Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā

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Prajñāpāramitā personified. From an Sanskrit manuscript of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā.

Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā. (T. Sher phyin brgyad stong pa; C. Xiaopin bore jing; J. Shōbon hannyakyō; K. Sop’um panya kyŏng 小品般若經). In Sanskrit, “Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines.” This text and the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā (a.k.a. "Verse Summary") are generally considered to be the earliest of the Prajnaparamita sutras.

The Princeton Dictionary states:

The Aṣṭa, as it is often referred to in the literature, seems to have gradually developed over a period of about two hundred years, from the first century BCE to the first century CE. [...] The Aṣṭa, together with its verse summary, the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā, probably represents the earliest stratum of the prajñāpāramitā literature; scholars believe that this core scripture was subsequently expanded between the second and fourth centuries CE into other massive Prajñāpāramitā scriptures in as many as 100,000 lines (the Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā). By about 500 CE, the Aṣṭa’s basic ideas had been abbreviated into shorter condensed statements, such as the widely read, 300-verse Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (“Diamond Sūtra”).

Summary

84000 translation group states:

This sūtra takes the form of a series of dialogues between the Buddha Śākyamuni, Subhūti, Śāriputra, and others such as Indra, the king of gods, and a Goddess of the Ganges, and as well as setting out the teachings on emptiness as such it describes the path and practices that a bodhisattva should take to integrate this understanding of phenomena and finally realize it. A special feature of this particular sūtra are the inspirational narratives of Sadāprarudita and his quest for the teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom from the Bodhisattva Dharmodgata, contained in the final three chapters.

Translations

This text "seems to have been extensively read and studied in India, and was translated into Chinese and Tibetan more times than virtually any other scripture".

Chinese translations

Some of the earliest recensions were translated into Chinese during the Han dynasty.

Tibetan translations

In the Tibetan Canon, the text is numbered Toh 12 in the Dege edition of the Kangyur, and consists of 32 chapters.

In the Tibetan tradition, this text is counted among the 'six mother scriptures' of the Prajnaparamita.

English translations

• Padmakara Translation Group (2026), The Transcendent State of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, 84000 Collection
• Edward Conze (1958), Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines and its Verse Summary

Commentaries

Indian

The Padmakara Translation Group states:

The Prajñāpāramitā sūtras are widely seen as presenting the Buddha’s core teaching on the emptiness of phenomena and their ultimate lack of defining characteristics. Yet as scriptures they are not easy to understand fully, and gave rise to a very large commentarial literature, starting with Nāgārjuna’s treatises and in a later period Maitreya-Asaṅga’s Ornament of Clear Realization and its many subcommentaries. Of those subcommentaries, the ones composed by Haribhadra and Ratnākaraśānti, from their different viewpoints, are renowned for their elucidation of the difficult points in the text, of its implicit structure, and of how its underlying themes are crucial for a full understanding of the Buddhist path in general and for the practice of a bodhisattva in particular.

List of Indian commentaries:

• Haribhadra
  • Abhisamayālaṃkārālokā (Light on the Ornament) - a commentary that correlates the verses of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra with corresponding sections in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā
  • Abhisamayālaṃkāravivṛti (a.k.a. Sphuṭārthā) - a summary of the Abhisamayālaṃkārālokā
• Ratnakarashanti, Sāratamāpañjikā ("Supreme Essence")
• Abhayakaragupta, Marmakaumudi ("Moonlight of Points")

Outline

See:

• Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra#Outline, Wikipedia

Quotations

སེམས་ལ་སེམས་མ་མཆིས་ཏེ། །
སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་ནི་འོད་གསལ་བའོ། །

The mind is devoid of mind,
For the nature of mind is clear light.

Further reading

• Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, Wikipedia
• Edward Conze, The Prajñāpāramitā Literature (1960)
• Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Eight Thousand Lines, Rigpa Shedra Wiki