Nagarjuna's Commentary on the Great Prajnaparamita Sutra

[cdpatton]

Something I would point out -- which is partly obvious, partly not -- is that this web-project is not a traditional publication. It is not academic (not peer reviewed, authorized, stamped by anyone's approval, etc) nor is it a "final" product. The material will be revised. Probably more times than one will care to count. Mostly to correct typos and word choices, but sometimes because I changed my mind about how to translate a paragraph, phrase, or term and revised every instance of it. I strongly discourage copying of the material to other websites or archives. It will just defeat the purpose and function of HTML -- the whole concept of hypertext is to use *links* and not copy material a bajillion times over. I will begin indicating change histories on all the individual pages so the latest version is clear.

On another note, that's news to me that Lamotte made it all the way through the first chapter commentary. (But I am neither "in" academia nor paying close attention to it.) I will have to try and get a copy of it to use for reference. Part of me, though, wants to wait until I have a sizeable chunk of the text in a fairly stable revision before looking. Just to see how far apart I end up from his translation. "Only" 35 fascicles -- that has to be something like 350,000-400,000 words of translated text alone.

Charlie.

[Huifeng]

On another note, that's news to me that Lamotte made it all the way through the first chapter commentary. (But I am neither "in" academia nor paying close attention to it.) I will have to try and get a copy of it to use for reference. Part of me, though, wants to wait until I have a sizeable chunk of the text in a fairly stable revision before looking. Just to see how far apart I end up from his translation. "Only" 35 fascicles -- that has to be something like 350,000-400,000 words of translated text alone.

Charlie.

Charlie,

Perhaps you missed it, but if you go to the Gampo Abbey translation page, it has a contact email for the English translator - "If you are interested in receiving any of Ani Migme Chödrön's translations, please contact her at animigme "at" gampoabbey.org". It's not perfect, mainly because Ven Migme Chodron can not read the original Chinese, but it is still very, very helpful and good. The 35 fascicles took Lamotte 5 vols, as indicated previously, and this includes a small part outside the 35 fascicles in his vol 5. The whole text is approximately a million characters in Chinese.

~~ Huifeng

[Will]

Yes Charlie - the Ani only translated the French of Lamotte. Write her at animigme@gampoabbey.org

By the way, check your PM box.

[cdpatton]

Charlie,

Perhaps you missed it, but if you go to the Gampo Abbey translation page, it has a contact email for the English translator - "If you are interested in receiving any of Ani Migme Chödrön's translations, please contact her at animigme "at" gampoabbey.org". It's not perfect, mainly because Ven Migme Chodron can not read the original Chinese, but it is still very, very helpful and good. The 35 fascicles took Lamotte 5 vols, as indicated previously, and this includes a small part outside the 35 fascicles in his vol 5. The whole text is approximately a million characters in Chinese.

~~ Huifeng

Yes Charlie - the Ani only translated the French of Lamotte. Write her at animigme@gampoabbey.org

By the way, check your PM box.

Yes, thanks to both of you. I have it now. What I find most valuable in Lamotte is the depth of his background exposition and research. I've finally gotten to where I can ferret most of it out myself, but helps to have his notes as well. Time saving! I was simply amazed at his footnoting in Boin's translation of his Suramgama-samadhi-sutra. A major resource just on that basis alone, going beyond the Sutra translation itself.

Charlie.

[cdpatton]

This weekend, I'm adding the discussion of the ten epithets (already online tonight) and more of the first section (tomorrow) -- hoping to get through the four siddhantas. Also, I created a Google+ plus page for the project to help people who are interested keep up on updates. There is a link right on the homepage for those already using Google+.

Charlie.

[Will]

I guess you are skipping around in posting the sections, but you will do ch. 2 & 3 eventually?

How about a table of contents?

[cdpatton]

I guess you are skipping around in posting the sections, but you will do ch. 2 & 3 eventually?

How about a table of contents?

Yes, I'm doing some here and there that seems interesting but also working from the beginning as well. I'm trying to stick to material in the first ten fascicles for now (which will eventually be volume 1 of the translation in print). I'm not breaking it down into an outline yet, but I will in the future.

