Toh 10The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines”

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.

Introduction

In the introduction to his translation of The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand
Lines, Gyurme Dorje has given a
clear account of the Tibetan tradition’s explanation (1) of the origin of the Perfection of Wisdom in the words of the Buddha
on Gṛdhrakūṭa Hill in Rājagṛha some 2,500 years ago, (2) of the way the Perfection of Wisdom became extant in our world
through the efforts of Nāgārjuna, and (3) of the Perfection of Wisdom’s place in the vast corpus of the Buddha’s words as “the
middle turning of the wheel of the Dharma.” He has also given a brief account of the conclusions arrived at by the Western
research tradition, which suggest that the Perfection of Wisdom may have originated in the south of the Indian subcontinent,
perhaps the Andhra region, but more likely first began circulating in the far northwest of the Indian subcontinent. A prophecy
in the text translated into English here provides some support for this conclusion. In

chapter 39 the Buddha says to Śāriputra, “with the passing away of the Tathāgata this perfection of wisdom will
circulate in the southern region,” and “from the country Vartani [the east] this deep perfection of wisdom will circulate into
the northern region.” A comparison of early fragments of a Perfection of Wisdom in
the Gāndhārī language, written in Kharoṣṭhī script and dated ca. 75 ce, with an early translation
of a Perfection of Wisdom text into Chinese by Lokakṣema in the middle of the second century ce has
led the Western research tradition to the tentative conclusion that the Perfection of Wisdom first circulated in written form
in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent some 2,000 years ago.

About the Perfection of Wisdom Manuscripts

The text translated here into English is the one found in the Degé Kangyur with reference to the other Kangyur
editions contained in the Comparative Edition (Tib dpe bsdur ma). Both the original
handwritten Indic manuscript (or manuscripts) on which the Tibetan translation of The Perfection of
Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines was based and the original handwritten manuscript of the earliest Tibetan
translation are lost. There is, however, a large, nearly complete birch bark manuscript of a Perfection of Wisdom text written
in Sanskrit in a Gilgit-Bāmiyān type alphabet that shows surprising similarities to the alphabet later used for the
translation of Indian Buddhist texts into Tibetan. Stefano Zacchetti calls the birch bark manuscript, unearthed in northwest India in Gilgit in 1931, the “[Larger]
Prajñāpāramitā from Gilgit,” and he dates it to “between [the] 6th and the beginning of
the 7th century.” It is not misleading to say it is similar in the main to the Tibetan translation that is the basis of the
English translation presented here. It is not, however, exactly the same, and it certainly was not the Indic manuscript on
which the Tibetan translation of the Eighteen Thousand was based.

Besides the Gilgit manuscript there are the Śatasāhasrikā (Hundred Thousand) and Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā (Twenty-Five Thousand) groups of Indic manuscripts, mainly originating from collections in
Nepal that are similar in many respects to the Tibetan text that is the basis of the English translation presented here. There
are a considerable number of these relatively recent manuscripts, dating at the earliest to the seventeenth century.
Pratāpacandra Ghoṣa published a heroic Sanskrit edition (1902–13) of the first section (khaṇḍa) of the Hundred Thousand that runs to 1,676 pages! Takayasu Kimura
(2009–14) has published the Sanskrit of the Hundred Thousand equivalent up to about chapter 32 of the 87 chapters translated
here (up to halfway through the sixth of the twelve volumes of the Tibetan translation of the Hundred
Thousand in the Kangyur). The Hundred Thousand is
obviously much longer than the Eighteen Thousand but is similar in many respects.

Kimura has also published a complete Sanskrit edition of Haribhadra’s version of the Twenty-Five
Thousand
(1986–2009). This version is
one of the two bases (together with the Gilgit manuscript) for Edward Conze’s (1984) magisterial translation called The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom. Kimura’s Sanskrit edition of the Twenty-Five
Thousand is also similar in many
respects to the Tibetan translation of the Eighteen Thousand that is the basis of the English
translation presented here.

The Title: Eighteen Thousand

According to Stefano Zacchetti, Bodhiruci (fl. beginning of the sixth century), a translator of Buddhist texts into
Chinese, is the first to explicitly mention an Eighteen Thousand. Bodhiruci lists it, among other texts,
as one of the three sizes of what he calls the Larger Perfection of Wisdom. We have not determined with certainty if Bodhiruci
meant Eighteen Thousand as an actual title of a Perfection of Wisdom text or simply as a
description of the length of a text.

In A Catalogue of the Chinese Translation of the Buddhist Tripiṭaka, the first entry is Xuanzang’s huge Dabanruoboluomi jing (Long Perfection of Wisdom, finished ca. 659). A text in
fifty-nine fascicles and thirty-one chapters is included as part of it. Based on the K’yuen-lu (Nañjio’s transliteration) written in 1287, which compares Perfection of Wisdom works in the Tibetan
canon and the Chinese canon, says it “agrees with the Tibetan Pragñāpāramitā in 18,000 ślokas.”

We have not been able to read Xuanzang’s translation, so we cannot say with certainty whether or not the name Eighteen Thousand is found there, but speaking generally, in Chinese Buddhism bibliographical
material is organized based on the person (the translator and so on) rather than genre or title, certainly after Fei
Changfang’s Lidai sanbao ji (Record of the Three Treasures throughout
Successive Dynasties, published in 597). It therefore remains to be conclusively determined whether the name
Eighteen Thousand is actually used by Xuanzang to identify this part of his long translation
or whether it is, again, just a description of the length of part of a longer book.

In the Denkarma, the catalog of Buddhist works translated into Tibetan compiled in the early years of the ninth
century by the translators Paltsek (dpal brtsegs) and Lui Wangpo (klu’i dbang po), the Eighteen Thousand comes third in the first
subdivision of Mahāyāna sūtras. Later the two translators include in their list of commentaries on Mahāyāna sūtras The Long Explanation of the One Hundred, Twenty-Five, and Eighteen Thousand (Toh 3808). So, we can say with certainty that a Perfection of
Wisdom text in Tibetan identified by the name Eighteen Thousand existed by about the year
820.

Edward Conze gives the name Aṣṭādaśaprajñāpāramitā (The
Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines) to the later part of the Gilgit manuscript (starting from folio
188). Other scholars have followed him,
describing fragments of Perfection of Wisdom texts that correspond to parts of the Gilgit manuscript as fragments of the
Eighteen Thousand. But Zacchetti persuasively argues that Conze has made a mistake. He says
Conze takes the early part of the Gilgit manuscript to reflect the text of the Twenty-Five
Thousand and the later part the Eighteen Thousand because of an inconsequential mistake on the part of the Gilgit scribe. Zacchetti
says the scribe accidentally wrote chapter 48 instead of 38 at the end of the chapter following chapter 37. Not all the
chapters in the Gilgit manuscript have both titles and numbers. Conze noticed that the next chapter in the Gilgit manuscript
after the chapter mistakenly numbered 48 that has both a title and number is chapter 50, with the title Avinivartanīyaliṅganirdeśa (Teaching the signs of irreversibility).
Conze also noticed that it corresponded to

chapter 50 in the Tibetan translation of
the Eighteen Thousand, which has the same title (Teaching the signs of irreversibility). This is the reason, Zacchetti argues, that Conze mistakenly said that the
scribe “calmly chang[ed] from the version in 25.000 Lines to the version in 18.000 Lines (at f. 187/188) without telling
anybody about it.” Zacchetti concludes that the Gilgit
manuscript in fact reflects “a single version of the Larger PP” and says that trying to decide if it is a version of the
Twenty-Five Thousand or Eighteen Thousand is “a futile question.”

The research of Zacchetti and other modern scholars presupposes that the Eighteen Thousand begins with an original compiler
and undergoes changes over time. The shorter Eight Thousand
represents an earlier (more original) version, and the different
longer texts, including the Eighteen Thousand, reflect later changes. Heuristically, given that
an origin is being investigated, this is a helpful presupposition. The research, however, has not identified an original, and
one suspects never will. If it finally proves to be the case that no original can be identified it will corroborate the view set forth in the Eighteen Thousand itself, that a sacred book or
tradition, when sought for in reality, is nowhere to be found.

The Structure of the Eighteen Thousand

Gyurme Dorje has already set forth the structure of a Perfection of Wisdom text based on the Tibetan tradition that
privileges The Ornament for the Clear Realizations (Abhisamayālaṃkāra). According to
that tradition the Eighteen Thousand, like the Ten Thousand, is one
of the six major texts, which is to say the Eighteen Thousand makes a presentation of all eight
clear realizations (abhisamaya) set forth in the Ornament for the Clear Realizations. The Eighteen Thousand also includes as its
eighty-fourth chapter another of the six major texts, the verse summary of the entire Perfection of Wisdom that circulates as
a separate text called The Verse Summary of the Jewel Qualities (Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā). It also includes as its eighty-third chapter the Categorization of a Bodhisattva’s
Training, one of the important eleven minor Perfection of Wisdom texts that circulates separately under the name The Maitreya Chapter or The Questions of Maitreya.

By contrast, what follows is the structure based on Vasubandhu’s or Daṃṣṭrāsena’s Long
Explanation of the One Hundred, Twenty-Five, and Eighteen Thousand. Butön Rinchen Drup (1290–1364), the famous scholar and editor
of the Kangyur, characterizes this as one of the four accepted ways to approach the Perfection of Wisdom corpus, and for the
fourteenth century writer Dölpopa Sherap Gyaltsen it is the only way.

According to that structure, there are five major divisions [I–V] and eleven sections [(1)–(11)].

I. Introduction

After the statement of the place and time (“Thus did I hear at one time. The Lord dwelt at Rājagṛha on Gṛdhrakūṭa
Hill…”) and the list of śrāvakas and bodhisattvas in the retinue and their excellent qualities, the Lord Buddha, the
Blessed One, sets up his seat and sits in meditation. He displays miraculous powers—emitting
light that goes to the ends of the cosmos, shaking the cosmos, and creating a magical canopy of flowers above his head.
The light illuminates buddhas and their retinues in different worlds in the ten directions,
prompting bodhisattva students to come to attend the discourse, thereby completing the huge retinue.

II. Brief Exegesis

Following the introduction there is the single statement by the Lord at the beginning of chapter 2: “Here,
Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms should make an effort at the
perfection of wisdom.” This says it all in brief. The reader should understand that the Lord remains silent after saying this.

III. Intermediate Exegesis

Then, beginning the intermediate exegesis there is Śāriputra’s question (

),
“How then, Lord, should bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms make an effort at
the perfection of wisdom?” followed by the Lord’s response. Śāriputra’s inquiry raises the following questions: What is a
bodhisattva and a great being? What is it to want fully to awaken to all dharmas in all forms? What is “making an effort”?
And, what is the perfection of wisdom? Śāriputra’s inquiry thus introduces the reader to (i) bodhisattva great beings,
(ii) all dharmas, (iii) the perfection of wisdom, (iv) full awakening, and (v) making an effort—that is, actually putting
the perfection of wisdom into practice. These five provide the outline of the intermediate exegesis.

Informing both the Lord’s statement and Śāriputra’s question is the important word want—a
word that signals a bodhisattva’s compassionate aspiration because it references a
bodhisattva’s motivation. Hence, what truly informs the statement is bodhicitta (“the thought of awakening”), a technical term for a special altruism. This section
has two parts: (1) the explanation for and by Śāriputra that
goes from chapter 2
through chapter 5 and (2) the explanation for and by
Subhūti, from chapter 6 through chapter 21.
This two-part section corresponds to the first chapter of the Eight Thousand
.

IV. Detailed Exegesis

The detailed exegesis of the opening statement goes from chapters 22 to 82. It comprises an explanation of the
conceptual and nonconceptual perfection of wisdom in a detailed exposition based on relative and ultimate truth for the
sake of those who understand from a longer explanation. The explanation is subdivided into (3) an explanation for the head
god Śatakratu (chapter 22) and (4) an explanation by Subhūti (chapters 23–32). (5) Then there is an explanation that
includes an exchange with Maitreya (chapter 33) and (6–9) three more sections associated with Subhūti and one with
Śatakratu. (10) A second explanation for Maitreya is chapter 83, titled “The Categorization of a Bodhisattva’s Training.”
Conze and Iida (1968) call it Maitreya’s Questions. It is included in the Twenty-Five Thousand

V. Summaries

Chapter 84 is the summary in verse for Subhūti that circulates separately as The Verse
Summary of the Jewel Qualities. In the Eighteen Thousand it is not divided into
chapters. (11) Chapters 85 and 86 are a summary of the earlier chapters in the form of a story about Sadāprarudita’s quest
to find his teacher Dharmodgata and learn the perfection of wisdom, and the final chapter is a
short one in which the Lord entrusts the perfection of wisdom to Ānanda and the retinue rejoices.

What Does the Eighteen Thousand Say?

In essence, the Eighteen Thousand says that attachment to
sacred texts and sacred traditions is the greatest impediment to awakening. For a modern reader the major difficulty when
reading the Eighteen Thousand is therefore the lack of knowledge of
the specific sacred texts and traditions the Eighteen Thousand references.

We have seen that the opening chapter of the Eighteen Thousand sets the scene and
describes the retinue, in which, we are told, are many worthy ones as well as bodhisattvas. Worthy ones are those who, by
definition, have reached the final goal explained in the fundamental texts that record the Buddha Śākyamuni’s teachings for
those who seek their own liberation. Bodhisattvas are those who privilege the teachings given by him to and for bodhisattvas
in Mahāyāna texts like the Eighteen Thousand.

Both the fundamental texts and the Mahāyāna texts like the Eighteen Thousand make a
presentation of the dharmas. In the English translation we have sometimes left the word dharma untranslated, sometimes when appropriate rendered it “phenomenon,” and sometimes when appropriate
“attribute” or “quality.” When it is capitalized, Dharma means
the doctrine, as in “turn the wheel of the Dharma.” The doctrine can be either the books (words) or the meanings, in
particular the meanings as they are found in the mindstreams of those who have a proper understanding.

The dharmas set forth in the fundamental texts are basic to an understanding of the tradition that the author of the
Eighteen Thousand treats as sacred. In the fundamental texts these dharmas are in two
categories: the dharmas of defilement (saṃkleśa) and the dharmas of
purification (vyavadāna). Included in the former are the first two of the
four noble truths, which comprise, among others, the aggregates, sense fields, constituents, contacts, feelings arising from
contacts, and the twelve links of dependent origination. All describe the ordinary practitioner
(the so-called “suffering” being).

Included in the purification dharmas that are covered by the last two noble truths are the thirty-seven dharmas on
the side of awakening (ending with the eightfold noble path), the three gateways to liberation (emptiness and so on), and the
eight results of the practice (beginning with the stream enterer and ending with the worthy one). They describe the state of the practitioner progressing toward the goal and when the goal is reached. Worthy ones, the
first part of the intended audience of the Eighteen Thousand, do not need to be taught these
dharmas. Just the word rūpa (“form”), the material reality that locates a
particular individual, at the beginning of a list is enough for a worthy one to know what is intended. Thus, the Heart Sūtra says “no form … no eyes … no truth of suffering,” and so on.

Modern readers unfamiliar with the sacred tradition set forth in the fundamental texts can read, for example, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi’s In the Buddha’s
Words. Alternatively, the fundamental texts can be learned from the Eighteen Thousand, which presents them in a very clear and accessible manner. But a modern reader
unfamiliar with the dharmas set forth in the fundamental texts can get confused, because at the same time that the Eighteen Thousand is setting them forth with veneration, it is exhorting the reader to reject them
as an object of attachment.

Thus, chapter 3 of the Eighteen Thousand begins with the monk Śāriputra asking, “How
then should bodhisattva great beings practice the perfection of wisdom?”
to which the Lord responds, “They do not see form. Similarly, they do not see feeling, perception, volitional
factors, or consciousness either.” “They do not see” means that they reject it as an object of
attachment. It does not mean that the aggregates, and so on, are not
there or are not something they should know. Worthy ones obviously know the aggregates and so on, because it is the
basic teaching of the truth of suffering, the first words the Buddha Śākyamuni uttered to the five companions when he returned
to the Deer Park outside Vārāṇasī after reaching awakening.

The Eighteen Thousand does not only focus on the fundamental
Buddhist teachings and caution the reader to avoid taking them as objects of attachment, but
it also references the sacred teachings of the Eighteen Thousand and other Mahāyāna texts and
stresses that bodhisattvas, the second part of the retinue described in the Introduction chapter, should avoid
attachment toward them. It does this first by expanding the list of basic purification
dharmas to include all the possible qualities of bodhisattvas, among which are “the four detailed and thorough knowledges, the
four fearlessnesses, the five undiminished clairvoyances, the six perfections, the six principles of being liked, the seven
riches, the eight ways great persons think, the nine places beings live, the ten tathāgata powers, the eighteen distinct
attributes of a buddha, great love, and great compassion.”

The second way the Eighteen Thousand says that the sacred Mahāyāna tradition must be
rejected as an object of attachment is by negating the mental representations (the ideas or
names) of the defilement and purification dharmas. The recurring message of the Eighteen Thousand
is that all dharmas without exception lack any intrinsic nature (svabhāva). A Mahāyāna practitioner—a worthy one or an advanced bodhisattva—who has learned this lesson sees dharmas as they are supposed to appear, as lacking any intrinsic nature and
with only a nominal or conventional reality. This, and the sacred tradition that teaches it, can
become an object of attachment as much as anything else. To “settle down on” (abhiniviś) something is to be negatively attached to it.

Even though the texts, practices, and results of the fundamental and the Mahāyāna traditions are equally rejected as
objects of attachment, the Eighteen Thousand extols the
Mahāyāna tradition as most excellent for its wide range and concomitant benefits, and for
undercutting itself, as it were, by extending the analysis of the person (the selflessness of a person understood by those who
know the basic dharmas taught in the fundamental texts) to all phenomena. The Eighteen Thousand
says that reliquaries, statues, books, practices, knowledge, and
anything wholesome and beneficial are good, but only to the extent that they do not become objects of
attachment. It also preaches the value of skillful means for benefiting others in whatever
way is helpful to them. The Eighteen Thousand says of itself that it is special, as a book, to
the extent that the knowledge it conveys is the source of all that is beneficial. But if, as a
book, or even as the knowledge the book conveys, it becomes an object of
attachment, it results in the exact opposite of what, in its own terms, it preaches. When
the Eighteen Thousand praises itself and says that even writing out one word of it is more
beneficial by far than the words of the fundamental texts or the wisdom of the worthy ones, it is not setting forth some new
tradition that transcends the problem of attachment.

SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTERS

Chapter 1

The first chapter sets the scene. It is in two parts: an introduction shared with many other sūtras and an
introduction unique to the Perfection of Wisdom. The first part, beginning with “Thus did I hear at one time,” describes
the qualities of the arhat monks and most important nuns and ends with a description of the
bodhisattvas, including many of their names.

