A Brief Synopsis of the Sūtra’s Chapters
The sūtra opens with the setting of the context for the Buddha’s teaching of the Prajñāpāramitā. He is on Vulture Peak near Rājagṛha, surrounded by a gathering of arhat monks, nuns, laymen, laywomen, and countless bodhisattvas, of whom thirty-seven are named at this point. After a sequence of meditative stabilities and miraculous displays in which he emanates lights that allay the sufferings of beings in world systems throughout the trichiliocosm and make visible the buddhas teaching in the buddhafields in the ten directions, buddhas and bodhisattvas in each of those buddhafields become aware that a teaching is about to take place, and amid further miraculous displays the bodhisattvas arrive in this world with their offerings to attend the teachings. The main subject matter, the teachings that the Buddha then gives, unfolds as the rest of the text from the beginning of the second chapter.
At a first reading and without exegetical guidance, the sūtra’s very extensive presentation of its subject matter may seem somewhat disorganized and unstructured. There are nevertheless several much-studied ways of understanding how the teaching can be classified into different sections and topics. What follows is an extremely abbreviated outline of three such ways among those mentioned in the commentaries: the “three approaches” (or “gateways”); the “eleven discourses”; and the Abhisamayālaṃkāra’s eight principal topics or “clear realizations” and their seventy subtopics.
The three approaches (sgo gsum) are the brief, intermediate, and detailed teachings, destined respectively for those whose faculties allow them to understand terse, middling, or extensive explanations:57
(1) The brief teaching comes at the start of chapter 2, and consists only of the Buddha’s statement:
“Here, Śāradvatīputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all phenomena in all their aspects should persevere in the perfection of wisdom.” (2.1)
(2) The intermediate teaching follows immediately and continues through the discussions between Śāriputra, Subhūti, and the Buddha to the end of chapter 13. The Buddha responds to Śāriputra’s question about what the brief teaching means in terms of the four topics into which it can be subdivided: what a bodhisattva great being is, what it is to fully awaken to all phenomena in all their aspects, what persevering means, and what the perfection of wisdom is. Four practices are taught (armor-like, engagement, accumulation, and deliverance), and then, in some detail, eight aspects related to the “persevering.” The last of these eight is a discussion, starting with chapter 8, that arrives at an authoritative conclusion, including twenty-eight or twenty-nine questions, further dialogue between Subhūti and Śāriputra, and in chapters 11, 12, and 13 a long discussion of the Great Vehicle, its attributes, and its results. This entire intermediate teaching is sometimes referred to as “the chapter of Subhūti,” which is also the chapter title that the Twenty-Five Thousand gives to the last chapter in this section, the thirteenth. That chapter title may be intended to cover the entire group of chapters 3 through 12, too, though note that a chapter title is missing from chapter 13 in the Hundred Thousand. The intermediate teaching corresponds to the first chapter of The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines,58 is centered on all-aspect omniscience, and by teaching nonconceptual perfection of wisdom focuses on ultimate truth.
(3) The detailed teaching is covered by most of the rest of the text, from chapter 14 to the end of chapter 71. It contains a long series of points to be explained and is divided into two parts: (a) The first part begins with the questions put to Subhūti by Śakra, lord of the gods. The first ten of its chapters, 14 through 23, in which Śakra figures prominently, are probably intended to be covered by the title “Śakra” given in the chapter colophon of chapter 23, and among many important points they explain are how a bodhisattva’s knowledge encompasses that of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, and the benefits, protections, and vast merit conferred by appreciating, honoring, and knowing the perfection of wisdom. Subsequent chapters cover a range of topics, from the dedication of merit, in chapter 24, up to how a bodhisattva’s progress to awakening becomes irreversible, in chapter 40. (b) The second part comprises the discussions prompted by Subhūti’s two hundred and seventy-seven questions, which start in chapter 41 and end in chapter 71. It is centered on knowledge of the paths, and in teaching both conceptual and nonconceptual perfection of wisdom it explains both relative and ultimate truths.
