The One Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom is a short Prajñāpāramitā work that is comprised of three main sections: two opening stanzas, a litany of one hundred and eight names, and a dhāraṇī formula. The opening stanzas pay homage to the mother of all buddhas, the embodiment of the perfection of wisdom, and invite the audience to listen to the primary teaching, which consists of a list of the one hundred and eight names, most of which originate from classic Prajñāpāramitā categories. The sūtra concludes with a dhāraṇī and a statement on the benefits of reciting it.
This publication was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The text was translated, edited, and introduced by the 84000 translation team. Lowell Cook produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Nathaniel Rich edited the translation and the introduction, and Linda Griffin copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
The One Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom is a short Prajñāpāramitā work that appears twice in the Degé Kangyur, once in the Perfection of Wisdom section (Toh 25) and once in the Action Tantra section (Toh 553). This sūtra consists of three parts: two opening stanzas, a litany of one hundred and eight names, and a dhāraṇī formula and statement of benefits.
The first opening stanza is in praise of the mother of all buddhas, the female deity who embodies the perfection of wisdom. As in other Prajñāpāramitā works, the text seamlessly identifies the profound insight into ultimate reality that is the perfection of wisdom with the deity, the great mother of all buddhas, who personifies the perfection of wisdom. The text in fact refers to itself once as a “perfection of wisdom” in relation to another Prajñāpāramitā text, The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines (Toh 8).1 The second opening stanza is a declaration of the teaching to be given, namely the one hundred and eight names, and an appeal for the audience to listen. Though these two stanzas are presumably spoken by the Buddha, they are nevertheless highly reminiscent of the opening homage and pledge to compose that traditionally preface Buddhist commentarial treatises.
The one hundred and eight names of the perfection of wisdom, the main body of the sūtra, consist of terms drawn largely from classic Prajñāpāramitā categories, such as the eight topics or the eighteen aspects of emptiness. Given that there are over one hundred and twenty discrete entries given, it is clear that some of the terms are intended to be combined as a single name if there are to be precisely one hundred and eight names. One example of this is the list of the three gateways to liberation, in which case emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness are likely counted as a single name. In other cases, however, it is not entirely clear which names are to be considered independently of or in conjunction with other terms. Thus, without recourse to a commentary or other authoritative source to establish how the names are to be distinguished, we did not hazard an attempt at numbering the names as precisely one hundred and eight.
Following the litany of one hundred and eight names, the text prescribes a dhāraṇī formula to accompany the recitation of the names of the perfection of wisdom.2 The sūtra ends with a description of the benefits of reciting it at all times, which include recollecting past lives, gaining great wisdom, and upholding the entirety of the Buddha’s teachings.
Unfortunately, no Sanskrit witness of The One Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom survives today. A Chinese translation was produced by the monk and prolific translator Dānapāla 施護 (?–1017) and others. The title of the Chinese translation, The Dhāraṇī of True and Complete Meaning and the One Hundred and Eight Names from the Noble Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (聖八千頌般若波羅蜜多一百八名真實圓義陀羅尼經, Taishō 230), is of interest in that it suggests the one hundred and eight names may derive from The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Toh 12). Overall, the Chinese and Tibetan translations are largely in agreement, the main exception being that the Chinese text assigns a number to each of the names. Unfortunately, this did not prove helpful for us in determining which terms are to be grouped as a single name, since the Tibetan translation contains several additional terms not found in the Chinese. One possible approach to arrive at exactly one hundred and eight names would have been to simply omit the additional names found in the Tibetan—and, indeed, this is what Edward Conze (1973) did in his translation. However, we did not wish to make unwarranted cuts to the text in our translation.
The One Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom belongs to a genre of works, known in Sanskrit as nāmāṣṭaśataka, featuring one hundred and eight names of a buddha, deity, or bodhisattva, and it is among several such texts in the Degé Kangyur.3 Indeed, the sūtra is listed in the Denkarma catalog under the nāmāṣṭaśataka section,4 and it is also listed in the Phangthangma catalog.5 This allows us to establish a terminus ante quem of the early ninth century
The Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom has been translated into English from the Tibetan by Conze (1973) and from the Chinese by Francesco Bianchini in his PhD dissertation (2020). It has also been translated into French by Georges Driessens (1996). The present translation was produced based on the editions preserved in the Degé Kangyur in consultation with the variant readings found in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur and the Stok Palace manuscript Kangyur.
