetiya.
A caitya, although often synonymous with stūpa, can also refer to any site, sanctuary or shrine that is made for veneration, and may or may not contain relics.
A stūpa, literally “heap” or “mound,” is a mounded or circular structure usually containing relics of the Buddha or the masters of the past. It is considered to be a sacred object representing the awakened mind of a buddha, but the symbolism of the stūpa is complex, and its design varies throughout the Buddhist world. Stūpas continue to be erected today as objects of veneration and merit making.
Refers to the meditative practice of calming the mind to rest free from the disturbance of thought. One of the two basic forms of Buddhist meditation, the other being insight.
One of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, lowest among the six heavens of the desire realm (kāmadhātu, ’dod khams). Dwelling place of the Four Great Kings (caturmahārāja, rgyal chen bzhi), traditionally located on a terrace of Sumeru, just below the Heaven of the Thirty-Three. Each cardinal direction is ruled by one of the Four Great Kings and inhabited by a different class of nonhuman beings as their subjects: in the east, Dhṛtarāṣṭra rules the gandharvas; in the south, Virūḍhaka rules the kumbhāṇḍas; in the west, Virūpākṣa rules the nāgas; and in the north, Vaiśravaṇa rules the yakṣas.
A causal sign is the projected reality that functions as the objective support of a cognitive state. It cannot be separated out from the cognitive state and to that extent may enjoy a modicum of conventional reality. To “practice with a causal sign” means to look at an apparent phenomenon within accepting that it has more reality than it actually does.
The clairvoyances are listed as either five or six. The first five are the divine eye, divine ear, performance of miraculous power, recollection of past lives, and knowing others’ thoughts. A sixth, knowing that all outflows have been eliminated, is often added. The first five are attained through concentration (dhyāna) and are sometimes described as worldly, as they can be attained to some extent by non-Buddhist yogins, while the sixth is supramundane and attained only by realization.
Clear light or luminosity refers to the subtlest level of mind, i.e., the fundamental, essential nature of all cognitive events. Though ever present within all sentient beings, this luminosity becomes manifest only when the gross mind has ceased to function. It is said that such a dissolution is experienced naturally by ordinary beings at the time of death, but it can also be experientially cultivated through certain meditative practices.
A samaya is a coming together, in this case of an object known and something that knows it; the abhi means “toward” or else adds an intensity to the act.
Dhyāna is defined as one-pointed abiding in an undistracted state of mind, free from afflicted mental states. Four states of dhyāna are identified as being conducive to birth within the form realm. In the context of the Mahāyāna, it is the fifth of the six perfections. It is commonly translated as “concentration,” “meditative concentration,” and so on.
A mental function that tends to superimpose upon reality, either relative or ultimate, a conceptualized dualistic perspective fabricated by the subjective mind. It is often opposed to direct perception (pratyakṣa, mngon sum).
One of the three natures, used in the sense of “other-powered.”
Pratibhāna is the capacity for speaking in a confident and inspiring manner.
One of the three poisons (triviṣa), together with greed and hatred, that bind beings to cyclic existence.
Consciousness is generally classified into the five sensory consciousnesses and mental consciousness. Fifth of the five aggregates and third of the twelve links of dependent origination.
In the context of Buddhist philosophy, one way to describe experience in terms of eighteen elements (eye, form, and eye consciousness; ear, sound, and ear consciousness; nose, smell, and nose consciousness; tongue, taste, and tongue consciousness; body, touch, and body consciousness; and mind, mental phenomena, and mind consciousness).
This also refers to the elements of the world, which can be enumerated as four, five, or six. The four elements are earth, water, fire, and air. A fifth, space, is often added, and the sixth is consciousness.
Also rendered here as “element.”
Also rendered here as sustaining power.
Conveys the relative or conventional view of the world according to the understanding of ordinary unawakened beings. This is distinguished from the ultimate truth, which conveys the understanding of phenomena as they really are. Saṃvṛti literally means “covered” or “concealed,” implying that the relative reality seen by ordinary beings seems to be convincingly real, but it is ultimately, in its actual state, illusory and unreal.
Eighth of the twelve links of dependent origination. Craving is often listed as threefold: craving for the desirable, craving for existence, and craving for nonexistence.
Acquainting the mind with a virtuous object. Often translated as “meditation” and “familiarization.”
