Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Eighteen Thousand Lines

The goddess Prajñaparamita

The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Eighteen Thousand Lines (Skt. Aṣṭādaśasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā; Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཁྲི་བརྒྱད་སྟོང་པ་ (ཁྲི་བརྒྱད།), sherab kyi parol tu chinpa tri gye tongpa (tri gye), Wyl. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa khri brgyad stong pa (khri brgyad)) is counted among the so-called six mother scriptures, the most important prajnaparamita sutras.

While setting forth the sacred fundamental doctrines of Buddhist practice with veneration, this sutra 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 sutra 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.

Text

The Tibetan translation of this text can be found in the Perfection of Wisdom section of the Tibetan Dergé Kangyur, Toh 10.

• English translation: The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines

Further Reading

• Edward Conze, The Gilgit Manuscript of the Aṣṭādaśasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā
• Edward Conze, The Prajñāpāramitā Literature (1960)