Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines

V.iii. Śakra thinks to himself that if those sentient beings whose mindset takes a step toward the state of complete knowing profit greatly and live their lives well, then how much more is that so once they develop the mindset for unsurpassed, perfect awakening. He then wishes bodhisattvas who see the sufferings in the realm of cyclic existence to give rise to an even greater aspiration for awakening (26.1).

V.iv. The Blessed One teaches that by comparing a billionfold, great order world system with the tip of a piece of straw, one might still be able to grasp its size; but the amount of merit gained by a bodhisattva developing a mindset that rejoices for other bodhisattvas is immeasurable. If sentient beings do not rejoice in the bodhisattvas’ first development of the proper mindset, up to their having realized unsurpassed, perfect awakening, then those sentient beings are under Māra’s magical influence. They will join Māra’s cohort and go to the lower realms. But when they rejoice and dedicate such rejoicing mindsets to unsurpassed, perfect awakening, they destroy Māra’s realms (26.8). Thus, one should rejoice that those bodhisattva great beings who have developed the proper mindset for unsurpassed, perfect awakening have developed these mindsets (26.9). As a bodhisattva’s development of the proper mindset grows, he or she will attain awakening and help innumerable sentient beings to attain nirvāṇa.

V.v. In response to Subhūti’s question about how a mindset that is like a magical illusion can realize awakening (26.12), the Blessed One teaches that awakening is realized as absolutely void, because the transcendent state of wisdom is absolutely void. This is because a thing that cannot be found to exist cannot realize awakening (26.17). Although voidness is not realized by voidness, a bodhisattva does realize awakening‍—but not without depending upon the transcendent state of wisdom. A bodhisattva performs difficult noble deeds, goes about life in this profound point, and does not actualize that point at the level of a disciple or a solitary realizer. But there is no bodhisattva performing difficult noble deeds because one cannot mentally perceive anything that actualizes something, anything that is actualized by it, or anything that serves to actualize it (26.21). Hence, he or she does not even conceive of him- or herself as being close or far from awakening, because the transcendent state of wisdom, like space, an illusory person, a reflection, and so on, is free of conceptualization (26.22).

The end of this chapter uses the analogies of space, an illusory person, a reflection, and so on in a paradoxical way to describe the transcendent state of wisdom.

The chapter corresponds to all of chapter 48 in the Twenty-Five Thousand; all of chapter 48 in the Hundred Thousand; and all of chapter 58 in the Eighteen Thousand.

V.v. (cont.) Śāriputra states that a bodhisattva who goes about life in the transcendent state of wisdom goes about life in the essence. Subhūti clarifies that the only difficulty that a bodhisattva has is that he or she dons the armor to help immeasurable, innumerable, and measureless sentient beings to attain complete nirvāṇa, yet he or she finds there to be absolutely no sentient beings (27.4). The Blessed One teaches that anyone who considers him- or herself to be equipped with the great armor for the benefit of sentient beings should also consider him- or herself to be in a struggle with space, because the armor that he or she is equipped with for the benefit of sentient beings is also just that. A bodhisattva’s freedom from any mental perception of sentient beings is the ultimate nature of everything, and this freedom from any mental perception should also be understood as the voidness of sentient beings (27.4). All the gods will pay homage to any bodhisattva going about life in this way (27.8). They will also offer their support to any bodhisattva going about life in this way (27.9). Even if all the sentient beings in all the billionfold world systems equal in number to grains of sand in the River Ganges were to become māras, they would not be able to create any obstacle to the awakening of a bodhisattva who goes about life in the transcendent state of wisdom, because he or she is kept in mind by the buddhas. A bodhisattva is unassailable by Māra because of four qualities: not abandoning any sentient beings; regarding all things from the perspective of emptiness; doing as he or she says; and being kept in mind by the blessed buddhas (27.10). Unlike Māra’s false proclamations to novices, the blessed buddhas utter proclamations by announcing names, familial lineages, powers, good qualities, and so on to persons on the bodhisattva path, presently performing the bodhisattva practices, and actually training in the bodhisattva’s way of going about life (27.17). When they listen to this profound transcendent state of wisdom being taught, they will have firm conviction and not become confused, worried, or doubtful (27.20). After engaging in spiritual practice, progressing along the path, and coming to reside in the actual nature and the state of complete knowing, they will teach the Dharma. Yet they do not mentally perceive the actual nature itself, much less someone residing in that actual nature, realizing awakening, or teaching the Dharma, because they do not mentally perceive even a thing that could do so (27.22). In the illumination of emptiness like this, they are revealing what is conducive to the truth (27.27).

