In the Tibetan Buddhist canon, few texts have the same magnitude—literally and spiritually—as The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines (Toh 8).
During this auspicious month of Saga Dawa, 84000 marked a new milestone in our multiyear project to translate the longest known Prajñāpāramitā text into English—the 100,000-line Perfection of Wisdom sūtra. In early June, translator Gareth Sparham, a renowned expert and translator of Perfection of Wisdom texts, submitted his translation of the final chapters to 84000’s editorial team.
84000 has already published Sparham’s translation of the first twenty-eight chapters of the 100,000-line Perfection of Wisdom sūtra. The first thirteen chapters were published in 2024, and the next fifteen in early 2025. 84000 editorial director Andreas Doctor says the team is currently aiming to publish the translation of the entire sūtra by June 2026, marking the first time this monumental text has been made available in English or any modern language.
When 84000 first announced this ambitious project, our community of supporters offered an incredible show of generosity in raising the funds necessary to translate, publish, and host the world’s longest Prajñapāramitā text. With seed money from key donors, we launched a crowd-funding campaign, “The Perfection of Wisdom for All,” that raised $1 million in donations from more than 5,000 supporters. That funding, along with private donations, has been key to ensuring we have the resources and a team of experts—translators, editors, and technical specialists who handle the encoding of the lengthy texts—to publish the complete text next year for the benefit of all beings.
The Magnitude
The 100,000-line sūtra fills twelve volumes—15 percent of the Degé Kangyur—and is far more amplified in detail than its sister texts, the 18,000- and 25,000-line versions, although all three have the same scope, says research editor Nathaniel Rich, who shares editing duties with senior editor John Canti on the family of Perfection of Wisdom texts published by 84000.
It is the most detailed record of the Buddha Śākyamuni’s teaching on the perfection of wisdom delivered on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛhasetting. This teaching sets out all aspects of the path to awakening that bodhisattvas must know and put into practice, yet without taking them as having even the slightest true existence.
The Meaning
Most of the passages in the 18,000-, 25,000-, and 100,000-line sūtras offer explanations of sets of factors, practices, or qualities with statements repeated for each of the listed dharmas (in this case, dharma is referring to particular attributes or types of phenomena). In the 18,000- and 25,000-line sūtras, these repetitions are mostly consolidated or abbreviated to different extents, while the 100,000-line version sets them out in full, item by item, each passage comprising many repetitions of phrases that are almost identical but for the type of phenomena concerned.
According to the introduction to The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines (Toh 9, i.4), the exhaustive presentation of the dharmas provides the basis for the classical Buddhist way of understanding and categorizing phenomena in general. But the Buddha’s underlying intent goes much farther. By stating and then negating all these phenomena, the Buddha explicitly undermines each statement so that we do not become attached to any such phenomenon, either outer or inner, as having a fixed and solid existence.
“These long lists can be read like pointing out instructions,” says Nathaniel, who is the main editor for the 100,000-line Perfection of Wisdom sūtra. “They are meant to be recited, like mantras, so they are repeated over and over.”
“These sūtras can be read or recited as a meditation: through repetition, you return again and again to the elements of your experience and the path, not to build a theory, but to loosen the grip of clinging—to see clearly, and let go,” Nathaniel says.
The Heart Sūtra
Possibly the most profound short Perfection of Wisdom text, The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom, the Blessed Mother (commonly known as The Heart Sūtra) includes one of the most famous passages of all Buddhist teachings:
“Form is empty. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form, and form is also not other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness are empty.” (View text)
Unlike the longer Perfection of Wisdom texts, The Heart Sūtra boils down the perfection of wisdom teachings to their essence. But it would be a simplification to say that The Heart Sūtra is a condensed version of the longer sūtras.
As John explains, “This passage is important not just because of what these few short phrases express on their own. Their impact, rather, comes from how they represent and stand in for the vast and profound teaching that the Buddha explains in much greater detail in the long sūtras.”
The Path to Awakening
The long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras take the form of wide-ranging conversations between the Buddha and Subhūti, Śāriputra, Śakra, and others. “Through his exchanges with them, the Buddha explores several paths for different kinds of people. He sets out the goals of those paths, the ultimate one being all-knowing awakening,” John says.
With the motivation that those goals inspire, John says, “one can learn to see through the phenomena of saṃsāra, put into practice the different elements of the path, and realize all the qualities of the resulting state of awakening. Most importantly, though, none of the infinite factors, phenomena, qualities, causes, results, methods, or anything else—whether seen as belonging to saṃsāra, the path, or awakening—must be taken as having any real existence.”
Like Waves
John explains that the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras all cover the same ground, as they analyze topics and dharmas, whether those of illusory existence, the practices and stages of the path, or the qualities of the result.
But these texts, he says, are not concerned with making grand or abstract philosophical statements. “The point is that we, as the recipients and readers of the teaching, question and chip away at the assumptions, conceptual notions, and concrete perceptions that we hold, often unconsciously.”
While the long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras—especially the 100,000-line version—can seem overwhelming, John’s advice is to approach the daunting but poetic prose by simply reading it. “Just let it wash over you like waves,” he says. “At first you may not understand it, and it may seem tedious. But as you keep reading it has a compelling message.”
Additional Resources:
The Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā) talk (2022) offered by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche >
The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines, Introduction >
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Story by Carol Tucker
Contributions by John Canti and Nathaniel Rich