The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
Chapter 43: Gaṅgadevī
Toh 9
Degé Kangyur, vol. 26 (shes phyin, nyi khri, ka), folios 1.b–382.a; vol. 27 (shes phyin, nyi khri, kha), folios 1.b–393.a; and vol. 28 (shes phyin, nyi khri, ga), folios 1.b–381.a
Imprint
Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2023
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Table of Contents
Summary
The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines is among the most important scriptures underlying both the “vast” and the “profound” approaches to Buddhist thought and practice. Known as the “middle-length” version, being the second longest of the three long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, it fills three volumes of the Kangyur. Like the two other long sūtras, it records the major teaching on the perfection of wisdom given by the Buddha Śākyamuni on Vulture Peak, detailing all aspects of the path to enlightenment while at the same time emphasizing how bodhisattvas must put them into practice without taking them—or any aspects of enlightenment itself—as having even the slightest true existence.
Acknowledgements
Translation by the Padmakara Translation Group. A complete draft by Gyurme Dorje was first edited by Charles Hastings, then revised and further edited by John Canti. The introduction was written by John Canti. We are grateful for the advice and help received from Gareth Sparham, Greg Seton, and Nathaniel Rich.
This translation is dedicated to the memory of our late colleague, long-time friend, and vajra brother Gyurme Dorje (1950–2020), who worked assiduously on this translation in his final years and into the very last months of his life. We would also like to express our gratitude to his wife, Xiaohong, for the extraordinary support she gave him on so many levels.
The translation was completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The generous sponsorship of Kris Yao and Xiang-Jen Yao, which helped make the work on this translation possible, is most gratefully acknowledged.
Text Body
Chapter 43: Gaṅgadevī
Then a woman named Gaṅgadevī arrived in that assembly and took her seat. Then, after rising from her seat, with her upper robe over one shoulder, she rested her right knee on the ground. Placing her hands together in the gesture of homage, she bowed toward the Blessed One {Ki.IV: 190} and said, “Blessed Lord, I too will complete the six perfections. I will acquire such a buddhafield as has been described by the Tathāgata, Arhat, completely awakened Buddha in this Perfection of Wisdom.” Then that woman bundled together golden flowers, silver flowers, flowers from water plants, flowers from the plains, all sorts of ornaments, and golden colored robes, and she cast them toward that place when the Blessed One was. [F.5.a] Immediately after she had cast those flowers, ornaments, and robes, bundled together, then by the power of the buddhas, there appeared a towering mansion in the sky directly above the head of the Blessed One—rectangular in shape, supported by four columns, well proportioned, and most delightful, its luster pleasing to the mind. Then indeed the woman dedicated that towering mansion to unsurpassed, complete enlightenment, making common cause with all beings.
At that time the Blessed One understood the aspiration of that woman and smiled, indicative of the true nature of the lord buddhas. When he smiled, many multicolored rays of light were diffused from the Blessed One’s mouth—blue, yellow, red, white, scarlet, crystal, and silver. They extended through infinite and limitless world systems, and then returned, circumambulating the Blessed One clockwise three times before vanishing into the crown of the Blessed One’s head.
Then the venerable Ānanda, with his upper robe over one shoulder, rested his right knee on the ground and, placing his hands together in the gesture of homage, bowed toward the place where the Blessed One was, saying, “Blessed Lord, since the Tathāgata, Arhat, completely awakened Buddha does not smile without a cause and without conditions, what is the cause and what are the conditions that gave rise to your smile?”
“Ānanda,” replied the Blessed One, “this sister named Gaṅgadevī will in the future, in the eon called Tārakopama, appear in the world as the tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened buddha named Suvarṇapuṣpa. Ānanda, [F.5.b] this is her last birth in a female form. Ānanda, this sister, after this present female form has expired, will acquire a male form and take birth in the realm of Abhirati, the buddhafield of the tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened Buddha Akṣobhya. There he will be chaste in conduct. Ānanda, the name of that bodhisattva great being will also be Suvarṇapuṣpa. {Ki.IV: 191} Ānanda, when that bodhisattva great being Suvarṇapuṣpa has died and transmigrated, he will proceed from buddhafield to buddhafield, and he will never be separated from the lord buddhas. Ānanda, just as a universal monarch may move from palace to palace, without his two feet touching the ground while he is alive, until the time of his death, in the same way, Ānanda, the bodhisattva great being Suvarṇapuṣpa will also proceed from buddhafield to buddhafield, until he has attained consummate buddhahood in unsurpassed, complete enlightenment.”
Then the venerable Ānanda thought, “All the bodhisattva great beings, as many as there are gathered in that buddhafield, should be regarded as a congregation of tathāgatas.”