Although we lack a Sanskrit witness for The Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom, the same dhāraṇī formula appears in the Sanskrit witness of The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika” (Kauśikaprajñāpāramitā, Vaidya 1961).9 Since the spelling of the dhāraṇī in the Sanskrit Kauśikaprajñāpāramitā seems to be more accurate compared to the transliterated Sanskrit in The Hundred and Eight Names, we have slightly emended the dhāraṇī in the present work.
The perfection of wisdom, omniscience, knowledge of the aspects of the path, knowledge of all aspects, the very limit of reality, suchness, unmistaken suchness, unaltered suchness, truth, thatness, reality, unmistakenness, emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, nonexistence, essential nature, essential nature of nonentities, dharmatā, dharmadhātu, the abiding nature of phenomena, the unchanging nature of phenomena, certainty of phenomena, the characteristic of phenomena, selflessness of phenomena, absence of an essential nature, absence of a being, absence of a life force, absence of a soul, absence of an individual, absence of a person, ineffable10 and inexpressible, devoid of mind, intellect, and consciousness, unequaled, equal to the unequaled, without owner, devoid of arrogance, absence of conceptual elaborations, devoid of conceptual elaborations, devoid of all conceptual elaborations, utterly beyond all conceptual elaborations, mother of all buddhas, progenitor of all bodhisattvas, holder of all śrāvakas, creator of all pratyekabuddhas, holder of the entire world, inexhaustible gathering of the accumulation of merit, descent of wisdom, wielder of miraculous power, the purification of divine sight, the clarification of divine hearing, knowledge of the minds of others, recollection of past lives, the knowledge of death, transmigration, and rebirth, the exhaustion of all affliction, the noble, pure, and cleansed, abiding in the applications of mindfulness, imbued with the power of the correct exertions, imbued with the four bases of miraculous powers, purification of the faculties, enactment of strength, absence of objectionable acts, beautified by the jewels of the seven branches of awakening, granter of the seven riches, teacher of the eightfold path of the noble ones, teacher of the nine serial absorptions, accomplishment of the ten powers, guide to the ten levels, perfection of the ten strengths, beautified by the ten stations of totality, accomplishment of the ten knowledges, terrorizer of the adversaries who are the ten latent afflictions, accomplisher of the concentrations, truly beyond the formless realm,[F.17.a] praised by all perfectly complete buddhas, cause of all knowledge, the culmination of all perfections,11 emptiness of internal phenomena, emptiness of external phenomena, emptiness of both external and internal phenomena, emptiness of emptiness, emptiness of great extent, emptiness of ultimate reality, emptiness of conditioned phenomena, emptiness of unconditioned phenomena, emptiness of the unlimited, emptiness of that which has neither beginning nor end,[F.175.a] emptiness of nonexclusion, natural emptiness, emptiness of all phenomena, emptiness of intrinsic defining characteristics, emptiness of nonapprehensibility, emptiness of nonentities, emptiness of essential nature, emptiness of the essential nature of nonentities, the unarisen, the unborn, and the unceasing, absence of annihilation, absence of permanence, absence of sameness, absence of difference, absence of coming, absence of going, the cultivation of dependent origination, not an object of analysis, not an object of cognition, groundlessness, lacking defining characteristics, not subject to investigation, not subject to knowing, imperishable from beginning to end, unwavering, neither nondual nor not nondual, quiescence, release from mental engagement, without remedies, undefiled, comparable to a path through space, indescribable as existent or nonexistent, the essential nature of dreams, the illusory dharmatā, comparable to a whirling firebrand, and the single taste of all phenomena.