The primary table of contents for the Commentary is here. There is a link to it on the homepage and at the top of each page of translation.

I see I also had my link on the homepage broken after I uploaded it. It's fixed now.

Charlie.

[Aemilius]

How much of the Great Parinirvana sutra have You translated so far? Where is it available? I have read the first six chapters years ago, and I have prints of it. Your translation of Great Parinirvana sutra is most valuable.
with best wishes
aemilius

[Leo Rivers]

The Commentary on the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra (henceforth, "the Commentary") is the largest text translated by Kumārajīva to Chinese. At one hundred fascicles (about 700 pages of Taisho text), I estimate that the completed translation will reach 1,000,000 words of English. Being that this is the case, I cannot stress enough that this is a monumental project, but one which is equally important to make available -- in its entirety -- to the English speaking Buddhist world. The reason the Commentary is of such size is because its author did more than simply explain the technical details of the text of the Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra{1}. I liken it to an encyclopedia because it uses the text of the Prajñāpāramitā as the basic framework for far-ranging discussions of all the basic Buddhist concepts, practices, and lore in a more-or-less topical arrangement.

This makes it the Mahā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra-upadeśa the Śunyavāda counter-pint to the Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra... both are encyclopedias of the Path, both in the sense of toolkits and the sense of sequence, each from a different perspective.

It is time both are available.

This effort is so absolutely commendable in a world and country where so much is spent on achieving so little - and with so little good will.

[Aemilius]

Seems that C. D. Patton is going to have a very long life, considering the vastness of His projects. Perhaps we should compose a Very Long Life Payer for C. D. Patton?

[Huifeng]

I've actually got some of my own very old draft translations of the first 20 fasc. on my hard drive, still. Over the winter break, I found out that my brothers and sisters at the translation center at Hsi Lai Temple are also working on it these days. After I told Ven. Dharmamitra about this, he suggested a race. Maybe you can join them, Charlie!

By the way, Charlie, have you first read the whole thing through a couple of times to get the gist of it? I would highly recommend that, if you haven't done so already.

~~ Huifeng

[cdpatton]

How much of the Great Parinirvana sutra have You translated so far? Where is it available? I have read the first six chapters years ago, and I have prints of it. Your translation of Great Parinirvana sutra is most valuable.
with best wishes
aemilius

I have about 25% of the Sutra drafted, but its 20 years old - from the days when I was not totally up to speed - so there's quite a bit of editing to do with it. It's better than Yamamoto, but certainly needs to be corrected and polished and footnoted more in depth.

Charlie.

[cdpatton]

Seems that C. D. Patton is going to have a very long life, considering the vastness of His projects. Perhaps we should compose a Very Long Life Payer for C. D. Patton?

Haha, the way things are going, that is probably a good idea! Or perhaps just rescue me from working-class-American-oblivion.

Charlie.

[cdpatton]

I've actually got some of my own very old draft translations of the first 20 fasc. on my hard drive, still. Over the winter break, I found out that my brothers and sisters at the translation center at Hsi Lai Temple are also working on it these days. After I told Ven. Dharmamitra about this, he suggested a race. Maybe you can join them, Charlie!

By the way, Charlie, have you first read the whole thing through a couple of times to get the gist of it? I would highly recommend that, if you haven't done so already.

~~ Huifeng

Always everyone is working on this and working on that - all of these people who have the means, the education, etc - and what happens? If nothing else, I am just trying to shame people who have better opportunities and fortunes who could produce more but seem more interested in races and careers, and so forth. I piddle away my life in factories, teach myself classical Chinese, research all of this arcane material, having never set foot in a single University for any of it. I'll probably lose the race, but at least someone is behind you guys egging you on!

[Will]

Here is a good abridgement by Skorupski of the Six Paramitas sections of the Upadesha:

http://www.wisdom-books.com/ProductDetail.asp?PID=10796

[cdpatton]

Fascicle 1 is finally complete on Dharma Trove, wrapping up with semi-humorous analyses of numbers and time ... (I'll never think of "a" "pot" as just a pot again.)

[Huifeng]

Good work!

~~ Huifeng