Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines

The Eight Thousand frequently uses the Sanskrit term sarvajñatā, which has been translated here as “the state of complete knowing.” To translate this term as “omniscience,” as has become accepted in some contexts, in the case of this text would entail several problems.

First, when the commentators explain the Eight Thousand, they distinguish three different possible referents of the term sarvajñatā in line with the first three topics of Maitreya’s Ornament, namely (a) the “complete knowing (of the constituents)” (sarvajñatā) as the final result of the Disciple Vehicle that knows the five constituents of experience to be empty of personal identity; (b) the “knowing of (all) the paths” (mārgajñatā) as a bodhisattva’s knowing that surpasses the complete knowing (of the constituents) in knowing all paths to awakening; and (c) the “knowing of all the aspects” (sarvākārajñatā) as the final result of the Bodhisattva Vehicle that includes knowing the 173 specific aspects explained in the fourth topic of the Ornament. Given the three different degrees and spheres of knowing, all three types of knowing could not all be called “omniscience” without rendering the word meaningless, and hence, the term “state of complete knowing” has been adopted as more amenable to the different referents.⁵⁷

Second, although some Buddhist texts seem to describe the buddha’s knowing all the aspects of everything as something like a divine omniscience, many Mahāyāna Buddhist scholars sought to qualify this suggestion in different ways, such as saying that a buddha knows everything by knowing their single nature.⁵⁸ Here, too, one might ask what kind of knowing of the nature is entailed? Certainly, it is not merely intellectually knowing the nature of everything, but rather the uninterrupted knowing of that nature and all its possible manifestations. Granted, such knowing enables a buddha to “know” infinite things but not necessarily in an intentional way, as terms like “all-knowing” might imply.

Third, the three types of complete knowing are said to be synonymous with the transcendent state of wisdom of three types of noble beings‍—arhats, bodhisattvas, and buddhas, respectively. Hence, these terms must dovetail with one another in meaningful ways. Therefore, although the term “state of complete knowing” may be less than ideal, it has been adopted to allow the commentaries to differentiate usages and specify three different referents with very specific meanings.