Store of Precious Virtues Verses: Prajñāpāramitā Sutra in Eight Thousand Lines

Bodhisattvas, who, for the sake of the world remove obstacles and afflictions,

giving rise to a mind confident in nirvāṇa,

rely on the insight that brings us to the other shore.

All the rivers on Roseapple Island,

producing the healing herbs, fresh fruits and flowers,

derive their power from the Nāga king

who dwells in the cool Mānasarovara Lake.

When hearer-disciples of the Buddha

use skillful means to teach the Dharma and bring beings to the other shore,

help people experience joy, taste the fruit of happiness,

and practice the holy life,

it is due to the sacred power of the Tathāgata.

The Buddha transmits the Eyes of the Dharma.

His disciples, training according to it,

practice, realize, and teach it to others.

All that is due to the power and strength of the Buddha.

The insight that brings us to the other shore is not to be grasped.

It cannot be attained. There is no enlightenment.

Someone who hears this without feeling terror

is a bodhisattva who has the capacity to understand the Buddha.

Form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations,

and consciousness are empty.

Bodhisattvas are not the least bit caught in anything.

They do not abide in any object of mind

and realize the enlightenment that is not to be grasped.

If bodhisattvas as monastics seek understanding,

they shine light on the five aggregates,

and see their signless nature.

Knowing this, they do not seek the peace of nirvana.

Only then is it the real practice and understanding of a bodhisattva.

What is the object realized by this understanding?

It is to shine the light of insight and see that all is empty.

With this insight, there is no longer any terror.

The bodhisattvas awaken themselves and awaken others.

When practicing, bodhisattvas have to understand the true nature

of body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.

They shine light on the aggregates and see they are empty

and practice signlessness, not caught in words.

The five aggregates are empty.

The non-practice is called the signless practice.

When you think you are practicing, you do not have the surpassing insight,

and the concentration on the signless and nirvana.

If you can practice this silent awakening,

all the buddhas of the past recognize you.

You know the true nature of causes and conditions.

Neither suffering nor delight can touch you.

If you practice and do not see an object of your practice,

you practice in accord with the wisdom of the Sugata.

If you practice with the spirit of non-practice,

this is the insight that brings us to the other shore.

The practice without object cannot be grasped.

Foolish people are caught in the signs “being” and “nonbeing.”

Neither being nor nonbeing are the truth.

The bodhisattvas understand this fully and are free.

The Bodhisattvas, knowing that the five aggregates are a magic show,

are free of signs.

Their practice is silent awakening,

which is the practice of the insight that brings us to the other shore.

Advised by good teachers and spiritual friends,

when they hear the Mother of Buddhas’ Verses,

they are not afraid.

Taken on the wrong path by false teachers and friends,

they are like a clay pot that has not been fired.

Whom do we call a bodhisattva?

Those who are no longer caught by sensual desire,

They aspire to the fruit of awakening

without being caught by it and are called bodhisattvas.

Whom do we call a mahasattva?

Those who have realized the ultimate truth

and cut through all wrong views in the world.

They are called mahasattvas.

With great generosity, great wisdom, and great authority

they sit aboard the highest vehicle; the vehicle of the Buddha

and give rise to the awakened mind to save all beings.

Thus they are called mahasattvas.

As when a magician at the crossroads,

conjures up an illusory crowd and cuts off their heads,

all worlds are such an illusion.

Knowing this, bodhisattvas feel no fear.

The five aggregates are ropes that bind.

Knowing they are not real, there is no need to untie them.

You practice with the awakened mind of nonattachment.

This is called the highest bodhisattva.

Whom do we call a bodhisattva? —

the one who rides on the great vehicle to bring all beings to the other shore.

The nature and sign of the Great Vehicle are like space.

The joy of the bodhisattvas is calm and steady.

The great vehicle cannot be grasped,

It goes to nirvāṇa wherever it goes.

We cannot recognize the destination. It is like a fire gone out.

That is why it is called “nirvāṇa.”

The object of the bodhisattva’s practice cannot be grasped.

All three times are purified.

Pure, fearless, and beyond speculation,

This the practice of the insight that brings us to the other shore.

When bodhisattvas engage in the practice of great understanding

and give rise to great love and compassion to bring beings to the other shore,

never do they think in terms of “living beings.”

This is the practice of the insight that brings us to the other shore.

When bodhisattvas give rise to the notion “living beings”

and practice austerities, caught in the sign “suffering,”

they are caught in the signs “self” and “living being.”

This is the practice of the insight that brings us to the other shore.

They know clearly their own nature and that of living beings,

as well as the nature of all objects of mind;

that birth and death are not in opposition.

This is the practice of the insight that brings us to the other shore.

Abandoning all names and words,

abandoning all things that are born and die in the world,

they realize the incomparable understanding of deathlessness.

This is the practice of the insight that brings us to the other shore.

When the bodhisattvas have this as object of their practice,

and know clearly it is a skillful means, and do not pursue anything,

then they know that the nature of this practice is not real.

This is the practice of the insight that brings us to the other shore.

If they are not caught in form, feelings, perceptions,

mental formations, and consciousness,

and only dwell in the right Dharma,

this is the practice of the insight that brings us to the other shore.

Permanent and impermanent, suffering and joy,

self and no-self, all are empty.

They do not abide in the conditioned or the unconditioned.

Like the Buddha, they abide in the practice of signlessness.

If you aspire to attain the fruit of a hearer-disciple,

or self-enlightened buddha, or seek the fruit of buddhahood;

if you do not have perseverance, you cannot arrive.

It is like crossing a great river; you cannot see the other shore.

If you hear these teachings and are determined to apply them

to realize the right and stable awakening, enlightenment,

and see that the nature of all things is your own nature,

that is the great wisdom the Tathāgata is describing.

Bodhisattvas who practice great wisdom this way

do not train in the way of a hearer or a self-awakened buddha.

They train only in the boundless knowledge of the Tathāgata.

True training is the training of no-training.

They train without being caught in the body, in increase or decrease

They do not train in any other way.

Their only joy is to train according to the insight into all things.

The same is true of feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.

Form is neither wisdom nor the absence of wisdom.

Feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness are also like that.

The nature of form is like empty space—

equal, nondual, and undifferentiated.

The basic nature of wrong perception is without limits,

as is the basic nature of all living beings.

The nature of space is the same,

so is the wisdom of the one who understands the world.

The Buddha has said that insight is not form.

Those who are not caught in perceptions realize nirvana.

If someone is not caught in perceptions,

their mind and speech dwell in suchness.

For as many lifetimes as there are grains of sand in the Ganges,

they do not hear the Buddha utter the words “living beings.”

Living beings are birthless and pure, from the very beginning.

This is the practice of the insight that brings us to the other shore.

Since every word I have ever uttered

contains the meaning of the insight that brings us to the other shore,

the last Buddha transmitted to me the prediction

that I would be a buddha in a future life.

If someone continues to always receive this insight,

their practice is not any different than that of the Buddha.

Swords, poison, fire, and water, and all the kinds of Māra

will not touch them.