The second part describes the Buddha, always called “Lord” (bhagavat), or occasionally Tathāgata, setting up and taking his seat and then
demonstrating the three miraculous powers. The miraculous power of meditative stabilization causes light to radiate from
the Buddha’s major marks and minor signs and from the different parts and pores of his body, causes the radiation of
natural light, and causes light to radiate from the tongue faculty in particular. The miraculous, wonder-working power magically creates a great tower out of flowers and, having done so, suspends it in midair
and so on. And finally, the miraculous dharma-illuminating power
illuminates buddhas dwelling in different worlds, prompting their
bodhisattva retinues to make the journey to attend the discourse to follow.

Chapter 2

This chapter begins the discourse proper with the single, all-encompassing statement: “Here, Śāriputra,
bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms should make an effort at the perfection of
wisdom.” The key term here is “want” (kāma). The bodhisattva great beings
“want to fully awaken.” This is the great central statement of the compassion unique to the Perfection of Wisdom and other
Mahāyāna scriptures, described as wanting (kāma) everything of use to
others both in the interim and ultimately—the daily necessities and the necessities for
different levels of liberation for all beings according to their capacities—making “beings who
are blind … see shapes with their eyes,” and so forth, and the miraculous powers to “blow out with one puff of breath
the fire in the great billionfold world system when the eon is burning up,” and so forth.

The chapter ends with a discussion of celibacy. The compassionate sons and daughters of good families want to be
born into a bodhisattva’s family. This leads the gods to think that a perfect practitioner remains celibate, like the
Buddha, until awakening, which prompts Śāriputra to ask if a practitioner has to have a family or has to be celibate. The
Lord replies that there are many types of practitioners, but those who understand the deep perfection of wisdom like a
magician, who uses magic to make a show of dallying with, enjoying, and acting gratified by the five sorts of sense
objects in order to bring beings to maturity, is not contaminated by them. The chapter ends with the statement,
“Alternatively, bodhisattva great beings speak disparagingly of sense objects: ‘Sense objects are ablaze, disgusting,
murderous, and against you.’ So, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings take to these sorts of sense objects in order to
bring beings to maturity.”

Chapters 3–5

A practitioner exists conventionally but not ultimately. All the possible physical or mental marks through which
one might “see” or apprehend a practitioner, all the names of those things, even all the ultimate or conventional realities of a practitioner, their deficiencies and perfections, are ultimately unfindable, and
so too with awakening and the practice. Thus, one pursues the practice of the perfection of
wisdom by avoiding the extremes of naïve realism and nihilism through understanding the
imaginary, other-powered, and thoroughly established
natures of all dharmas. Such an insight surpasses that of the practitioners of fundamental
Buddhism exemplified by Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana.

One practices the perfection of wisdom when “engaged with the emptiness of
form,” and so on. This teaches the thoroughly established
nature. There is no connection between the practice and the defilement dharmas that define the suffering state, no engagement with a practice that disconnects the
practitioner from those defilement dharmas, and no connection between the purification dharmas and the perfection of wisdom. Still, practitioners conventionally exist, so the members
of the community of irreversible bodhisattvas practicing the perfection of wisdom are enumerated based on where they were
before coming to this world, and so on, and where they will be born and what they will demonstrate prior to their complete
awakening.

The retinue praises the Lord’s discourse on the perfection of wisdom as “the calm and gentle perfection … the space-like perfection, it is the perfection of the emptiness of particular
defining marks, it is the perfection endowed with all good qualities.” The Lord extends his tongue, illuminating the
perfection of wisdom in all worlds for all beings. They all come and worship the Lord and generate the altruistic aspiration to become buddhas to teach this same doctrine for the benefit of beings. The Lord then
smiles because he sees with clairvoyance that the compassion generated by monks in the retinue as they listened to the
discourse will cause them all to become fully awakened buddhas in the future.

Chapter 6

The word bodhisattva is used again and again but ultimately is
not a word for anything. The form aggregate and so on are just designations, just labels used conventionally
to aid comprehension, and similarly with the sense fields and so on, all the parts of the body—the skull and neck bones
down to the bones in the feet—and all external things such as grass and leaves; even all the buddhas are just names and
conventional terms. Since this is so, the bodhisattva practitioners understand that the fundamental doctrines of the four
noble truths—that the aggregates, sense fields, and constituents and the like are impermanent rather than permanent,
suffering rather than pleasurable, and so on—are just names to make things known for the benefit of beings, and practice
accordingly. Similarly, “standing without mentally constructing any phenomenon,” the bodhisattvas cultivate the basic, shared practices set out in the fundamental Buddhist
scriptures. These are systematized as the thirty-seven dharmas on the side of awakening. And beyond those the bodhisattvas
cultivate the unique bodhisattva practices of the six perfections and the powers and
fearlessnesses, up to the eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha.

Bodhisattvas should not settle down even on an ultimate, undivided true reality as the
final referent of the name bodhisattva. Those who do not tremble in the face of such a reality, or perhaps lack of reality, are practicing the perfection of
wisdom.

Chapter 7

From the practice of the perfection of wisdom that sees all phenomena as dharma designations, not absolute truths,
all the benefits of fundamental and bodhisattva practice arise, included among which are all the meditative stabilizations
starting from the bodhyaṅgavatin and siṃhavijṛmbhita meditative stabilizations
and ending with the ākāśāsaṃgavimuktinirupalepa meditative stabilization.

The practice enables bodhisattvas to avoid “hardheadedness,” the “love for dharmas.”
This is when a practitioner loses track of the purpose of practice—the welfare of others—and
sees the realization of reality, the attainment of peace, or even altruism as an end in itself.
Hardheaded bodhisattvas fall to the śrāvaka level, bereft of the guiding compassionate
principle of the bodhisattva. The absence of hardheadedness is flawlessness, or the secure state of a bodhisattva. Here
the bodhisattvas do not falsely project anything even while knowing all and practicing all for
the sake of others.

Even the sublime thought of awakening (bodhicitta) is just a label, so how does it operate in bodhisattvas in the flawless state? That “thought is
no thought because the basic nature of thought is clear light.” It is clear light because it is not together with or free
from any shortcoming, any accompanying afflictive emotion, or any intention to enter into a
śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha nirvāṇa. Such a thought, the clear light, neither knows nor does not know, neither exists nor
does not exist. It is the state in which all phenomena “are just so.”

In conclusion, Śāriputra praises Subhūti’s explanation as authentic and in accord with
the Lord’s intention and says, “in this perfection of wisdom is detailed instruction for the
three vehicles in which bodhisattva great beings should train on the level of śrāvakas and
pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas.”

Chapter 8

Subhūti rhetorically poses a hypothetical question. If all phenomena are just names, just dharma designations,
then practice is futile. So, “which bodhisattva will I advise and instruct in what perfection of wisdom?” In response
Subhūti says that phenomena are conventional terms for the inexpressible
true nature of things that cannot be expressed as anything at all. It is just because of that
that all starting places for practice, all practices, and all attainments are tenable. Bodhisattvas who are not terrified
by this reality are irreversible from full awakening.

All phenomena are empty. Form is empty of form. The twelve links of dependent
origination are empty. Ignorance is empty of ignorance, up to old age and death are empty of old age and death. All
phenomena are empty, so bodhisattvas practicing the perfection of wisdom are standing by way of taking no stand on
anything. Hence, bodhisattvas do not march under the banner of any letters, words, or
statements, under the banner of the four noble truths, under the banner of emptiness, or under the banner of anything
else. To do so is to have descended into grasping at “I” and “mine” and to practice without skillful means. Bodhisattvas
do not grasp at anything because grasping requires a differentiation through language based on
causal signs (nimitta), and bodhisattvas see causal signs just as
śrāvakas see afflictive emotions. An afflictive emotion is based on settling down on a causal sign for things as real. That causes attachment and hatred. These same causal signs cause bodhisattvas without
skillful means to settle down on a basis, path, and set of results as real. This is the case
because the religious mendicant Śreṇika, a śrāvaka, gained nirvāṇa by listening to this teaching because it led him to
avoid a belief in causal signs. Śreṇika achieved nirvāṇa by realizing that even nirvāṇa could
not be grasped through a causal sign. Similarly, bodhisattvas master such a nirvāṇa but do not actually enter into it
until their prayers that are vows are fully carried out and they have brought beings to maturity, purified a buddhafield,
and fully awakened to perfect, complete awakening.

Śāriputra asks Subhūti what does not exist and cannot be apprehended. Subhūti says all
phenomena do not exist because all phenomena are empty of an intrinsic nature. A bodhisattva’s mind is never separated from a buddha’s mind because all phenomena are separated
from an intrinsic nature. An intrinsic nature is not something real. All phenomena are without defining marks. Training in
that way, bodhisattvas go forth to the knowledge of all aspects because nothing has been produced and nothing has gone
forth. Everything is empty. Even the ultimate is empty of an intrinsic nature. Training in the perfection of wisdom like
this, bodhisattvas get close to awakening.

Chapter 9

Thinking “I am practicing the perfection of wisdom” is a lack of skillful means, a practice that occasions
something, or a practice of an enactment (abhisaṃskāra). Not only does it
not even lead to śrāvaka nirvāṇa, it leads to the suffering of saṃsāra. Bodhisattvas who do not have such beliefs and mistaken notions have skillful means because, in reality, there are no dharmas apart from emptiness. Bodhisattvas do not assert any dharma or
practice but know all dharmas are the same insofar as they have never been produced, and bodhisattvas remain in the
sarvadharmānutpāda meditative stabilization up to the ākāśāsaṃgavimuktinirupalepa meditative stabilization. The awakening of such
bodhisattvas is prophesied, but only conventionally, not ultimately, because none of the meditative stabilizations
ultimately exist. The Lord compliments Subhūti, “the foremost of śrāvakas at the conflict-free stage,” for his
explanation.

Everything is in the state of absolute natural purity where there is no production or defilement, where nothing
appears or is enacted. Employing the two meanings of the Sanskrit word vid (“to exist” and “to know”), the Lord says form, and so on, do
not exist in the way foolish, ordinary people take them to be, and because they do not exist,
they are ignorance. Nothing goes forth, nothing rests. Those who mentally construct a starting point, progress, and a goal
do not train in the perfection of wisdom. Those who do not apprehend any phenomenon go forth to the knowledge of all
aspects.

Chapter 10

Everything is like an illusion. Everything is just a name and conventional term that in reality is not produced. Bodhisattvas who understand that go forth to the knowledge of all aspects. This
frightens new bodhisattvas without spiritual friends. To accept and teach the four noble truths in an absolutist way,
apprehending the words as ultimately true, is to fall under the sway of Māra and bad friends.
These bad friends dissuade bodhisattvas from this perfection of wisdom, saying that it is not
the true doctrine of the Tathāgata. The bad friend may be Māra disguised as a buddha, setting
forth an absolutist doctrine that takes the four noble truths as an absolute, and the doctrine of awakening for the sake
of others through training in the perfection of wisdom as absurd. The bad friend says that if everything is empty there is
no point, dissuading the bodhisattvas from the bodhisattva’s career. Sometimes Māra the bad
friend approaches in the form of a mother or father saying rather than stay in the world with all its tortures, make hard
work meaningful by working for nirvāṇa; sometimes Māra the bad friend approaches in the form of a monk teaching the
doctrine of the four noble truths in an absolutist way.

Chapters 11–13

Explaining the word bodhisattva from many different angles, the
text says the basis in reality of the word bodhisattva is no basis at all. The track left by a bodhisattva is like the track left by a bird in space.
There is no basis in reality for light, even the light of a tathāgata.

There follows a list of all phenomena, starting with ordinary wholesome phenomena like
honoring parents, and so on, and the nine perceptions of the repulsive state of a body after death, as well as all the
other levels of ordinary mindfulness and meditation. It also lists the ordinary unwholesome phenomena like the ten
unwholesome actions, and so on; extraordinary phenomena (those same phenomena informed by an
understanding of their illusory and ultimate nature); and phenomena without outflows—the
purification dharmas in the mindstreams of buddhas, shared in common with other practitioners, and unique to the practice
of those following the buddhas.

The Lord, Śāriputra, and Subhūti explain the term great being from many different angles. A
great being is foremost among all the stream enterers, and so on; sees the ultimate nature of
beings and treats them all the same and works for them all equally; never entertains a negative thought toward them; cares
about the doctrine; perfects the meditative stabilizations and all the other purification dharmas; and is not attached
even to the greatest thought, bodhicitta.

Śāriputra asks why all ordinary foolish beings are not free of
attachments and the sense of possession, and Subhūti says that in reality they are, just as the mind of a buddha in its intrinsic nature is without attachment and any sense of possession. All phenomena are equally empty and pure.

Pūrṇa says a great being is armored with the great armor of the interwoven six perfections based on a concern for
all beings. Each of the six perfections of giving, morality, patience, perseverance, concentration, and wisdom incorporates all the other five perfections, and all thirty-six subdivisions of the perfections
are informed by the understanding that all phenomena are like illusions, devoid of any intrinsic nature. The practice of
them is always focused on and dedicated to the knowledge of all aspects. Such a practice of the
perfections brings the bodhisattva close to the very limit of reality—nirvāṇa. With skillful
means, entering into all the meditative states without relishing them, taking birth through
compassion but not through the force of meditative attainment, turning over everything to perfect and complete awakening
for the sake of all beings, bodhisattvas are truly great beings delighting all the buddhas and bodhisattvas in the ten
directions.

Śāriputra asks Pūrṇa why a great being’s vehicle is great. It is a great vehicle because when great beings
practice the perfection of giving, and so on, it carries them higher and higher through the states of immeasurable love,
compassion, joy, and equanimity, and higher and higher through the first to the fourth concentrations and through the four
formless absorptions of endless space, endless consciousness, nothing-at-all, and neither perception nor nonperception. In
the Great Vehicle bodhisattvas are absorbed in and emerge from all those meditative stabilizations and absorptions without
falling to the śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha level.

The Great Vehicle is a knowledge of all the emptinesses, meditative states, and
aspects of the four noble truths by way of not apprehending anything, so it is not a knowledge
in any of the three periods of time or in any of the three realms of desire, form, and
formlessness. In this sense it is a knowledge that is no knowledge
at all. At the same time, the Great Vehicle is of infinite expanse, including all practices and attainments, including
maturing beings, purifying a buddhafield, and complete and perfect awakening.

How does the Great Vehicle proceed higher and higher? It does so as a practice of all the purification dharmas by a practitioner set on the knowledge of all aspects who does
not apprehend anything at all. The practitioner, “from the first thought of awakening up until sitting at the site of
awakening,” intentionally appropriates bodies to look after the needs of beings, roams from
buddhafield to buddhafield, and listens to the teaching of the buddhas without any notion of
buddhafields or beings to benefit. Finally, the practitioner gains the knowledge of all aspects
and turns the wheel of the Dharma so that all the buddhas raise their voices in praise.

Chapter 14

Armed with great armor the bodhisattvas enter into a variety of bodies and demonstrate
the practice of the six perfections, pervading all world systems with light and shaking the earth, blowing out all the
fires in the hells, and so on. Demonstrating the perfection of giving, bodhisattvas cause beings to emerge from the hells
and other bad rebirths and be reborn as gods and humans, understanding the performance of the perfections to be illusory,
doing everything like a magician, conjuring up worlds made of beautiful materials, and giving
food and whatever else beings require or enjoy. The mind of the bodhisattva is always set on
the knowledge of all aspects and always concerned with the welfare of every living being,
working to establish them in whatever attainment is appropriate to their dispositions, but
always knowing the illusory nature of phenomena. That is, the bodhisattvas know that all
phenomena, even the knowledge of all aspects, are without defining marks, are not made, and do
not occasion anything because there is nothing that could make them, just as in a dream. For this reason, form and so on,
all the defilement and purification dharmas, are not bound and are not freed. Nothing is freed
because nothing exists, just as in a dream.

Chapters 15–16

Subhūti asks a series of questions: “Lord, what is the Great Vehicle of bodhisattva great beings? Lord, how have
bodhisattva great beings come to have set out in the Great Vehicle? Where will the Great Vehicle have set out? Where will
the Great Vehicle stand? Who will go forth in the Great Vehicle?”

The response to the first question occasions an explanation of all purification dharmas both as a personal
practice and as a practice modeling the dharmas as a demonstration for others. It lists and explains the eighteen
emptinesses and the meaning of each of the names of all the meditative stabilizations. Similarly, it lists and explains
the four applications of mindfulness, occasioning a long explanation of mindfulness of the body through awareness of its
makeup as sense faculties and their objects, of physical activity, of breathing, of the body’s constituent elements and
different types of filth, and of what it looks like after death. It also explains the rest of the thirty-seven dharmas on
the side of awakening, the three meditative stabilizations on emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, the eleven
knowledges, and each of the three faculties—the faculty of coming to understand what one does not understand, the faculty
of understanding, and the faculty of having understood. There is a further explanation of the stages of meditative
stabilization between the desire realm and first concentration level, and from there to the
highest formless absorption; of the ten mindfulnesses (of the Three Jewels and so on); and of the four immeasurables and
each of the four concentrations, four formless absorptions, eight deliverances, and nine serial absorptions. There is also
an explanation of each of the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, four detailed and thorough knowledges, and eighteen
distinct attributes of a buddha, and, finally, a detailed explanation of the types of dhāraṇī based on the letters of the Karoṣṭhī alphabet.

Chapter 17

In response to Subhūti’s question about how bodhisattvas come to have set out in the Great Vehicle, the text says
that bodhisattvas do so by ascending from the first of the ten levels up to the last. For each of the ten levels there are
a different number of purifications, first set forth in lists and then individually explained
in a second section. A bodhisattva great being on the tenth level is called a tathāgata. To reach that level bodhisattvas practice all six perfections, and so on, with skillful means,
passing beyond the Śuklavipaśyanā, Gotra, Aṣṭamaka, Darśana, Tanū, Vītarāga, Kṛtāvin, and Pratyekabuddha levels. These are
all the fundamental Buddhist attainments of stream enterer, and so on, that bodhisattvas master but do not fully
actualize. It then says the practitioner “pass beyond these nine levels and stands on the buddha level.” Even the unshared
bodhisattva practice of mastery of all levels as a demonstration for the benefit of others is illusory and transcended. At
that point the bodhisattva on the tenth level is modeling the perfect life of a fully awakened being, which is also
transcended for the final authentic full awakening.

