Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā
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Description
With some exceptions, the text parallels the structure of the other Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, especially the Prajñāpāramitā in 10,000 Lines, yet it has traditionally been regarded as more influential, analyzing the bodhisattvas’ transcendent perfections in considerably greater detail, and showing how bodhisattvas should practise them without ever considering either their practice, or any other phenomena whatsoever, as truly existing.
An original Sanskrit version found in Gilgit exists, as well as four distinct Chinese translations. There is also an important recast Sanskrit manuscript, possibly of 5th century origin, which divides the text according to the eight sections of Asaṅga-Maitreya’s famous treatise, the Abhisamayālaṃkāra. The Tibetan text dates from the 9th century. There are several important commentaries on the text in the Tengyur, by Haribhadra, Smṛtijñānakīrti, Vimuktasena and others. (Source: 84000)
The full title for the text is:
Sanskrit: Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā
Tibetan: ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ཉི་ཤུ་ལྔ་པ། Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa
English: The [Recast] Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
It is also known as:
ལེའུ་བརྒྱད་པ། le'u brgyad pa
From ancient times, the origin of "tathāgata", which has been usually translated as 如 來 (one who comes thus), is not unknown. This has been used as the title of Buddha, chiefly in Buddhism from the start.
Now, I will consider the meaning of "tathāgata" in the Abhisamayālaṃkārālokā Prajñāpāramitā-vyākhyā of Haribhadra (ed. by Wogihara) (W.). This includes the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra (As.), Maitreya's Abhisamayālaṃkāraśāstra-kārikā (A.) which is a summary of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra (P.), and Haribhadra's commentary which is based on the P. and the As. Accordingly at first, I point out sentences of "tathāgata", which I think as the etymological explanations, and then survey the character of it. (Mano, "'Tathāgata' in Haribhadra's Commentary," 22)
To read the sūtra: https://read.84000.co/translation/toh....
To hear more about the sūtras, new publications, and upcoming events, please sign up for our newsletter: https://www.84000.co/subscribe
Key Moments:
[8:12] The history of the Prajñāpāramitā manuscript's discovery and its various versions
[11:25] Exploring the earliest translations of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra into Chinese
[19:05] The relationship between Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, Nagarjuna and the Nāga realms
[20:31] Paying tribute to Gyurme Dorje 1950-2020
[23:51] The beauty of web-based publishing
[27:03] How and why The Perfection of Wisdom sūtra has been so important for Mahāyāna Buddhism
[29:51] The Buddha's teachings on who we are
[33:28] The different translations of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra being translated into Chinese
[36:55] An interesting story about Asaṅga and the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra
[44:30] Exploring the concepts of the "profound" and the "vast"
[47:10] Tips on reading and appreciating the text
[51:08] A summary of The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
[56:08] Subhūti's role in the text
[59:00] Śāriputra's inquiry to the Buddha regarding the practice of The Perfection of Wisdom
[1:04:55] All aspects of omniscience
[1:09:20] How to read the text in the 84000 Reading Room
[1:17:26] Q&A
In surveying all the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras in the talk, it would be remiss of us not to mention the tradition by which six of them are identified as the “Six Mothers.” These are:
Hundred Thousand (Toh 8),
Twenty-Five Thousand (Toh 9), and
Eighteen Thousand (Toh 10),
i.e. the three “long sūtras,” together with:
Ten Thousand (Toh 11),
Eight Thousand (Toh 12),
and the Verse Summary (Saṃcayagāthā, Toh 13).
They are called “mothers” because each of them covers all the eight topics listed in Maitreya-Asaṅga’s Ornament of Clear Realization.
The other, shorter sūtras (such as the Heart and Diamond-Cutter) are called the “Eleven Children” because, instead of all eight topics, they concentrate mainly on how phenomena are empty of substantial existence. However, since more short sūtras were added to the canon later, there are in fact seventeen works in this category and not just eleven.
Throughout the talk, John also referred to a number of texts that you can already access in the 84000 Reading Room. These include:
The Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines:
https://read.84000.co/translation/toh...
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines:
https://read.84000.co/translation/toh...
https://read.84000.co/translation/toh...
The full title for the text is:
Sanskrit: Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā
Tibetan: ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ཉི་ཤུ་ལྔ་པ། Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa
English: The [Recast] Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
It is also known as:
ལེའུ་བརྒྱད་པ། le'u brgyad pa
From ancient times, the origin of "tathāgata", which has been usually translated as 如 來 (one who comes thus), is not unknown. This has been used as the title of Buddha, chiefly in Buddhism from the start.
Now, I will consider the meaning of "tathāgata" in the Abhisamayālaṃkārālokā Prajñāpāramitā-vyākhyā of Haribhadra (ed. by Wogihara) (W.). This includes the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra (As.), Maitreya's Abhisamayālaṃkāraśāstra-kārikā (A.) which is a summary of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra (P.), and Haribhadra's commentary which is based on the P. and the As. Accordingly at first, I point out sentences of "tathāgata", which I think as the etymological explanations, and then survey the character of it. (Mano, "'Tathāgata' in Haribhadra's Commentary," 22)
The full title for the text is:
Sanskrit: Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā
Tibetan: ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ཉི་ཤུ་ལྔ་པ། Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa
English: The [Recast] Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
It is also known as:
ལེའུ་བརྒྱད་པ། le'u brgyad pa
To read the sūtra: https://read.84000.co/translation/toh....
To hear more about the sūtras, new publications, and upcoming events, please sign up for our newsletter: https://www.84000.co/subscribe
Key Moments:
[8:12] The history of the Prajñāpāramitā manuscript's discovery and its various versions
[11:25] Exploring the earliest translations of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra into Chinese
[19:05] The relationship between Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, Nagarjuna and the Nāga realms
[20:31] Paying tribute to Gyurme Dorje 1950-2020
[23:51] The beauty of web-based publishing
[27:03] How and why The Perfection of Wisdom sūtra has been so important for Mahāyāna Buddhism
[29:51] The Buddha's teachings on who we are
[33:28] The different translations of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra being translated into Chinese
[36:55] An interesting story about Asaṅga and the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra
[44:30] Exploring the concepts of the "profound" and the "vast"
[47:10] Tips on reading and appreciating the text
[51:08] A summary of The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
[56:08] Subhūti's role in the text
[59:00] Śāriputra's inquiry to the Buddha regarding the practice of The Perfection of Wisdom
[1:04:55] All aspects of omniscience
[1:09:20] How to read the text in the 84000 Reading Room
[1:17:26] Q&A
In surveying all the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras in the talk, it would be remiss of us not to mention the tradition by which six of them are identified as the “Six Mothers.” These are:
Hundred Thousand (Toh 8),
Twenty-Five Thousand (Toh 9), and
Eighteen Thousand (Toh 10),
i.e. the three “long sūtras,” together with:
Ten Thousand (Toh 11),
Eight Thousand (Toh 12),
and the Verse Summary (Saṃcayagāthā, Toh 13).
They are called “mothers” because each of them covers all the eight topics listed in Maitreya-Asaṅga’s Ornament of Clear Realization.
The other, shorter sūtras (such as the Heart and Diamond-Cutter) are called the “Eleven Children” because, instead of all eight topics, they concentrate mainly on how phenomena are empty of substantial existence. However, since more short sūtras were added to the canon later, there are in fact seventeen works in this category and not just eleven.
Throughout the talk, John also referred to a number of texts that you can already access in the 84000 Reading Room. These include:
The Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines:
https://read.84000.co/translation/toh...
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines:
https://read.84000.co/translation/toh...
https://read.84000.co/translation/toh...