’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa ’bum dang / nyi khri lnga sgong pa dang / khri brgyad stong pa rgya cher bshad pa (Āryaśatasāhasrikāpañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāṣṭādaśa-sāhasrikāprajñāpāramitābṭhaṭṭīkā) [The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand Lines]. Vasubandhu/Daṃṣṭrāsena. Toh 3808, Degé Tengyur vol. 93 (shes phyin, pha), folios 1b–292b.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa (Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines]. Toh 12, Degé Kangyur vol. 33 (shes phyin, brgyad stong pa, ka), folios 1b–286a.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri brgyad stong pa (Aṣṭādaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines]. Toh 10, Degé Kangyur (shes phyin, khri brgyad, ka, kha, ga), folios (ga) 1b–206a. English translation in Sparham 2022.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri pa (Daśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [The Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines]. Toh 11, Degé Kangyur (shes phyin, khri pa, ga, nga), folios 1b–91a, 1b–397a. English translation in Dorje 2018.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje bcod pa (Vajracchedikā) [The Diamond Sūtra]. Toh 16, Degé Kangyur (shes phyin, rna tshogs, ka), folios 121a–132b.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines]. Toh 8, Degé Kangyur (shes phyin, ’bum, ka–a), 12 vols. English translation in Sparham 2024.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines]. Toh 9, Degé Kangyur (shes phyin, nyi khri, ka–a), 3 vols. English translation in Padmakara 2023.
shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa sdud pa tshigs su bcad pa (Prajñāpāramitāratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā) [“Verse Summary of the Jewel Qualities”]. In shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri brgyad stong pa (Aṣṭādaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) Toh 10, Degé Kangyur (shes phyin, khri brgyad, ga), folios 163a–181.b. Also Toh 13, Degé Kangyur vol. 34 (shes rab sna tshogs pa, ka), folios 1b–19b. English translation in Sparham 2022.
Abhisamayālaṃkāra-nāma-prajñāpāramitopadeśaśāstra [Ornament for the Clear Realizations]. Edited by Unrai Wogihara (1973).
Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā [The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines]. Edited by Unrai Wogihara (1973) incorporating Mitra (1888).
Pañcaviṃśati-sāhasrikā Prajñā-pāramitā [“The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines”]. Edited by Nalinaksha Dutt with critical notes and introduction (Calcutta Oriental Series, 28. London: Luzac, 1934.) Reprint edition, Sri Satguru Publications, 1986.
Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā [The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines]. Edited by Takayasu Kimura. Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin 2007–9 (1-1, 1-2), 1986 (2-3), 1990 (4), 1992 (5), 2006 (6-8). Available online (input by Klaus Wille, Göttingen) at GRETIL.
’phags pa chos bcu pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryadaśadharmaka-nāma-mahāyānasūtra) [The Ten Dharmas Sūtra]. Toh 53, Degé Kangyur vol. 40 (dkon brtsegs, kha), folios 164a6–184b6.
’phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryatathāgatagarbha-nāma-mahāyānasūtra) [The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra]. Toh 258, Dege Kangyur vol. 66 (mdo sde, za), folios 245b2–259b4.
’phags pa lang kar gshegs pa’i theg pa chen po’i mdo (Āryalaṅkāvatāramahāyānasūtra) [Descent into Laṅkā Sūtra]. Toh 107, Degé Kangyur vol. 49 (mdo sde, ca), folios 56a1–191b7.
’phags pa lha mo dpal ’phreng gi seng ge’i sgra (Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādasūtra) [Lion’s Roar of the Goddess Śrīmālā]. Toh 92, Degé Kangyur vol. 44 (dkon brtsegs, cha), folios 255a1–277b7.
blo gros mi zad pas bstan pa (Akṣayamatinirdeśa) [The Teaching of Akṣayamati]. Toh 175, Degé Kangyur vol. 60 (mdo sde, ma), folios 79a1–174b7. English translation in Braarvig and Welsh 2020.
blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa’i mdo (Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā) [The Questions of Sāgaramati]. Toh 152, Degé Kangyur vol. 58 (mdo sde, pha), folios 1b1–115b7. English translation in Dharmachakra 2020.
byang chub sems dpa’i sde snod kyi mdo (Bodhisattvapiṭakasūtra) [The Bodhisattva’s Scriptural Collection]. Toh 56, Degé Kangyur vols. 40–41 (dkon brtsegs, kha, ga), folios 255b1–294a7, 1b1–205b1. English translation in Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology 2023.
dam pa’i chos padma dkar po (Saddharmapuṇḍarika) [The White Lotus of the Good Dharma]. Toh 113, Degé Kangyur vol. 51 (mdo sde, ja), folios 1b1–180b7. English translation in Roberts 2018.
de bshin gshegs pa’i gsang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pa’i bstan pa (Tathāgatācintyaguhyakanirdeśa) [Explanation of the Inconceivable Secrets of the Tathāgatas]. Toh 47, Degé Kangyur vol. 39 (dkon brtsegs, ka), folios 100a7–203a. English translation in Fiordalis, David. and Dharmachakra Translation Committee 2023.
de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa (Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśa) [The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata]. Toh 147, Degé Kangyur vol. 57 (mdo sde, pa), folios 142a1–242b7. English translation in Burchardi 2020.