Chapter 18

In response to the question “From where will the Great Vehicle go forth?” the text says that a mahāyāna (“great vehicle”) is equivalent to a niryāna that means both “going forth” and “devoid of a vehicle.” The
Great Vehicle includes all phenomena and all practices because all are illusory and none has any defining mark. Reality, emptiness, and the unmarked do not go forth from anywhere, and an illusion does not go
forth, either. “That vehicle does not move.”

In response to the question “Where will the Great Vehicle stand?” the text says it stands nowhere because all
phenomena stand nowhere, since even the intrinsic nature of reality is empty of the intrinsic
nature of reality. All phenomena, all the noble beings in the results of basic practice, and
even the bodhisattva practice stand nowhere.

In response to the question “Who will go forth in the Great Vehicle?” the text says no one will go forth in the
Great Vehicle because a self, a being, and so on cannot be apprehended anywhere, nor can any of the dharmas that might
locate such a being be apprehended. Everything is absolutely pure in its nature and knows no increase or decrease. Nothing is apprehended because everything is empty.

Chapter 19

The Great Vehicle is great because it surpasses the world. It is like space in that it encompasses all the
perfections up to the dhāraṇīs, and just as you cannot apprehend space as coming or going, and just as time is equally
just time in all time periods and does not come and go, so too with the Great Vehicle.

The Great Vehicle surpasses the world because the world is a construction. The Great Vehicle is equal to space.
The directions of space do not make themselves known. Space cannot be qualified by size, color, time, defilement, or purification, as something that should be understood, as free from greed and so on, and there are
no levels or paths or results in space. You cannot hear or see or remember space, and it is not included anywhere. In
space no thought comes into being, and similarly with the Great Vehicle. The dharma-constituent
(dharmadhātu), space, and beings are infinite because, playing on the
similarity of the Sanskrit words sattva (“being,” “state of being”) and sattā (“state of existence”), to be is not to exist, and spaces are states that do not exist, and so too
with all phenomena. Just as the state of nirvāṇa has room for all beings, so too does the Great Vehicle.

All dharmas are unmoving, so the Great Vehicle does not move. The basic nature of all dharmas does not come, does
not go, and does not remain. There is no before, middle, and after to the journey of the Great Vehicle because all time
periods are empty of those time periods.

Chapter 20

To talk about the Great Vehicle is to talk about the perfection of wisdom because both include all wholesome
dharmas. Ultimately there is no difference between any phenomena, so bodhisattvas train in them
to master them and demonstrate them to those who benefit from them, not for any goal. This is because all phenomena are
illusory and share the same defining mark—no mark at all.

How is it possible to give instructions to bodhisattvas who cannot be found in any of the three time periods,
are unproduced, and are without a limit? A bodhisattva is just a word and cannot be apprehended. The
instructions are given with the understanding of that reality.

Śāriputra poses many questions and Subhūti, in response, says beings (“states of beings”) are not asserted to be
at any limit—before, after, or in between—because they are nonexistent (“states of nonexistence”), and the same holds
true for all phenomena and practices. There are no bodhisattvas to whom one can give
instructions, because form and so on are empty of form and empty of every other dharma.
Bodhisattva is just a name plucked out of thin air. The Lord says “self” again and again, but it
has absolutely never come into being because it does not exist and is not found, and the same holds true for all phenomena. All phenomena thus are the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature because an intrinsic
nature arisen from a union (sāmyogika) does not exist. What does not come
into being has no basic nature, so it cannot be instructed or give instruction, and yet it is just an unproduced
bodhisattva that practices the perfection of wisdom by not seeing any phenomena other than those that have not come into
being. Such bodhisattvas see all phenomena as like illusions and are not scared when given instructions in the perfection
of wisdom. The practitioner sees no phenomena at all.

Chapter 21

Expanding on the responses he provided to Śāriputra in the previous chapter, Subhūti again explains what a
bodhisattva and the perfection of wisdom are and what an investigation of phenomena entails. Using different etymologies,
he says a bodhisattva is so called because bodhi (“awakening”) is itself
one’s state of being (sattva). To awaken to a
phenomenon means to know it without settling down on it as ultimately real, to know it through,
and as, the different names for it. The perfection (pāramitā) of wisdom
is so called because it has “gone far off” (āram itā) or “gone to the
other side” (pāram itā) of all phenomena.

In a final exchange, Śāriputra and Subhūti say ordinary beings are not already in
nirvāṇa or awakened even though all beings and all dharmas are equally not produced and only like illusions, because an
unproduced being or dharma has no attainment or clear realization. There are no difficult practices that bodhisattvas have
to undertake to reach the goal. Bodhisattvas simply work for the welfare of all beings knowing
that everything is unproduced and empty and like an illusion. Attainment and clear realization happen in a nondual way.
They exist as mere conventions. The forms of life that arise from afflictions and karma and the
purification dharmas are all just conventional terms for the benefit of beings. As for
nonproduction, it is not there because something real or not real
does not happen—it is the way things are.

The doctrine has never been taught because no words have ever been produced. No confidence giving a readiness to
speak, and none of the categories and phenomena to be explained, have ever been produced. Everything is empty of a basic
nature, so nobody can take any fixed position in regard to anything.

Still, the path to awakening is purified by an integrated practice of the six perfections. There are ordinary and extraordinary perfections. The practice of the ordinary perfection of giving is being generous while still attached to the idea of self, the
idea of other, and the idea of giving. The extraordinary perfection of giving is free from
those attachments. The other perfections are similar. As for the path that is purified, it is
the path that includes every practice and result that beings of different dispositions might
feel attracted to. It includes all the purification dharmas, and the practice of them all is work at the extraordinary perfection of wisdom. This is the work that all the buddhas of the three time
periods have engaged in.

Śāriputra says that all beings who would be bodhisattvas always pay attention to the goal, the knowledge of all
aspects, in order to be of benefit to beings even though they do not know it. Subhūti agrees, but not when you take the
statement as a statement of an absolute truth. Bodhisattvas do not continually pay attention to the goal of the knowledge
of all aspects to be of benefit to beings by turning the wheel of the Dharma, because all phenomena are nonexistent and
empty.

This exposition of the doctrine by Subhūti causes the worlds to shake, and the Lord
smiles because, simultaneous with it, in a billionfold world system buddhas teaching the same doctrine cause billions of
beings to produce the thought of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

Chapters 22–24

The assembled gods all, like the sun, emit light, but the light of the Tathāgata, a natural light that is not the
maturation of any action, totally eclipses it. The head god, Śatakratu, the one who has performed a hundred of the most
complex rituals, asks Subhūti to teach. Subhūti says that even the gods with the greatest accomplishment, even the
accomplishment of nirvāṇa, must produce the thought to become awakened for the sake of all beings by training in the
perfection of wisdom, and they have the capacity to do so. The perfection of wisdom is to demonstrate the four noble
truths, the twelve links of dependent origination, and all the purification dharmas with the thought that by doing so one
will gain the knowledge of all aspects for the sake of all beings.

The practice puts one part of the picture together with all the other parts, mastering all the doctrines and
practices while making a detailed and thorough analysis, thinking, “They are selfless, they are not me, and they are not
mine.” The thought of awakening, bodhicitta, is a motivation that leads to the planting of wholesome roots—the roots that
grow into the awakened state that is of ultimate benefit to self and others. The thought is the wholesome roots in the
sense that it remains steady, growing stronger. And it is a dedication in the sense that it remains set on awakening for the sake of others. And yet none of these stages in bodhicitta ultimately exist. They are
separated from each other as ordinary enactments and yet
ultimately are exactly the same. The bodhisattva practitioner-god thus practices the perfection of wisdom by not settling
down on any part, seeing the ultimate unity of the parts and their illusory difference.

The Lord praises Subhūti for his exposition, and Subhūti reflects how the Lord, as a bodhisattva, engaged in just this practice of the perfection of wisdom. Feeling a sense of gratitude, Subhūti
then teaches the perfection of wisdom to the gods. The gods then think they cannot understand a word Subhūti is saying,
and Subhūti says he has said nothing, just as nobody in a magical creation says anything. When the gods think this is
deep, Subhūti says there is nothing deep. When they ask if nothing has been designated, Subhūti
says nothing—awakening is not teachable.

The speaker, listener, and teaching are like a dream. Everything is like a dream. Only the great śrāvakas and
bodhisattvas, only those with wholesome roots that have been planted well, will receive such a teaching that is not the
object of speculative thought.

In the perfection of wisdom, the vehicle of the śrāvakas, the vehicle of the pratyekabuddhas, and the
bodhisattva’s buddha vehicle are taught in detail as performance for the sake of others, because all phenomena are
empty.

Then the head of the gods magically produces a rain of flowers and Subhūti uses them
as an example for practice. Bodhisattva-gods should not train in anything because of not seeing anything. Bodhisattva-gods
do not see anything because everything is empty of an intrinsic nature; they train without making a duality out of
practice and result, or out of knowledge and an object known. Training in the perfection of wisdom like that, the gods go
forth to the knowledge of all aspects.

All the perfect instructions Subhūti gives to the gods are given through the sustaining power of the Tathāgata,
but they are not sustained by anything, because all phenomena, even emptiness and reality, are
not sustained by anything, are not held up by or powered by anything. Nothing is conjoined with
or disjoined from reality such that it could be sustained by it. It is just this isolation that
is its sustaining power.

Chapter 25

The gods shout out in delight at this exposition of the perfection of wisdom that presents three vehicles without
presenting any phenomena to be apprehended at all. Bodhisattvas training in this perfection of wisdom are called
tathāgatas.

The Lord says to the gods that when he was a brahmin student in Padmāvatī practicing the six
perfections and all the other purification dharmas by way of not apprehending anything, the buddha Dīpaṃkara prophesied
that in the Fortunate Age, after incalculable eons, he would become the Buddha Śākyamuni.

He says to the gods that the perfection of wisdom will protect them and all others from harm, so they should take it up and practice it. The gods say they will always protect the perfection of
wisdom and those practicing the perfection of wisdom, because it is the source of all the good in the world.

Chapters 26–30

The perfection of wisdom is greatly beneficial. It brings benefit to beings through teaching the three vehicles.
It prevents conflict and interreligious animosities. The gods naturally guard and protect, and the buddhas and
bodhisattvas naturally take notice of, those practicing the perfection of wisdom, because of their demonstration of
generosity, morality, forbearance, and so on. They are without any conceit because of seeing all the training they
demonstrate as empty, just a demonstration for the benefit of others.

Even if attacked, the attack does no harm, even when fighting on the front line.
Nothing can get through to hurt someone training in the perfection of wisdom.

There is great benefit from worshiping the physical remains of a tathāgata placed in
a reliquary, but that does not compare with the benefit from admiring even just the perfection of wisdom as a physical
book, because the physical remains of a tathāgata can be traced back to the perfection of wisdom. The perfection of
wisdom, from which the relics of a tathāgata’s physical body originate, is the teacher. The Three Jewels and all their
benefits come from having the knowledge of all aspects, so the benefit of worshiping even just the physical book that
explains it is far greater.

Why, then, do people not know this? Why do so many worship statues and reliquaries of
the Tathāgata, but not the perfection of wisdom? It is because an admiration for the perfection
of wisdom that teaches the thought of awakening and the illusory nature of all practices and
attainments is not easily gained. How many beings even admire basic morality and the Three
Jewels more than the experiences of saṃsāra? It is extremely rare to admire the thought of awakening; it is even rarer to
admire the thought of awakening as just an empty demonstration.

Great is the merit gained from building a reliquary of gold, jewels, and so on to hold the remains of a
tathāgata’s body. But even just writing out the perfection of wisdom and admiring it produces even greater merit. Even if
as many beings as can be imagined were to make as many huge reliquaries as can be imagined and worship the remains of tathāgatas placed in them, it still would not produce as much
merit as that which issues forth from just writing out the perfection of wisdom and admiring it, because all ordinary and extraordinary wholesome acts and attainments come from
the perfection of wisdom. All the benefits here and in the beyond derive from it because the thought to fully awaken to
everything that could benefit any being anywhere at any time informs the perfection of wisdom.

Just reciting the perfection of wisdom turns back those of other faiths who want to
criticize it. There is no value in attempting to teach it to those who have decided it is
no good. Māra cannot stand it and wants to sow confusion, but the head god, seeing this, just
recites the perfection of wisdom and Māra turns back. The other gods rejoice and throw flowers
into the air.

Ānanda asks why, of the six perfections, the perfection of wisdom is privileged. It
is because the other perfections become perfections when they are informed by wisdom. When the practitioner dedicates the
training in the perfections to the knowledge of all aspects in a nondual way, within knowing that all phenomena are empty
and illusory in nature, they become perfections.

The good qualities that issue forth from the perfection of wisdom are innumerable and immeasurable. Bodhisattvas
training in the perfection of wisdom attract all the gods who come to admire or listen. The beneficial presence of those
celestial beings is known by a special fragrance, so the place where there is a copy of the
perfection of wisdom in written form, or where it is being practiced, should be kept clean and decorated beautifully.
Training in the perfection of wisdom, bodhisattvas feel physically and mentally at ease, have good dreams, hear the
perfection of wisdom being taught everywhere, see tathāgata reliquaries and the people worshiping them, and are filled with enthusiasm and energy.

Chapters 31–32

The perfection of wisdom, even just in book form, is more valuable than an entire world filled with reliquaries containing the material remains of tathāgatas, but still it cannot be seized on and taken up. Ultimately it does not bestow any benefit. The
perfection of wisdom deserves worship. Just as the other gods worship the throne of the head god when he is not there, so
too all beings come to worship the perfection of wisdom as the place where all the tathāgatas and all good qualities are
located. The perfection of wisdom cannot be located anywhere; there is no causal sign through
which it can be grasped. To see the Tathāgata is to see the perfection of wisdom. For a bodhisattva to recite the
perfection of wisdom is equivalent to the buddhas teaching the twelve divisions of the teachings—the
discourses, melodious narrations, predictions, and so on. It is equivalent to even an infinite number of
tathāgatas in every direction doing so, because all the tathāgatas issue forth from the perfection of wisdom, which is the
source of their knowledge of all aspects.

Bodhisattvas who have written out the perfection of wisdom, borne it in mind, recited it, mastered it, properly
paid attention to it, and illuminated it for others face no problems, just as a debtor pursued by creditors is safe with a
rich ruler. Nothing can get at such bodhisattvas, just as a tremendous celestial jewel wards off all sickness and keeps poisonous snakes and so on away, and just as such
a jewel keeps the temperature constant and turns clear water into water of different colors. Great benefits issue forth
from respecting and worshiping the reliquaries, just not nearly as much as issues forth from the perfection of wisdom.
Just as the merit from worshiping a reliquary is not as great as the merit from worshiping the perfection of wisdom, the
merit from writing out the perfection of wisdom and worshiping it is not as great as from giving it to others to worship. Even more merit comes from giving an explanation of
it to others, because from the explanation come the attainments of the three vehicles. “Because bodhisattvas have come
about from the perfection of wisdom; tathāgatas, worthy ones, perfectly complete buddhas have come about from
bodhisattvas; and śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas have come about from tathāgatas.”

Chapter 33

Bodhisattvas rejoice in a wholesome deed and dedicate the merit from that to awakening for the sake of all
beings. Just this surpasses the merit from a deed done only for the benefit of the one who does
it. Bodhisattvas put together the vast merit made from rejoicing in all the activities of all the buddhas and their
teaching and in the training and achievements of śrāvakas, making it into something shared in common with all beings and
dedicating it to awakening. But even as the bodhisattvas do so, the objective supports (the wholesome activities, the
beings, and the awakening) that come together in that rejoicing and dedicating state of mind do
not exist and cannot be apprehended. A proper dedication is made within understanding that the thought of awakening, all
the wholesome and beneficial acts it motivates, the rejoicing in those, the dedication of them to awakening, and awakening
itself have never been produced but are just illusory.

Belief in and admiration for the perfection of wisdom—in the sense
of all that is for the benefit of beings—gets stronger and stronger when this is understood and put into practice.
Bodhisattvas new to the practice who do this practice of rejoicing and dedication while grasping at causal signs have a wrong perception, wrong thought, and wrong view. A dedication made to
awakening while grasping at causal signs is like food with poison in it. The dedication should
be done in the way all the tathāgatas have done it, within comprehending the true nature of all
phenomena as without differentiating marks. Admiration and belief,
rejoicing and dedication, do not belong to the three realms or three time periods. Nothing dedicates anything to anything.
When dedication is done properly, the merit from it is immense. The gods praise this dedication
and billions of gods from other worlds approach and give praise. The Lord says to them that the greatest dedication
offered by billions of gods who have produced the thought of awakening while apprehending something is not as meritorious
as the dedication done without apprehending anything. The dedication done without grasping,
without rejecting, without falsely projecting, without acquiring, and without apprehending the wholesome roots—with the
thought that there is no production, no cessation, no defilement, and no purification of a
dharma—is the supreme dedication.

Chapter 34

All wholesome dharmas come from the perfection of wisdom, so it should be treated as the Teacher. The perfection
of wisdom is like the eyes that guide the other perfections. One finds and produces the
knowledge of all aspects within oneself by not finding and producing any phenomenon. This is the training in the
perfection of wisdom. Still, one forsakes the perfection of wisdom by thinking it is pointless. One has confidence in the perfection of wisdom as a training in the knowledge of all
aspects by not having confidence in any phenomenon or in the attainment of any result.

Chapter 35

If the perfection of wisdom is indeed in accord with the praises heaped upon it, why
do so many have no interest in it, or worse, reject it out of hand as inauthentic doctrine? Someone who comprehends this
doctrine is someone who has heard it and admired it in many past lives. Those who worshiped the
buddhas in past lives while apprehending something are those who find the doctrine offensive. When they oppose the
teaching of the perfection of wisdom, the source of such benefit, their action brings the most terrible results in the
future. Their future suffering is so terrible it should not even be talked about, because it would make the listener’s
heart burst.

Those who have fallen into the clutches of bad friends and do not have the requisite wholesome roots do not
believe in the perfection of wisdom; they cannot accept the emptiness of all phenomena. There is no saṃsāra or nirvāṇa.
Everything is pure. The purity of the final result, the knowledge of all aspects, and the purity of the suffering
aggregates is the same purity.

Chapter 36

Purity is deep, illuminating, does not go from one form of life to the next, is
undefiled, knows no attainment or clear realization, does not come into being anywhere, and does not help or hinder anything or take hold of any truth. Some apprehend this perfection
of wisdom through a causal sign and make it into an absolute truth. They are far from the perfection of wisdom. If they
apprehend even the finest qualities of a buddha, they have attachment. The attachment happens when they
perceive
the thought of awakening, the
path, what knowledge comprehends, the results of the training—all the buddhas of the three time periods and their
qualities—and, rejoicing in it for the sake of all beings, turn it over to the knowledge of all aspects. It is attachment because all these have no basic nature. To teach others the perfection of wisdom they
must practice the perfection of wisdom without any perception of it. To entertain any notion of
tathāgatas, wholesome roots growing into awakening, or complete nirvāṇa is to have attachment.

