The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines
Chapter 70: An Explanation of Serial Action, Training, and Practice
Toh 10
Degé Kangyur, vol. 29 (shes phyin, ka), folios 1.a–300.a; vol. 30 (shes phyin, kha), folios 1.a–304.a; vol. 31 (shes phyin, ga), folios 1.a–206.a
Translated by Gareth Sparham
under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
First published 2022
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Table of Contents
Summary
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines is one version of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras that developed in South and South-Central Asia in tandem with the Eight Thousand version, probably during the first five hundred years of the Common Era. It contains many of the passages in the oldest extant Long Perfection of Wisdom text (the Gilgit manuscript in Sanskrit), and is similar in structure to the other versions of the Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras (the One Hundred Thousand and Twenty-Five Thousand) in Tibetan in the Kangyur. While setting forth the sacred fundamental doctrines of Buddhist practice with veneration, it simultaneously exhorts the reader to reject them as an object of attachment, its recurring message being that all dharmas without exception lack any intrinsic nature.
The sūtra can be divided loosely into three parts: an introductory section that sets the scene, a long central section, and three concluding chapters that consist of two important summaries of the long central section. The first of these (chapter 84) is in verse and also circulates as a separate work called The Verse Summary of the Jewel Qualities (Toh 13). The second summary is in the form of the story of Sadāprarudita and his guru Dharmodgata (chapters 85 and 86), after which the text concludes with the Buddha entrusting the work to his close companion Ānanda.
Acknowledgements
This sūtra was translated by Gareth Sparham under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.
The Translator’s Acknowledgments
This is a good occasion to remember and thank my friend Nicholas Ribush, who first gave me a copy of Edward Conze’s translation of The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines in 1973. I also thank the Tibetan teachers and students at the Riklam Lobdra in Dharamshala, India, where I began to study the Perfection of Wisdom, for their kindness and patience; Jeffrey Hopkins and Elizabeth Napper, who steered me in the direction of the Perfection of Wisdom and have been very kind to me over the years; and Ashok Aklujkar and others at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who taught me Sanskrit and Indian culture while I was writing my dissertation on Haribhadra’s Perfection of Wisdom commentary. I thank the hermits in the hills above Riklam Lobdra and the many Tibetan scholars and practitioners who encouraged me while I continued working on the Perfection of Wisdom after I graduated from the University of British Columbia. I thank all those who continued to support me as a monk and scholar after the violent death of my friend and mentor toward the end of the millennium. I thank those at the University of Michigan and then at the University of California (Berkeley), particularly Donald Lopez and Jacob Dalton, who enabled me to complete the set of four volumes of translations from Sanskrit of the Perfection of Wisdom commentaries by Haribhadra and Āryavimuktisena and four volumes of the fourteenth-century Tibetan commentary on the Perfection of Wisdom by Tsongkhapa. I thank Gene Smith, who introduced me to 84000. I thank everyone at 84000: Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and the sponsors; the scholars, translators, editors, and technicians; and all the other indispensable people whose work has made this translation of The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines and its accompanying commentary possible.
Around me everything I see would be part of a perfect road if I had better driving skills.Where I was born, where everything is made of concrete, it too is a perfect place.Everyone I have been with, everyone who is near me now, and even those I have forgotten—there is no one who has not helped me.So, I bow to everyone and to the world and ask for patience, and, as a boon, a smile.
Acknowledgment of Sponsors
We gratefully acknowledge the generous sponsorship of Matthew Yizhen Kong, Steven Ye Kong and family; An Zhang, Hannah Zhang, Lucas Zhang, Aiden Zhang, Jinglan Chi, Jingcan Chi, Jinghui Chi and family, Hong Zhang and family; Mao Guirong, Zhang Yikun, Chi Linlin; and Joseph Tse, Patricia Tse and family. Their support has helped make the work on this translation possible.
Chapter 70: An Explanation of Serial Action, Training, and Practice
The Lord having said that, venerable Subhūti asked him, “Lord, if there is not even the patience that arises in a natural order for someone with the perception of an existing thing, how could there be attainment, and how could there be clear realization?