The chapter uses paradoxical nondual language to say that residing in the actual nature is not residing in the actual nature, but that this statement concerning emptiness is merely conducive to the truth.

The chapter corresponds to all of chapter 49 and an initial passage of chapter 50 (50.1–5) in the Twenty-Five Thousand; all of chapter 49 and an initial passage of chapter 50 in the Hundred Thousand; and all of chapter 59 and an initial passage of chapter 60 (60.1–7) in the Eighteen Thousand.

V.v. (cont.) Six hundred monks catch heavenly māndārava flower blossoms that have been showered down by the gods and strew them upon the Buddha while vowing to go about life in the transcendent state of wisdom. The Blessed One manifests a smile from which multicolored light rays illuminate infinite world systems (28.2). When asked about it, the Blessed One explains that the six hundred monks will realize unsurpassed, perfect awakening. Once awakened, they will teach the Dharma for twenty thousand eons, and when they do so, they will all have the same name, Avakīrṇakusuma (“Showered Blossoms”). Any other bodhisattvas who wish to abide in the state of a tathāgata should thus live in the transcendent state of wisdom (28.5).

The Blessed One then entrusts this Transcendent State of Wisdom to Ānanda and transmits it to him in the form of syllables to ensure that it does not disappear for a long time (28.7). He warns him that if he loses it, sets it aside, or forgets it, he will be committing a serious offense against the Buddha himself, because the Transcendent State of Wisdom is the mother of the past, present, and future buddhas. She engenders them, gives them birth, and brings them forth (28.8). It should be taken in, kept in mind, chanted, mastered, and so on, because, conforming with the true nature of things, it becomes the truth body of the past, present, and future buddhas (28.9). The Blessed One then says, “Ānanda, the transcendent state of wisdom is your teacher in the same way that I am your teacher.” (28.11). The Blessed One entrusts it to Ānanda a second and third time (28.19). He then creates a magical display so that the entire assembly can miraculously see the Buddha Akṣobhya teaching the Dharma surrounded by a retinue of monks and bodhisattvas (28.24). After retracting the magical display, the Blessed One teaches that things such as objects of sight, knowledge, and so on, do not appear to other things such as seers, knowers, and so on, because nothing is experiencing anything, because there is no existent thing (28.26). Thus, a bodhisattva does not habitually fixate on anything (28.26). One should realize the transcendent state of wisdom through the inexhaustibility of ignorance, karmic conditioning factors, consciousness, and so on. This is how a bodhisattva surveys dependent arising freed from the two extremes (28.33). When a bodhisattva surveys dependent arising in this way, he or she attains (pratilambho) the knowing of someone who has complete knowing (28.33). When a bodhisattva great being surveys dependent arising in this way, he or she does not identify any thing that is arising, permanent, fixed, lasting, qualitatively unchanging, and so on (28.35).

V.vi. When a bodhisattva goes about life in the transcendent state of wisdom, he or she perfects the cultivation of all six transcendent states and all skill in means. Keeping this in mind, a bodhisattva should develop the proper mindset, repeatedly thinking, “I will attain the qualities that have been attained by the blessed buddhas.”

V.vii. Any bodhisattva wishing to gain all skill in means should then go about life in the transcendent state of wisdom and should cultivate the transcendent state of wisdom (28.39).

V.viii. Even if other bodhisattvas who cling to mental perceptions give gifts for eons equal in number to the grains of sand in the River Ganges, any bodhisattva who realizes this transcendent state of wisdom throughout the day, or even just for a finger snap, gains much more merit (28.39).

This chapter includes a play on the Sanskrit words dharmatā ( the true nature of things but also the nature of the Dharma teachings) and dharmakāya (the truth body, the embodiment of truth, but also the body of Dharma teachings).