Chapter 37

The tathāgatas give an excellent explanation of the doctrine of the perfection of
wisdom, but it does not make anything better or worse; like praising or criticizing space, it does not change anything. To
train in the perfection of wisdom is to train in space. This enables the trainee to become armed with an armor that withstands all the hardships endured in looking after the needs of others. The gods
and others are not needed to guard the space-like perfection of wisdom. Just the practice of it guards against everything.
Nothing can hurt a trainee who does not falsely project anything.

The gods magically reduplicate the performance of the teaching of the perfection of wisdom with the same words,
the same interlocutors, the same gods, and the same buddha in all the ten directions. The Lord says that the future buddha
Maitreya will teach exactly the same doctrine in exactly the same way. Like a great jewel this perfection of wisdom
relieves all suffering and brings all results. It apprehends nothing, causes nothing to be left behind, and causes nothing
to be attained. It is not a clear realization. The gods cheer this turning of the wheel of the Dharma that is no turning
at all.

Chapters 38–39

Subhūti lists one hundred and seventy-three qualities or aspects of the perfection of wisdom. The head god and
Śāriputra praise the perfection of wisdom and say that those who train in it have had respect for it in their past lives.
They practice it by not apprehending anything, including the practice itself. Those able to practice the perfection of
wisdom are irreversible from perfect, complete awakening, and their awakening is prophesied by the buddhas. They know that
this is so, just as a person who has come through a dense jungle knows a city is near when they
see the first clearings on the edge of the jungle, or a person who
has set off to see the ocean knows it is near when the land flattens out and treeless dunes appear, or they know spring
has come when the buds appear on the trees, or when a pregnant woman feels the feelings that portend the birth of her child.

Subhūti says everything in the perfection of wisdom is to benefit others in myriad ways. It incorporates everything that makes people happy. Those who practice it do so in order to reach awakening for
the benefit of the world. They master and demonstrate all practices for others, in accord with
their capacities and propensities, and yet the practice is done within seeing that there is nothing to be taken away and
nothing to be added to inconceivable reality.

The perfection of wisdom is valuable and, just like wealth, attracts danger and has to be protected. Māra tries
to hinder those copying out, or reading, or practicing the perfection of wisdom. However, Māra
is unable to do so because the buddhas always stand behind those training in the perfection of wisdom. The presence of the
perfection of wisdom depends on the wholesome roots of the trainees.

First the perfection of wisdom circulates in the south, then in Vartani (the east), and from there it goes to
the northern regions, protecting beings from future bad rebirths. In the last five hundred years it is the perfection of
wisdom that does the work of the buddhas. But even when it has spread widely in the northern
regions there will be many bodhisattvas there without the good fortune to hear the perfection of wisdom, or who will be
frightened off by it. Those who do train in it have become familiar with it in lifetimes gone by. They are committed to
the welfare of others and in the presence of the buddhas declare their commitment. But even those without familiarity from past lives will, through gradually practicing giving and so on, build up wholesome roots and be reborn in more
fortunate forms of life where they will hear and respond positively to the teaching. All who strive to train in the six perfections will finally do so.

Chapters 40–41

The hindrances faced by those training in the perfection of wisdom are many. Among
them are being overly confident about what the perfection of wisdom is and pontificating about it and fooling around when
making copies of the perfection of wisdom; being turned off by not finding in the perfection of wisdom specific historical
references to oneself and one’s situation, and privileging books that teach only the fundamental Buddhist practices;
wanting to be a good monk or nun to get respect from the wider community and, in order to do
so, privileging books that help with that aim even after learning about the perfection of
wisdom; learning the fundamental practices from the perfection of wisdom and making oneself out to be an expert who then
explains them in an absolutist fashion; and turning the perfection of wisdom as a book or knowledge or practice into an
absolute. Even settling down on the perfection of wisdom as inconceivable and beyond letters in
an absolutist fashion is a hindrance, as is getting distracted by ordinary affairs, or becoming fascinated by books on fundamental Buddhist practices so that one neglects the
perfection of wisdom. Besides these hindrances, there are also all the various incompatibilities that occur between
students and teachers. All these constitute hindrances to the perfection of wisdom.

Chapter 42

Just as a mother with many children is looked after by her offspring because they feel a sense of gratitude when
they think of how she gave birth to them and taught them about the world, so too bodhisattvas and buddhas feel a sense of
gratitude and look after the perfection of wisdom that gave birth to them and teaches them the
categories of the aggregates, three realms, and so on, all the unshared purification dharmas and the knowledge of a
buddha, and all of them as being ultimately without an intrinsic nature and conventionally like illusions. They feel a
sense of gratitude and look after the perfection of wisdom because it has also taught them to
know how different beings feel and think, and all the wrong views that people entertain, including the different types of
wrong view based on a belief in going on and on forever or being completely annihilated. It has
also taught them the true
reality of all phenomena and the perfect, complete awakening of a tathāgata to that reality.

Chapter 43

The perfection of wisdom is deep because all phenomena are empty, not produced, and do not come and go. The
tathāgatas use conventional labels as ordinary conventional terms, not as ultimates. The
defining marks of phenomena are not generated out of the phenomena themselves. They are all empty of marks. There is no
mark of space. Reality remains what it is regardless of what is or is not taught, regardless of
what is or is not known. The Tathāgata illuminates the diversity of phenomena by illuminating
ultimate reality, illuminating illusory diversity and ultimate sameness. The Tathāgata illuminates all the mental states of a bodhisattva on the path to awakening and illuminates the great love and compassion and so on of bodhisattvas through their absence of any
differentiating marks. They show gratitude to and appreciation for the perfection of wisdom because she gives birth to and
illuminates phenomena for bodhisattvas and tathāgatas. They do so by recollecting that
nothing has been done or experienced. The perfection of wisdom gives birth to and reveals all beneficial dharmas just because neither the perfection of wisdom nor any dharma is
produced or revealed. The perfection of wisdom also reveals them by properly saying what they
are from the conventional and ultimate perspectives.

The work of the buddhas that has made the perfection of wisdom available to the world
is tremendous, inconceivable work. This work is the labor to protect, look
after, and benefit living beings.

All dharmas are inconceivable and equal to the unequaled. There is no conceiving them because their intrinsic
nature is inconceivable. They are immeasurable because there is nothing with which to measure them.

Chapter 44

Just as a great king delegates all the work of the kingdom, similarly, all the work of
the bodhisattvas and tathāgatas is delegated to the perfection of wisdom that incorporates
everything of benefit to all, in accord with their capacities and inclinations.

Bodhisattvas master but do not actualize all the realizations and attainments of all stream enterers and other
śrāvakas included in the perfection of wisdom. This attainment of bodhisattvas is called “the forbearance for the
nonproduction of dharmas.” Even though billions of śrāvakas have entered into nirvāṇa and billions of bodhisattvas have
entered into awakening, thanks to the perfection of wisdom there is neither less nor more of it.

Those who immediately believe in the perfection of wisdom in this life have definitely been humans before, or gods in Tuṣita in the presence of Maitreya. They are like cows that do not
let go of their calves. Others will be overwhelmed when they hear the perfection of wisdom and black out. Those who hear
and practice the perfection of wisdom a bit but then move on to something else are those who heard it in prior lives but
did not put what they heard into practice. Those are the new bodhisattvas. They have faith and enjoy the perfection of
wisdom but do not train fully in it.

Chapter 45

Those who are adrift in an ocean without anything to hold on to sink and drown. Similarly, those who have just
faith without a true basis in ultimate reality slowly degenerate in
their training in the perfection of wisdom and fall to the śrāvaka level. When you carry water
in a mud pot that has not been fired, it dissolves the pot and everything is lost. Those without skillful means who train
in the perfection of wisdom are similar. If a ship has not been well joined and caulked it will sink on its voyage. Those
with skillful means who have faith without taking anything as a basis reach the knowledge of all aspects. A decrepit old
man cannot stand alone but with helpers under both arms can move. Similarly, with the assistance of the perfection of
wisdom and skillful means one reaches the knowledge of all aspects and does not fall to the śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha
level.

Bodhisattvas are not assisted if, when they give, they think “I am giving” and so on,
falsely projecting a giver, a gift, the act of giving, and so on.
Those free from those constructions are assisted by the perfection of wisdom and skillful means
and will go to the farthest limit.

Chapter 46

There are neophyte bodhisattvas and bodhisattvas who are firm in the training. The former ones have faith but can
waver. They must write out the perfection of wisdom, read it aloud, memorize it, and so on. They must worship it and must
find teachers to teach it properly, teachers who explain the practice of the six perfections without forming any ideas
about them. The bodhisattvas who are firm are those who do what is difficult. They are the world’s refuge, resting place,
final ally, island, leader, and support. They teach others the authentic perfection of wisdom and take them
to the farther shore where all phenomena are a unity because they have neither come nor gone.

Chapter 47

The attributes, tokens, and signs that bodhisattvas are irreversible from awakening are the absence of greed,
hatred, and confusion, and so on. Armed with the armor that knows all phenomena are illusory,
they will never be upset at any hardship involved in working for beings and will never give up
on impossible beings and enter śrāvaka nirvāṇa.

Meditation on the perfection of wisdom is the disintegration of
meditation on the perfection of wisdom. An irreversible bodhisattva is not attached to any
phenomenon, always practices the six perfections, and, familiar with the perfection of wisdom from the past, is not
daunted by what the training entails.

Chapter 48

The perfection of wisdom is deep because ultimately the defiled state of form and so on is the same as the
purified state of awakening. At first the Tathāgata thought that the perfection of wisdom would be too difficult for
self-centered people habituated to dualistic thinking to understand, and he desisted from teaching it. The perfection of
wisdom is a doctrine that is in harmony with reality.

The elder Subhūti takes after the Lord because he teaches with emptiness as his point
of departure. He takes after him because in suchness he is the same as the Tathāgata, because
all dharmas and the Tathāgata are the same in suchness.

The universe shakes from this exposition, and the gods strew flowers. Sixty monks without skillful means enter
śrāvaka nirvāṇa because they apprehend a difference in dharmas and have not entered into the
secure state of a bodhisattva. They were attached to the thought that they were giving gifts,
being moral and patient, persevering, entering into concentration, and being wise. Even though
the meditation on emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness of those bodhisattva monks and of
the monks with skillful means was the same, the bodhisattvas with skillful means cultivated love, compassion, and so on
and finally became awakened. The goal of the bodhisattva monks without skillful means was the same goal defined by
bodhicitta, but still they fell to the śrāvaka level because of being separated from the
perfection of wisdom and skillful means. They are like a huge bird with stunted wings that takes off for a long flight but
has to set down before reaching the goal.

Bodhisattvas who, from the start, practice the six perfections guided by the perfection of wisdom and skillful
means, always with attention fixed on the knowledge of all aspects, do not fall to the śrāvaka level.

There is an argument over whether awakening is hard to gain or easy to gain. Subhūti says awakening is easy because all
dharmas are empty and there is nothing to be attained, while Śāriputra says it is quite the opposite, because it would
never occur to space to think, “I will become awakened,” and yet bodhisattvas, knowing all dharmas are like space, still
become fully awakened. Subhūti says nobody is irreversible from awakening because no phenomenon ever turns back from
anything to anywhere. Śāriputra objects that, in that case, the presentation of three vehicles does not make sense, and
Pūrṇa chimes in to ask if Subhūti believes in a single awakening, not three. Subhūti says there are no awakenings because
in emptiness nothing can be apprehended.

The Lord praises Subhūti’s exposition and then Subhūti says that to go forth to perfect, complete awakening,
bodhisattvas must treat all beings the same, must see them all as relatives and close friends,
and must never have a negative thought toward them. For their sake bodhisattvas must do every practice and so on, master
every śrāvaka level, and enter the secure state of a bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas must personally do all this and encourage
and help all others to do it, too, but always without apprehending any phenomenon.

Chapters 49–50

Another sign that bodhisattvas are irreversible from awakening is being firm in their
understanding of the illusory nature of phenomena and not being reborn under the power of afflictive emotions. They are bodhisattvas who, as ordained persons, keep clean and act
appropriately. Even when Māra shows the hardships of saṃsāra, urges these bodhisattvas to enter into the peace of śrāvaka
nirvāṇa, and says the perfection of wisdom is just fantasy, they remain unmoved.

Māra says the perfection of wisdom is a nihilistic doctrine, but bodhisattvas investigate and see that
liberation and awakening are possible because phenomena lack an intrinsic nature. Bodhisattvas who fall to the śrāvaka
level have turned back, are reversible, while bodhisattvas who do not do so are irreversible. Irreversible bodhisattvas
make a show of living an ordinary
householder’s life to bring beings to maturity, but they do not use their status or powers for self-gratification. When they are ordained, they do not hoodwink people who have faith
in them and are never swayed by those who question the perfection of wisdom and insist that only the fundamental Buddhist
texts are authentic. They distinguish the spiritual from absolutism. Their attitude to texts is
inclusive. They ensure that the words of the tathāgatas are not lost. Regardless of the language, who is speaking, or
where it is said, they protect all the texts of the tathāgatas, knowing them because of a dhāraṇī based on doctrines and
benefits—that is, they know them because they know the ultimate and conventional nature of
phenomena.

Chapter 51

The deep places are emptiness and so on, which is to say, nirvāṇa unseparated from all the illusory phenomena
practiced for the sake of all beings. Bodhisattvas motivated by the thought of awakening are always irreversible from
awakening, obsessed with becoming awakened for the welfare of others, like a man with a strong
libido who has set up a date with a beautiful woman and thinks of nothing but having sex with her. The strength and
intensity of the bodhisattvas’ thought of awakening stops any of the faults that would cause them to turn back and enter
śrāvaka nirvāṇa. The merits they amass are incredible in comparison to the merits of stream enterers and so on. All the
fundamental Buddhist practices of the śrāvakas are extremely important, and engaging in them produces great merit. But the
merit does not compare with even a fraction of the merit gained when the practices are performed as models for the benefit
of others, with a mind set on perfect awakening, within knowing the ultimate and conventional
nature of all practices and results.

The thought of awakening is there from the beginning of the practice, motivating the bodhisattvas to reach the
goal, awakening. It is not the first or the last instant in the continuity of the bodhisattvas’ unbroken motivation that results in the attainment of that goal. Like a wick
getting burned up, not by the first tongue or the last tongue of flame, but nevertheless being
burned up, so too with the thought of awakening and the attainment of awakening. Bodhisattvas gain all ten bodhisattva levels and reach awakening, always motivated by the thought of awakening, but that
thought is never produced and ultimately never moves from suchness or ultimate reality. The
movement of thought, the habitual ideas that come up, are absent, but not because the causal
signs that occasion them have disintegrated.

Chapter 52

This chapter is about action and the purification of a buddhafield. If somebody
actually murders someone, and if somebody else does so in a dream and on awakening thinks that what happened in the dream
actually happened and is happy about it, it is the same. The effects of actions are based on the state
of mind when the act is done. There has to be an objective support and intention. In
the absence of those there is no result. Ultimately there is no karmic cause and effect, but
there is on the conventional level.

Śāriputra asks Maitreya, who is in his last life before awakening, if the practice of the perfections results in
awakening. Maitreya says ultimately there is no Maitreya there to answer, and nobody to be responded to. Śāriputra is a
worthy one, but there is nothing there that can be apprehended that makes him a worthy one.

Bodhisattvas get closer to awakening by providing all beings with what they need in their day-to-day lives,
ensuring that later all beings in their buddhafield will have the enjoyments of gods. Similarly, seeing ugliness and
people with missing limbs, they practice morality; seeing hatred, they practice patience; seeing laziness, they practice
perseverance; seeing those separated from the four immeasurables and so on, they practice
concentration; and seeing ignorance all around, they practice wisdom so that all beings in their buddhafields will be free
from those faults. They practice so that in their buddhafields there will be none of the terrible forms of life and polluted environments, and no acquisitiveness, caste identities, despots, social injustices of
all types, or the ordinary problems that come with an ordinary body.
They practice so that they will have not one but billions of buddhafields for all beings.

Chapter 53

A nun in the retinue, sister Gaṅgadevī, states her commitment to such a practice of
the six perfections and worships the Lord with golden-colored flowers. He predicts her future awakening as the buddha
Suvarṇapuṣpa.

Chapter 54

Bodhisattvas master all meditations but do not actualize their results. A bodhisattva
who radiates love and kindness and shows the way to freedom without actualizing the results of the meditations on emptiness and so on, like a bird on the wing that moves through space without alighting
anywhere, and like an archer who keeps a series of arrows up in the air by shooting them one after the other, is like a
good-looking hero, an expert in weaponry and all crafts and vocations, loved by many persons, who, having gained great
wealth, can lead relatives out of the dense jungle where they are caught, keeping them happy
and hopeful without poisoning their minds against their enemies and opponents.

Bodhisattvas do not cross the very limit of reality into complete nirvāṇa until all the work is done.
Bodhisattvas do not forsake beings, remaining in the emptiness meditation without actualizing
the śrāvaka nirvāṇa until all beings are no longer afflicted by ignorance. Bodhisattvas free
them from the causal signs that occasion the differentiation and valuation of male and female, different realms and so on, and from pointless wishes for future attainments, even the attainment of the knowledge of all aspects.
Bodhisattvas practicing mastery of the three fundamental practices of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness in this
way are irreversible from awakening. There are not many who master the śrāvaka and bodhisattva practices without becoming
attached to them as absolutes.

Chapter 55

A sign that bodhisattvas are irreversible is that even in dreams there is no
attraction to śrāvaka nirvāṇa, and so on, and that upon waking from seeing the suffering of the world in a dream, the
determination to help beings is even stronger. Another sign is
unleashing the controlling power of truth to stop flames engulfing villages and exorcising
demons. These signs can give an opening to Māra. The successes make the bodhisattvas think, “Wow! I did that,” and thereby
think that their awakening is prophesied when in fact they are not yet at a level where it is.
Māra makes those bodhisattvas go astray by falsely predicting their awakening, which they believe because the prophecy
includes all sorts of details they mistakenly think only a buddha could know. These bodhisattvas do not actually know the
signs of an irreversible bodhisattva. And during their careers, as long as they do not come to
terms with their misplaced pride, their pride in being bodhisattvas and not just śrāvakas, they run the risk of falling to
the śrāvaka level and entering nirvāṇa. It is like a monk who incurs any one of the four root downfalls. He is no longer a
monk. It is similar with this misplaced pride. Bodhisattvas who look down on other bodhisattvas incur an even worse
downfall. Māra also confuses these bodhisattvas about the value of strict retreat in isolation,
giving them a misplaced pride that theirs is a certain path on which they are irreversible
from awakening. In fact, isolation is mental isolation, that is, freedom from all attachments
and the false sense of superiority. Bodhisattvas in retreat who return to a settlement and speak badly of those
bodhisattvas who are engaged in worldly life out of a misplaced sense of pride in their own
religious practice are vulgar and gross. They are like a robber who steals the authentic
spiritual practice from bodhisattvas.

