Teaching the Five Perfections
Introduction

Teaching the Five Perfections is a compilation of five individual sūtras that each present the practice of one of the five perfections (pāramitā) in which bodhisattvas train on the path of the Great Vehicle: generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, and concentration. These five perfections embody the skillful methods of the bodhisattva path, and, as these sūtras emphasize, they should always be practiced in conjunction with an understanding of the state of omniscience, the sixth perfection of insight that is supposed to permeate the practice of the first five perfections. Throughout this sūtra, the perfection of insight is taught as the practice of turning one’s mind to the omniscient state while transcending conceptual reference points. Only by integrating the perfection of insight into the practice of the other five trainings do they become genuine perfections.

Teaching the Five Perfections unfolds as a conversation between the Buddha and two of his close students, Śāradvatīputra, who is praised in the canonical literature as the foremost of the Buddha’s disciples in terms of wisdom, and Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇīputra, who is lauded as the foremost preacher of the Dharma. As for these two outstanding disciples, we are told that they deliver their teachings on the perfections in a conversation inspired and guided by the Buddha’s blessing. As is often the case in sūtra literature, this is one of the ways in which bona fide “words of the Buddha” (buddhavacana) can be expressed. A wide range of topics is addressed throughout the text, including the practice of nonconceptuality, the defining characteristics of bodhisattvas, the importance of dedicating merit toward omniscience, the distinction between bodhisattvas and hearers, and, of course, the distinctive practices of the five perfections themselves.

Over the course of discussing these topics, the Buddha and his two disciples address several challenging issues, such as defending the efficacy and legitimacy of meritorious actions once the lack of self has been realized, and repudiating objections that bodhisattvas do not voluntarily embrace saṃsāra but are simply unable to obtain the cessation of the hearers and thus forced to remain in existence. In treating these and many other philosophical themes in detail, Teaching the Five Perfections thus provides a wealth of insight into the thought and practice of the Great Vehicle. The text presents the five central “methods” of the Great Vehicle in a manner that stands out from the highly codified presentations of the perfections that one finds in the commentarial literature. In this way the sūtra provides not only a wealth of doctrinal teachings but also a host of imaginative and humorous analogies that give us a rare glimpse of the cultural and social milieu in India during the time of its composition. As such, the text should be of interest to a contemporary readership concerned not only with the development of the Buddhist tradition and its scriptures, but also with classical Indian culture in general.

Today only two short manuscript fragments of Teaching the Five Perfections have survived in Sanskrit.1 A complete Chinese translation by Xuanzang (ca. 602–64) does, however, exist.2 Interestingly, the Chinese canon treats each of these five sūtras as individual scriptures, indicating that the texts most likely originally existed as distinct teachings that only later were compiled and united under a single title by the editors of the Tibetan Kangyur.3 Moreover, unlike the Tibetans, the Chinese tradition combines these five sūtras with the Suvi­krānta­vikrāmi­paripṛcchā from the Prajñāpāramitā section of the Kangyur, which then is said to represent the teaching of the sixth perfection of insight.4 Since this English translation is based on the version found in the Degé Kangyur, we have here presented the five sūtras under the single title employed in that collection. As for the Tibetan translation, the translators for this particular text are listed in the colophon as the Indian preceptor Jinamitra and the Tibetan translator Yeshé Dé, who both flourished during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. As such, the Tibetan translation, which we have rendered into English here, would have been completed during the early translation period, a dating that is also attested by the text’s inclusion in the early ninth century Denkarma (ldan dkar ma) inventory of translations into Tibetan.5 This English translation from the Tibetan has been produced based on the Degé block print with reference to the Comparative Edition (Tib. dpe bsdur ma).