The eleven formulations (rnam grangs bcu gcig) are mentioned in several commentaries detailing the interlocutor concerned, but are not explicitly correlated with particular locations in the texts. Following the mentions in the two bṛhaṭṭīkā commentaries (Toh 3807 and 3808) and Sparham,59 we may speculatively identify some of them in the present text as follows:
(2) by Subhūti, the rest of chapter 2 to the end of chapter 13;
(3) to Śakra, chapter 14, but possibly including several subsequent chapters as well;
(4) to Subhūti, difficult to identify;
(5) to Maitreya, the first part of chapter 24;
(9) to Maitreya, chapter 72;
(10) to Subhūti, again difficult to identify with any certainty; and
(11) the narrative of Sadāprarudita and Dharmodgata and entrustment of the sūtra to Ānanda, chapters 73 to 76. As noted above, these chapters are not found in the Hundred Thousand, except in the versions found in the Narthang, Lhasa, Namgyal, Hemis, and Shey Kangyurs, where they are appended.
The eight topics and seventy points of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra cannot be mapped with complete precision to the content of the Hundred Thousand. Nevertheless, included in the following list of the eight principal topics and their subdivision into seventy points is an approximate matching of the eight topics themselves to the content of the chapters of this sūtra, based on how the equivalent passages of the Sanskrit text can be identified in the Tibetan of the Kangyur version of the Twenty-Five Thousand (Toh 9).60 The seventy points of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra are more difficult to match with the present text, and indeed many of them are not even mentioned in the sūtra; some, however, can be discerned—not always in the same order as in the Abhisamayālaṃkāra.
(1) All-aspect omniscience (sarvākārajñatā, rnam pa thams cad mkhyen pa nyid) is covered in chapters 2 to 13. Its ten topics are (i) setting of the mind on awakening; (ii) the instructions concerning its application within the Great Vehicle; (iii) the four aspects of becoming established on the path of preparation, comprising warmth, peak, acceptance, and supremacy; (iv) the naturally present affinity with the spiritual family, which is the basis for attaining the Great Vehicle; (v) the referents through which the Great Vehicle is attained; (vi) the goals attained through the Great Vehicle; (vii) the armor-like practice; (viii) practice through engagement; (ix) practice through the provisions of merit and wisdom; and (x) practice of definitive deliverance. The reason all-aspect omniscience—which refers to the omniscient, awakened understanding of a fully enlightened buddha—is placed as the first of the eight clear realizations is that bodhisattvas must understand it before practicing it, and as the fruitional body taught in detail in the last part of the sūtra, this all-aspect omniscience is the very goal or object of bodhicitta, the mind set on full awakening. To practice the perfection of wisdom one must aim at the fullest awakening of buddhahood and not any of the lesser degrees of realization, such as those of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.
(1) All-aspect omniscience (sarvākārajñatā, rnam pa thams cad mkhyen pa nyid) is covered in chapters 2 to 13. Its ten topics are (i) setting of the mind on awakening; (ii) the instructions concerning its application within the Great Vehicle; (iii) the four aspects of becoming established on the path of preparation, comprising warmth, peak, acceptance, and supremacy; (iv) the naturally present affinity with the spiritual family, which is the basis for attaining the Great Vehicle; (v) the referents through which the Great Vehicle is attained; (vi) the goals attained through the Great Vehicle; (vii) the armor-like practice; (viii) practice through engagement; (ix) practice through the provisions of merit and wisdom; and (x) practice of definitive deliverance. The reason all-aspect omniscience—which refers to the omniscient, awakened understanding of a fully enlightened buddha—is placed as the first of the eight clear realizations is that bodhisattvas must understand it before practicing it, and as the fruitional body taught in detail in the last part of the sūtra, this all-aspect omniscience is the very goal or object of bodhicitta, the mind set on full awakening. To practice the perfection of wisdom one must aim at the fullest awakening of buddhahood and not any of the lesser degrees of realization, such as those of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.
(2) Knowledge of the aspects of the path (mārgajñatā, lam gyi rnam pa shes pa nyid) is covered in chapters 14 to 27. This refers to the understanding, progressively developed by bodhisattvas, of the paths to be followed by all types of beings. This therefore includes the paths of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas as well as the various levels and aspects of the path that is followed by bodhisattvas on the Great Vehicle itself. Its eleven topics are (i) essential aspects for understanding the path; (ii) knowledge of the aspects of the path which is that of the śrāvakas; (iii) knowledge of the aspects of the path which is that of the pratyekabuddhas; (iv) the beneficial path of insight, which accords with the Great Vehicle; (v) the functions of the path of cultivation; (vi) the aspirational path of cultivation; (vii) the path of cultivation resulting in eulogy, exhortation, and praise; (viii) the path of cultivation resulting in dedication; (ix) the path of cultivation resulting in sympathetic rejoicing; (x) the path of cultivation resulting in attainment; and (xi) the path of meditation resulting in purity.