Bodhisattvas must distinguish
true spiritual friends from false ones. Buddhas and śrāvakas who expound the teachings of the Tathāgata are a bodhisattva’s friend. The basic Buddhist practices of the thirty-seven dharmas
on the side of awakening are included in the six perfections and are a bodhisattva’s friend. To
bring beings to maturity bodhisattvas should gather students in four ways: giving gifts, kind words, beneficial actions,
and consistency between words and deeds. Bodhisattvas gather those attracted to fundamental Buddhist teachings by
practicing the thirty-seven dharmas on the side of awakening. The defilements they counteract arise because beings grasp
as “I” and “mine” phenomena empty of any defining mark.

The merit from worshiping a billion beings who become human and gain awakening is not
as great as the merit from staying attentive to the perfection of wisdom and teaching it to others. Those attentive to the
perfection of wisdom generate stronger and stronger love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. The merit from worshiping and
looking after them is immense. If a bodhisattva who has bodhicitta and is attentive to the
knowledge of all aspects were to lose that precious thought, it would be like a person getting the finest diamond and then
losing it. It would be unbearable. All the person would think about would be getting it back. But ultimately even
bodhicitta has no intrinsic nature. Ultimately reality does not move from reality.

Chapter 56

The wholesome roots from practicing all the other practices are not as strong as those gained from practicing the
perfection of wisdom, from which those other practices all issue forth. Those who hear and practice the perfection of
wisdom have strong wholesome roots. Even a person who produces one instant of bodhicitta informed by the perfection of
wisdom makes more merit and is blessed with strong wholesome roots. That practice surpasses all other practices and brings
the person closer to the tathāgatas.

Such a practice also rouses Māra to seek a way to infiltrate the mind of the practitioner to prevent awakening.
If there was a time before when the practitioner’s belief in the perfection of wisdom was not
complete, if the bodhisattva believes their attainment is real and feels entitled to admiration, if the practitioner is unsure what the perfection of wisdom is and entertains certain
reservations about the perfection of wisdom, or if the practitioner is without spiritual friends, it provides Māra with
the opportunity. Māra makes terrible things happen in the world to hinder the continuity of the
practitioner’s thought of awakening. For example, Māra makes practitioners glib so that they can give great talks and get
crowds to listen, building up a false sense of their own excellence. Māra rejoices at that, thinking that those in the
realms under his control are increasing in number. When Māra sees a bodhisattva become
sectarian, he rejoices and encourages the fight with other śāvakas and other bodhisattvas. When he sees a bodhisattva
envious of another, more advanced bodhisattva, Māra rejoices. For as long as those envious thoughts engendering animosity
toward another bodhisattva last, for that many more eons the bodhisattva will have to practice to reach the goal, although
sincerely facing up to the grossness of such thoughts and making a confession prevents Māra from achieving his aim.
Bodhisattvas should not live together with śrāvakas, but if they do, they should feel no malice
toward them. When bodhisattvas are together with other bodhisattvas they should treat them as their teachers. In that way
they pursue an equal and proper training in the perfection of wisdom.

Chapter 57

All phenomena are the same in emptiness. There is no ending, becoming detached, or
cessation of anything that decreases
reality. Māra cannot infiltrate and break a bodhisattva who trains in light of this, and the
training leads to awakening and the turning of the wheel of the Dharma. It ensures a perfect human rebirth not through the
force of earlier karma but through compassion, the purification of a buddhafield, and all the
buddhadharmas. Bodhisattvas practicing like this are as rare as nuggets of gold and silver in the Jambū River. Just as
more people think they have a chance to be a local ruler than a wheel-turning emperor, more
people seek the śrāvaka attainments than a bodhisattva’s perfect awakening. The training for awakening includes all
trainings, just as the view of the perishable collection incorporates all wrong views. When you
die and the life faculty leaves, every other faculty shuts down as well, and so too with
the perfection of wisdom and the other perfections.

Chapter 58

Out of admiration for bodhisattvas who have produced the thought of awakening, the
head god strews flowers. The wholesome root planted by those who rejoice in the thought produced by those bodhisattvas is
greater and greater relative to the level those bodhisattvas have reached. The merit is infinite even for those who have
just set out on the path. They are pleasing to the tathāgatas, and Māra cannot harm them because of the amount of merit they amass. Those who amass such merit should turn it
all over so the root grows into awakening.

It does not occur to space or to a magical creation to think, “I am far from one thing and close to another.” There is no thought in space and there is no
thought in ultimate reality. Conceptualization and thought construction are totally absent.

Still there are the five forms of life and the stream enterers and so on. Ordinary
beings motivated by error pile up karma that matures into different forms of life. Stream
enterers and so on escape from that stream of suffering existence
because they are free from all thought construction.

Chapter 59

The training is not ultimately worthwhile because the goal is not ultimately worthwhile. The gods rejoice in
bodhisattvas who have produced the perfection of wisdom and engage in such training without
falling into nirvāṇa before the goal is reached. It is not difficult to avoid nirvāṇa, but it is difficult to work for the
welfare of beings because beings are like space, worthless. Those who do so are those who do what is difficult and deserve
praise. They are tussling with space. Even a billion Māras cannot hinder bodhisattvas whose
training is endowed with two sets of two qualities: “They view all dharmas as emptiness and
they do not give up on all beings,” and “They are true to their word and watched out for by the
lord buddhas.” The Lord is thrilled when he sees bodhisattvas engaged in such training. He sees
and is thrilled by bodhisattvas following the buddha Akṣobhya by training in this perfection of wisdom, even if they are
not yet at the end of their training. In this training there is neither attainment nor attainer. There is no change in
reality whether the training is done or is not done.

Chapter 60

The head god praises Subhūti for his exposition. Subhūti does not apprehend any
perfections or anything else in which to train. The Lord agrees, and when the gods shower petals on him, six thousand
monks in the retinue state their aspiration to enter into the dwelling in the perfection of
wisdom that Subhūti has demonstrated. Prompted by Ānanda, the Lord then prophecies the future awakening of the six
thousand monks in the eon called Tārakopama, when all will become buddhas called Avakīrṇakusuma. The Lord then entrusts
Ānanda with the teaching of the perfection of wisdom and says, “If I am dear to you and you have not given up on me, then,
Ānanda, love this deep perfection of wisdom, make it dear, and do not give up on it. One way or
the other you must not let even just a single line of this deep perfection of wisdom go to waste.” Complete awakening is
reached only by training in the perfection of wisdom. It is the training of all buddhas. If any of the Lord’s teaching is
explained, the Lord is happy, but never as happy as when even one line of the perfection of wisdom is explained. The good
that comes from explaining just one line surpasses the good from explaining the śrāvaka training for nirvāṇa to billions
of people, even just giving an authentic explanation for a second, because in that second the
bodhisattva would personally want to reach awakening and would want all other beings to do so as well.

The Lord miraculously causes the buddha Akṣobhya teaching his retinue to appear before the assembled retinue and
then causes the entire vision to disappear. Just as they cannot be seen, all phenomena are
beyond the field of vision. Nothing sees anything. One trains in the perfection of wisdom but does not think one can take the measure of it, just as one cannot take the full measure of space. You can measure the
words in books, but you cannot measure the perfection of wisdom, because it is inexhaustible. Everything good and all the
buddhas who have reached awakening come from this perfection of wisdom, but it has not been depleted. The Lord extends his
tongue, with which he had covered his face, and says it could never speak a falsehood. He urges Ānanda to take care of the
perfection of wisdom.

Chapters 61–62

Just as space is inexhaustible, so too the perfection of wisdom, form and so on, and awakening are inexhaustible.
Insight into dependent origination and there being no beginning or end is the distinctive attribute of a bodhisattva
seated at the site of awakening who reaches the knowledge of all aspects. Through that insight, the bodhisattva realizes the emptiness of all phenomena, and Māra realizes that the
bodhisattva is about to be awakened and feels a stab of pain.

Bodhisattvas model the thirty-six subdivisions of the six perfections. Standing in the perfection of wisdom,
bodhisattvas perfect concentration with the two meditative stabilizations, the siṃhavijṛmbhita and
the viṣkandaka. With greater and greater mental agility and insight bodhisattvas enter into and leave
absorption in the meditative states of the three realms, interspersing them with entry into the cessation absorptions and
into ordinary, unconcentrated states. Knowing their ultimate and illusory nature, bodhisattvas are able to leave one state and enter into another, leaping from one state to another,
transcending accomplishments that are in ultimate truth no accomplishment at all.

Chapter 63

Bodhisattvas with such a skillful practice of the perfections have been at it for billions of eons serving
countless buddhas, building up large wholesome roots. All the perfections are equally perfections, but the perfection of
wisdom is foremost, like the four continents around which the heavens revolve, or like a
wheel-turning emperor who obtains that status when in possession of the seven precious
treasures. Just as scoundrels cannot violate a woman with a husband and opponents cannot defeat a well-armed soldier, Māra
cannot harm the practice of the other perfections when they are joined with the perfection of
wisdom. The perfection of wisdom goes together with the other perfections, leading them. The perfection of wisdom views the ultimate nature of all phenomena. Bodhisattvas who form any
notion of training in the perfections are far away from the perfection of wisdom. Just as
the different branches of a wheel-turning emperor’s army accompany the emperor, so too the other perfections are present
with the perfection of wisdom.

If all the perfections are empty of an intrinsic nature, how, by training in them, do bodhisattvas reach
awakening? Bodhisattvas see that beings suffer because the ordinary state of beings is a
distorted state of mind. They model the six perfections for them, but when giving them gifts,
they do not see a giver, recipient, or act of giving and so on.
Among all the perfections the perfection of wisdom is the most important because it models taking hold of all beneficial
phenomena, standing in the knowledge of all aspects, but without standing anywhere, without any attachment or clinging to anything as ultimately real.
From that training comes the greatest merit. Bodhisattvas who cling to the states they are in
as they model the perfection of wisdom for others are no longer training in the perfection of wisdom and will not be able
to accomplish great compassion, the training in the six perfections, and final awakening.

To bring beings to maturity, bodhisattvas train in the six perfections. Bodhisattvas are just like those who
want to eat mangos, planting them, watering and tending the growing plants, weeding from time to time, and when ripe
eating the fruit.

Bodhisattvas standing in the perfection of wisdom are helped by the buddhas and bodhisattvas, cultivate every type of knowledge and meditation, become the heirs
apparent, are handsome, are ready to speak and extremely articulate, know grammar and all the
other branches of knowledge, know the ultimate and conventional, and are skilled in everything.

The merit from making a gift to a tathāgata and a gift to a tathāgata conjured up by a tathāgata are equal, and
the work of a tathāgata and the work of a tathāgata conjured up by a tathāgata are equal. Words are used for the benefit
of others. You should not complicate reality, which is one and isolated from the words and
signs for things. All phenomena, practices, and results are like illusions. Their ultimate
reality is unchanging.

Chapters 64–72

The bodhisattvas’ training is a difficult practice, like growing a cutting in space. With just a
cutting, its root, buds, leaves, and flowers are not known to the farmer, but still branches, leaves,
flowers, and fruits will grow from that trunk, and the farmer will make use of the leaves and so on. Similarly,
bodhisattva leaves, as it were, liberate beings from the three terrible forms of life, the
flowers are excellent rebirths as humans and gods, and the fruits are the results of stream enterers and so on. A
bodhisattva is a tathāgata because of the benefits that come from a bodhisattva—among them, giving rise to a tathāgata.

Bodhisattvas undertake the bodhisattva practices for the welfare of beings, purify a
buddhafield, gain the knowledge of all aspects, turn the wheel of the Dharma, establish beings
in the three vehicles, and then pass into nirvāṇa in the element of nirvāṇa without any aggregates left behind.

The merit of producing the thought of awakening surpasses all the merit from attaining every śrāvaka attainment;
the merit of attaining each higher bodhisattva level surpasses the merit from each lower level; and the merit of a
tathāgata surpasses all.

The first thought of awakening is set on the knowledge of all aspects. The knowledge
of all aspects has a nonexistent thing as its objective support, its dominant factor is mindfulness, its aspect calmness,
and its defining mark the absence of a defining mark. Not only the knowledge of all aspects, but all phenomena have no
intrinsic nature and are therefore nonexistent things. Bodhisattvas practice with skillful means, mastering everything
without ultimately settling down on anything. Bodhisattvas continue with this training until awakening.

Bodhisattvas train in all the purification dharmas, woven around the six perfections, first serially and finally
in a single, unique instant. Ultimately the bodhisattvas’ practice does not decrease or increase anything, is not a practice of anything for anything, and is not done in a dualistic
way. Reality remains the same. Conventionally, assisted by spiritual friends, bodhisattvas
produce the thought of awakening and learn all the doctrines and train in the six perfections, purify a buddhafield, and
cause beings to be brought to maturity. With those wholesome roots bodhisattvas stay close to
spiritual friends and the buddhas, serving and worshiping them. If they do not stay close to them, they do not gain the correct understanding of the perfection of wisdom. Guided by them, bodhisattvas train
correctly in the six perfections. They practice all the practices that lead to the results and attainments of śrāvakas and
adepts but do not become saddled with those results. They never move from their intrinsic nature, never realize anything, and are without any thought construction. This is their perfection of wisdom
through which they enter into the secure state of a bodhisattva. They do so having mastered all paths through
nonattachment to them, through seeing that their ultimate nature is the same, the absence of an
intrinsic nature. Nevertheless, all the levels and paths and results are conventionally different. Thus, the knowledge of
all path aspects is the bodhisattvas’ forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas. The bodhisattvas who know the
knowledge of path aspects know all shared and unshared practices and paths. This enables the bodhisattvas to enter into
the different aspirations of beings with different personalities and dispositions.

The perfection of wisdom is called the noble Dharma and Vinaya. All phenomena have no differentiating marks.
None is conjoined with or separated from anything else. Thus the
afflictive emotions and other negative factors removed by following the Vinaya training are absent in the training in the
perfection of wisdom, which abides in the ultimate nature of all phenomena, and all the
phenomena taught in the Dharma, all the differentiating marks of all the knowledges and attainments set forth in the
doctrines, do not ultimately exist either. In this sense they are complete. The disintegration
of them all is the practice of the perfection of wisdom. The perfection of wisdom is without the duality of existent and
nonexistent things.

There is not even ordinary patience in ultimate reality,
so ultimately bodhisattvas do not achieve forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas by mastering them all but not
settling down on them. There are no clear realizations, there are no obstructions, there is no
saṃsāra, and there is no path to the cessation of suffering.

The Buddha previously engaged in all the practices—cultivated detachment from sense objects, desisted from unwholesome acts, perfectly accomplished meditative states without
relishing the experiences, manifested a performance of miraculous power, apprehended the causal signs but avoided falsely
considering them fact, and with wisdom of the unique instant, fully awakened to unsurpassed, perfect, complete
awakening—but without engaging in a false projection of any of them. Bodhisattvas also enter into the training in the six
perfections and all the practices of clairvoyance and so on serially and then in a single, unique instant. While serially
cultivating the giving branch of the perfection of giving, up to the wisdom branch of the
perfection of wisdom, the bodhisattvas pay attention to the absence of any intrinsic nature in each of them and pay
attention to the knowledge of all aspects that is the goal. Similarly, bodhisattvas complete all the special powers and attributes of a buddha, and the major marks and minor signs of a buddha, through
cultivating them serially within the training in the six perfections without any perception of something that exists or does not exist.

Just the absence of any apprehended object is attainment and clear realization, and all the gradual attainments
and clear realizations happen because of that absence. All the trainings are the same, and to train in one is to train in
them all, from giving up to clairvoyance. All are incorporated in a single thought. Bodhisattvas engage in the training in each without a dualistic thought. The giving of gifts up to the use of clairvoyance
happens spontaneously with a pure and uncontaminated state of mind. The morality includes all
moral standards. The patience is ordinary patience in the face
of abuse and hardship, and it is forbearance that is a disinterested mastery of all phenomena
through seeing their ultimate nature. The perseverance gives incredible powers and abilities to help others. Even on the verge of
death the bodhisattvas are working to help others. The concentration achieves every
mental state, except the state of a tathāgata, without relishing any of them, and the wisdom perfects the three meditative
stabilizations on emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness without seeing anything as truly
existent or established. To train in the six perfections is to train in all the
perfections that incorporate all training as if in a dream.

Chapter 73

Ordinary people falsely consider phenomena to be real and
become predisposed to the unwholesome. Bodhisattvas teach them that all phenomena are empty dependent originations, all
arising on account of error. Skillfully the bodhisattvas model for them giving, morality, and so on.

Bodhisattvas help beings by teaching and modeling for them any practice that helps them. The extent of the bodhisattvas’ generosity is unlimited. When giving gifts to those who are helped by generosity, bodhisattvas make no distinction between offering to a buddha or to an animal and will give limbs away,
and even go to any terrible place for their sake.

Bodhisattvas teach various doctrines to all beings, including the gods. Included in this are the explanations of
ordinary and extraordinary dharmas, the former the ordinary
meditations on uncleanliness and the shared meditations on calm
abiding and so on, and the extraordinary being the entire list of purification dharmas, explained in detail, one by one. Here are included detailed descriptions of each of the
thirty-two major marks and their causes, as well as the eighty minor signs. This is the amazing gift of Dharma that is
part of the first of the four ways of gathering a retinue.

Bodhisattvas also teach the knowledge of alphabets and how letters collapse into and
expand from a single letter and so on. This is done even though bodhisattvas cannot apprehend
any of these dharmas.

Just as a tathāgata’s magical creation magically creates millions of other magical creations and establishes them
in different practices without anything happening at all, so too with the bodhisattvas training in the perfection of
wisdom.

Chapter 74

Beings do not know that all phenomena are the same—like an illusion without any intrinsic nature—and are
therefore caught in suffering. They are located in unreal names and causal signs. Names plucked out of thin air and causal
signs cause attachment. Causal signs are not existent. Were they to exist, bodhisattvas would
not awaken to awakening. The material reality of a person, full of holes like foam, does not come from or go anywhere. Its
ultimate reality does not deviate from the way things are. Other phenomena are similar.
Bodhisattvas know difference but without complicating the true
nature of dharmas because nothing can be apprehended. Nothing is trained in, nothing is gained.
A magician uses a prop to makes all sorts of things appear to an audience. A bodhisattva trains others in that way.
Bodhisattvas speak about the dharma-constituent as it really is, the same before as it is
afterward.

