Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā

Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā. (T. Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa; C. Mohe bore boluomi jing; J. Maka hannya haramitsukyō; K. Maha panya paramil kyŏng 摩訶般若波羅蜜經). In English, “Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-five Thousand Lines”.

This text is one of the most important of the "large" prajnaparamita sutras. Commentators have noted the similarity in structure between this sutra and the Abhisamayalankara.

In the Tibetan tradition, this sutra is known as one of the so-called 'six mother scriptures' of the prajnaparamita.

Summary

The Padmakara Translation Group states:

The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines 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.

Commentaries

Indian commentaries

Notable Indian commentaries:

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

Chinese commentaries

• Dazhidu lun

Translations

• Padmakara Translation Group (2023), Prefection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines, 84000 Collection
• Edward Conze, The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom, 1975

Further reading

• Edward Conze, The Prajñāpāramitā Literature (1960)