Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Twenty-five Thousand Lines

The goddess Prajñaparamita

Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Twenty-five Thousand Lines (Skt. Pañcaviṃśati-sāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, Tib. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་སྟོང་ཕྲག་ཉི་ཤུ་ལྔ་པ་ (ཉི་ཁྲི།), Wyl. sher phyin stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa (nyi khri)) is one of the so-called 'six mother scriptures' of the Prajnaparamita.

It is among the most important scriptures underlying both the “vast” and the “profound” approaches to Buddhist thought and practice. Known as the “middle-length” version, being the second longest of the three long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, it fills three volumes of the Kangyur. Like the two other long sūtras, it records the major teaching on the perfection of wisdom given by the Buddha Śākyamuni on Vulture Peak, detailing all aspects of the path to enlightenment while at the same time emphasizing how bodhisattvas must put them into practice without taking them‍—or any aspects of enlightenment itself‍—as having even the slightest true existence.

Text

Tibetan translation, Kangyur, Toh 9

• English translation:

Edward Conze, The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom, 1975

The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Twenty-five Thousand Lines

Commentaries

Indian

• Arya Vimuktisena, Illuminating the 25,000 Verses
• Bhadanta Vimuktisena, Commentary on the 25,000
• Haribhadra, Eight Chapters on the 25,000
• Ratnakarashanti, Pure 25,000 (Shuddhimati)

Further Reading

• Edward Conze, The Prajñāpāramitā Literature (1960)