“Given that there is not, [F.38.a] is there the patience that arises in a natural order for someone with the perception of a nonexistent thing? Is there the Śuklavipaśyanā level, Gotra level, Aṣṭamaka level, Darśana level, Tanū level, Vītarāga level, Kṛtāvin level, Pratyekabuddha level, Bodhisattva level, and cultivation of the path? And, thanks to the cultivation of the path, are the afflictions connected with śrāvakas and the afflictions connected with pratyekabuddhas eliminated? When obstructed by those afflictions, there is no entry into the secure state of a bodhisattva. Unless they have entered into the secure state of a bodhisattva, there is no gaining the knowledge of all aspects, and if they have not gained the knowledge of all aspects, there is no elimination of all residual impressions, connections, and afflictions.
“Lord, standing and production do not exist on account of any dharma at all; they will have no ability to reach the knowledge of all aspects through those unproduced dharmas.”
Venerable Subhūti having said that, the Lord said to him, “Exactly so, Subhūti, exactly so! There is no patience that arises in a natural order for someone with the notion of a nonexistent thing. Similarly, connect this with each, up to there is no elimination of all residual impression connections.”
“Lord, do bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom have the perception of an existing thing or the perception of a nonexistent thing; or the perception of form, up to the perception of consciousness; up to or the perception of the knowledge of all aspects; or the perception of greed or the perception of the abandonment of greed, the perception of hatred or the perception of the abandonment of hatred, or the perception of confusion or the perception of the abandonment of confusion; or the perception of ignorance or the perception of the abandonment of ignorance, the perception of volitional factors [F.38.b] or the perception of the abandonment of volitional factors, the perception of consciousness or the perception of the abandonment of consciousness, the perception of name and form or the perception of the abandonment of name and form, the perception of the six sense fields or the perception of the abandonment of the six sense fields, the perception of contact or the perception of the abandonment of contact, the perception of feeling or the perception of the abandonment of feeling, the perception of craving or the perception of the abandonment of craving, the perception of appropriation or the perception of the abandonment of appropriation, the perception of existence or the perception of the abandonment of an existence, the perception of birth or the perception of the abandonment of birth, the perception of old age and death or the perception of the abandonment of old age and death, or the perception of pain, lamentation, suffering, mental anguish, and grief or the perception of the abandonment of pain, lamentation, suffering, mental anguish, and grief; or the perception of suffering or the perception of the abandonment of suffering, the perception of origination or the perception of the abandonment of origination, the perception of cessation or the perception of the realization of cessation, or the perception of the path or the perception of cultivation of the path; and similarly, or the perception of . . . , up to the knowledge of all aspects or the perception of the elimination of all residual impression connections?”
“Subhūti, they do not,” replied the Lord. “Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom do not have the perception of any phenomenon at all as an existing thing or the perception of it as a nonexistent thing.
“Subhūti, where there is no perception of anything as an existing thing or perception of it as a nonexistent thing, that is the bodhisattva great beings’ patience that arises in a natural order; where there is no perception of anything as an existing thing or perception of it as a nonexistent thing, that is their meditation on the path; and where there is no perception of anything as an existing thing [F.39.a] or perception of it as a nonexistent thing, that is their result.
“Subhūti, the bodhisattva great beings’ path is a nonexistent thing. Clear realization is a nonexistent thing. In this way, Subhūti, you should thus know that all phenomena are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature.” [B48]
The Lord having said that, venerable Subhūti asked him, “Lord, if all phenomena are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, how did the Tathāgata fully awaken to all the phenomena that are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, and, having fully awakened to them, gain control over the range of all phenomena?”
Venerable Subhūti having asked that, the Lord said to him, “Subhūti, here, earlier when I was practicing the bodhisattva’s practice of the six perfections, detached from sense objects, detached from wrong unwholesome dharmas, up to perfectly accomplishing and dwelling in the fourth concentration, even while apprehending a causal sign of the concentrations and the branches of the concentrations I did not falsely project those concentrations and those branches of the concentrations, did not relish the experience of the concentrations, and did not falsely consider the concentrations a fact. I made my mind incline toward becoming absorbed in those concentrations in their purified forms to make the performance of miraculous power manifest. I made my mind incline toward making divine ear knowledge manifest, toward making knowledge of the ways of thinking manifest, toward making knowledge that recollects previous states of existence manifest, and to making divine eye knowledge manifest. Even though I apprehended a causal sign of those clairvoyances to be made manifest, I did not falsely project them, did not relish their experience, and did not falsely consider them a fact. [F.39.b] I became absorbed in those clairvoyances seeing them like space. Subhūti, with the wisdom of the unique single instant, having fully awakened to the unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening that correctly knows,691 ‘This is suffering, this is the origination of suffering, this is the cessation of suffering, and this is the path leading to the cessation of suffering,’ endowed with the ten tathāgata powers, and endowed with the four fearlessnesses, four detailed and thorough knowledges, and eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha, I prophesied the three masses of beings.”692
The Lord having said that, venerable Subhūti asked him, “Lord, how has a tathāgata, worthy one, perfectly complete buddha produced the four concentrations that are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature? How have they produced the clairvoyances that are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature? And how, given that beings do not exist, have they still prophesied the three masses of beings?”