The chapter corresponds to the rest of chapter 50 (from 50.6) and the first part of chapter 51 in the Twenty-Five Thousand; the rest of chapter 50 and the first part of chapter 51 in the Hundred Thousand; and the rest of chapter 60 (from 60.8) and the first part of chapter 61 in the Eighteen Thousand.

However, from a point near the end of the chapter (see n.1296), which corresponds to the middle of chapter 51 in the Twenty-Five Thousand (51.13) and Hundred Thousand, and the middle of chapter 61 in the Eighteen Thousand (61.13), it becomes difficult to discern the parallels between the Eight Thousand and the long sūtras. The latter embark on an extensive explanation structured according to the six transcendent states that fills several of their subsequent chapters.

VI.i–vi. The Blessed One teaches a series of gradual and instantaneous approaches, beginning with a bodhisattva approaching the transcendent state of wisdom through being free from attachment to all things (29.1).

VI.vii–xii. A bodhisattva should approach the transcendent state of wisdom through not differentiating things and so on.

VI.xiii. A bodhisattva should approach the transcendent state of wisdom through the nonoccurrence of all things. He or she should approach the transcendent state of wisdom comprehending that all things are equal to the unchanging. He or she should approach the transcendent state of wisdom comprehending that all things are talked about by way of a mere name or conventional expression. But a conventional expression neither arises anywhere, nor arises from anywhere, nor is it a thing (29.1).

VII.i–iv. A bodhisattva should approach the limitlessness of the transcendent state of wisdom through its being as limitless as the ocean, through its being as limitless as the sky, and through its nature being as multifaceted as Mount Meru. He or she should approach it as the limitlessness of physical forms and so on (29.2).

VIII.i. A bodhisattva should approach the limitlessness of the transcendent state of wisdom as illuminating limitlessly, like the sun’s halo of rays.

VIII.ii. He or she should approach it as the limitlessness of all sounds and so on.

VIII.iii. He or she should approach it as the limitlessness of all things (29.3).

VIII.iv. He or she should approach the roaring of the transcendent state of wisdom as the roaring of a lion’s roar (29.3). Such a bodhisattva should approach this transcendent state of wisdom, explore it, get into it, become aware of it, and so on, and then cultivate it with attentiveness free from all self-deceptions, and so on (29.31). If he or she does so, it will not be difficult for him or her to completely perfect all the qualities of a buddha (29.31).

This relatively brief and very dense chapter corresponds‍—but only from the schematic perspective of the Ornament‍—to a very long remaining portion of the long sūtras: chapters 52–72 of the Twenty-Five Thousand, chapters 52–72 of the Hundred Thousand, and chapters 62–83 of the Eighteen Thousand. However, starting from near the end of the previous chapter as mentioned above, and until the start of the narrative chapters that follow, it is difficult or impossible to identify textual parallels.

The Blessed One tells the story of the bodhisattva Sadāprarudita (“Always Crying”), so that others emulate the way he sought the Transcendent State of Wisdom without concern for his physical well-being or his life, and without attachment to personal gain, praise, or reputation (30.3).

While Sadāprarudita seeks the Transcendent State of Wisdom, he goes to stay in the wilderness, and there hears a voice from the sky telling him to go to the city called Gandhavatī (“The Fragrant”) one thousand two hundred miles away, where the bodhisattva Dharmodgata is teaching the Transcendent State of Wisdom to a large assembly. The voice tells him to pay no attention to physical fatigue, sleep, food, water, and so on, and gives him guidance and teachings for the journey. With firm conviction, Sadāprarudita does exactly what the voice tells him (30.4). He thinks it would not be proper to approach the bodhisattva Dharmodgata without a precious offering. Since he is poor and has nothing to give, he tries to sell his body in the central market of the next city so that he can offer the proceeds to Dharmodgata as a tribute (30.21). Seeing this, Śakra, powerful lord of the gods, has the thought to test his resolve. Taking the guise of a brahmin man, he offers to buy Sadāprarudita’s heart, blood, and bone marrow (30.28). Sadāprarudita starts cutting open his body on the spot, but a wealthy merchant’s daughter, unable to watch him inflicting harm on his body and inspired by his devotion to the Transcendent State of Wisdom, offers to give him money for the offering, to join him on the journey, and to receive the teachings with him (30.37). Sadāprarudita performs an “act of truth” to cure the injuries to himself that he has caused (30.40). He then goes together with the merchant’s daughter and her five hundred maidservants to the magnificent city of Gandhavatī. First, he makes an elaborate devotional offering to the Transcendent State of Wisdom scripture written with molten beryl on golden plates and housed within a peaked temple built out of the seven precious substances (30.68). Next, he makes an elaborate devotional offering to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata and requests teaching on the Transcendent State of Wisdom, asking him where the tathāgatas have come from and where they have gone, and requesting teaching so that he may never be separated from seeing those tathāgatas (30.72).