Dhāraṇīśvararāja. See de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying rje chen po nges par bstan pa.
dri ma med par grags pas bstan pa (Vimalakīrtinirdeśa) [The Teaching of Vimalakīrti]. Toh 176, Degé Kangyur vol. 60 (mdo sde, ma), folios 175a1–239b7. English translation in Thurman 2017.
mdo chen po stong pa nyid ces bya ba (Śūnyatā-nāma-mahāśūtra) [Great Sūtra called Emptiness]. Toh 290, Degé Kangyur vol. 71 (mdo sde, sha), folios 250a1–253b2.
rgya cher rol pa (Lalitavistara) [The Play in Full]. Toh 95, Degé Kangyur vol. 46 (mdo sde, kha), folios 1b1–216b7. English translation in Dharmachakra 2013.
sa bcu pa’i mdo (Daśabhūmikasūtra) [The Ten Bhūmis]. See sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba las, sa bcu’i le’u ste, sum cu rtsa gcig pa’o.
sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba las, sa bcu’i le’u ste, sum cu rtsa gcig pa’o (sa bcu pa’i mdo, Daśabhūmikasūtra) [The Ten Bhūmis]. Degé Kangyur vol. 36 (phal chen, kha), folios 166.a5–283.a7. English translation in Roberts 2021.
sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba shin tu rgyas pa chen po’i mdo (Buddhāvataṃsaka-nāma-mahāvaipūlyasūtra) [Avataṃsaka Sūtra]. Toh 44, Degé Kangyur vols. 35–36 (phal chen, ka–a).
tshangs pa’i dra ba’i mdo (Brahmajālasūtra) [The Sūtra of Brahma’s Net]. Toh 352, Degé Kangyur vol. 76 (mdo sde, aḥ), folios 70b2–86a2.
Abhayākaragupta. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa’i ’grel pa gnad kyi zla ’od (Āṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāvṛtti-marmakaumudī) [“Moonlight”]. Toh 3805, Degé Tengyur vol. 90 (shes phyin, da), folios 1b–228a.
Abhayākaragupta. thub pa’i dgongs pai rgyan (Munimatālaṃkāra) [“Intention of the Sage”]. Toh 3903, Degé Tengyur vol. 211 (dbu ma, a), folios 73b–293a.
Anonymous/Daṃṣṭrāsena. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa ’bum gyi rgya cher ’grel (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitābṛhaṭṭīkā) [The Long Commentary on the One Hundred Thousand]. Toh 3807, Degé Tengyur vols. 91–92 (shes phyin, na, pa).
Āryavimuktisena. ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan gyi tshig le’ur byas pa’i rnam par ’grel pa (Āryapañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitopadeśaśāstrābhisamayālaṃkārakārikāvārttika) [“Āryavimuktisena’s Commentary”]. Toh 3787, Degé Tengyur vol. 80 (shes phyin, ka), folios 14b–212a.
Asaṅga. theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma’i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa (Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhyā) [The Explanation of The Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna]. Toh 4025, Degé Tengyur vol. 225 (sems tsam, phi), folios 74b1–129a7.
Asaṅga. rnal ’byor spyod pa’i sa (Yogācārabhūmi) [The Levels of Spiritual Practice]. Toh 4035, Degé Tengyur vol. 229 (sems tsam, tshi), folios 1b–283a.
Asaṅga. rnal ’byor spyod pa’i sa las byang chub sems dpa’i sa (Bodhisattvabhūmi) [The Level of a Bodhisattva]. Toh 4037, Degé Tengyur vol. 231 (sems tsam, wi), folios 1b–213a.
Asaṅga. theg pa chen po bsdus pa (Mahāyānasaṃgraha) [A Summary of the Great Vehicle]. Toh 4048, Degé Tengyur vol. 236 (sems tsam, ri), folios 1b–43a.
Asvabhāva. theg pa chen po bsdus pa’i bshad sbyar (Mahāyānasaṃgrahopanibandhana) [Explanations Connected to A Summary of the Great Vehicle]. Toh 4051, Degé Tengyur vol. 236 (sems tsam, ri), folios 190b–296a.
Bhadanta Vimuktisena (btsun pa grol sde). ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan gyi tshig le’ur byas pa’i rnam par ’grel pa (*Āryapañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitopadeśa-śāstrābhisamayālaṃkārakārikāvārttika) [A General Commentary on “The Ornament for Clear Realizations,” A Treatise of Personal Instructions on the Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines]. Toh 3788, Degé Tengyur vol. 81 (shes phyin, kha), folios 1b–181a.
Buddhaśrī. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa sdud pa’i tshig su byas pa’i dka’ ’grel (Prajñāpāramitāsaṃcayagāthāpañjikā) [A Commentary on the Difficult Points of the “Verses [that Summarize the Perfection of Wisdom]. Toh 3798, Degé Tengyur (shes phyin, nya), folios 116a–189b.