Venerable Subhūti having asked that, the Lord said to him, “Subhūti, were an intrinsic nature of sense objects or of wrong unwholesome dharmas to exist, or their intrinsic existence, or their dependent existence to exist, then, Subhūti, earlier when I was practicing the bodhisattva’s practice I would not have realized sense objects that are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, and wrong unwholesome dharmas that are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, and perfectly accomplished and dwelled in the first concentration. Subhūti, because sense objects and wrong unwholesome dharmas are not existent things, or nonexistent things, or intrinsically existent things, or dependently existent things, but quite the opposite—they are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature—therefore earlier when I was practicing the bodhisattva’s practice, detached from sense objects, detached from wrong unwholesome dharmas, I perfectly accomplished and dwelled in the first concentration that has applied thought and has sustained thought and joy [F.40.a] and happiness born of detachment, and similarly, connect this with each, up to the fourth concentration.
“Subhūti, were clairvoyant knowledges existing things, intrinsically existent things, or dependently existent things, then, Subhūti, I would not have realized that all clairvoyant knowledges are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature and fully awakened to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. Subhūti, because in all clairvoyant knowledges there is no existing thing, there is no intrinsically existent thing, or dependently existent thing, but quite the opposite—they are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature—therefore the tathāgata, worthy one, perfectly complete Buddha comprehended all the clairvoyant knowledges that are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, and fully awakened to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.”
The Lord having said that, venerable Subhūti asked him, “Lord, if, even while all phenomena are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening through the four concentrations and five clairvoyances, well then, Lord, how, even while all phenomena are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, will there be serial action, serial training, and serial practice—the serial action, serial training, and serial practice through which they will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening?”693
Venerable Subhūti having asked that, the Lord said to him, “Subhūti, here bodhisattva great beings from the very outset have heard from the lord buddhas, from the bodhisattvas attending on many buddhas, and from the worthy ones, non-returners, once-returners, and the stream enterers [F.40.b] that an intrinsic nature of the lord buddhas is nonexistent, an intrinsic nature of pratyekabuddhas is nonexistent, an intrinsic nature of worthy ones is nonexistent, an intrinsic nature of non-returners is nonexistent, an intrinsic nature of once-returners is nonexistent, an intrinsic nature of stream enterers is nonexistent, an intrinsic nature of all noble beings is nonexistent, and that all compounded phenomena do not have an intrinsic nature even as tiny as the part occupying the tip of a strand of hair. Even though the bodhisattva great beings have heard that, still it occurs to them to think, ‘Given that an intrinsic nature of the lord buddhas, up to of stream enterers is nonexistent, whether I will fully awaken or whether I will not fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, the intrinsic nature of all dharmas is just nonexistent. When I fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening I will, having fully awakened to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, establish all beings dwelling in the perception of existing things in the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature.’
“Subhūti, those bodhisattva great beings set out for perfect, complete awakening so that all beings will pass into complete nirvāṇa. They undertake the serial action, serial training, and serial practice in which earlier bodhisattva great beings trained and fully awakened to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. They first of all train in the six perfections, training in the perfection of giving, perfection of morality, perfection of patience, perfection of perseverance, perfection of concentration, and perfection of wisdom. [F.41.a]
“Training in the perfection of giving they personally give gifts, establish others in giving, speak in praise of giving, and speak in praise of others giving gifts as well, welcoming it. Through that familiarization with giving they will gain a huge heap of enjoyments. Free from miserly thoughts they give gifts—they give food to those begging for food, drinks to those who want drink, transport to those who want transport, clothes to those who want clothes, incense to those who want incense, flower garlands to those who want flower garlands, creams to those who want