Maha Prajnaparamita Sastra
by Gelongma Karma Migme Chödrön | 2001 | 941,039 words
This is the English translation of the Maha-prajnaparamita-sastra (“the treatise on the great virtue of wisdom”) by Nagarjuna (c. 2nd century A.D.). The book, in the form of an encyclopedia on Buddhism, is a commentary on the Pancavimsatisahasrika Prajnaparamita (“the perfection of wisdom in five thousand lines”). Volume I describes the conditions...
Chapter XXXII-XXXIV - The eight classes of supplementary dharmas
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[206a] Sūtra (cf. Pañcaviṃśati, p. 19, l. 15–18); Śatasāhasrikā, p. 57, l. 10–58, l. 9) – [The bodhisattva-mahāsattva must completely fulfill]:[1]
- the meditative stabilization of emptiness (śūnyatāsamādhi),
the samādhi of signlessness (ānimittasamādhi),
the samādhi of wishlessness (apranihitasamādhi), - the four trances (catvāri dhyānāni),
- the four immeasurables (catvāry apramāṇāni),
- the four formless absorptions (catasra ārūpyasamāpattayaḥ),
- the eight liberations (aṣṭau vimokṣāḥ),
- the eight spheres of mastery (aṣṭāv abhibhvāyatanāni),
- the nine successive absorptions (navānupūrvasamāpattayāḥ),
- the ten spheres of totality (daśa kṛtsnāyatanāni).
Śāstra. –
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
These eight classes of supplementary dharmas must be ‘completely fulfilled’ (pūrayitavya) according to the Śatasāhasrikā, or ‘cultivated’ (bhāvitavya) according to the Pañcaviṃśatti, but they cannot be ‘realized’ (sākṣātkartavya) by the bodhisattva, for then they would contribute to ushering him into nirvāṇa straight away, preventing him therefore from continuing his salvific activity in saṃsāra.