The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines
Chapter 72: Teaching the Absence of Marks
- Jinamitra
- Surendrabodhi
- Yeshé Dé
Toh 10
Degé Kangyur, vol. 29 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, ka), folios 1.a–300.a; vol. 30 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, kha), folios 1.a–304.a; vol. 31 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, 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
Current version v 1.0.21 (2023)
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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 72: Teaching the Absence of Marks
Then venerable Subhūti inquired of the Lord,708 “Lord, given that dharmas are without causal signs, without effort, unadulterated, and empty of their own mark, how is it that bodhisattvas complete the cultivation of the six perfections—the perfection of giving, perfection of morality, perfection of patience, perfection of perseverance, perfection of concentration, and perfection of wisdom? How are these dharmas without outflows labeled as different? How is there a variation between them? How is the perfection of giving included within the perfection of wisdom, and how are the perfection of morality, perfection of patience, perfection of perseverance, and perfection of concentration included within the perfection of wisdom? Lord, how can such unmarked dharmas, dharmas that have but one mark—no mark—be different?”
Venerable Subhūti having thus inquired, the Lord said to him, “Subhūti, here bodhisattva [F.57.a] great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom, standing in the five aggregates that are like a dream, give gifts, guard morality, cultivate patience, make a vigorous effort, become absorbed in meditative stabilization, and cultivate wisdom.709 Standing in the five appropriating aggregates that are like an echo, they give gifts, guard morality, cultivate patience, make a vigorous effort, become absorbed in meditative stabilization, and cultivate wisdom. Standing in the five appropriating aggregates that are like an apparition, like a mirage, like an illusion, and like a magical creation, they give gifts, guard morality, cultivate patience, make a vigorous effort, become absorbed in meditative stabilization, and cultivate wisdom. Those five aggregates are like a dream—that is, are without marks; they are like an echo, like an apparition, like a mirage, like an illusion, and like a magical creation—that is, are without marks. And why? Because a dream has no intrinsic nature at all; an echo, an apparition, a mirage, an illusion, and a magical creation have no intrinsic nature at all, and whatever has no intrinsic nature has no mark, and that which has no mark is, thus, as no mark, one mark. Therefore, Subhūti, you should thus know from this one of many explanations that the gift has no mark, the giver has no mark, and the recipient has no mark.
“Those who give a gift with such an understanding complete the perfection of giving. Completing the perfection of giving, they do not turn back from the perfection of morality, and do not turn back from the perfection of patience, perfection of perseverance, perfection of concentration, or perfection of wisdom. Standing in those six perfections, [F.57.b] they complete the four concentrations, complete the four immeasurables, complete the four formless absorptions, complete the four applications of mindfulness, complete the four right efforts, and complete the four legs of miraculous power, five faculties, five powers, seven limbs of awakening, eightfold noble path, inner emptiness, and similarly, connect this with each, up to the emptiness of its own mark. They complete the emptiness meditative stabilization, signlessness meditative stabilization, and wishlessness meditative stabilization; they complete the eight deliverances, nine serial absorptions, and five clairvoyances; they complete the five hundred dhāraṇī gateways; and they complete the ten tathāgata powers, four fearlessnesses, four detailed and thorough knowledges, and eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha.
“Standing in those noble dharmas without outflows arisen from maturation, they go through miraculous power to world systems in the eastern direction and wait on the lord buddhas. They attend to the needs of those lord buddhas, and work for the welfare of beings there with their possessions. They gather into a retinue with giving those beings there who can be gathered with giving; they gather into a retinue by being moral those beings there who can be gathered with morality; they gather into a retinue by being patient those beings there who can be gathered by patience; they gather into a retinue by persevering those beings there who can be gathered with perseverance; they gather into a retinue by meditative stabilization those beings there who can be gathered with meditative stabilization; they gather into a retinue by wisdom those beings there who can be gathered with wisdom, up to and they gather into a retinue by all wholesome dharmas those beings there [F.58.a] who can be gathered with all wholesome dharmas. Endowed with those wholesome dharmas they even appropriate a life in saṃsāra, but they are not affected by the sufferings that exist in saṃsāra. They appropriate the things that make the life of humans and gods enjoyable for the sake of beings, and help those beings with those things that make life enjoyable.
“They know all dharmas have no mark. They know the result of stream enterer but do not remain standing there; they know the result of once-returner but do not remain standing there; they know the result of non-returner but do not remain standing there; they know the state of a worthy one but do not remain standing there; and they know a pratyekabuddha’s awakening but do not remain standing there. And why? It is because they, knowing all dharmas have no mark, have to reach the knowledge of all aspects not shared in common with śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas. Therefore, Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings, knowing all dharmas have no mark, know the six perfections have no mark, up to know all the buddhadharmas have no mark either.