Whoever recites these one hundred and eight names of the perfection of wisdom will be free from all the lower realms. They will be considered by all the buddhas and will be continuously protected, guarded, and shielded by all the bodhisattvas. They should constantly, always, remember the words of this mantra:
Homage to the blessed lady, the noble lady, the Perfection of Wisdom, she who loves those devoted to her, is endowed with unfathomable qualities, knows everything through the wisdom of all the thus-gone ones, and is honored by all buddhas and bodhisattvas.[F.17.b] It is thus:
oṁ prajñe prajñe mahāprajñe prajñāvabhāse prajñālokakare ajñānavidhamane siddhe susiddhe sidhyamāne bhagavati sarvāṅgasundari bhagavati bhaktavatsale[F.175.b] prasāritahaste samāśvāsakari tiṣṭha tiṣṭha kampa kampa cala cala rava rava garja garja āgaccha āgaccha bhagavati mā vilamba svāhā |12
If one upholds this perfection of wisdom, one will uphold The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines. If one always chants it, one’s karmic obscurations will all be purified. After one dies and transmigrates, one will remember one's previous births, be attentive, and have unparalleled wisdom. One will uphold the entirety of the teachings of all the thus-gone ones throughout the three times. One will uphold all mantras and vidyāmantras in their entirety. After one dies and transmigrates, one will remember one's previous births, be attentive, and have great wisdom.
This completes “The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom.”
The One Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom is a short Prajñāpāramitā work that is comprised of three main sections: two opening stanzas, a litany of one hundred and eight names, and a dhāraṇī formula. The opening stanzas pay homage to the mother of all buddhas, the embodiment of the perfection of wisdom, and invite the audience to listen to the primary teaching, which consists of a list of the one hundred and eight names, most of which originate from classic Prajñāpāramitā categories. The sūtra concludes with a dhāraṇī and a statement on the benefits of reciting it.
This publication was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The text was translated, edited, and introduced by the 84000 translation team. Lowell Cook produced the translation and wrote the introduction. Nathaniel Rich edited the translation and the introduction, and Linda Griffin copyedited the text. Martina Cotter was in charge of the digital publication process.
The One Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom is a short Prajñāpāramitā work that appears twice in the Degé Kangyur, once in the Perfection of Wisdom section (Toh 25) and once in the Action Tantra section (Toh 553). This sūtra consists of three parts: two opening stanzas, a litany of one hundred and eight names, and a dhāraṇī formula and statement of benefits.
The first opening stanza is in praise of the mother of all buddhas, the female deity who embodies the perfection of wisdom. As in other Prajñāpāramitā works, the text seamlessly identifies the profound insight into ultimate reality that is the perfection of wisdom with the deity, the great mother of all buddhas, who personifies the perfection of wisdom. The text in fact refers to itself once as a “perfection of wisdom” in relation to another Prajñāpāramitā text, The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines (Toh 8).1 The second opening stanza is a declaration of the teaching to be given, namely the one hundred and eight names, and an appeal for the audience to listen. Though these two stanzas are presumably spoken by the Buddha, they are nevertheless highly reminiscent of the opening homage and pledge to compose that traditionally preface Buddhist commentarial treatises.
The one hundred and eight names of the perfection of wisdom, the main body of the sūtra, consist of terms drawn largely from classic Prajñāpāramitā categories, such as the eight topics or the eighteen aspects of emptiness. Given that there are over one hundred and twenty discrete entries given, it is clear that some of the terms are intended to be combined as a single name if there are to be precisely one hundred and eight names. One example of this is the list of the three gateways to liberation, in which case emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness are likely counted as a single name. In other cases, however, it is not entirely clear which names are to be considered independently of or in conjunction with other terms. Thus, without recourse to a commentary or other authoritative source to establish how the names are to be distinguished, we did not hazard an attempt at numbering the names as precisely one hundred and eight.
Following the litany of one hundred and eight names, the text prescribes a dhāraṇī formula to accompany the recitation of the names of the perfection of wisdom.2 The sūtra ends with a description of the benefits of reciting it at all times, which include recollecting past lives, gaining great wisdom, and upholding the entirety of the Buddha’s teachings.