Daśabalaśrīmitra. ’dus byas ’dus ma byas rnam par nges pa (Saṃskṛtāsaṃskṛtaviniścaya) [Differentiating Between the Compounded and Uncompounded]. Toh 3897, Degé Tengyur (dbu ma, ha), folios 109a–317a.
Dharmatrāta. ched du brjod pa’i tshoms (Udānavarga) [Chapters of Utterances on Specific Topics]. Toh 4099, Degé Tengyur vol. 250 (mngon pa, tu), folios 1b–45a; Toh 326, Degé Kangyur vol. 72 (mdo sde, sa), folios 209a1–253a7.
Haribhadra. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa’i bshad pa mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan gyi snang ba, (Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā-vyākhyānābhisamayālaṃkārālokā) [“Illumination of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra”]. Toh 3791, Degé Tengyur vol. 85 (shes phyin, cha), folios 1b–341a.
Haribhadra. bcom ldan ’das yon tan rin po che sdud pa’i tshig su byas pa’i dka’ ’grel shes bya ba (Bhagavadratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā-pañjikānāma/Subodhinī) [A Commentary on the Difficult Points of the “Verses that Summarize the Perfection of Wisdom”]. Toh 3792, Degé Tengyur vol. 86 (shes phyin, ja), folios 1b–78a.
Haribhadra. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan zhes bya ba’i ’grel pa (Abhisamayālaṃkāra-nāma-prajñāpāramitopadeśaśāstravṛtti) [A Running Commentary on “The Ornament for Clear Realizations, A Treatise of Personal Instructions on the Perfection of Wisdom”]. Toh 3793, Degé Tengyur vol. 86 (shes phyin, ja), folios 78b–140a.
Haribhadra. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [“Eight Chapters”]. Toh 3790, vols. 82–84 (shes phyin, ga, nga, ca).
Jñānavarja. ’phags pa lang kar gshegs pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo’i ’grel pa de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying po’i rgyan zhes bya ba (Āryalaṅkāvatāra-nāma-mahāyānasūtravṛttitathāgata-hṛdayālaṃkāra-nāma) [A Commentary on The Descent into Laṅkā called “The Ornament of the Heart of the Tathāgata”]. Toh 4019, Degé Tengyur (mdo ’grel, pi), folios 1b1–310a7.
Maitreya. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan zhes bya ba tshig le’ur byas pa (Abhisamayālaṃkāra-nāma-prajñāpāramitopadeśaśāstrakārikā) [“Ornament for the Clear Realizations”]. Toh 3786, Degé Tengyur (shes phyin, ka), folios 1b–13a.
Maitreya. dbus dang mtha’ rnam par ’byed pa’i tshig le’ur byas pa (Madhyāntavibhāga) [“Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes”]. Toh 4021, Degé Tengyur vol. 225 (sems tsam, phi), folios 40b–45a.
Maitreya. theg pa chen po mdo sde’i rgyan zhes bya ba’i tshig le’ur byas pa (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā) [Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras]. Toh 4020, Degé Tengyur vol. 225 (sems tsam, phi), folios 1b1–39a4.
Maitreya. theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma’i bstan bcos (Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra-ratnagotra-vibhāga) [The Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna]. Toh 4024, Degé Tengyur vol. 225 (sems tsam, phi), folios 54b1–73a7.
Mañjuśrīkīrti. ’phags pa chos thams cad kyi rang bzhin mnyam pa nyid rnam par spros pa’i ting nge ’dzin kyi rgyal po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo’i ’grel pa grags pa’i phreng ba (Sarvadharmasvabhāvasamatāvipañcitasamādhirāja-nāma-mahāyānasūtraṭīkākīrtimālā) [A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Sūtra “The King of Samādhis, the Revealed Equality of the Nature of All Phenomena,” called “The Garland of Renown”] Toh 4010, Degé Tengyur (mdo ’grel, nyi), folios 1b–163b.
Nāgārjuna. dbu ma rtsa ba’i tshig le’ur byas pa shes rab ces bya ba (Prajñā-nāma-mūlamadhyamakakārikā) [Fundamental Treatise on the Middle Way called “Wisdom”]. Toh 3824, Degé Tengyur vol. 198 (dbu ma, tsa), folios 1b1–19a6.
Prajñāvarman. ched du brjod pa’i tshoms kyi rnam par ’grel pa (Udānavargavivaraṇa) [An Exposition of “The Categorical Sayings”]. Toh 4100, Degé Tengyur vol. 148–49 (mngon pa, tu, thu), folios 45b–thu 222a.
Pūrṇavardana. chos mngon par chos kyi ’grel bshad mtshan nyid kyi rjes su ’brang ba (Abhidharmakośaṭīkālakṣaṇānusāriṇī) [An Explanatory Commentary on “The Treasury of Abhidharma” called “Following the Defining Characteristics”]. Toh 4093, Degé Tengyur vols. 144–45 (mngon pa, cu, chu), chu folios 1b–322a.