Chapter 75

The ultimate reality (1) of the result and (2) of the beings that want to attain that
result are the same. Beings are naturally in a perfect state, at the very limit of reality. The
very limit of reality is not different from the limit of beings, from their infinite number, or
from their ultimate nature. By skillful means bodhisattvas lead beings, conventionally, to the
realization of reality by teaching the six perfections on the conventional level, always together with the emptiness of giver, recipient, and gift, and so on.
Bodhisattvas personally engage in the training to model it for others and to encourage others
to train in it. There is no movement from or to anything in reality. Bodhisattvas liberate beings by causing those snared in error to be established in
the absence of error, error that is itself not error because it is just a thought construction. The absence of thought
construction is the absence of error because in its absence there is no grasping at self and so on.

The path is just the comprehension of emptiness. The emptiness that is reality remains
unchanging. It is not different from the diversity of the suffering
world, the path to freedom, and the results. Nothing is removed, nothing added. Beings simply do not know reality as it is and live grasping at “I” and “mine.” Bodhisattvas do not complicate reality with their teaching, just as space does not complicate space; they do not practice within
duality. They do not take anything up or not take anything up. Subhūti is a worthy one in nirvāṇa. A bodhisattva reaches
perfect, complete awakening. Both are just designated by ordinary
convention. In reality nothing is accumulated or diminished, nothing
is helpful and nothing harmful.

Chapter 76

A bodhisattva, like a person conjured up by a magician, realizing that there is no place of departure, path, or
attainment, neither endeavors nor desists from the endeavor. This is the bodhisattvas’ skillful means.

There are not even people for whom the bodhisattvas feel compassion. The distorted minds of those people have
mentally constructed the form aggregate, and so on, and settled down on them as real. All phenomena have no real basis, and the mind constructing them has no real basis. Bodhisattvas
approach these illusory beings as illusory beings and model what is appropriate to liberate
them from error, knowing the liberation is illusory, and the error illusory too. It is amazing that bodhisattvas keep at
it, given that nothing is there that can be apprehended. Again, the chapter explains the armor in detail—that from having
produced the first thought the bodhisattvas train in the perfection of wisdom to mature beings and purify a buddhafield,
modeling the six perfections such that each of the six incorporates all six.

Chapter 77

The training in the six perfections incorporates every training. Awakening is possible
because every training in which bodhisattvas train is empty. If beings knew this there would be no reason for bodhisattvas
to train. The presentation is only for their sake. Training is an enactment. There is no training, no phenomenon at all
that can be apprehended through its own intrinsic nature. No false sense of superiority arises in bodhisattvas engaged in the training. Bodhisattvas are not located in any of the meditative states, first
because all the states are empty, and second because the bodhisattvas are never satisfied with an accomplishment until
perfect, complete awakening.

Bodhisattvas eliminate the final physical, verbal, and mental bases of suffering. As
long as there is the notion of anything, there is a basis of suffering. Bodhisattvas offer
abundantly to the buddhas and purify a buddhafield.

Chapter 78

As for śrāvaka stream enterers and so on, there is no rebirth in the terrible forms of life, and the same is true
for bodhisattvas who have only just produced the authentic thought of awakening. They take perfect human rebirths. The
Buddha took rebirth as animals intentionally through skillful means not available to śrāvakas.
There is no wholesome dharma that bodhisattvas, starting from the first production of the
thought onward, do not complete. A bodhisattva takes rebirth in a terrible form of life, like a being magically produced
by a tathāgata, and does not experience suffering. The bodhisattva does not actually turn into an animal any more than a
being magically produced by a tathāgata does. All is done for the sake of others. There is no wholesome dharma
bodhisattvas do not produce. All are included in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattvas produce the clairvoyances and
could not be awakened without them. Through their power, bodhisattvas are able to go anywhere,
to see whatever is of benefit, and to teach in those places. A bodhisattva does not feel happy or unhappy about whatever
happens through the power of the clairvoyances, just as a being magically produced by a
tathāgata does not.

Chapter 79

The buddhadharmas (the qualities of an awakened being) are the bodhisattva dharmas (the qualities of a
bodhisattva). Awakening is the full awakening to all those dharmas. Awakening happens through the wisdom of the unique
instant. The first half of that instant, so to speak, is the bodhisattva’s awakening to all dharmas. This is like the
difference between the state of a candidate for stream enterer and a result-recipient
stream enterer. You cannot say of either that they are not a stream enterer. With the elimination of all the residual
impression connections comes complete awakening.

Karmic cause and effect is empty of differentiating marks, but those who do not
understand that behave badly or well and accumulate karma with or without outflows. The former end up in terrible forms of
life, the latter as humans or gods. Among them, bodhisattvas train in the six perfections, become absorbed in the final
meditative stabilization, awaken to perfect, complete awakening, and work for the welfare of
suffering beings. If beings knew that phenomena are empty of differentiating marks, no bodhisattva would set out for awakening. Foolish beings settle down on the nonexistent things they have
constructed. Bodhisattvas explain the four noble truths to them and make a presentation of the Three Jewels. In fact,
beings do not enter nirvāṇa because of knowing the truth of suffering and so on; they do so because of knowing the
sameness, in emptiness, of the four truths. This sameness is their ultimate absence. Reality
remains, whether the tathāgatas teach it or do not teach it. Bodhisattvas awaken to the sameness of the truths by not
apprehending any phenomenon, thereby entering into the secure state of a bodhisattva and standing on the verge of all the
śrāvaka attainments, but without actualizing them. Even when attaining perfect, complete awakening, a bodhisattva does not
fall down onto it as though from the sky onto the highest peak. It is seeing all phenomena for what they actually are,
empty of an intrinsic nature.

Chapter 80

All the attributes of śrāvakas and buddhas have not been made by karma any more than
all the problems of those in terrible forms of life. All are ultimately not produced. Foolish, ordinary people do not know that phenomena are, in their nature, nonexistent
things, and because of thought that has arisen on account of error, they accumulate a variety of karma. A path that
delivers practitioners to the results is not a real thing, and neither are the results. Just as
there is no underpinning reality for somebody dreaming a dream and experiencing a sense of
gratification through enjoying the five sorts of sense objects, there is no underpinning reality that is a basis on which beings accumulate karma. Nobody accumulates karma, just as no karma is
accumulated by a reflection on the surface of a mirror and so on. The appearance coaxes beings into believing it is true. No defilement and no purification happen on any path.

Chapter 81

The sameness of all phenomena is purification. Even so, bodhisattvas produce the
thought of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, thinking, “I will complete the perfections and every good quality that benefits beings,” knowing they are illusory. In reality, even the bodhisattvas are illusory, so no illusion is training in any illusion. That the Tathāgata
has fully awakened is a designation by ordinary
convention. Ultimately there is no clear realization at all.

Sameness is where there is no existing thing, no intrinsic existence, and nothing
that has been expressed. It is not the support and not within the range of anyone. In sameness nothing has a
distinguishing feature. Ordinary beings and tathāgatas are the same. Phenomena with different
marks come to have the same mark because of emptiness. Bodhisattvas remain in sameness, in emptiness, while working for
the benefit of others.

Chapter 82

The training in giving gifts and so on is done without moving from the ultimate,
without moving from sameness. Whatever the perfection of a phenomenon, the phenomenon is empty of that. When one magical
creation has created another magical creation, there is nothing real there that is not empty.
“This is a magical creation, this is an emptiness” is a contortion.

Some phenomena are magically created by afflictive emotions, some by actions; some are magically created by
śrāvakas, some by pratyekabuddhas, some by bodhisattvas, some by tathāgatas. Even nirvāṇa, a phenomenon that does not coax
you into believing it is true, is just an illusion. Ultimately, there will never be anything
called “the emptiness of an intrinsic nature” that has to be understood.

Chapter 83

In this chapter there is a vocabulary not utilized in the rest of the Eighteen
Thousand. Maitreya and the Lord investigate the relationship between a name and what it refers to. Names are
plucked out of thin air. Any name can be given to anything. From that perspective all things, including the names, are
nothing beyond imagination and unconnected with reality. But the things to which names are
given are only known through those names, not from their own sides. When looked for, these things arise from causes and
conditions, from ignorance and thought projections that motivate actions. These things are
all the same in that they cannot be apprehended. In true
reality they are all without any difference. Therefore, all
phenomena from form up to the knowledge of all aspects should be viewed from the perspective of three natures: imaginary, conceptual (the term “other-powered” is not used in this chapter), and the dharma’s
ultimate nature (again, “thoroughly established” is not used).
Understanding this, a bodhisattva does not enter into nirvāṇa but willingly takes a body and reenters the world for the
benefit of others.

Chapter 84

This summary in verse circulates separately as The Verse Summary of the Jewel
Qualities (Toh 13). Here it is not
divided into chapters. The first verses say that the Tathāgata is speaking through the voices
of the other interlocutors, that the perfection of wisdom cannot be apprehended through any causal sign, and that the
mendicant Śreṇika gained nirvāṇa through listening to the perfection of wisdom. These verses follow the order of the
Eight Thousand. The verses then generally follow the order of the Long Perfection of Wisdom and give a very helpful summary up until
the end of the second of the three volumes of the Degé Kangyur Eighteen Thousand. The verse
summary ends with an explanation of each of the six interlinked perfections, the maturation of beings, the purification of the buddhafield, and awakening.

Chapters 85–86

This is a summary of the Eighteen Thousand in the form of a story about
Sadāprarudita’s quest to find his teacher Dharmodgata and learn the perfection of wisdom.
Sadāprarudita sees the tathāgatas in a vision and wants to know where they have come from and where they went. He starts
on his journey but realizes he is lost. He hears a voice from the
sky telling him where to go and how to listen and learn. Having heard about the perfection of wisdom, he enters deep into
meditation and hears more about it. He must find the way to go and make great merit in
order to experience it in reality. Without any material wealth, like a perfect monk, he sells
his flesh and blood in the marketplace, earning the admiration of a wealthy merchant’s daughter
and her family. He tells them everything that has happened and they enter into his quest and accompany him on his journey.
Finally, they actually arrive in the wonderful city in which Dharmodgata lives, and
Sadāprarudita again retells his entire story. Dharmodgata tells him the tathāgatas are not produced, so they have come
from nowhere and go nowhere. All phenomena are like a dream without any ultimate reality.
Having heard the perfect explanation of the perfection of wisdom, the earth shakes, the gods rejoice, and great joy and
unshakeable resolve are born in all the retinue. Then Dharmodgata meditates for seven years. Sadāprarudita again gives
even his blood to prepare for the teaching to be given when Dharmodgata emerges. He learns the doctrine of the perfection
of wisdom in which all dharmas are the same, free from false projections and without limit.

Chapter 87

The Lord entrusts the perfection of wisdom to his personal attendant Ānanda and tells him to take care of it as
he has taken care of his teacher. The retinue praises the teaching of the Lord.

The Translation

The Noble Mahāyāna Sūtra

The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines

Chapter 1: Introduction

We prostrate to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Lord dwelt at Rājagṛha on Gṛdhrakūṭa Hill together with a great community of monks,
numbering five thousand monks,
all worthy ones with the exception of one single person—that is, venerable Ānanda—with outflows dried up, without afflictions,
fully controlled, with their minds well freed and their wisdom well freed, thoroughbreds, great bull elephants, with their
work done, their task accomplished, with their burden laid down, with their own goal accomplished, with the fetters that bound
them to existence broken, with their hearts well freed by perfect understanding, in perfect control of their whole mind; with nuns
numbering five hundred—Yaśodharā, Mahāprajāpatī, and so on—and with a great many laymen and laywomen, all of them with a
vision of the Dharma; and with an unbounded, infinite number of bodhisattva great beings, all of whom had acquired the
dhāraṇīs, were dwellers in emptiness, their range the signless, and who had not fashioned any wishes, had acquired forbearance
for the sameness of all dharmas, had acquired the dhāraṇī of nonattachment, with imperishable clairvoyant knowledges, and with
speech worth listening to; who were not hypocrites, not fawners, without thoughts of reputation and gain; who were Dharma
teachers without thought of compensation, with perfect forbearance for the deep dharmas, who had obtained the fearlessnesses,
and who had transcended all the works of Māra, who had cut the continuum of karmic obscuration, were skillful in expounding
the analysis of investigations into phenomena, with the prayer that is a vow made during an asaṃkhyeya of
eons
really fully carried out, with smiling countenances, forward in addressing others, without a frown on their faces, skillful in
communicating with others in chanted verse, without feelings of depression, without losing the
confidence giving a readiness to speak, and endowed with fearlessness when surpassing endless assemblies; who were skilled in
going forth during an ananta of one hundred million eons, understanding
phenomena to be like an illusion, a mirage, a reflection of the moon in water, a dream, an echo, an apparition, a reflection
in the mirror, and a magical creation; who were skillful in comprehending the thoughts, conduct, and beliefs of all beings and
subtle knowledge, with unobstructed thoughts, and endowed with
extreme patience; who were skilled in causing entry into reality just as it is, having appropriated all the endless arrays of
the buddhafields through prayer and setting out, with the meditative stabilization recollecting buddhas in an infinite number
of world systems constantly and always activated; who were skillful in soliciting innumerable buddhas; who were skillful in
eliminating the various views, propensities, obsessions, and defilements; and who were skillful in accomplishing a hundred
thousand feats through meditative concentration. That is, he was together with the bodhisattva great beings Bhadrapāla,
Ratnākara, Ratnagarbha, Ratnadatta, Susārthavaha, Varuṇadeva, Guhyagupta, Indradatta, Uttaramatin, Viśeṣamatin,
Vardhamānamatin, Anantamati, Amoghadarśin, Anāvaraṇamatin, Susaṃprasthita, Suvikrāntavikrāmin, Anantavīrya, Nityodyukta,
Nityaprayukta, Anikṣiptadhura, Sūryagarbha, Anupamamatin, and Avalokiteśvara, Mahāsthāmaprāpta, Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta,
Mārabalapramardin, Vajramatin, Ratnamudrāhasta, Nityotkṣiptahasta, Mahākaruṇācinta, Mahāvyūha, Vyūharāja,
and Merukūṭa, the bodhisattva great being Maitreya, and many hundreds of thousands of one hundred million billion other
bodhisattvas as well.

Thereupon the Lord, having himself arranged the lion throne, sat down with his legs crossed, holding his body erect,
intent on fixing mindfulness, and entered into the meditative stabilization,
samādhirāja by name, in which all meditative stabilizations are put, included, encompassed, and come to
meet.

Then the Lord, mindful and self-possessed, emerged from this meditative stabilization and surveyed with his divine
eye all world systems. Having done so, he beamed with his whole body. From the wheels with a thousand spokes on the soles of
his feet issued sixty sixty-one hundred thousand one hundred million billion rays, from the ten toes of his feet issued sixty
sixty-one hundred thousand one hundred million billion rays, and similarly from his ankles, legs, knees, thighs, hips, and
navel, from his two sides, and from the śrīvatsa mark of a great person in
his heart issued sixty sixty-one hundred thousand one hundred million billion rays. From his ten fingers issued sixty
sixty-one hundred thousand one hundred million billion rays. Similarly, from his two forearms, two shoulders, neck, four
eyeteeth, all forty teeth, two nostrils, ears, and eyes,
ūrṇā, the uṣṇīṣa on the top of his head, and from the
opening of his mouth issued sixty sixty-one hundred thousand one hundred million billion rays. All these sixty sixty-one
hundred thousand one hundred million billion rays pervaded the world systems in their entirety with a great illumination and
lit them up. This great illumination from the light rays spread out through as many world systems in the eastern direction as
there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River. Similarly, this great illumination from the light rays spread out through each of
as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the south, west, and north, in the intermediate
directions to the northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest, below and above, and lit them up. And all the beings who saw that light, who were touched by the illumination of
those light rays, became irreversible from unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

Thereupon all the Lord’s hair pores became radiant. From each of the hair pores sixty sixty-one hundred thousand one
hundred million billion rays issued forth, and these rays pervaded all the world systems in the great billionfold world system
with a great illumination. This great illumination from the light rays spread out through as many world systems as there are
sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the east, pervading them with a great illumination and lighting them up. Similarly, this
illumination from the light rays spread out through each of as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā
River to the south, west, and north, in the intermediate directions to the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest,
below and above, and lit them up. And all the beings who saw that light, who were touched by the illumination of those light
rays, became irreversible from unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

Then the Lord, with the light from the natural splendor of a tathāgata, pervaded the great billionfold world system
with a great illumination. He pervaded as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the east with
this great illumination, and he similarly pervaded each of as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā
River to the south, west, and north, in the intermediate directions to the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest,
below and above, with this great illumination. And all the beings who saw that light, who were touched by the illumination of
those light rays, became irreversible from unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

Thereupon the Lord extended his tongue and with it covered the great billionfold world system in its entirety. Having pervaded the great billionfold world system with his
tongue, he smiled, and from his tongue again many hundred thousand one hundred million billion variously colored rays issued
forth, and on all the light rays stood lotuses made of manifold precious stones, shining like gold, each with a thousand
petals, variegated, beautiful, captivating, brilliant, fragrant, and soft, all completely like the
kācalindika,
pleasing to the touch. On the lotuses, furthermore, were seated many embodied tathāgatas, teaching Dharma—this very teaching
of Dharma associated with the six perfections. They went to as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā
River to the east and taught Dharma—this very teaching of Dharma associated with the perfection of wisdom—and similarly, to
each of as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the south, west, and north, in the
intermediate directions to the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest, below and above, and taught Dharma—this very
teaching of Dharma associated with the six perfections. And all the beings who listened to that Dharma became irreversible
from unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.

Then the Lord, seated on that very lion throne, entered into the meditative stabilization called
siṃhavikrīḍita. He enacted such a performance with his miraculous power that his performance of
miraculous power shook the great billionfold world system in six ways: it shook, shook greatly, and shook violently; it
quaked, quaked greatly, and quaked violently; it stirred, stirred greatly, and stirred violently; it became disturbed, greatly
disturbed, and violently disturbed; it roared, roared greatly,
and roared violently; and it resounded, resounded greatly, and resounded violently. At the edges it rose up and it sank down
in the middle; in the middle it rose up and at the edges sank down. It became soft and oily, producing benefit and ease for
all beings. Thereupon, at that moment, minute, and second, in the great billionfold world system the continuums of the hells
and the animal world, and the world of Yama, were all cut. And all the places that preclude a perfect human birth disappeared.
All those beings were reborn among humans, and also among the Cāturmahārājika, Trāyastriṃśa, Yāma, Tuṣita, Nirmāṇarati, and
Paranirmitavaśavartin gods.