Unfortunately, no Sanskrit witness of The One Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom survives today. A Chinese translation was produced by the monk and prolific translator Dānapāla 施護 (?–1017) and others. The title of the Chinese translation, The Dhāraṇī of True and Complete Meaning and the One Hundred and Eight Names from the Noble Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (聖八千頌般若波羅蜜多一百八名真實圓義陀羅尼經, Taishō 230), is of interest in that it suggests the one hundred and eight names may derive from The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Toh 12). Overall, the Chinese and Tibetan translations are largely in agreement, the main exception being that the Chinese text assigns a number to each of the names. Unfortunately, this did not prove helpful for us in determining which terms are to be grouped as a single name, since the Tibetan translation contains several additional terms not found in the Chinese. One possible approach to arrive at exactly one hundred and eight names would have been to simply omit the additional names found in the Tibetan—and, indeed, this is what Edward Conze (1973) did in his translation. However, we did not wish to make unwarranted cuts to the text in our translation.
The One Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom belongs to a genre of works, known in Sanskrit as nāmāṣṭaśataka, featuring one hundred and eight names of a buddha, deity, or bodhisattva, and it is among several such texts in the Degé Kangyur.3 Indeed, the sūtra is listed in the Denkarma catalog under the nāmāṣṭaśataka section,4 and it is also listed in the Phangthangma catalog.5 This allows us to establish a terminus ante quem of the early ninth century
The Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom has been translated into English from the Tibetan by Conze (1973) and from the Chinese by Francesco Bianchini in his PhD dissertation (2020). It has also been translated into French by Georges Driessens (1996). The present translation was produced based on the editions preserved in the Degé Kangyur in consultation with the variant readings found in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur and the Stok Palace manuscript Kangyur.
Although we lack a Sanskrit witness for The Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom, the same dhāraṇī formula appears in the Sanskrit witness of The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika” (Kauśikaprajñāpāramitā, Vaidya 1961).9 Since the spelling of the dhāraṇī in the Sanskrit Kauśikaprajñāpāramitā seems to be more accurate compared to the transliterated Sanskrit in The Hundred and Eight Names, we have slightly emended the dhāraṇī in the present work.
The perfection of wisdom, omniscience, knowledge of the aspects of the path, knowledge of all aspects, the very limit of reality, suchness, unmistaken suchness, unaltered suchness, truth, thatness, reality, unmistakenness, emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, nonexistence, essential nature, essential nature of nonentities, dharmatā, dharmadhātu, the abiding nature of phenomena, the unchanging nature of phenomena, certainty of phenomena, the characteristic of phenomena, selflessness of phenomena, absence of an essential nature, absence of a being, absence of a life force, absence of a soul, absence of an individual, absence of a person, ineffable10 and inexpressible, devoid of mind, intellect, and consciousness, unequaled, equal to the unequaled, without owner, devoid of arrogance, absence of conceptual elaborations, devoid of conceptual elaborations, devoid of all conceptual elaborations, utterly beyond all conceptual elaborations, mother of all buddhas, progenitor of all bodhisattvas, holder of all śrāvakas, creator of all pratyekabuddhas, holder of the entire world, inexhaustible gathering of the accumulation of merit, descent of wisdom, wielder of miraculous power, the purification of divine sight, the clarification of divine hearing, knowledge of the minds of others, recollection of past lives, the knowledge of death, transmigration, and rebirth, the exhaustion of all affliction, the noble, pure, and cleansed, abiding in the applications of mindfulness, imbued with the power of the correct exertions, imbued with the four bases of miraculous powers, purification of the faculties, enactment of strength, absence of objectionable acts, beautified by the jewels of the seven branches of awakening, granter of the seven riches, teacher of the eightfold path of the noble ones, teacher of the nine serial absorptions, accomplishment of the ten powers, guide to the ten levels, perfection of the ten strengths, beautified by the ten stations of totality, accomplishment of the ten knowledges, terrorizer of the adversaries who are the ten latent afflictions, accomplisher of the concentrations, truly beyond the formless realm,[F.17.a] praised by all perfectly complete buddhas, cause of all knowledge, the culmination of all perfections,11 emptiness of internal phenomena, emptiness of external phenomena, emptiness of both external and internal phenomena, emptiness of emptiness, emptiness of great extent, emptiness of ultimate reality, emptiness of conditioned phenomena, emptiness of unconditioned phenomena, emptiness of the unlimited, emptiness of that which has neither beginning nor end,[F.175.a] emptiness of nonexclusion, natural emptiness, emptiness of all phenomena, emptiness of intrinsic defining characteristics, emptiness of nonapprehensibility, emptiness of nonentities, emptiness of essential nature, emptiness of the essential nature of nonentities, the unarisen, the unborn, and the unceasing, absence of annihilation, absence of permanence, absence of sameness, absence of difference, absence of coming, absence of going, the cultivation of dependent origination, not an object of analysis, not an object of cognition, groundlessness, lacking defining characteristics, not subject to investigation, not subject to knowing, imperishable from beginning to end, unwavering, neither nondual nor not nondual, quiescence, release from mental engagement, without remedies, undefiled, comparable to a path through space, indescribable as existent or nonexistent, the essential nature of dreams, the illusory dharmatā, comparable to a whirling firebrand, and the single taste of all phenomena.
