The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines
Chapter 7: Entry into Flawlessness
Toh 10
Degé Kangyur, vol. 29 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, ka), folios 1.a–300.a; vol. 30 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, kha), folios 1.a–304.a; vol. 31 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, ga), folios 1.a–206.a
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
Imprint
Translated by Gareth Sparham
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2022
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Table of Contents
Summary
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines is one version of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras that developed in South and South-Central Asia in tandem with the Eight Thousand version, probably during the first five hundred years of the Common Era. It contains many of the passages in the oldest extant Long Perfection of Wisdom text (the Gilgit manuscript in Sanskrit), and is similar in structure to the other versions of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras (the One Hundred Thousand and Twenty-Five Thousand) in Tibetan in the Kangyur. While setting forth the sacred fundamental doctrines of Buddhist practice with veneration, it simultaneously exhorts the reader to reject them as an object of attachment, its recurring message being that all dharmas without exception lack any intrinsic nature.
The sūtra can be divided loosely into three parts: an introductory section that sets the scene, a long central section, and three concluding chapters that consist of two important summaries of the long central section. The first of these (chapter 84) is in verse and also circulates as a separate work called The Verse Summary of the Jewel Qualities (Toh 13). The second summary is in the form of the story of Sadāprarudita and his guru Dharmodgata (chapters 85 and 86), after which the text concludes with the Buddha entrusting the work to his close companion Ānanda.
Acknowledgements
This sūtra was translated by Gareth Sparham under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The Translator’s Acknowledgments
This is a good occasion to remember and thank my friend Nicholas Ribush, who first gave me a copy of Edward Conze’s translation of The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines in 1973. I also thank the Tibetan teachers and students at the Riklam Lobdra in Dharamshala, India, where I began to study the Perfection of Wisdom, for their kindness and patience; Jeffrey Hopkins and Elizabeth Napper, who steered me in the direction of the Perfection of Wisdom and have been very kind to me over the years; and Ashok Aklujkar and others at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who taught me Sanskrit and Indian culture while I was writing my dissertation on Haribhadra’s Perfection of Wisdom commentary. I thank the hermits in the hills above Riklam Lobdra and the many Tibetan scholars and practitioners who encouraged me while I continued working on the Perfection of Wisdom after I graduated from the University of British Columbia. I thank all those who continued to support me as a monk and scholar after the violent death of my friend and mentor toward the end of the millennium. I thank those at the University of Michigan and then at the University of California (Berkeley), particularly Donald Lopez and Jacob Dalton, who enabled me to complete the set of four volumes of translations from Sanskrit of the Perfection of Wisdom commentaries by Haribhadra and Āryavimuktisena and four volumes of the fourteenth-century Tibetan commentary on the Perfection of Wisdom by Tsongkhapa. I thank Gene Smith, who introduced me to 84000. I thank everyone at 84000: Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and the sponsors; the scholars, translators, editors, and technicians; and all the other indispensable people whose work has made this translation of The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines and its accompanying commentary possible.
Around me everything I see would be part of a perfect road if I had better driving skills.Where I was born, where everything is made of concrete, it too is a perfect place.Everyone I have been with, everyone who is near me now, and even those I have forgotten—there is no one who has not helped me.So, I bow to everyone and to the world and ask for patience, and, as a boon, a smile.
Acknowledgment of Sponsors
We gratefully acknowledge the generous sponsorship of Matthew Yizhen Kong, Steven Ye Kong and family; An Zhang, Hannah Zhang, Lucas Zhang, Aiden Zhang, Jinglan Chi, Jingcan Chi, Jinghui Chi and family, Hong Zhang and family; Mao Guirong, Zhang Yikun, Chi Linlin; and Joseph Tse, Patricia Tse and family. Their support has helped make the work on this translation possible.
Text Body
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines
Chapter 7: Entry into Flawlessness
Venerable Subhūti then said to the Lord, “Lord, bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend134 form should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend feeling, perception, volitional factors, and consciousness should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend eyes should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly, bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend ears, nose, tongue, body, and thinking mind should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend a form should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly, bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend a sound, a smell, a taste, a feeling, and a dharma should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend eye consciousness should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend up to thinking-mind consciousness should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend eye contact up to who want to comprehend thinking-mind contact should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend the feeling that arises from the condition of eye contact, up to [F.69.b] who want to comprehend the feeling that arises from the condition of thinking-mind contact should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend ignorance should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly, bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend volitional factors, consciousness, name and form, the six sense fields, contact, feeling, craving, appropriation, existence, birth, and old age and death should train in the perfection of wisdom.
