The Perfection of Wisdom (Jamieson)

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The Perfection of Wisdom: Extracts from the Aṣṭasahāsrikāprajñāpāramitā

Book

Translations of Sutras (Skt-Eng)

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

At the heart of Buddhism lies the doctrine of the perfection of wisdom. The foremost principles of this teaching are the bodhisattva ideal of the religious life and the essential emptiness of all existence. The sūtras known as The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines are the oldest version of this important Buddhist text, dating some two thousand years, and are the basis for the present translation.

Paradoxically, The Perfection of Wisdom exists as a guide to those seeking enlightenment, even as no guidance can be given. The book opens on a heavenly assembly of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, gods and monks as they debate the nature of existence and the right way of life. Their dancing interplay of simile, dialogue and seeming contradictions may at first bewilder, but as the melody of their words combines with the repetition of ideas, readers will find themselves drawn irresistibly to the philosophy.

The message of The Perfection of Wisdom is as applicable to the modern reader as it was to the monks who first studied the text two millennia ago: through an understanding of the perfection of wisdom, it is possible for all of us to detach from the suffering that binds us to the material world, and so move toward enlightenment. This important text is illustrated with extraordinary images taken from the earliest surviving Indian and Nepalese illustrated manuscripts of The Perfection of Wisdom — most of which have never been reproduced before. (Source: inside jacket)

Citation

Jamieson, R. C., trans. The Perfection of Wisdom: Extracts from the Aṣṭasahāsrikāprajñāpāramitā. New York: Viking Studio, 2000.

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Partial translation of

Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā [अष्टसाहस्रिकाप्रज्ञापारमिता]. 'phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa brgyad stong pa [འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་བརྒྱད་སྟོང་པ།]. [The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (84000)]. Translated by Śākyasena, Jñānasiddhi, Dharmatāśīla, Xuanzang, Dānapāla, Kumārajīva, Dharmapriya, Chu Fo-nien, Chih-ch'ien, Lokakṣema. Kangyur, RKTSK 12 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=12&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, like other sūtras on the Perfection of Wisdom, deals with the topic of emptiness and the understanding of the ultimate truth or the way things are. Modern scholars date the sūtra roughly to the 2nd and 1st century BC and consider it to be the earliest sūtra on which other Perfection of Wisdom sūtras are based. Its adherents claim the sūtra to be a part of the words of the Buddha. It is believed to have been taken to the subterranean world and brought back to the human world by Nāgārjuna. It is sometimes known as the Condensed Mother (ཡུམ་བསྡུས་པ་), the term Mother referring to the Perfection of Wisdom which gives rise to all buddhas and bodhisattvas. It is said to be the condensed version of the long version in one hundred thousand lines and the middle version in twenty-five thousand lines. Having spread across Asia and beyond and having been translated into many languages, it is one of the most common books to be found in the Buddhist Himalayas. The sūtra takes the form of a series of dialogues between the Buddha Śākyamuni, Subhūti, Śāriputra, and others, such as Indra, the king of gods, and a goddess of the Ganges. In the final chapters, the sūtra contains the inspirational narratives of Sadāprarudita and his quest for the teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom from the Bodhisattva Dharmodgata. The sūtra is also one of the earliest Mahāyāna sources proclaiming the luminous nature of the mind.