Toh 2335An Explanation of [Āryadeva’s] “One Hundred Essential Verses Bestowing Understanding”
Pāli / Sanskrit:Pratipattisāraśatakavivaraṇa
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An Explanation of the Treatise on the One Hundred Verses of the Most Essential Practice
Background
This work is a detailed commentary on the “One Hundred Verses of the Most Essential Practice” (Pratipattisāraśataka) by the great master Āryadeva, one of the foremost patriarchs of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism. Āryadeva, a disciple of Nagarjuna, composed this work to present a clear and accessible path of cultivation for those who wish to practice the Buddha’s teaching systematically.
This treatise was translated and included in the Tengyur—the collection of commentarial treatises of the Northern Buddhist tradition—demonstrating its importance within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The commentary elucidates Āryadeva’s ideas, providing detailed explanations of how bodhisattvas practice upon the unique path leading to awakening. In the Mahayana context, the “most essential practice” (pratipatti-sāra) consists not only of outward actions but also of the transformation of the mind through the perfection of wisdom.
Main Content
This commentary focuses on explaining Āryadeva’s one hundred verses, each of which contains the essence of a particular aspect of the bodhisattva path of cultivation. These verses are not merely superficial teachings, but the very essence (sāra) of Mahayana practice, transmitted from the ranks of noble beings in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
The content chiefly revolves around such essential themes as bodhicitta, the mind that aspires to liberate all sentient beings; the practice of the six perfections (ṣaḍpāramitā), especially the perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā), which is capable of realizing suchness (tathatā); and the purity of one’s motivation for practice. The commentator expands upon each verse, compares it with other scriptures, and explains how thoughts are cleansed and rendered lucid.
In particular, this commentary emphasizes the Madhyamaka principle: one should fall into neither of the two extremes of an inclination toward existence (bhāvābhiprāya) nor an inclination toward emptiness (śūnyatābhiprāya), but should realize that which is “without intrinsic nature”
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