Whoever recites these one hundred and eight names of the perfection of wisdom will be free from all the lower realms. They will be considered by all the buddhas and will be continuously protected, guarded, and shielded by all the bodhisattvas. They should constantly, always, remember the words of this mantra:
Homage to the blessed lady, the noble lady, the Perfection of Wisdom, she who loves those devoted to her, is endowed with unfathomable qualities, knows everything through the wisdom of all the thus-gone ones, and is honored by all buddhas and bodhisattvas.[F.17.b] It is thus:
oṁ prajñe prajñe mahāprajñe prajñāvabhāse prajñālokakare ajñānavidhamane siddhe susiddhe sidhyamāne bhagavati sarvāṅgasundari bhagavati bhaktavatsale[F.175.b] prasāritahaste samāśvāsakari tiṣṭha tiṣṭha kampa kampa cala cala rava rava garja garja āgaccha āgaccha bhagavati mā vilamba svāhā |12
If one upholds this perfection of wisdom, one will uphold The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines. If one always chants it, one’s karmic obscurations will all be purified. After one dies and transmigrates, one will remember one's previous births, be attentive, and have unparalleled wisdom. One will uphold the entirety of the teachings of all the thus-gone ones throughout the three times. One will uphold all mantras and vidyāmantras in their entirety. After one dies and transmigrates, one will remember one's previous births, be attentive, and have great wisdom.
This completes “The Noble Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom.”
The presence of the dhāraṇī formula is highlighted in a witness of the sūtra preserved in the Phukdrak manuscript Kangyur, whose colophon affixes the phrase “together with dhāraṇīs and mantras” (gzungs sngags bcas pa) to the title. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i mtshan rgya rtsa brgyad gzungs sngags bcas pa. Phukdrak Kangyur vol. 42 (sna tshogs, ka), folio 285.b.
In the Tantra section, for example, these include Toh 532, Toh 634, 635, 636, 637, 638, 639 (One Hundred and Eight Names of Youthful Mañjuśrī Accompanied by His Dhāraṇī-Mantra), 640, and 641, and Toh 728 (The Hundred and Eight Names of the Goddess Tārā).
Pelliot tibétain 45.3. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. Accessed through The International Dunhuang Programme.
The Dunhuang caves are said to have been sealed by the eleventh century
Reading brjod du med pa nyid from the witnesses of Lhasa and Narthang that correspond to Toh 533. This reading is also supported by Phukdrak.
This portion of the dhāraṇī can be translated as follows: “Oṁ, wisdom, wisdom, great wisdom, the light of wisdom, ray of the light of wisdom, the destroyer of ignorance! O accomplished one, well accomplished, one to be accomplished! O blessed lady (bhagavatī) beautiful in every limb, blessed lady who is fond of [her] devotees! With an extended hand, you offer solace. Remain, remain, agitate, agitate, move, move, roar, roar, rumble, rumble, come, come, O blessed lady! Do not delay, svāhā!”
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 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.