Thereupon, in their great joy and rejoicing these humans and gods recalled their former lives, and having recalled
them approached the Lord, bowed to his feet with their heads, cupped their palms together in a gesture of prayerful
supplication, and bowed forward. And so too in each of the ten directions, in as many world systems as there are sand
particles in the Gaṅgā River to the east, to the south, west, and north, in the intermediate directions, and below and above,
the continuums of the hells, animal worlds, and the worlds of Yama in as many world systems as there are sand particles in the
Gaṅgā River were all cut too. And all the places precluding a perfect human birth disappeared. All those beings were reborn
among humans and the gods. Thereupon these humans and gods recalled their former lives. In their great joy and rejoicing they
then approached the buddhas in their respective buddhafields, bowed to their feet with their heads, and with palms together in a gesture of prayerful supplication bowed
forward.

Then, in the great billionfold world system, the beings who were born blind saw forms with their eyes, the deaf
heard sounds with their ears, the insane regained their senses, those with distracted thoughts became one-pointed in their
thoughts, the naked found clothes, the poor found wealth, the hungry found food, the thirsty found drink, the sick were
healed, the sense faculties of those with damaged sense faculties were repaired, and the physically exhausted became no longer
exhausted. Those who had not given up unwholesome deeds of body, speech, and mind, and unwholesome livelihood, gave up their
unwholesome habits. All beings considered every being in the same way as they considered their mother, father, brother, and
sister, and as they considered their friends, kinsmen, and blood relatives. And they were endowed with the ten wholesome
actions and became celibate, pure, free from the stain of immorality, and free from all unwholesome conceptualization. And at
that time all beings, possessed of all happiness, acquired the ease a monk feels when absorbed in the third concentration. And
at that very time they were endowed with such knowledge that they knew, “Good is charity! Good is self-discipline! Good is
restraint! Good it is to observe celibacy! Good is nonviolence toward living creatures!” And at that time the lord buddhas in other buddhafields cried out cries of delight: “Ah! It
is amazing these beings are thus endowed with such knowledge that knows, ‘Good is charity! Good is self-discipline! Good is
restraint! Good it is to observe celibacy! Good is nonviolence toward living creatures!’ ”

Thereupon the Lord, seated on this very lion throne, stood out towering over the great billionfold world system with
Sumeru, the encircling mountain ranges, the abodes of the gods, Indra, Brahmā, Vaśavartin, Śuddhāvāsa, and the classes of gods
and asuras, shining forth, gleaming,
dazzling, and shedding light with his light, color, brilliance, and glory in the same way as, for example, a strong sun or the
disk of a full moon in a clear sky.

So too the Lord stood out towering over as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the
east with his light, color, brilliance, and glory. Similarly the Lord stood out towering over as many world systems as there
are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the south, west, and north, in the intermediate directions, and below and above—in
each of the ten directions—shining forth, gleaming, dazzling, and shedding light with his light, color, brilliance, and glory
in the same way as, for example, Sumeru, the king of mountains, stands out towering over all mountains, shining forth,
gleaming, dazzling, and shedding light; or in the same way as, for example, the disk of the moon towers over all the stars,
shining forth, gleaming, dazzling, and shedding light; or in the same way as, for example, the disk of the sun stands out towering over all other lights, shining forth,
gleaming, dazzling, and shedding light. So too the Lord stands out towering over world systems in the ten directions with
their gods, Indras, Brahmās, Śuddhāvāsas, and the classes of gods and humans, shining forth, gleaming, dazzling, and shedding
light with his light, color, brilliance, and glory.

Thereupon the Lord exhibited an ordinary bodily form, like that of beings in the great billionfold world system.
Then in the great billionfold world system all the gods, from the gods of the Śuddhāvāsa class down to the Brahmakāyika,
Paranirmitavaśavartin, Nirmāṇarati, Tuṣita, Yāma, Trāyastriṃśa, and Cāturmahārājika gods saw the body of the Tathāgata you
can never see enough. Feeling contented, pleased, delighted, joyful, and joyous, with such mental
happiness they took celestial flowers, celestial garlands, celestial incense, celestial creams, celestial powders, and
celestial perfumes; celestial blue lotuses, lotuses, red lotuses, white lotuses, nalina lilies and saugandhaka lilies;
celestial flowers, nāgavṛkṣa flowers, and tamāla leaves; and celestial robes, celestial jewelry, celestial parasols, flags,
and banners and approached the Lord. Those humans to be trained, in the form of recipients seated in the great billionfold
world system, saw the body of the Tathāgata you can never see enough, took land and water flowers, and approached the body of
the Tathāgata you can never see enough. Both gods and humans
then strewed near, strewed in front, and strewed all around the body of the
Tathāgata these celestial flowers, incense, perfumes, garlands, creams, powders, robes, parasols, flags, banners, and land and
water flowers.

By the sustaining power of the Lord all this rain of flowers, incense, perfumes, garlands, creams, powders, robes,
parasols, flags, banners, and land and water flowers that was strewed down on the Lord stayed there like a second story made
of flowers and so on, with the dimensions of the great billionfold world system, in the sky right above the Lord’s head. And
from this second story tassels made of celestial flowers and silk were suspended, hanging there, hanging right there, and
these tassels made of celestial flowers and silk made the great billionfold world system look very beautiful. And the brightly
shining golden color of the Lord streaming forth in the ten directions pervaded and lit up as many world systems as there are
sand particles in the Gaṅgā River in each direction. This thought then occurred to each of the gods and humans in all the
Jambudvīpa world systems in the great billionfold world system: “The Tathāgata is seated in front of us teaching the Dharma.”
Similarly, this thought occurred to the gods in the Godānīyas to the west, Videhas to the east, and Kurus to the north, to the
Cāturmahārājika gods up to the Akaniṣṭha gods, and
similarly to all thegods and humans in a thousandfold [four-continent] world system, in a millionfold world system, or in a
great billionfold world system: “The Tathāgata is seated in
front of us teaching the Dharma.”

Thereupon the Lord, seated on this very lion throne, smiled once again. Through the illumination from that smile the
great billionfold world system was lit up, and all the beings seated in the great billionfold world system saw the Lord
Buddha, together with his śrāvaka saṅgha, in as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the east.
And all those beings seated in as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the east saw the Lord
Śākyamuni, together with his community of monks, in this Sahā world system.

Similarly, the beings included in this Sahā world system saw the Lord Buddha, together with his śrāvaka saṅgha, in
as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the south, west, and north, in the intermediate
directions to the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest, below and above. And all those beings seated in as many
world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River as well saw this Sahā world system and the Lord Śākyamuni,
together with his community of monks.

In the east, beyond as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River, at the very limit of these
world systems, there is a world system called Ratnāvatī. In it the tathāgata, worthy one, perfectly complete buddha Ratnākara
now dwells and maintains himself. He teaches to the bodhisattvas this very perfection of wisdom. Then, in that world system a bodhisattva, a great being, called Samantaraśmi
saw this great illumination, this great shaking of the earth, and the body of the Lord you can never see enough, and he
approached the lord Ratnākara, the tathāgata, and inquired of the tathāgata Ratnākara, “What is the cause, O Lord, what is the
reason for this great illumination having manifested in the world, and for this great shaking of the earth, and for the
presence of the body of the Tathāgata you can never see enough?”

The lord Ratnākara replied to the bodhisattva Samantaraśmi, “There is, child of a good family, beyond as many world
systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River in the western direction, a world system called Sahā. There the
tathāgata Śākyamuni now dwells and maintains himself, also teaching the Dharma to the bodhisattvas. This sort of thing is his
power.”

Then the bodhisattva Samantaraśmi said to the tathāgata Ratnākara, “I will go to that Sahā world system to see,
salute, and honor that tathāgata Śākyamuni, and to see those bodhisattva great beings, for the most part in the form of the
young, who have acquired the dhāraṇīs and detailed and thorough knowledges and acquired mastery over all the meditative
stabilizations and absorptions.”

The Lord replied, “Go then, child of a good family, since you feel that now is the right time.”

Thereupon the tathāgata Ratnākara gave the bodhisattva Samantaraśmi a thousand lotuses made of manifold jewels, each with a thousand petals shining like
gold, saying, “Child of a good family, strew these lotuses over the tathāgata Śākyamuni. Be on your best behavior in that buddhafield. And why? Because the bodhisattvas
born in that Sahā world system are difficult to approach.”

Thereupon the bodhisattva Samantaraśmi received from the tathāgata Ratnākara the lotuses made of manifold jewels,
each with a thousand petals shining like gold. Surrounded by, and at the head of, many hundred thousand one hundred million
billion bodhisattvas, householders and renunciates, young men and women, he disappeared together with them from that
buddhafield and, having respected, revered, honored, and worshiped as many lords as there are dwelling and maintaining
themselves in the east with flowers, incense, perfumes, garlands, creams, powders, robes, parasols, flags, and banners,
arrived there in the Sahā world through that bodhisattva’s great wonder-working and that bodhisattva’s great power. He
approached the tathāgata Śākyamuni, went up to him, bowed to the Lord’s feet with his head, and stood to one side. The
bodhisattva Samantaraśmi then addressed the Lord, the tathāgata Śākyamuni: “The lord Ratnākara inquires about the Lord’s
health, hopes that the Lord is well and free from sickness, alert and buoyant, eating well, strong, and comfortable. The lord Ratnākara has also dispatched these lotuses for the
Lord.”

The lord tathāgata Śākyamuni accepted the lotuses and threw them back to the lord buddhas in as many world systems
as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the east. Those lotuses spread throughout those world systems, and on them
were seated buddha bodies. In those buddhafields they taught Dharma—this very teaching of Dharma associated with the six
perfections. And the beings who heard that Dharma became certain to reach unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. Thereupon
those bodhisattvas, the householders and renunciates, young men and women, each one by virtue of his or her own wholesome
roots, respected, revered, honored, and worshiped the lord Śākyamuni and sat down on one side.

Then in the south, beyond as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River, at the very limit of
these world systems, there is a world system called Sarvaśokāpagata. In it the tathāgata, worthy one, perfectly complete
buddha Aśokaśrī now dwells and maintains himself. Then, in that world system a bodhisattva, a great being, called Vigatāśoka
and so on. Connect to the previous, at length, up to and
sat down on one side.

Then in the west there is a world system called Upaśānta. In it the tathāgata, worthy one, perfectly complete buddha
Ratnārcis now dwells and maintains himself. Then, in that world system a bodhisattva, a great being, called Cāritramati
and so on, at length, up to and sat down on one side.

Then in the north there is a world system called
Jayā. In it the tathāgata, worthy one, perfectly complete buddha Jayendra now dwells and maintains himself. Then, in that
world system a bodhisattva, a great being, called Jayadatta and so on, at length, up to and sat down on
one side.

Then in the intermediate northeast direction there is a world system called Samādhyalaṃkṛtā. In it the tathāgata,
worthy one, perfectly complete buddha Samādhihastyuttaraśrī now dwells and maintains himself. Then, in that world system a
bodhisattva, a great being, called Vijayavikrāmin and so on, at length, up to and sat down on one
side.

Then in the intermediate southeast direction there is a world system called Bodhimaṇḍalālaṃkārasurucitā. In it
the tathāgata, worthy one, perfectly complete buddha Padmottaraśrī now dwells and maintains himself. Then, in that world
system a bodhisattva, a great being, called Padmahasta and so on, at length, up to and sat down on one
side.

Then in the intermediate southwest direction there is a world system called Vigatarajasaṃcayā. In it the tathāgata,
worthy one, perfectly complete buddha Sūryamaṇḍalaprabhāsottaraśrī now dwells and maintains himself. Then, in that world
system a bodhisattva, a great being, called Sūryapratibhāsa and so on, at length, up to and sat down on
one side.

Then in the intermediate northwest direction there is a world system called Vaśībhūtā. In it the tathāgata, worthy
one, perfectly complete buddha Ekachattra now dwells and
maintains himself. Then, in that world system a bodhisattva, a great being, called Ratnottama and so on, at length,
up to and sat down on one side.

Then in the direction below there is a world system called Padmā. In it the tathāgata, worthy one, perfectly
complete buddha Padmaśrī now dwells and maintains himself. Then, in that world system a bodhisattva, a great being, called
Padmottama and so on, at length, up to and sat down on one side.

Then in the direction above, beyond as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River, at the
very limit of these world systems, there is a world system called Nandā. In it the tathāgata, worthy one,
perfectly complete buddha Nandaśrī now dwells and maintains himself. Then, in that world system a bodhisattva, a great being,
called Nandadatta, saw this great illumination, this great shaking of the earth, and the body of the Lord you can never see
enough, and he approached the lord Nandaśrī, the tathāgata, and inquired of the tathāgata Nandaśrī, “What is the cause, O
Lord, what is the reason for this great illumination being manifested in the world, and for this great shaking of the earth,
and for the presence of the body of the Tathāgata you can never see enough?”

The lord Nandaśrī replied to the bodhisattva Nandadatta, “There is, O child of a good family, beyond as many world
systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River in the direction below a world system called Sahā. There the tathāgata
arhat, perfectly complete buddha Śākyamuni now dwells and
maintains himself, also teaching the Dharma to the bodhisattvas. This sort of thing is his power.”

Then the bodhisattva Nandadatta said to the tathāgata Nandaśrī, “I will go to that Sahā world system to see, salute,
and honor that tathāgata Śākyamuni, and to see those bodhisattva great beings, for the most part in the form of the young, who
have acquired the dhāraṇīs and detailed and thorough knowledges and have acquired mastery over all the meditative
stabilizations and absorptions.”

The Lord replied, “Go then, child of a good family, since you feel that now is the right time.”

Thereupon the tathāgata Nandaśrī gave the bodhisattva Nandadatta a thousand lotuses made of manifold jewels, each
with a thousand petals shining like gold, saying, “These lotuses, child of a good family, strew over the tathāgata Śākyamuni.
Be on your best behavior in that buddhafield. And why? Because the bodhisattvas born in that Sahā world system are difficult
to approach.”

Thereupon the bodhisattva Nandadatta received from the tathāgata Nandaśrī the lotuses made of manifold jewels, each
with a thousand petals shining like gold. Surrounded by and at the head of many hundred thousand one hundred million billion
bodhisattvas, householders and renunciates, and young men and women, he disappeared together with them from that buddhafield,
and, having respected, revered, honored, and worshiped as many lords as there are dwelling and maintaining themselves in the
direction above with flowers, incense, perfumes, garlands,
creams, powders, robes, parasols, flags, and banners, arrived there in the Sahā world through that bodhisattva’s great
wonder-working and that bodhisattva’s great power. He approached the tathāgata Śākyamuni, went up to him, bowed to the Lord’s
feet with his head, and stood to one side. The bodhisattva Nandadatta then addressed the lord, the tathāgata Śākyamuni: “The
lord Nandaśrī inquires about the Lord’s health, hopes that the Lord is well and free from sickness, alert and buoyant, eating
well, strong, and comfortable. The lord Nandaśrī has also dispatched these lotuses for the Lord.”

The lord tathāgata Śākyamuni accepted the lotuses and threw them back to the lords, the buddhas in as many world
systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River in the direction above. Those lotuses spread throughout those world
systems, and on them were seated buddha bodies. In those buddhafields they demonstrated Dharma—this very demonstration of
Dharma associated with the perfection of wisdom. And the beings who heard that Dharma became irreversible from unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. Thereupon those bodhisattvas, the householders and
renunciates, young men and women, each one by virtue of his or her own wholesome roots respected, revered, honored, and worshiped the lord Śākyamuni and sat down on one
side.

Thereupon, at that moment, minute, and second, the great billionfold world system became constituted of jewels,
filled with various blossoms, hung with clusters of silk streamers, made fragrant with incense pots, and beautified with
wish-fulfilling trees whose stem-tips bend down with ornaments and fruit, and with flower trees,
fruit trees, fragrance trees, flower-garland trees, and powder trees, just like Padmavatī, the buddhafield of the tathāgata
Samantakusuma where Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta lives, as well as the god Susthitamati, and others who are magnificent bodhisattva
great beings.

This was the first chapter, “Introduction,” of “The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen
Thousand Lines.”

Chapter 2: Production of the Thought

When the Lord understood that the world with its celestial beings, Māras and Brahmās, śramaṇas and brahmins, gods and
humans, as well as bodhisattvas, most of them in youthful form, had assembled, he said to venerable Śāriputra, “Here,
Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms should make an effort at the
perfection of wisdom.”

The Lord having spoken thus, venerable Śāriputra inquired of him, “How then, Lord, should bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms make
an effort at the perfection of wisdom?”

Venerable Śāriputra having thus inquired, the Lord said to him, “Śāriputra, here bodhisattva great beings, having
stood in the perfection of wisdom by way of not taking their stand on it, should complete the perfection of giving by way
of not giving up anything, because a gift, a giver, and a recipient are not apprehended. They should also complete the
perfection of morality because no downfall is incurred and no compounded downfall is incurred, the perfection of patience
because there is no disturbance, the perfection of perseverance because there is no physical or mental effort expended, the
perfection of concentration because there is no experience, and the perfection of wisdom because all phenomena are not
apprehended.

“Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings, having stood in the perfection of wisdom, should perfect the four applications
of mindfulness because
mindfulness cannot be apprehended, and they should perfect the four right efforts, four legs of miraculous power, five
faculties, five powers, seven limbs of awakening, and eightfold noble path. They should cultivate the emptiness meditative
stabilization, signlessness meditative stabilization, and wishlessness meditative stabilization. They should cultivate the
four concentrations, four immeasurables, four formless absorptions, eight deliverances, nine serial absorptions, and nine perceptions. What are the nine? The nine perceptions
are the perception of a bloated corpse, the perception of it chopped in half, the perception of it as putrid, the bloodied
perception, the black-and-blue perception, the savaged perception, the torn-asunder perception, the bones perception, and the
burnt-bones perception. They should cultivate mindfulness of the Buddha, mindfulness of the Dharma, mindfulness of the Saṅgha,
mindfulness of morality, mindfulness of giving away, and mindfulness of the gods. They should cultivate mindfulness of
breathing in and out, mindfulness of disgust, mindfulness of death, and mindfulness of what is included in the body. They
should perfect the perception of impermanence, the perception of suffering, the perception of selflessness, the perception of
the unclean, the perception of death, the perception that there is no delight in the entire world, and the perception that
there is nothing to trust in the entire world; knowledge of suffering, knowledge of origination, knowledge of cessation,
knowledge of the path, knowledge of extinction, knowledge of nonproduction, knowledge of dharma, subsequent realization knowledge, conventional knowledge, knowledge of mastery,
and knowledge in accord with sound; and meditative stabilization with applied and sustained thought, meditative
stabilization without applied thought but with sustained thought, meditative stabilization without either applied or sustained
thought, what one does not understand, the faculty of understanding, the faculty of having understood, the stations of
mastery, the stations of complete
immersion, the four
ways of gathering a retinue, the four
presentations, the ten levels and ten
practices, the ten forbearances, the twenty surpassing
aspirations, the knowledge
of a knower of all, the knowledge of calm abiding and insight, the three
knowledges, the four detailed and thorough knowledges, the
four fearlessnesses, the five undiminished clairvoyances, the six perfections, the six principles of being liked, the seven riches, the eight ways great persons think, the nine places
beings live, the ten tathāgata powers, the eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha, great love, and great compassion.

“Bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to the knowledge, furnished with the best of all aspects, of a
knower of all aspects, who want to perfect the knowledge of all path aspects, who want to perfect all-knowledge, and who want to
perfect the knowledge of the aspects of the thought activity of all beings should make an effort at the perfection of wisdom.
Bodhisattva great beings who want to destroy all residual impressions, connections, and afflictions should make an effort at the
perfection of wisdom.

“Śāriputra, thus should bodhisattva great beings train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to enter into the secure state of a bodhisattva, who want to
pass beyond the level of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, who want to stand on the irreversible level, who want to know the
activity and continual movement of the thoughts of all beings, who want to surpass the knowledge of śrāvakas and
pratyekabuddhas, who want to acquire the dhāraṇī gateways, and who want to surpass gift-giving to
all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas by producing a single thought with associated rejoicing should train in the perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to surpass
the morality of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas by producing a single thought with associated rejoicing should train in the perfection of wisdom.
Bodhisattva great beings who want to surpass the meditative stabilization, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge and seeing of
liberation of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas by producing a single thought with associated rejoicing should train in the
perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to surpass the concentrations, meditative stabilizations, and
absorptions of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas by producing a single thought with associated rejoicing should train in the
perfection of wisdom.

“Bodhisattva great beings who, for the sake of all beings, want giving even a little gift to become immeasurable and
incalculable by turning it over to all-knowledge with skillful means should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly,
bodhisattva great beings who, for the sake of all beings, want even the little morality they have guarded, the little patience
they have developed, the little effort they have exerted, the little concentration they have become absorbed in, and the
little wisdom they have developed to become immeasurable and incalculable by turning them over to all-knowledge with skillful
means should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings
practicing the perfection of giving should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly, bodhisattva great beings practicing
the perfection of morality, the perfection of patience, the perfection of perseverance, the perfection of concentration, and
the perfection of wisdom should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to thoroughly establish a buddha’s body should train in the
perfection of wisdom. If they want to acquire the thirty-two major marks and the eighty minor signs of a great person, they
should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to be born in the buddha’s line should train in the
perfection of wisdom. Bodhisattva great beings who want to step onto the heir apparent’s level, and want never to be without
the buddhas and bodhisattvas, should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, were bodhisattva great beings to feel this longing—‘May I be richly endowed with the wholesome
roots with which I will respect, revere, honor, and worship the tathāgatas, the worthy ones, the perfectly complete lord
buddhas’—they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to satisfy all the desires of all
beings with requirements such as food, drink, flowers, perfume, garments, flower garlands, incense, powders, creams, bedding,
seats, houses, money, grain, medicines for relief of sickness, ornaments, jewels, gems,
beryl, conch shells, crystals,
corals, parks, and kingdoms should train in the perfection of
wisdom. Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to establish all beings in a world as vast as the
dharma-constituent and as far reaching as the space element in the perfection of giving, and who want to establish them in the
perfection of morality, the perfection of patience, the perfection of perseverance, the perfection of concentration, and the
perfection of wisdom, should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to make a single wholesome thought of awakening
inexhaustible until reaching complete awakening at the site of
awakening should train
in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who think, ‘May the buddhas in the ten directions praise me,’ should
train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want, through a single production of the thought, to approach as many world systems in the
eastern direction as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly,
bodhisattva great beings who want, through a single production of the thought, to approach as many world systems as there are
sand particles in the Gaṅgā River in each of the southern, western, northern, northeastern, southeastern, southwestern, and
northwestern directions, and below and above, should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want by uttering a single sound to instruct as many world systems
in the eastern direction as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly,
bodhisattva great beings who want by uttering a single sound to instruct as many world systems as there are sand particles in
the Gaṅgā River in each of the southern, western, northern, northeastern, southeastern, southwestern, and northwestern
directions, and below and above, should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to ensure that the line of buddhas will be unbroken should
train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to stand in inner emptiness should train in the perfection
of wisdom. Similarly, bodhisattva great beings who want to stand in outer emptiness, inner and outer emptiness, the emptiness
of emptiness, great emptiness, the emptiness of ultimate reality, the emptiness of the compounded, the emptiness of the
uncompounded, the emptiness of what transcends limits, the emptiness of no beginning and no end, the emptiness of
nonrepudiation, the emptiness of a basic nature, the emptiness of all dharmas, the emptiness of its
own mark, the emptiness of not apprehending, the emptiness of a nonexistent
thing, the emptiness of an intrinsic nature, and the emptiness that is the nonexistence of an intrinsic nature should train in
the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend the suchness of all dharmas, the suchness of
the dharma-constituent, and the suchness of the very limit of reality should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to know how many tiny particles of earth there are in the
great billionfold world system; who want to know the tiny particles of water in the oceans, torrents, lakes, ponds, wells, and rivulets; who want to know the tiny
particles of fire; and who want to know the tiny particles of wind in all the world systems in the great billionfold world
system should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to blow out with one puff of breath the fire in the great
billionfold world system when the eon is burning up should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to blunt with the tip of one finger the force of the
whirling, shaking circle of wind as it is circulating in the great billionfold world system, rocking, scattering, and
pervasively shaking every mountain and the entire earth starting with the axial mountain Sumeru, the great Sumeru, the
encircling mountain ranges, and the great encircling mountain ranges should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings thinking, ‘I should toss immeasurable world systems by bundling up
every mountain there is in the great billionfold world system—the axial mountain Sumeru, the great Sumeru, the encircling
mountain ranges, the great encircling mountain ranges, and so on—with a single strand of hair,’ should train in the perfection
of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want their single cross-legged posture to expand into and fill up
the space of the great billionfold world system in its entirety should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who
want with a single begging bowl to distribute food to each of
the lord buddhas, together with their śrāvaka saṅghas, in as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River
to the east should train in the perfection of wisdom; and similarly, bodhisattva great beings who want to respect, want to
revere, want to honor, and want to worship those tathāgatas, worthy ones, perfectly complete buddhas with clouds of flowers,
incense, perfumes, garlands of flowers, creams, aromatic powders, clothes, parasols, flags, and banners should train in the
perfection of wisdom. Similarly, bodhisattva great beings who want with a single alms bowl to distribute food to each of the
lord buddhas, together with their śrāvaka saṅghas, in each of as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā
River to the south, west, and north, in the intermediate directions to the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest, and
below and above, and similarly want to respect, want to revere, want to honor, and want to worship with clouds of flowers,
incense, perfumes, garlands of flowers, creams, aromatic powders, clothes, parasols, flags, and streamers those tathāgatas,
worthy ones, perfectly complete buddhas should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to establish beings in as many world systems as there are
sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the east in the aggregate of morality; who want to establish them in the aggregate of meditative stabilization, in the aggregate of wisdom, in
the aggregate of liberation, and in the aggregate of knowledge and seeing of liberation; and similarly want to establish them
in the result of stream enterer, once-returner, and non-returner, in the state of a worthy one, in a pratyekabuddha’s
awakening, up to in the element of nirvāṇa without any aggregates left behind should train in the
perfection of wisdom. As with the east, also connect this with as many world systems as there are sand
particles in the Gaṅgā River in the south, west, and north, in the intermediate directions to the northeast, southeast,
southwest, and northwest, and below and above.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom should know, when giving a gift,
that having given such a gift there is a great result: having given such a gift, they will be born in great sāla tree–like
royal families, and similarly in great sāla tree–like brahmin families, and in great sāla tree–like business families; having
given such a gift they will be born among the Cāturmahārājika gods, and similarly, born among the gods of Trāyastriṃśa, Yāma,
Tuṣita, and Nirmāṇarati; having given such a gift, they will reach the first concentration, and similarly reach the second
concentration and the third concentration; having given such a gift they will reach the fourth concentration; having given
such a gift they will reach the station of the nonperception absorption; having given such a gift they will reach the station of the endless-space absorption, and similarly,
having given such a gift, they will reach the station of endless consciousness and the station of the nothing-at-all
absorption; having given such a gift they will reach the station of the neither perception nor nonperception absorption; and
having given such a gift they will acquire the thirty-seven dharmas on the side of awakening, and similarly they will reach
the result of stream enterer, and reach the result of once-returner, the result of non-returner, and the state of a worthy
one.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom should know that a gift thus
given with skillful means completes the perfection of giving, and similarly completes the perfection of morality, the
perfection of patience, the perfection of perseverance, the perfection of concentration, and the perfection of wisdom.”

The Lord having spoken thus, venerable Śāriputra then inquired of him, “How, Lord, does the perfection of giving
become complete when bodhisattva great beings are giving a gift? How do the perfection of morality,
the perfection of patience, the perfection of perseverance, the perfection of concentration, and the perfection of wisdom
become complete when bodhisattva great beings are giving a gift?”

Venerable Śāriputra having thus inquired, the Lord said to him, “Śāriputra, the perfection of giving is completed by
way of the purity of the three spheres, not apprehending a gift, giver, or recipient; the perfection of morality is completed
because no downfall is incurred and no compounded downfall is incurred; the perfection of patience is completed because of not being disturbed; the perfection of
perseverance is completed because of not expending physical or mental effort; the perfection of concentration is completed
because of not being distracted and not constructing any ideas; and the perfection of wisdom is completed by way of not
apprehending the knowledge of all dharmas. Thus, Śāriputra, when bodhisattvas give a gift like that, the six perfections are completed. Similarly all six perfections are completed in the
perfection of morality, and similarly all six perfections are completed in the perfection of patience, the perfection of
perseverance, the perfection of concentration, and the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to acquire all the buddha qualities of the past, future, and
present lord buddhas should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to transcend all compounded and uncompounded phenomena
should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to comprehend the suchness of all past, future, and present
dharmas, and similarly, who want to reach the dharma-constituent, the limit of the absence of production,
should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to be foremost among śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to be attendants of the lord buddhas should train in the
perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to be in the inner circle of the lord buddhas should train
in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to be in the inner retinue of the lord buddhas should train
in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to have a large retinue should train in the perfection of
wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to purify a donation should train in the perfection of
wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to stop miserly thoughts should train in the perfection of
wisdom, and similarly, those who want to prevent immoral thoughts from arising, who want to prevent malicious thoughts from
arising, who want to quit having lazy thoughts, who want to quit having distracted thoughts, and who want to quit having
confused thoughts should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to establish all beings in the bases of meritorious
action
arisen from giving, and who want to establish all beings in the bases of meritorious action arisen from morality, arisen from
meditation, that accompany service, and arisen from material things should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to produce the five eyes should train in the perfection of
wisdom. And what are the five eyes? They are the flesh eye,
divine eye, wisdom eye, dharma eye, and buddha eye. If they want to produce them, they should train in the perfection of
wisdom. Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to see with their divine eye as many buddhas and lords as there
are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River to the east should train in the perfection of wisdom, and similarly, if they want to see
with their divine eye as many buddhas and lords as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River in the south, west, and north,
in the intermediate directions to the northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest, and below and above they should train in
the perfection of wisdom. If they want to hear with their divine ear the doctrine those buddhas and lords explain they should
train in the perfection of wisdom, and if they want to comprehend with their mind the thought of those buddhas and lords
exactly as it is they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to hear the entire doctrine that the lord buddhas in all
world systems in all ten directions explain, and having heard it take it up perfectly by applying the power of memory
uninterruptedly, and who do not want any to be lost up until they awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening should
train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to see the buddhafields of past buddhas and lords, and of
future buddhas and lords as well, and who want to see the buddhafields of present buddhas and lords now dwelling and
maintaining themselves in world systems in all ten directions
should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to master all that the tathāgatas have taught in
discourses, melodious narrations, predictions, verses, summaries,
introductions, accounts, birth stories, expanded texts, marvels, tales, and
expositions, and what has not been heard by śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas, should train in the perfection of
wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to take up all that the lord buddhas in the eastern
direction have said, are saying, and will say, who want to bear it in mind, who want to read it aloud, and similarly who want
to practice it and want to elaborate upon it in detail for others, should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly, if
they want to take up all that the lord buddhas in the southern, western, northern, northeastern, southeastern, southwestern,
and northwestern directions, below and above, have said, are saying, and will say, want to bear it in mind, want to read it
aloud, and similarly want to practice it and want to elaborate upon it in detail for others, they should train in the
perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to shine down on the blinding darkness where the sun and
moon do not shine, in as many world systems in the eastern
direction as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River, should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly, if they want to
shine light down on the blinding darkness where the sun and moon do not shine, in as many world systems as there are sand
particles in the Gaṅgā River in the southern, western, northern, northeastern, southeastern, southwestern, and northwestern
directions, below and above, they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to proclaim to all the beings born in various buddhafields
in as many world systems in the eastern direction as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River the word
Buddha, the word Dharma, and the word Saṅgha, and who want
to establish them in right view, should train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly, bodhisattva great beings who want to
proclaim the words Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha and establish in
right view beings in as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River in the southern, western, northern,
northeastern, southeastern, southwestern, and northwestern directions, below and above, where there is no sound of the words
Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha, or right view,
should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want beings who are blind, in as many world systems in the
eastern direction as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River, to see shapes with their eyes through their might should
train in the perfection of wisdom. Similarly, thinking, ‘May
those who are deaf hear sounds with their ears, those who have gone mad regain their senses, the naked be clothed, hungry
beings have their fill, the thirsty quench their thirst, beings who are stuck in terrible forms of life be freed from all the
terrible forms of life and gain birth as humans, and may I establish the immoral in the aggregate of morality’; and similarly,
thinking, ‘May I establish those who are not stabilized in meditation in the aggregate of meditative stabilization, in the
aggregate of wisdom, in the aggregate of liberation, and in the aggregate of knowledge and seeing of liberation’; and
thinking, ‘May I establish those who do not see the truths in the result of stream enterer’; and thinking, ‘May I establish
them in the result of once-returner, the result of non-returner, the state of a worthy one, in a pratyekabuddha’s awakening,
and in unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening,’ they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Similarly, bodhisattva great beings who want beings who are blind, in as many world systems as there are sand
particles in the Gaṅgā River in the southern, western, northern, northeastern, southeastern, southwestern, and northwestern
directions, below and above, to see shapes with their eyes through their might should train in the perfection of wisdom.
Similarly, thinking, ‘May those who are deaf hear sounds with their ears, those who have gone mad regain their senses, the
naked be clothed, hungry beings have their fill, the thirsty quench their thirst, beings who are stuck in terrible forms of
life be freed from all the terrible forms of life and gain birth as humans, and may I establish the immoral in the aggregate
of morality’; and similarly, thinking, ‘May I establish those who are not stabilized in meditation in the aggregate of
meditative stabilization, in the aggregate of wisdom, in the
aggregate of liberation, and in the aggregate of knowledge and seeing of liberation’; and thinking, ‘May I establish those who
do not see the truths in the result of stream enterer’; and thinking, ‘May I establish them in the result of once-returner,
the result of non-returner, the state of a worthy one, in a pratyekabuddha’s awakening, and in unsurpassed, perfect, complete
awakening,’ they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to train in the tathāgatas’ way of carrying themselves
should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom should contemplate like this:
‘When, oh when, will I look down as an elephant looks? How will it come to be that I will walk on the earth without my feet
touching it by the measure of four fingers?’ Thinking thus, they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom should contemplate like this as
well: ‘How will it come to be that I, surrounded by and at the head of many hundred thousand one hundred million billion
Cāturmahārājika gods, and Trāyastriṃśa, Yāma, Tuṣita, Nirmāṇarati, Paranirmitavaśavartin, Brahmapurohita, Brahmakāyika,
Brahmapārṣadya, Parīttābha, Apramāṇābha, Ābhāsvara, Parīttaśubha, Apramāṇaśubha, Śubhakṛtsna, Bṛhatphala, Śuddhāvāsa, Sudṛśa, Sudarśana, Avṛha, Atapa, and Akaniṣṭha gods, go
forth to the site of awakening?’ Thinking thus, they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom should contemplate like this as
well: ‘How will it come to be that the Cāturmahārājika gods, up to the Akaniṣṭha class, spread out my seat at the root of the
tree at the site of awakening?’ Thinking thus, they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom should contemplate like this as
well: ‘How will it come to be that this region of the earth on which I will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete
awakening, and walk, stand, sit, or lie down, become all diamond?’ Thinking thus, they should train
in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom should contemplate like this as
well: ‘How will it come to be that on that very day that I go forth I will fully awaken, on that very day, to
unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening, and, having fully awakened on that very day, that I will turn the wheel of the
Dharma so that, having turned it, dust-free and stainless, the Dharma eye of countless beings beyond measure will become clear
about the dharmas, countless beings beyond measure will stop appropriating anything and their minds will become freed from
outflows, and countless beings beyond measure will not turn back from unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening?’ Thinking
thus, they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Moreover, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom should contemplate like this as
well: ‘How will I come to have a community of countless śrāvakas beyond measure? How through my one single teaching of the
Dharma will countless beings beyond measure become worthy
ones in one sitting, become bodhisattvas in one sitting, become bodhisattvas who will not turn back from unsurpassed, perfect,
complete awakening? How will I come to have an infinite community of bodhisattvas, a measure of life that is infinite, and
infinite splendid light?’ Thinking thus, they should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Bodhisattva great beings thinking, ‘How will there come to be not even the sound of the words
greed, hatred, and confusion in any way at all in that
buddhafield where I fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening?’ should train in the perfection of wisdom.

“Bodhisattva great beings thinking, ‘How will all beings in that buddhafield where I fully awaken to unsurpassed,
perfect, complete awakening come to be endowed with the form of wisdom that knows “giving is good, discipline is good,
restraint is good, celibacy is good, nonviolence toward all creatures and spirits is good”?; bodhisattva great beings
thinking, ‘After I have passed into complete nirvāṇa, how will it come to be that there are not even the words
disappearance of the good Dharma?’; bodhisattva great beings thinking, ‘How will it come to be that
just from hearing my name beings present in as many world systems as there are sand particles in the Gaṅgā River become
assured of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening?’—they should train in the perfection of wisdom.