“Bodhisattva great beings who want to eliminate greed, hatred, and confusion should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to eliminate the view of the perishable collection, doubt, and grasping rules and rituals as absolute, as well as attachment to sense objects and malice; who want to eliminate attachment to sense objects, attachment to forms, and attachment to formless states; and who want to eliminate fetters, proclivities, and obsessions should train in the perfection of wisdom.
“Furthermore, bodhisattva great beings who want to eliminate the four bonds, four floods, four knots, four appropriations, and four errors135 should train in the perfection of wisdom.
“Bodhisattva great beings who want to eliminate the ten unwholesome actions should train in the perfection of wisdom.
“Bodhisattva great beings who want to complete the ten wholesome actions should train in the perfection of wisdom.
“Bodhisattva great beings who want to complete the [F.70.a] perfection of giving should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly, bodhisattva great beings who want to complete the perfection of morality, the perfection of patience, the perfection of perseverance, the perfection of concentration, and the perfection of wisdom should train in the perfection of wisdom.
“Bodhisattva great beings who want to complete the four concentrations, four immeasurables, four formless absorptions, four applications of mindfulness, four right efforts, four legs of miraculous power, five faculties, five powers, seven limbs of awakening, and the eightfold noble path, as well as the four detailed and thorough knowledges, four fearlessnesses, six clairvoyances, ten tathāgata powers, and eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha should train in the perfection of wisdom.
“Bodhisattva great beings who want to become absorbed in the bodhyaṅgavatin136 meditative stabilization should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to become absorbed in the siṃhavikrīḍita meditative stabilization, who want to become absorbed in the siṃhavijṛmbhita meditative stabilization, who want to obtain all the dhāraṇī gateways and meditative stabilization gateways, who want to become absorbed in the śūraṅgama meditative stabilization, and who want to become absorbed in the ratnamudra meditative stabilization, candraprabha meditative stabilization, candradhvajaketu meditative stabilization, sarvadharmamudrāgata meditative stabilization, avalokita137 meditative stabilization, dharmadhātuniyata meditative stabilization, niyatadhvajaketu meditative stabilization, [F.70.b] vajropama meditative stabilization, sarvadharmapraveśamukha meditative stabilization, samādhirāja meditative stabilization, rājamudra meditative stabilization, balavyūha meditative stabilization, samudgata meditative stabilization, sarvadharmaniruktiniyatapraveśa meditative stabilization, sarvadharmajñānādhivāsanapraveśa138 meditative stabilization, daśadigvyavalokita meditative stabilization, sarvadharmadhāraṇīmukhamudra meditative stabilization, sarvadharmāsaṃpramoṣa meditative stabilization, sarvadharmasamavasaraṇākāramudra139 meditative stabilization, trimaṇḍalapariśuddha meditative stabilization, ākāśāvasthita meditative stabilization, acyutābhijñā meditative stabilization, pātragata meditative stabilization, dhvajāgrakeyūra meditative stabilization, sarvakleśanirdahana meditative stabilization, caturmārabalavikaraṇa140 meditative stabilization, jñānolka meditative stabilization, daśabalodgata meditative stabilization, and ākāśāsaṃgavimuktinirupalepa meditative stabilization should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to obtain all those meditative stabilization gateways and others as well should train in the perfection of wisdom. [B6]
“Furthermore, Lord, bodhisattva great beings who want to fulfill all the intentions of beings should train in the perfection of wisdom.
“Furthermore, Lord, bodhisattva great beings who want to complete all the wholesome roots which, when those wholesome roots are completed, cause them not to fall into terrible forms of life, not to be born [F.71.a] in families that are wanting, not to fall to the śrāvaka level or the pratyekabuddha level, and not to fall into a bodhisattva’s hardheadedness141 should train in the perfection of wisdom.”
Then venerable Śāriputra asked venerable Subhūti, “How, Venerable Subhūti, do they fall into a bodhisattva’s hardheadedness?”
Venerable Subhūti replied, “Venerable Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings practice the six perfections without skillful means. Having resorted to the meditative stabilization on emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness without skillful means, they do not fall to the śrāvaka level or the pratyekabuddha level, but still they do not enter into the secure state of a bodhisattva.142 This is called ‘a bodhisattva’s hardheadedness.’ ”143
Subhūti replied, “Venerable Śāriputra, a bodhisattva great being’s ‘hardheadedness’ is just this: a love for dharmas.”
