The Perfection Of Wisdom In Eight Thousand Lines
13,106 words
'The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines' is the earliest text of the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom texts) The following is a less strict interpretation of the 'Eight Thousand Lines' in its original verse form only. ** Many thanks to Reverend Neil Christopher for his hard work on this translation and granting permissing for this c...
Chapter 15
The Beginner and the Good Friends
94. The bodhisattva, who is still a beginner, but resolute in their intention to achieve the supreme enlightenment of a Buddha, in being discerning, should become good pupils of a Master—always tending to the needs of their new good friends (spiritual teachers). Why? For, from that tending come the qualities of a learned one. Good friends are those who teach the perfection of wisdom.
How a Bodhisattva Helps Beings
95. Giving, morality, patience and much effort will turn concentration and wisdom over into enlightenment. However, remember that one should never grasp for enlightenment, turning it into another hindering skandha. Demonstrate this way to the beginners.
96. Walking in this path, become a shelter to the world, a refuge, and a place of rest for others; become a path for their salvation, the intelligence, the islands, leaders who desire only others welfare.
97. It is like an armor that is difficult to wear, that only the determined can even put on; not armed with the skandahas, the elements, or the senses; they are free from the notion of the three vehicles, and do not grasp for it; they become irreversible, immovable, and steadfast in character.
98. Endowed with the dharma, held back by nothing, free from doubts, getting caught up in meaningless perplexities causing confusion and dismay, intent on only that which is beneficial, having heard the perfection of wisdom they do not despair. Incapable of being misled by others, this is the meaning of irreversible.
Perfect Wisdom and Its Conflict with the World
99. Deep and hard to see is this dharma, never obtained by anyone, never reached; for this reason, when one has obtained enlightenment, the enlightened being becomes unconcerned with such things. Regular beings delight in a place to settle in, they are eager for sense-objects, bent on grasping, unknowing, and walking in blindness. The Dharma should be attained as nothing to settle into and as nothing to be grasped. This is why it is in conflict with the way the world sees things.