The Blessed One, comprehending the thoughts in the mind of the venerable Ānanda, said to the venerable Ānanda, “Ānanda, it is so! It is just as you have thought. All the bodhisattva great beings, as many as there are gathered in the buddhafield of the tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened Buddha Suvarṇapuṣpa, should be regarded as a congregation of tathāgatas. His community of monks will also be immeasurable. It will be impossible to grasp the extent of his community of monks by saying, [for example], [F.6.a] that there are so many hundreds of śrāvakas in his community of monks, or that there are so many thousands of śrāvakas in his community of monks, or that there are so many hundred thousands of śrāvakas in his community of monks, or that there are so many tens of millions of śrāvakas in his community of monks, or that there are so many billions of śrāvakas in his community of monks, or that there are so many tens of billions of śrāvakas in his community of monks, or that there are so many trillions of śrāvakas in his community of monks, or that there are so many million trillions of śrāvakas in his community of monks. Rather, they will number countless, incalculably many hundred trillions of trillions. Ānanda, in that buddhafield where the tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened Buddha Suvarṇapuṣpa will attain consummate buddhahood in unsurpassed, complete enlightenment, all the faults that are taught about in this Perfection of Wisdom will not arise and they will be nonexistent.”
Ānanda then asked, “Blessed Lord, in the presence of which tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened buddha did this sister make offerings, cultivating the roots of virtuous action and setting her mind on irreversible [enlightenment]?”
“Ānanda,” replied the Blessed One, “this sister cultivated the roots of virtuous action in the presence of the tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened Buddha Dīpaṃkara, and set her mind upon unsurpassed, complete enlightenment. She indeed dedicated those roots of virtuous action to unsurpassed, complete enlightenment. To strive for unsurpassed, complete enlightenment she also cast these same golden flowers upon the tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened Buddha Dīpaṃkara. Ānanda, at the time when I cast five blue lotuses toward the tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened Buddha Dīpaṃkara in order to strive for unsurpassed, complete enlightenment, {Ki.IV: 192} [F.6.b] the tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened Buddha Dīpaṃkara knew that I had acquired the roots of virtuous action, and prophesied that I would attain unsurpassed, complete enlightenment. At that time, this sister also heard the prophetic declaration concerning me and set her mind upon [enlightenment], thinking, ‘Just as it has been prophesied of this brahmin child, may I too in the future be prophesied to attain unsurpassed, complete enlightenment!’ Ānanda, so it was that this sister initially set her mind on unsurpassed, complete enlightenment in the presence of that tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened buddha.”
“Blessed Lord, this sister has indeed undertaken training for the sake of unsurpassed, complete enlightenment!” exclaimed Ānanda.
“Ānanda, it is so! It is so,” replied the Blessed One. “It is just as you have said. Ānanda, this sister has trained for the sake of unsurpassed, complete enlightenment.”
This completes the forty-third chapter, “Gaṅgadevī,” from “The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines.”
Colophon
It is said in the original Jangpa manuscript:
This [Tibetan translation of] The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines has been edited twice on the basis of the original “gold manuscript,” which had been [commissioned as] a commitment of the spiritual mentor Nyanggom Chobar, and it has also been edited on the basis of the manuscript kept at Yerpa. Since it is extant, scribes of posterity should copy [the text] according to this version alone.
In the [recast] version of The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines [Toh 3790] that was edited by master Haribhadra, and in some [other] manuscripts, the text ends with the seventy-first chapter entitled “Unchanging Reality.” In certain [other] manuscripts, including the original (phyi mo) [Toh 9], there are seventy-six chapters, with [F.380.b] the addition of the [seventy-second] chapter entitled “Distinctions in the Training of a Bodhisattva,” the [seventy-third] chapter entitled “The Attainment of the Manifold Gateways of Meditative Stability by the Bodhisattva Sadāprarudita,” the [seventy-fourth] chapter entitled “Sadāprarudita,” the [seventy-fifth] chapter entitled “Dharmodgata,” and the [seventy-sixth] chapter entitled “Entrustment.” This accords with earlier accounts and the authentic records of teachings received. Insofar as there are distinctions in the translation of these five later chapters, I have seen a few manuscripts where the terminology is slightly dissimilar, although there are no differences in meaning.
In general, throughout the present text there are all sorts of unique allusions and variations in the elaboration of the points that are expressed. In particular, in the chapter entitled “The Introductory Narrative,” there are some passages where the text corresponds to The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines.
At the time when the carving of the xylographs of this very text, along with those of the Multitude of the Buddhas (Buddhāvataṃsaka), was completed, in the presence of King Tenpa Tsering, the ruler of Degé, the beggar monk Tashi Wangchuk composed these verses at Sharkha Dzongsar Palace, where the wood-carving workshop was based. May they be victorious!
ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetun teṣāṃ tathāgato bhavat āha teṣāṃ ca yo nirodho evaṃ vādī mahāśramaṇaḥ [ye svāhā]
“Whatever events arise from causes, the Tathāgata has told of their causes, and the great ascetic has also taught their cessation.”
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