Subhūti replied, “Venerable Śāriputra, here bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom settle down on, stand upon, and form the notion144 that form is ‘empty.’ Similarly, they settle down on, stand upon, and form the notion that feeling, perception, volitional factors, and consciousness are ‘empty.’ That, Venerable Śāriputra, is the love for dharmas called hardheadedness that can come along with being a bodhisattva great being.
“Furthermore, Venerable Śāriputra, bodhisattvas bodhisattvas settle down on, stand upon, and form the notion that form is ‘impermanent,’ and they also settle down on, stand upon, [F.71.b] and form the notion that to the notion that form is ‘suffering, selfless, unpleasant, and calm, empty, signless, and wishless.’145 Venerable Śāriputra, that love for dharmas that can come along with being a bodhisattva is hardheadedness.
“Similarly, they settle down on, stand upon, and form the notion that feeling, perception, volitional factors, and consciousness are ‘impermanent,’ and they also settle down on, stand upon, and form the notion that feeling, perception, volitional factors, and consciousness are ‘suffering, selfless, unpleasant, and calm, empty, signless, and wishless.’ Venerable Śāriputra, that love for dharmas that can come along with being a bodhisattva is hardheadedness.
“Bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom might settle down on, stand upon, and form the notion about these dharmas: ‘Thus form should be abandoned; with this, form should be abandoned. Thus feeling, perception, volitional factors, and consciousness should be abandoned; with this, they should be abandoned. Thus should suffering be comprehended; with this should suffering be comprehended. Thus should origination be abandoned; with this should origination be abandoned. Thus should cessation be actualized; with this should cessation be actualized. Thus should the path be cultivated; with this should the path be cultivated. This is defilement, this is purification; these dharmas are to be resorted to, these dharmas are not to be resorted to; this should be practiced by a bodhisattva, this should not be practiced; this is a bodhisattva’s path, this is not the path; this is a bodhisattva’s training, this is not the training; this is a bodhisattva’s perfection of giving, and this is the perfection of morality, patience, perseverance, concentration, and wisdom; [F.72.a] this is not a bodhisattva’s perfection of giving, morality, patience, perseverance, concentration, or wisdom; this is a bodhisattva’s skillful means, this is not skillful means; and this is the secure state of a bodhisattva, this is hardheadedness.’ If so, then that love for dharmas that can come along with being a bodhisattva is hardheadedness.”
“What, Venerable Subhūti, is a bodhisattva great being’s flawlessness?”146 asked venerable Śāriputra.
Venerable Subhūti replied, “Venerable Śāriputra, here bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom do not see in inner emptiness outer emptiness, and do not see in outer emptiness inner emptiness; do not see in inner and outer emptiness the emptiness of emptiness, and do not see in the emptiness of emptiness inner and outer emptiness; do not see in the emptiness of emptiness the great emptiness, and do not see in the great emptiness the emptiness of emptiness; do not see in the great emptiness the emptiness of ultimate reality, and do not see in the emptiness of ultimate reality the great emptiness; do not see in the emptiness of ultimate reality the emptiness of the compounded, and do not see in the emptiness of the compounded the emptiness of ultimate reality; do not see in the emptiness of the compounded the emptiness of the uncompounded, and do not see in the emptiness of the uncompounded the emptiness of the compounded; do not see in the emptiness of the uncompounded the emptiness of what transcends limits, and do not see in the emptiness of what transcends limits the emptiness of the uncompounded; do not see in the emptiness of what transcends limits the emptiness of no beginning and no end, and do not see in the emptiness of no beginning and no end the emptiness of what transcends limits; do not see in the emptiness of no beginning and no end the emptiness of nonrepudiation, and do not see in the emptiness of nonrepudiation the emptiness of no beginning and no end; do not see in the emptiness of nonrepudiation the emptiness of a basic nature, and do not see in the emptiness of a basic nature the emptiness of nonrepudiation; [F.72.b] do not see in the emptiness of a basic nature the emptiness of its own mark, and do not see in the emptiness of its own mark the emptiness of a basic nature; do not see in the emptiness of its own mark the emptiness of all dharmas, and do not see in the emptiness of all dharmas the emptiness of its own mark;147 do not see in the emptiness of all dharmas the emptiness of a nonexistent thing, and do not see in the emptiness of a nonexistent thing the emptiness of all dharmas; do not see in the emptiness of a nonexistent thing the emptiness of an intrinsic nature, and do not see in the emptiness of an intrinsic nature the emptiness of a nonexistent thing; do not see in the emptiness of an intrinsic nature the emptiness that is the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, and do not see in the emptiness that is the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature the emptiness of an intrinsic nature. Venerable Śāriputra, when bodhisattva great beings practice the perfection of wisdom like that they enter into the secure state of a bodhisattva.