Ratnākaraśānti. ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa’i dka’ ’grel snying po mchog (Āryāṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāpañjikāsārottamā) [“Sāratamā”]. Toh 3803, Degé Tengyur vol. 89 (shes phyin, tha), folios 1b–230a.
Ratnākaraśānti. nam mkha’ dang mnyam pa zhes bya ba’i rgya cher ’grel pa (Khasamā-nāma-ṭīkā) [An Extensive Explanation of the Extant Khasama Tantra]. Toh 1424, Degé Tengyur vol. 21 (rgyud, wa), folios 153a3–171a7.
Ratnākaraśānti. mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan gyi ’grel pa’i tshig le’ur byas pa’i ’grel pa dag ldan (Abhisamayālaṃkārakārikāvṛittiśuddhamatī) [A Running Commentary on “The Ornament for Clear Realizations” called “Pristine Intelligence”]. Toh 3801, Degé Tengyur vol. 88 (shes phyin, ta), folios 76a–204a.
Sāgaramegha (rgya mtsho sprin). rnal ’byor spyod pa’i sa las byang chub sems dpa’i sa’i rnam par bshad pa (Bodhisattvabhūmivyākhyā) [“An Explanation of The Level of a Bodhisattva”]. Toh 4047, Degé Tengyur vol. 235 (sems tsam, yi), folios 1b–338a.
Śrījagattalanivāsin. bcom ldan ’das ma’i man ngag gi rjes su brang ba zhes bya ba’i rnam par bshad pa (Bhagavatyāmnāyānusāriṇī-nāma-vyākhyā) [An Explanation of “The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines” called “Following the Personal Instructions of the Bhagavatī”]. Toh 3811, Degé Tengyur vol. 94 (shes phyin), folios 1b–320a.
Sthiramati. mdo sde rgyan gyi ’grel bshad (Sūtrālaṃkāravṛttibhāṣya) [An Explanatory Commentary on the Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras]. Toh 4034, Degé Tengyur vols. 227, 228 (sems tsam, ma, tsi).
Vasubandhu. ’phags pa bcom ldan ’das ma shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa’i don bdun gyi rgya cher ’grel pa (Āryabhagavatīprajñāpāramitāvajracchedikāsaptārthaṭīkā) [An Extensive Commentary on the Seven Subjects of “The Perfection of Wisdom, ‘The Diamond Sūtra”]. Toh 3816, Degé Tengyur vol. 95 (shes phyin, ma), folios 178a5–203b7.
Vasubandhu. ’phags pa blo gros mi zad pas bstan pa rgya cher ’grel pa (Akṣayamatinirdeśaṭīkā) [An Extensive Commentary on The Teaching of Ākṣayamati]. Toh 3994, Degé Tengyur (mdo ’grel, ci), 1b1–269a7.
Vasubandhu. ’phags pa sa bcu pa’i rnam par bshad pa (Āryadaśabhūmivyākhyāna) [Explanation of The Ten Bhūmis]. Toh 3993, Degé Tengyur vol. 215 (mdo sde, ngi), folios 103b–266a.
Vasubandhu. chos mngon pa’i mdzod kyi bshad pa (Abhidharmakośabhāṣya) [Explanation of “The Treasury of Abhidharma”]. Toh 4090, Degé Tengyur, vols. 242, 243 (mngon pa, ku, khu), folios ku 26a1–258a7, khu 1b1–95a7.
Vasubandhu. chos mngon pa’i mdzod kyi tshig le’ur byas pa (Abhidharmakośakārikā) [The Treasury of Abhidharma]. Toh 4089, Degé Tengyur, vol. 242 (mngon pa, ku), folios 1b1–25a7.
Vasubandhu. dbus dang mtha’ rnam par ’byed pa’i ’grel pa (Madhyāntavibhāgabhāṣya) [An Extensive Commentary on Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes]. Toh 4027, Degé Tengyur vol. 226 (sems tsam, bi), folios 1b1–27a7.
Vasubandhu. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa bshad pa’i bshad sbyar gyi tshig le’ur byas pa (Vajracchedikāyāḥ prajñāpāramitāyā vyākhyānopanibandhanakārikā) [“Verse Explanation of the Diamond Sūtra”]. Peking Tengyur 5864, vol. 146 (ngo mtshar bstan bcos, nyo), folios 1b1–5b1.
Vasubandhu. mdo sde’i rgyan gyi bshad pa (Sūtrālaṃkāravyākhyā) [An Explanation of The Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras]. Toh 4026, Degé Tengyur vol. 225 (sems tsam, phi), folios 129b–260a.