(3) Knowledge of all the dharmas (sarvajñatā, thams cad shes pa nyid) is covered in chapter 28. The point established and emphasized in this section—although it is also a key theme throughout the perfection of wisdom sūtras—is that śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas (in particular, but also bodhisattvas in training), in order to overcome ordinary, deluded perceptions, make use of powerful notions including the identification of all the dharmas of defilement and purification that they discern as such. However, these are themselves all constructs and notions that, from the perspective of the perfection of wisdom, can represent a range of attachments, from gross to very subtle. Its nine topics are (i) the basic understanding that wisdom leads to not remaining in cyclic existence; (ii) the basic understanding that compassion leads to not remaining in nirvāṇa; (iii) the basic understanding that lack of skillful means leads to distance from the perfection of wisdom; (iv) the basic understanding that skillful means lead to proximity to it; (v) the basic understanding of the discordant factors associated with the fixation of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas; (vi) the remedial factors countering those fixations; (vii) training in the aforementioned basic understandings; (viii) training in the sameness of those basic understandings; and (ix) the path of insight which integrates these basic understandings.
(4) Clear realization of all aspects (sarvākārābhisambodha, rnam kun mngon rdzogs rtogs pa) is covered in chapters 29 to 44. Its eleven topics are (i) the aspects of the three kinds of knowledge (1–3 above); (ii) training in those aspects; (iii) the qualities acquired through those trainings; (iv) the defects to be eliminated during training; (v) the defining characteristics of training; (vii) the path of accumulations in accord with liberation; (vii) the path of preparation in accord with the four degrees of penetration (1.iii above); (viii) the signs of irreversibility in bodhisattva trainees; (ix) training in the sameness of cyclic existence and nirvāṇa; (x) the training associated with the pure realms; and (xi) training in skillful means for the sake of others.
(5) Culminating clear realization (mūrdhābhisamaya, rtse mor phyin pa’i mngon rtogs) is covered in chapters 45 through to the first few paragraphs of chapter 60. Its eight topics are (i) the culminating training of warmth on the path of preparation; (ii) the culminating training in the peak on the path of preparation; (iii) the culminating training in acceptance on the path of preparation; (iv) the culminating training in supremacy on the path of preparation; (v) the culminating training on the path of insight; (vi) the culminating training on the path of cultivation; (vii) the culminating uninterrupted training on the path of cultivation, comprising the vajra-like meditative stability; and (viii) the mistaken notions that are to be eliminated.
(5) Culminating clear realization (mūrdhābhisamaya, rtse mor phyin pa’i mngon rtogs) is covered in chapters 45 through to the first few paragraphs of chapter 60. Its eight topics are (i) the culminating training of warmth on the path of preparation; (ii) the culminating training in the peak on the path of preparation; (iii) the culminating training in acceptance on the path of preparation; (iv) the culminating training in supremacy on the path of preparation; (v) the culminating training on the path of insight; (vi) the culminating training on the path of cultivation; (vii) the culminating uninterrupted training on the path of cultivation, comprising the vajra-like meditative stability; and (viii) the mistaken notions that are to be eliminated.
(6) Serial clear realization (ānupūrvābhisamaya, mthar gyis pa’i mngon rtogs) is covered by most of chapter 60, from after the first few paragraphs, through to the first few paragraphs of chapter 61. Its thirteen topics are (i–vi) the serial trainings in the six perfections of generosity, ethical discipline, tolerance, perseverance, meditative concentration, and wisdom; (vii–xii) the serial training in the six mindfulnesses of the spiritual teacher, the Buddha, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, ethical discipline, and generosity; and (xiii) the serial training in the realization that phenomena are without essential nature.
(7) Instantaneous clear realization (ekakṣaṇābhisamaya, skad cig ma gcig gis mngon par rtogs pa) is covered in most of chapter 61, from after the first few paragraphs, through to the end of chapter 62. Its four topics are (i) instantaneous training in terms of maturation; (ii) instantaneous training in terms of nonmaturation; (iii) instantaneous training in terms of the lack of defining characteristics; and (iv) instantaneous training in terms of nonduality.
(8) The fruitional buddha body of reality (dharmakāyābhisamaya, ’bras bu chos sku) is covered in chapters 63 to 72. Its four topics are (i) the buddha body of essentiality; (ii) the buddha body of wisdom and reality; (iii) the buddha body of perfect resource; and (iv) the buddha body of emanation.