This refers to the four applications of mindfulness, which are (1) the application of mindfulness that observes the physical body, (2) the application of mindfulness that observes feelings, (3) the application of mindfulness that observes the mind, and (4) the application of mindfulness that observes phenomena.
The female form of
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.
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.
This refers to the four correct exertions, which are (1) preventing negative states of mind from arising, (2) removing those that have already arisen, (3) giving rise to positive states that have not yet arisen, and (4) maintaining those that have already arisen. While the translation of this term here follows the Sanskrit, a literal translation from Tibetan would be “four correct abandonings,” a rendering often seen. It is possible that the Tibetan translators may originally have confused the meaning in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) of the term prahāṇa (“priority”) with its meaning in classical Sanskrit (“elimination”).
The principle of dependent origination asserts that nothing exists independently of other factors, the reason for this being that things and events come into existence only by dependence on the aggregation of causes and conditions. In general, the processes of saṃsāra, through which the external world and the beings within it revolve in a continuous cycle of suffering, propelled by the propensities of past actions and their interaction with afflicted mental states, originate according to the sequential unfolding of twelve links, commencing with ignorance and ending with birth, aging, and death. It is only through deliberate reversal of these twelve links that one can succeed in bringing the whole cycle to an end.
The real nature, true quality, or condition of things. Throughout Buddhist discourse this term is used in two distinct ways. In one, it designates the relative nature that is either the essential characteristic of a specific phenomenon, such as the heat of fire and the moisture of water, or the defining feature of a specific term or category. The other very important and widespread way it is used is to designate the ultimate nature of all phenomena, which cannot be conveyed in conceptual, dualistic terms and is often synonymous with emptiness or the absence of intrinsic existence.
Clairaudience, i.e., the sublime ability to understand all languages and listen to them whether they are nearby or far away. This is the second of the six (or sometimes five) superknowledges (
Clairvoyance, i.e., the ability to see all forms whether they are near or far, subtle or gross; it is also the ability to see the births and deaths of beings. This is the first of the six (or sometimes five) superknowledges (
The eight topics are (1) knowing everything (
These are typically enumerated as (1) emptiness of internal phenomena, (2) emptiness of external phenomena, (3) emptiness of both external and internal phenomena, (4) emptiness of emptiness, (5) emptiness of great extent, (6) emptiness of ultimate reality, (7) emptiness of conditioned phenomena, (8) emptiness of unconditioned phenomena, (9) emptiness of the unlimited, (10) emptiness of that which has neither beginning nor end, (11) emptiness of nonexclusion, (12) natural emptiness, (13) emptiness of all phenomena, (14) emptiness of intrinsic defining characteristics, (15) emptiness of nonapprehensibility, (16) emptiness of nonentities, (17) emptiness of essential nature, and (18) emptiness of the essential nature of nonentities.
The path leading to the accomplishment of an arhat, it consists of correct (1) view, (2) intention, (3) speech, (4) action, (5) livelihood, (6) effort, (7) mindfulness, and (8) absorption.
One of the three gateways to liberation; the other two are signlessness and wishlessness.
The thirteenth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The third of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The seventh of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The fourth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The seventeenth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness
Second of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The fifth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
First of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The fourteenth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness
The fifteenth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The sixteenth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The eleventh of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The tenth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The eighteenth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The ninth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The sixth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
The eighth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
This term denotes the ontological status of phenomena, according to which they are said to possess existence in their own right—inherently, in and of themselves, objectively, and independent of any other phenomena such as our conception and labelling. The absence of such an ontological reality is defined as the true nature of reality, emptiness.
One of the names of the Perfection of Wisdom.
The highest and subtlest of the three realms of saṃsāra in Buddhist cosmology. Here beings are no longer bound by materiality and enjoy a purely mental state of absorption. It is divided in four levels according to each of the four formless concentrations (ārūpyāvacaradhyāna), namely, the Sphere of Infinite Space (ākāśānantyāyatana), the Sphere of Infinite Consciousness (vijñānānantyāyatana), the Sphere of Nothingness (akiñcanyāyatana), and the Sphere of Neither Perception nor Non-perception (naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñāyatana). The formless realm is located above the other two realms of saṃsāra, the form realm (rūpadhātu) and the desire realm (kāmadhātu).