Vasubandhu. ’phags pa blo gros mi zad pas bstan pa rgya cher ’grel pa (Akṣayamatinirdeśaṭīkā) [An Extensive Commentary on The Teaching of Ākṣayamati]. Toh 3994, Degé Tengyur (mdo ’grel, ci), folios 1b–269a.
Ar Changchup Yeshé (ar byang chub ye shes). mngon rtogs rgyan gyi ’grel pa rnam ’byed [Disentanglement of Haribhadra’s “Exposition of Maitreya’s ‘Ornament for the Clear Realizations’ ”]. Ar byang chub ye shes kyi gsung chos skor, Bka’ gdams dpe dkon gches btus, 2. Edited by Dpal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib ’jug khang. Pe cin: krung go’i bod rig pa’i dpe skrun khang, 2006.
Bodong Tsöntru Dorjé (bo dong brtson ’grus rdo rje). shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan gyi ’grel bshad shes rab mchog gi rgyan (stod cha) [Ornament for the Supreme Wisdom]. ’Phags yul rgyan drug mchog gnyis kyi zhal lung, vol. 11, pp. 22–565.
Butön (bu ston rin chen grub). bde bar gshegs pa’i bstan pa’i gsal byed chos kyi ’byung gnas gsung rab rin po che’i mdzod / chos ’byung chen mo [History of Buddhism]. Zhol phar khang gsung ’bum, vol. ya (26), folios 1b–212a.
Chim Namkha Drak (mchims nam mkha’ grags). shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i stong phrag brgya pa gzhung gi don rnam par ’byed pa’i bshad pa [Summary Explanation of the One Hundred Thousand]. ’Phags yul rgyan drug mchog gnyis kyi zhal lung, vol. 8, pp. 217–468.
Chomden Rikpé Reltri (bcom ldan rigs pa’i ral gri). shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i ’grel bshad mngon par rtogs pa rgyan gyi me tog [Flower Ornament for the Clear Realizations]. gsung ’bum, Kamtrul Sonam Dondrub typeset edition, ga, folios 1-389b [3-780].
Chomden Rikpé Reltri (bcom ldan rigs pa’i ral gri). sha ta sa ha sRi ka pRadznyA pA ra mi ta a laM ka ra pushpe nA ma bi dza ha raM / shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phra brgya pa rgyan gyi me tog [Flower Ornament for the One Hundred Thousand]. gsung ’bum, Kamtrul Sonam Dondrub typeset edition, ca, folios 1-26b [565-617].
Chomden Rikpé Reltri (bcom ldan rigs pa’i ral gri). bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi ’od [An Early Survey of Buddhist Literature]. gsung ’bum, Kamtrul Sonam Dondrub typeset edition, ca, 1-81b [99-260].
Chomden Rikpé Reltri (bcom ldan rigs pa’i ral gri). byams pa dang ’brel ba’i chos kyi byung tshul [Historical Evolution of the Works of Maitreya]. gsung ’bum, Kamtrul Sonam Dondrub typeset edition, ca, 1-6a [43-56].
Denkarma (pho brang stod thang ldan dkar gyi chos kyi ’gyur ro cog gi dkar chag). Toh 4364, Degé Tengyur vol. 206 (sna tshogs, jo), folios 294.b–310.a.
Dolpopa (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan). shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri brgyad stong pa’i mchan bu zur du bkod pa (stod cha) [“Notes to the Eight Thousand”]. ’dzam thang gsum ’bum, ma, pp. 5.3–134. Available online at BDRC.
Dolpopa (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan). ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi su lnga pa’i bshad pa [Explanation of the Twenty-Five Thousand Perfection of Wisdom]. Jo nang kun mkhyen dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan gyi gsung ’bum (glog klad ma gsungs ’bum), vol. 6, 1–279. Edited by dpal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib ’jug khang. Pe cin: krung go’i bod rig pa’i dpe skrun khang, 2011.
Jamsar Shérap Wozer (’jam gsar ba shes rab ’od zer). mngon rtogs rgyan gyi ’grel bshad ’thad pa’i ’od ’bar [Blaze of What is Tenable]. ’Phags yul rgyan drug mchog gnyis kyi zhal lung, vol. 9, pp. 22–458.
Luyi Gyeltsen (Degé Tengyur: klu’i rgyal mtshan; Toh: byang chub rdzu ’phrul). phags pa dgongs pa nges par ’grel pa’i mdo’i rnam par bshad pa (Āryasaṃdhinirmocanasūtravyākhyāna) [Explanation of the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra]. Toh 4358, Degé Tengyur vol. 205 (sna tshogs, cho, jo), folios 1b1–293a7; 1b1–183b7.
Pema Karpo (kun mkhyen pad ma dkar po). mngon par rtogs pa rgyan gyi ’grel pa rje btsun byams pa’i zhal lung [“Words of Maitreya”]. Collected Works (gsuṅ-’bum) of Kun-Mkhyen Padma-Dkar-Po. Darjeeling: Kargyud Sungrab Nyamso Khang, 1973–1974. Vol. 8, pp. 1–340.
