When the idea of providing a system of support for Dharma translators was first discussed at the Translating the Words of the Buddha Conference, almost no one was working on Kangyur translation.Today, as a result of the hard work and contributions of many partners and donors, 84000 supports 153 translators to work part- or full-time. With your ongoing support, our translators are now able to focus significant time on translations, allowing them to work on longer, more complicated pieces of the Kangyur.To date, we are translating 140 texts (18,089 pages), or more than a quarter of the Kangyur. Many more interesting texts that are in the pipeline include:
- The Complete Hundred Deeds Karmaśataka ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ། (873 pages)
- Perfection of Wisdom in 25,000 Lines Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་པ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ཉི་ཤུ་ལྔ་པ། (2,309 pages)
- Buddha’s Pithy Teachings Udānavarga ཆེད་ཨུ་བརྗོད་པའི་ཚོམས། (90 pages)
- King of Samādhi Samādhirāja ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ། (339 pages)
As the worldwide community celebrates the International Translation Day on September 30, we would like to share a brief video message from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, our chairperson, to all our translators and everyone involved in 84000.
Message to Translators by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
We always tend to say that the past people are great and all of that. Probably many of them were great bodhisattvas. Probably many of them were not the greatest bodhisattvas, but really doesn't matter. Probably many of the present translators are bodhisattvas.But I think more importantly, if the translators...and not just the translators, whoever is involved in the project of translation, if you begin with the right motivation, that is to say, that we translate this for the benefit of enlightening beings -- not just for fun or academic quest or intellectual satisfaction or fame or credit, but really try to go beyond that. Especially if you look at this degenerated time. I think, I could almost say, the present generation translators are as equal as the past [translators], because we live in a very strange, degenerated, materialistic world, and yet people are sacrificing their time and energy.