The chapter corresponds closely to chapters 73 and 74 of the Twenty-Five Thousand, and chapter 85 of the Eighteen Thousand. (The Hundred Thousand as witnessed in the Sanskrit and in the Tibetan of most Kangyurs does not include the narrative, although a tradition of explicitly adding it is followed by the Narthang, Lhasa, Namgyal, Hemis, and Shey Kangyurs.)

To Sadāprarudita’s question from the end of the preceding chapter, Dharmodgata replies that the tathāgatas do not come from anywhere or go anywhere, since the actual nature does not move, and that which is the actual nature is the tathāgata. This is because the freedom from arising neither comes nor goes, and that which is the freedom from arising is the tathāgata (31.2). People who habitually fixate upon the form or voice of the tathāgata may imagine that the tathāgata comes and goes, like a man who conceives of water in a mirage where there is no water. But one should not see a tathāgata as his physical form; one should see him as the body of truth. Just as the true nature of things neither comes nor goes, so too the tathāgatas neither come nor go (31.12). Dharmodgata then explains this through the analogies of a magical illusion, a dream, jewels in the ocean, sound from a lute, and the physical actualization of buddha bodies. Finally, Dharmodgata says that if he accurately discerns the tathāgatas and all things not to have arisen or ceased in this way, then he will definitely go about life in the transcendent state of wisdom and skill in means and attain awakening (31.18). Dharmodgata’s words are accompanied by a miraculous earthquake with the eighteen great signs that many thousands of beings had reached one of the stages beyond regressing (31.18). Sadāprarudita and the merchant’s daughter, along with her five hundred maidservants, offer themselves to Dharmodgata as attendants (31.25). Dharmodgata accepts them and, returning to his residence, enters a state of meditative concentration that lasts seven years. Out of respect, Sadāprarudita remains standing without a negative thought until Dharmodgata emerges to teach again (31.33). Sadāprarudita and the others prepare the teaching throne, sprinkle their own blood around the teaching area to keep the dust down, and lay out other devotional offerings (31.39). When Dharmodgata gives the teaching on the inconceivable transcendent state of wisdom, Sadāprarudita attains six million meditative concentrations there and then (31.51).

The chapter corresponds closely to chapter 75 of the Twenty-Five Thousand, and chapter 86 of the Eighteen Thousand.

The Blessed One concludes the story, saying that the bodhisattva Sadāprarudita came to see buddhas equal in number to the grains of sand in the River Ganges, in all ten directions within billionfold world systems themselves equal in number to the grains of sand in the River Ganges. Each buddha was surrounded by his saṅgha of monks and bodhisattvas. Each was teaching this very Transcendent State of Wisdom exactly as he was doing right now, surrounded by his saṅgha of monks and attended by his gathering of bodhisattvas. Through seeing all those buddhas, the bodhisattva great being Sadāprarudita came to possess inconceivably great learning and ocean-like knowledge (32.1). He was never separate from the blessed buddhas, even while asleep. He left all inauspicious births behind, and was always blessed with auspicious ones (32.1).

The Blessed One then tells Ānanda to act with regard to the Transcendent State of Wisdom just as he has acted with devotion with regard to the Blessed One. He entrusts him with the Transcendent State of Wisdom and transmits it to him a second and third time, to ensure that it does not disappear, since no other person besides Ānanda would be able to preserve it (32.3).

The chapter corresponds closely to chapter 76 of the Twenty-Five Thousand, and chapter 87 of the Eighteen Thousand.