Śatasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā

Śatasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā. (T. Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa; C. Shiwansong bore; J. Jūmanju hannya; K. Simmansong panya 十萬頌般若). In English, the “Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines.”

This text is the largest of the Prajnaparamita sutras. "Like the other two long sūtras, it is a detailed record of the teaching on the perfection of wisdom that the Buddha Śākyamuni gave on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛha, setting out all aspects of the path to enlightenment that bodhisattvas must know and put into practice, yet without taking them as having even the slightest true existence. Each point is emphasized by the exhaustive way that, in this version of the teaching, the Buddha repeats each of his many profound statements for every one of the items in the sets of dharmas that comprise deluded experience, the path, and the qualities of enlightenment."

In the Tibetan tradition, this text is one of the so-called 'six mother scriptures' of the Prajnaparamita. In Tibetan it is referred to simply as 'The Hundred Thousand' ('bum འབུམ་).

Overview

Gareth Sparham (2024) states:

The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines is the longest of the three so-called “long” Perfection of Wisdom, or Prajñāpāramitā, sūtras. Indeed, not only is it the very longest of all Buddhist texts, but it is among the longest single works of literature in any language or culture. In the Degé Kangyur it fills twelve volumes, and comprises fourteen percent of the whole collection by number of pages.

With an evident similarity in structure, order, and content to the other two long Prajñāpāramitā sūtras (in twenty-five thousand and eighteen thousand lines), it is a detailed record‍—in fact the most detailed extant record‍—of what is traditionally said to have been a single teaching on the perfection of wisdom that the Buddha Śākyamuni gave on Vulture Peak in Rājagṛha, setting out all aspects of the path to enlightenment that bodhisattvas must know and put into practice, yet without taking them as having even the slightest true existence.

Traditional histories include all six “mother” versions of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras among the complete records of this single episode of teaching, and some even enumerate still longer versions not propagated in the human realm, such as a sūtra for the gods in ten million lines, and one for the gandharvas in one billion lines. Indeed, the present sūtra in one hundred thousand lines is itself said to have been retrieved from the nāga realm by Nāgārjuna.

The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines therefore has a unique status among scriptures in the Tibetan canon. Its vast length, and its many extended sequences of repeated formulations modulated by changes to a single term alone, make it difficult to study as a doctrinal textbook, but it is revered as the fullest possible expression of the Buddha’s definitive teachings on the nature of phenomena, the path, and the awakened state. To read it, recite it aloud, or even to be in the physical presence of its volumes is seen as having a powerful force and blessing.

Yet its importance is more than just symbolic. Although the shorter forms of the Perfection of Wisdom teachings are‍—relatively, at least‍—easier to study, The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines remains the scripture that most fully embodies the Buddha’s pronouncements on this all-important theme, and the uncompromising detail of its statements makes their meaning unmistakably clear.

The sūtra exists in the three principal languages of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan, with the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts being most closely aligned. The Tibetan translation was made in several successive stages in the early, imperial translation period of the late eighth and early ninth century, and traditional histories document in some detail the translators, manuscripts, sponsors, and locations of the early translations.

It is analyzed and explained by Indian scholars in a number of commentaries that were also translated into Tibetan, and by a small number of indigenous Tibetan commentarial works. Little specific, detailed attention has been paid to it by Western authors, and until now it has not been translated in full into English or any other Western language.

Commentaries

Indian

• Kashmiri Dharmashri (?), Explanation of the Hundred Thousand

Translation

• Gareth Sparham (2024), Prefection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines, 84000 Reading Room

  (first thirteen chapters are published as of Feb 2024; subsequent chapters will be added as translations are completed)

Further reading

• Edward Conze, The Prajñāpāramitā Literature (1960)