Phangthangma (dkar chag ’phang thang ma). Beijing: mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2003.
Rongtön (rong ston shes bya kun rig). sher phyin stong phrag brgya pa’i rnam ’grel. In gsung ’bum, 4:380–678. khren tu’u: si khron dpe skrun tshogs pa. si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2008.
Serdok Shakya Chokden (gser mdog paṇ chen shākya mchog ldan). shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan ’grel pa dang bcas pa’i snga phyi’i ’brel rnam par btsal zhing / dngos bstan kyi dka’ ba’i gnas la legs par bshad pa’i dpung tshogs rnam par bkod pa/ bzhed tshul rba rlabs kyi phreng ba [“Garland of Waves”]. Complete Works, vol. 11. Thimphu, 1975.
Tsongkhapa (tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa). shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan ’grel pa dang bcas pa’i rgya cher bshad pa legs bshad gser gyi phreng ba [Golden Garland of Eloquence: Long Explanation of the Perfection of Wisdom]. Zi ling: tsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1986. The page numbers are the same as vols. tsa and tsha in the mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang gsung ’bum, 11: 11–519. zi ling: mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1999.
Upa Losal Sangyé Bum (dbus pa blo gsal sangs rgyas ’bum). pa). bstan ’gyur dkar chag [Catalog of the Early Narthang Tengyur]. Scans from gnas bcu lha khang, on BDRC (MW2CZ7507).
Amano, Koei H. Abhisamayālaṃkāra-kārikā-śāstra-vivṛti: Haribhadra’s Commentary on the Abhisamayālaṃkāra-kārikā-śāstra edited for the first time from a Sanskrit Manuscript. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 2000.
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AAVārt Bhadanta Vimuktisena (btsun pa grol sde). ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan gyi tshig le’ur byas pa’i rnam par ’grel pa (*Āryapañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñā-pāramitopadeśaśāstrābhisamayālaṃkārakārikāvārttika). Toh 3788, Degé Tengyur vol. 81 (shes phyin, kha), folios 1b–181a.
AAtib shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan zhes bya ba tshig le’le’urur byas pa (Abhisamayālaṃkāra-nāma-prajñāpāramitopadeśaśāstrakārikā) [Ornament for the Clear Realizations]. Toh 3786, Degé Tengyur (shes phyin, ka), folios 1b–13a.
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Bṭ1 Anonymous/Daṃṣṭrāsena. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa ’bum gyi rgya cher ’grel (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitābṛhaṭṭīkā) [Bṛhaṭṭīkā]. Toh 3807, Degé Tengyur vols. 91–92 (shes phyin, na, pa).
Bṭ3 Vasubandhu/Daṃṣṭrāsena. ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa ’bum dang / nyi khri lnga sgong pa dang / khri brgyad stong pa rgya cher bshad pa (Āryaśatasāhasrikāpañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāṣṭādaśa-sāhasrikāprajñāpāramitābṭhaṭṭīkā) [Bṛhaṭṭīkā]. Degé Tengyur vol. 93 (shes phyin, pha), folios 1b–292b.
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H Lhasa (zhol) Kangyur and Tengyur
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MSAvyT Asaṅga / Vasubandhu. mdo sde’i rgyan gyi bshad pa (Sūtrālaṃkāravyākhyā). Toh 4026, Degé Tengyur vol. 225 (sems tsam, phi), folios 129b–260a.
MW Monier-Williams, Monier. A Sanskrit-English dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899.
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NAK National Archives Kathmandu.
NGMPP Nepal German Manuscript Preservation Project.
PSP Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. Edited by Takayasu Kimura. Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin 2007–9 (1-1, 1-2), 1986 (2-3), 1990 (4), 1992 (5), 2006 (6-8). Available online (input by Klaus Wille, Göttingen) at GRETIL.
RecA Skt and Tib editions of Recension A in Yuyama 1976.
RecAs Sanskrit Recension A in Yuyama 1976.
RecAt Tibetan Recension A in Yuyama 1976.
Rgs Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā.
S Stok Palace (stog pho brang bris ma) Kangyur.
Skt Sanskrit.
Subodhinī Attributed to Haribhadra. bcom ldan ’das yon tan rin po che sdud pa’i tshig su byas pa’i dka’ ’grel shes bya ba (Bhagavadratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā-pañjikānāma) [A Commentary on the Difficult Points of the “Verses that Summarize the Perfection of Wisdom”]. Toh 3792, Degé Tengyur vol. 86 (shes phyin, ja), folios 1b–78a.
