The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
Chapter 71: The Teaching on the Unchanging True
Nature
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 71: The Teaching on the Unchanging True Nature
Then the venerable Subhūti asked the Blessed One, “Blessed Lord, the sameness of all phenomena is empty of inherent existence—there is nothing at all that does anything to anything. Since all phenomena do nothing whatsoever and are nothing whatsoever, how is it that, when bodhisattva great beings practice the perfection of wisdom, they do not stir from ultimate truth [F.341.a] but still act for the sake of all beings through [the attractive qualities of] generosity, pleasant speech, purposeful activity, and harmony?”
“Subhūti, it is so! It is just as you have said,” replied the Blessed One. “Emptiness does not do anything to anything at all, nor does it not do anything to anything at all. If beings themselves knew emptiness, there would not be [a need for] the power of the tathāgatas’ leadership, whereby without stirring from emptiness they separate all beings from the notion of self, and having separated them from the notion of self, liberate them from cyclic existence through emptiness; or separate them from the notion of beings, the notion of life forms, the notion of living beings, the notion of life, the notion of living creatures, the notion of individual personalities, the notion of human beings, the notion of people, the notion of actors, the notion of petitioners, the notion of experiencers, the notion of knowers, and the notion of viewers, and having separated them from the notion of viewers [and so forth], liberate them from cyclic existence through emptiness; or separate them from the notion of physical forms, and having separated them from the notion of physical forms, liberate them from cyclic existence through emptiness; {Ki.VIII: 177} or separate them from the notion of feelings, perceptions, formative predispositions, and consciousness, and having separated them from the notion of consciousness [and so forth], liberate them from cyclic existence through emptiness; or separate them from the notion of the sense fields, the sensory elements, and the links of dependent origination, and having separated them from the notion of the links of dependent origination [and so forth], liberate them from cyclic existence through emptiness; or separate them from the notion of conditioned elements, and having separated them from the notion of conditioned elements, establish them in the unconditioned expanse, which is also empty.”
“It is empty of all notions,” replied the Blessed One. “Subhūti, if someone were to conjure up a phantom emanation,569 would there be any entity in it, which is not emptiness?”
“No, Blessed Lord! There would be no entity at all in that phantom emanation that would not be emptiness. {Ki.VIII: 178} Both emptiness and the phantom emanation are neither conjoined nor disjoined. Indeed, both are empty owing to emptiness. If this is the case, why is this point concealed when it is said, ‘This is emptiness. That is a phantom emanation’? If one were to ask why, it is because neither emptiness nor the phantom emanation is apprehended in emptiness.”
“Subhūti,” continued the Blessed One, “there is nothing in physical forms, feelings, perceptions, formative predispositions, or consciousness that is not a phantom emanation, and any phantom emanation is empty.”
“Blessed Lord, if mundane phenomena are phantom emanations, are supramundane phenomena—the four applications of mindfulness, the four correct exertions, the four supports for miraculous ability, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven branches of enlightenment, the noble eightfold path, the three gateways of liberation, the four truths of the noble ones, all the aspects of emptiness, the eight aspects of liberation, the nine serial steps of meditative absorption, all the meditative stabilities, all the dhāraṇī gateways, the ten powers of the tathāgatas, the four fearlessnesses, the four kinds of exact knowledge, great loving kindness, great compassion, the eighteen distinct qualities of the buddhas, and [F.342.a] their fruits through which individual persons are established as entering the stream to nirvāṇa, being destined for only one more rebirth, being no longer subject to rebirth, arhats, pratyekabuddhas, and tathāgatas, arhats, completely awakened buddhas—not also similar to a phantom emanation?”
“Subhūti,” replied the Blessed One, “all phenomena are phantom emanations. Some are emanated by śrāvakas. Some are emanated by pratyekabuddhas. Some are emanated by bodhisattvas. Some are emanated by tathāgatas. Some are emanated by afflicted mental states. Some are emanated by past actions. For this reason, Subhūti, all phenomena are phantom emanations.”
“Blessed Lord, are the attributes of ‘abandonment,’ which are associated with the fruit of entering the stream to nirvāṇa, the fruit of being destined for only one more rebirth, the fruit of no longer being subject to rebirth, arhatship, the level of the pratyekabuddhas, the level of the buddhas, and the abandonment of all the connecting propensities, also phantom emanations?”
“Subhūti, all phenomena whatsoever that have arisen or ceased are phantom emanations,” replied the Blessed One.
“Blessed Lord, what is not a phantom emanation?”
“That which is without arising or ceasing is not a phantom emanation,” replied the Blessed One. {Ki.VIII: 179}
“Peerless nirvāṇa—that is not a phantom emanation,” replied the Blessed One.
“The Blessed One has said, ‘There is no stirring at all from emptiness, nor is duality apprehended. There is nothing at all that is not emptiness.’ Therefore, Blessed Lord, peerless nirvāṇa is also a phantom emanation.”
“Subhūti, it is so! It is so,” [F.342.b] replied the Blessed One. “Subhūti, all phenomena are empty. They have not been created by the śrāvakas. They have not been created by the pratyekabuddhas. They have not been created by bodhisattva great beings. They have not been created by tathāgatas, arhats, completely awakened buddhas. The emptiness of inherent existence is nirvāṇa.”
Subhūti then asked, “Blessed Lord, how should an individual who is a beginner be instructed and advised, so as to understand the emptiness of inherent existence?”
“Subhūti,” replied the Blessed One, “has there been an entity in the past that will become a nonentity in the future? In this regard, Subhūti, since there is no entity, no nonentity, no inherent existence, and no extraneous entity, how could there possibly be something called the emptiness of inherent existence that they should comprehend!”
This completes the seventy-first chapter, “The Teaching on the Unchanging True Nature,” from “The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines.” [B76] {Ki.VIII: 145}
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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