The four are intention (
This key term in the Prajñāpāramitā literature refers to the omniscience of a buddha and is not to be confused with the “knowledge of the aspects of the path” of bodhisattvas, or with the “knowledge of all the dharmas” of śrāvakas. The term “all aspects” (
A key term in the Prajñāpāramitā texts denoting the (incomplete) equivalent of omniscience that bodhisattvas progressively attain, including knowledge not only of their own path but also of the paths of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. It is the second of the eight main topics or “clear realizations” of
The states of hell beings, hungry ghosts (pretas), and animals.
A formula of words or syllables that are recited aloud or mentally in order to bring about a magical or soteriological effect or result. The term has been interpretively etymologized to mean “that which protects (trā) the mind (man)”.
In Buddhism more generally, merit refers to the wholesome karmic potential accumulated by someone as a result of positive and altruistic thoughts, words, and actions, which will ripen in the current or future lifetimes as the experience of happiness and well-being. According to the Mahāyāna, it is important to dedicate the merit of one’s wholesome actions to the awakening of oneself and to the ultimate and temporary benefit of all sentient beings. Doing so ensures that others also experience the results of the positive actions generated and that the merit is not wasted by ripening in temporary happiness for oneself alone.
The supernatural powers of a śrāvaka correspond to the first abhijñā: “Being one he becomes many, being many he becomes one; he becomes visible, invisible; goes through walls, ramparts and mountains without being impeded, just as through air; he immerses himself in the earth and emerges from it as if in water; he goes on water without breaking through it, as if on [solid] earth; he travels through the air crosslegged like a winged bird; he takes in his hands and touches the moon and the sun, those two wonderful, mighty beings, and with his body he extends his power as far as the Brahma world” (Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra, trans. Lamotte 2003).
The great supernatural powers (maharddhi) of bodhisattvas are “causing trembling, blazing, illuminating, rendering invisible, transforming, coming and going across obstacles, reducing or enlarging worlds, inserting any matter into one’s own body, assuming the aspects of those one frequents, appearing and disappearing, submitting everyone to one’s will, dominating the supernormal power of others, giving intellectual clarity to those who lack it, giving mindfulness, bestowing happiness, and finally, emitting beneficial rays” (Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra, trans. Lamotte 2003).
The twelfth of the eighteen aspects of emptiness.
Nine states of concentration that one may attain during a human life, namely the four concentrations corresponding to the form realm, the four formless absorptions, and the attainment of the state of cessation.
One of the one hundred and eight names of the Perfection of Wisdom. The Tibetan and Sanskrit literally mean “nonentity-ness.”
Actions that are negative in the sense either of being naturally wrong or of transgressing a formal rule or commitment. Often translated as “wrongdoing,” “unwholesome actions,” and so forth.
The state of knowing all possible and actual states of affairs of the past, present, and future (i.e., total omniscience) or knowing all that is most soteriologically relevant, the basic nature of reality (i.e., essential omniscience).
This term is used to refer to the primary trainings of a bodhisattva. Because these trainings, when brought to perfection, lead one to transcend saṃsāra and reach the full awakening of a buddha, they receive the Sanskrit name pāramitā, meaning “perfection” or “gone to the farther shore.” They are listed as either six or ten.
Denkarma (
Phangthangma (
84000. The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines (
84000. The Perfection of Wisdom “Kauśika” (
Bianchini, Francesco. “Tradition and Innovation in Late South Asian Buddhism: The Impact of Spell Practices on the Recasting of Prajñāpāramitā Scriptures.” PhD diss., University of Oxford, 2020.
Conze, Edward, ed. “Tantric Prajñāpāramitā Texts.”
Conze, Edward, trans.
Driessens, Georges.
Herrmann-Pfandt, Adelheid.
Mayer, Robert, and Cathy Cantwell.
Vaidya, P. L., ed. “Kauśikaprajñāpāramitāsūtra.” In
