Sources and Features of the Translation
This translation has been made with the Tibetan of the Degé Kangyur as its primary reference, taking account of significant variants in other Kangyurs. The Sanskrit of the Nepalese manuscripts as edited by Ghoṣa (for chapters 1–12) and Kimura (for subsequent chapters) has been closely consulted, as well as the Sanskrit of relevant passages in the Gilgit manuscript.
The two Bṛhaṭṭīkā commentaries (Toh 3807 and 3808) have provided valuable clarification on many points, and a parallel English translation of the “shorter” Bṛhaṭṭīkā (The Long Commentary on The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines, Toh 3807) is in progress.
Since the language of the source texts of the Hundred Thousand is so close to that of the source texts of the Twenty-Five Thousand, the translator has endeavored wherever possible to retain the terminology and language of the English translation of the Twenty-Five Thousand. Our ongoing research and study of these texts nevertheless necessitates changes in some passages, and the attentive reader of the two sūtras will no doubt detect differences between them other than simply the degree of repetition. We will be continuing to edit both translations to ensure the closest possible consistency between them, while also bearing in mind that the rendering of two different perspectives on the same term or passage is more likely to clarify and broaden the reader’s understanding than to muddy it.
The uses to which this English publication will be put remain to be discovered. This is a full and complete translation of the text in the sense that all the extensive repetitions for each individual item of the groups of dharmas that characterize the sūtra have been translated in full. The literary qualities and sonority of the Tibetan and Sanskrit may be difficult to convey fully, but as one lets the relentless waves of deconstructive statements batter the solid shore of one’s beliefs, one can appreciate that any simplified synopsis of the text’s main points can only fail to convey what it is really about.
Those of us at 84000 who have spent time with the text—translating and editing it, marking it up for electronic publication, processing its glossaries and cross-references—cannot help but feel a certain awe in its very presence.