TGN de bshin gshegs pa’i gsang ba bsam gyis mi khyab pa’i bstan pa (Tathāgatācintyaguhyakanirdeśa) [The Secrets of the Realized Ones]. Toh 47, Degé Kangyur vol. 39 (dkon brtsegs, ka), folios 100a7–203a. English translation in Fiordalis, David. and Dharmachakra Translation Committee 2023.
TMN de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying po chen po nges par bstan pa (Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśasūtra) [“The Teaching on the Great Compassion of the Tathāgata”]. Toh 147, Degé Kangyur vol. 57 (mdo sde, pa), folios 42a1–242b7. English translation in Burchardi 2020.
Tempangma bka’ ’gyur rgyal rtse’i them spang ma. The Gyaltse Tempangma manuscript of the Kangyur preserved at National Library of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Tib Tibetan.
Toh Tōhoku Imperial University A Complete Catalogue of the Tibetan Buddhist Canons. (bkaḥ-ḥgyur and bstan-ḥgyur). Edited by Ui, Hakuju; Suzuki, Munetada; Kanakura, Yenshō; and Taka, Tōkan. Tohoku Imperial University, Sendai, 1934.
Vetter Vetter, Tilmann. “Compounds in the Prologue of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens, Band XXXVII, 1993: 45–92.
Wogihara Wogihara, Unrai. Abhisamayālaṃkārālokā Prajñāpāramitā Vyākhyā: The Work of Haribhadra. Tokyo: The Toyo Bunko, 1932–5; reprint ed., Tokyo: Sankibo Buddhist Book Store, 1973.
Z Zacchetti, Stefano. In Praise of the Light. Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica, Vol. 8. The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology. Tokyo: Soka University, 2005.
brgyad stong pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa bryad stong pa (Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [“Eight Thousand”]. Toh 12, Degé Kangyur vol. 33 (shes phyin, brgyad stong pa, ka), folios 1a–286a.
khri brgyad shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri brgyad stong pa (Aṣṭādaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [“Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines”]. Toh 10, Degé Kangyur vols. 29–31 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, ka, kha, and in ga folios 1b–206a). English translation in Sparham 2022.
khri pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri pa (Daśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [“Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines”]. Toh 11, Degé Kangyur vols. 31–32 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, ga folios 1b–91a (second repetition of numbering), and in shes phyin, khrid pa, nga, folios 92b-397a). English translation in Dorje 2018.
le’u brgyad ma shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [Haribhadra’s “Eight Chapters”]. Toh 3790, vols. 82–84 (shes phyin, ga, nga, ca). Citations are from the 1976–79 Karmapae chodhey gyalwae sungrab partun khang edition, first the Tib. vol. letter in italics, followed by the folio and line number.
nyi khri shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines]. Toh 9, Degé Kangyur vols. 26–28 (shes phyin, nyi khri, ka–ga). Citations are from the 1976–79 Karmapae chodhey gyalwae sungrab partun khang edition. English Translation in Padmakara 2023.
rgyan snang Haribhadra. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa’i bshad pa mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan gyi snang ba, (Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā-vyākhyānābhisamayālaṃkārālokā) [“Illumination of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra”]. Toh 3791, Degé Tengyur vol. 85 (shes phyin, cha), folios 1b–341a.
sa bcu pa sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba las, sa bcu’i le’u ste, sum cu rtsa gcig pa’o (sa bcu pa’i mdo) (Daśabhūmikasūtra) [“The Ten Bhūmis”]. Toh 44-31, Degé Kangyur vol. 36 (phal chen, kha), folios 166.a–283.a. English translation in Roberts 2021.
snying po mchog Ratnākaraśānti. ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa’i dka’ ’grel snying po mchog. (Sāratamā) [“Quintessence”]. Toh 3803, Degé Tengyur vol. 89 (shes phyin, tha), folios 1b–230a.
ŚsPK Śatasāhasrikāprajñaparamitā. Edited by Takayasu Kimura. Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin 2009 (II-1), 2010 (II-2, II-3), 2014 (II-4). Available online (input by Klaus Wille, Göttingen) at GRETIL.
ŚsPN3 Śatasāhasrikāprajñaparamitā NGMPP A 115/3, NAK Accession Number 3/632. Numbering of the scanned pages.
ŚsPN4 Śatasāhasrikāprajñaparamitā NGMPP B 91/3, NAK Accession Number 3/633. Numbering of the scanned pages.
ŚsPN4/2 Śatasāhasrikāprajñaparamitā NGMPP B 91/3, NAK Accession Number 3/633 (part two). Numbering of the scanned pages.
’bum shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa (Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā) [Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines]. Toh 8, Degé Kangyur vols. 14–25 (shes phyin, ’bum, ka–a). Citations are from the 1976–79 Karmapae chodhey gyalwae sungrab partun khang edition, first the Tib. vol. letter in italics, followed by the folio and line number. English translation in Sparham 2024.