“Furthermore, Venerable Śāriputra, here bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom train so that148 they know form but do not falsely project anything because of it; they know feeling, perception, volitional factors, and consciousness but do not falsely project anything because of them; they know the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and thinking mind but do not falsely project anything because of them; they know a form, a sound, a smell, a taste, a feeling, and a dharma but do not falsely project anything because of them; they know the perfection of giving but do not falsely project anything because of it; they know the perfection of morality, patience, perseverance, [F.73.a] concentration, and wisdom but do not falsely project anything because of them; they know the concentrations, immeasurables, and formless absorptions but do not falsely project anything because of them; and similarly they know the five clairvoyances, five eyes, applications of mindfulness, right efforts, legs of miraculous power, faculties, powers, limbs of awakening, path, four fearlessnesses, four detailed and thorough knowledges, and eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha but do not falsely project anything because of them.
“Venerable Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom train so that they do not falsely project anything even because of the thought of awakening; they do not falsely project anything even because of the thought equal to the unequaled, the prodigious thought.149 And why? Because that thought is no thought150 because the basic nature of thought is clear light.”151
“Venerable Subhūti, what is the clear light that is the basic nature of thought?” asked Śāriputra.
Subhūti replied, “Venerable Śāriputra, a thought that is neither conjoined with greed nor disjoined from greed, neither conjoined with hatred and confusion nor disjoined from hatred and confusion, and neither conjoined with obsessions, obscurations, proclivities, fetters, distortions, and śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha thoughts nor disjoined from them—that, venerable Śāriputra, is the clear light that is the basic nature of a bodhisattva great being’s thought.”
“Venerable Subhūti, the thought of which you say ‘it is no thought,’ does it exist?”152 asked Śāriputra.
“Venerable Śāriputra,” Subhūti asked in return, “can you apprehend existence or nonexistence there, in that state of no thought? [F.73.b]
Subhūti then asked, “Venerable Śāriputra, if you cannot apprehend existence or nonexistence there, in that state of no thought, is then, Venerable Śāriputra, this argumentative investigation of yours—‘The thought of which you say “it is no thought,” does it exist?’—appropriate?”
“Venerable Śāriputra,” replied Subhūti, “the state of no thought is a state without distortion and without conceptualization; it is the state in which all dharmas are just so. It is called the state of no thought’s ‘unthinkability.’ ”
Śāriputra then asked, “Venerable Subhūti, just as thought is without distortion and without conceptualization, so too is form without distortion and without conceptualization, and similarly feeling, perception, volitional factors, and consciousness are without distortion and without conceptualization as well; and just as thought is without distortion and without conceptualization so too are the eye constituent, form constituent, and eye consciousness constituent without distortion and without conceptualization, and similarly the ear constituent … the nose constituent … the tongue constituent … the body constituent … and the thinking-mind constituent, dharma-constituent, and thinking-mind consciousness constituent without distortion and without conceptualization as well—similarly, are the sense fields, dependent originations, perfections, clairvoyances, applications of mindfulness, right efforts, legs of miraculous power, faculties, powers, limbs of awakening, path, fearlessnesses, detailed and thorough knowledges, powers, distinct attributes of a buddha, and unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening without distortion and without conceptualization as well?”
“Exactly so, Venerable Śāriputra!” replied Subhūti. [F.74.a] “Just as thought is without distortion and without conceptualization, so too are the aggregates, constituents, sense fields, dependent origination, perfections, clairvoyances, dharmas on the side of awakening, powers, fearlessnesses, distinct attributes of a buddha, and unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening without distortion and without conceptualization as well.”
“Excellent, excellent, Venerable Subhūti!” said Śāriputra. “Because you are the Lord’s son, close to his bosom, born from his mouth, born from his Dharma, magically produced from his Dharma, his Dharma heir and not heir to material possessions, a direct eyewitness to the dharmas who witnesses with your body—that is, because the Lord has proclaimed you the foremost of śrāvakas who are at the conflict-free stage, this is an exhibition of that fact.
“Venerable Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings should train in the perfection of wisdom like that, and because of that bodhisattva great beings must be considered irreversible, and should be known as not lacking in the perfection of wisdom. Venerable Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings who want to train in the śrāvaka level should concentrate and listen to, take up, bear in mind, read aloud, study, and properly pay attention to this perfection of wisdom; and bodhisattva great beings who want to train in the pratyekabuddha level, the bodhisattva level, and the buddha level should also concentrate and listen to, take up, bear in mind, read aloud, master, and properly pay attention to this perfection of wisdom. And why? [F.74.b] Because in this