“Furthermore, Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom, standing in the five appropriating aggregates that are like a dream, complete the perfection of morality; standing in the five appropriating aggregates that are like an echo, like an apparition, like an illusion, like a mirage, and like a magical creation, they complete the perfection of morality. Understanding that the five appropriating aggregates are like a dream, and understanding that the five appropriating aggregates are like an echo, like an apparition, like a mirage, like an illusion, and like a magical creation, they complete the unflagging, unpunctured, unadulterated, unfragmented, untarnished, [F.58.b] autonomous, well-completed perfection of morality praised by the wise and belonging to the noble path without outflows. Standing there, they guard morality that comes from ordination vows, morality gained through the true nature of dharmas, restraint morality, proclaimed morality, and morality that comes through force of habit.710 But even though they are endowed with such morality as that, they do not grasp it as absolute, thinking, ‘On account of this may I be born sharing the good fortune of a great sāla tree–like royal family, or may I be born sharing the good fortune of a great sāla tree–like brahmin family, or a great sāla tree–like business family; or may I become a wheel-turning emperor, or a local ruler; or may I be born sharing the good fortune of the Cāturmahārājika gods, or may I be born sharing the good fortune of the Trāyastriṃśa gods, or may I be born sharing the good fortune of the Yāma, or Tuṣita, or Nirmāṇarati, or Paranirmitavaśavartin gods; or may I reach the result of stream enterer, or the result of once-returner, or the result of non-returner, or the state of a worthy one, or a pratyekabuddha’s awakening.’ And why? Subhūti, it is because all dharmas are marked by the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, so they have only one mark—that is, no mark—and a dharma that has no mark does not reach a dharma that has no mark. A dharma that has a different mark does not reach a dharma that has a different mark. And dharmas that have no marks or have different marks do not reach dharmas that have no marks or have different marks.
“In that way, Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom complete the perfection of morality that has no mark. Having completed the perfection of morality that has no mark, [F.59.a] they enter into the secure state of a bodhisattva, and having entered into the secure state of a bodhisattva and gained the forbearance for dharmas that are not produced, they practice the knowledge of path aspects and acquire the clairvoyances arisen from maturation. Stationed in the five hundred dhāraṇī gateways, they acquire the four detailed and thorough knowledges, pass on from buddhafield to buddhafield, attend on the lord buddhas, bring beings to maturity, and take possession of a buddhafield.
“They stream through the five forms of life in the stream of cyclic existence but are not affected by the maturation of actions done when living in saṃsāra.
“To illustrate, a magical creation stands up, sits down, and lies down, but going, coming, remaining standing, sitting, and lying down are absent from it. It also works for the welfare of beings, even though it has no apprehension of beings or even the designation of a being. To illustrate further, a tathāgata, worthy one, perfectly complete buddha, having fully awakened to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, has turned the wheel of the Dharma and has led infinite beings into complete nirvāṇa in the two vehicles. But still, not seeing any bodhisattva at all whose unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening has been prophesied, that tathāgata throws off the volitional factor that is life, magically produces a magical creation, and passes into complete nirvāṇa in the element of nirvāṇa without any aggregates left behind. Subhūti, after many eons have gone by that magical creation, after having prophesied the unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening of a bodhisattva, also passes into complete nirvāṇa. But no real form, or feeling, or perception, or volitional factors, or consciousness of that magical creation can be apprehended at all as a basis. Similarly, Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings too have no apprehension of beings or even the designation of a being [F.59.b] but still work for the welfare of beings.
“In that way, Subhūti, when bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom complete the perfection of morality, all dharmas are included within that completion.
“Furthermore, Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom, standing in the five appropriating aggregates that are like a dream—in the five appropriating aggregates that are like an echo, like an apparition, like an illusion, like a mirage, and like a magical creation—complete the perfection of patience that has no mark.
“Subhūti, how do bodhisattva great beings standing in the five appropriating aggregates without marks complete the perfection of patience? Here, Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings complete the perfection of patience with two sorts of patience. What are the two? Starting from the first production of the thought up until seated at the site of awakening, during that period, whether all beings come and snub, or humiliate, or refuse to associate with, or swear at them, or whether they deal them blows with sticks, clubs, and swords, bodhisattva great beings who want to complete the perfection of patience should not let even a single feeling of emotional upset arise: ‘Who is snubbing, or humiliating, or refusing to associate with, or swearing at me, or dealing me blows with sticks, clubs, and swords?’ And why? Because if they have forbearance for all dharmas without a mark, how could it occur to them to think, ‘Who is snubbing, or humiliating, or refusing to associate with, or swearing at me, or dealing me blows with sticks, clubs, and swords?’ [F.60.a] When they examine like that, they complete the perfection of patience, and, by having completed the perfection of patience, they gain forbearance for dharmas that have not been produced.”
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