Updates with live link to the crowdfunding campaign.
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, a global nonprofit initiative founded by the renowned Bhutanese lama, author, and filmmaker Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche to translate, preserve, and share the Tibetan Buddhist Canon, has announced a crowdfunding campaign for its mammoth undertaking to translate one of the longest and most significant of all Buddhist sutras, The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines.
“As many of you are aware, 84000’s work on the translation of The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines has already begun,” 84000 said in a recent announcement shared with BDG. “This text is one of the lengthiest and most important texts in the collection known as the words of the Buddha, and we estimate its translation and publication to take 5–8 years by a specialized team. We are ever grateful to those generous donors who have pledged a significant portion of the funds needed to see this text through a complete cycle of translation and publication. However, the rarity of this opportunity is not lost on us. On 1 January 2023, we are launching ‘The Perfection of Wisdom for All’—a crowdfunding campaign to bring these 10,000 pages of the Buddha’s words to life!”
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a long-term undertaking to translate and publish all surviving canonical texts preserved in the Classical Tibetan language—70,000 pages of the Kangyur (the translated words of the Buddha) in 25 years and 161,800 pages of the Tengyur (the translated commentaries on the Buddha’s teachings by the great Indian Buddhist masters and scholars) in 100 years. According to 84000, less than 5 per cent of the canon had hitherto been translated into a modern language, and due to a rapid decline in the knowledge of Classical Tibetan and in the number of qualified scholars, the world is in danger of losing an irreplaceable cultural and spiritual wisdom legacy.
84000 noted that The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines by itself represents 15 per cent of the Tibetan Kangyur and is the the deepest exploration of transcendent wisdom and insight in the Buddhist canon.
“This is an auspicious opportunity to allow everyone to make a meaningful connection with the most extensive prajnaparamita text in the human realm, and to allow for the widest possible sharing of merit,” 84000 said. “In the context of this text, ‘wisdom’ refers to the sixth and greatest perfection: the opposite of, and antidote to, the ‘ignorance’ that is the root cause of all suffering. With this in mind, on New Year’s Day, we ask you to join us with the aspiration that the Buddha’s teachings will remain ever-present in this world for anyone in need.”
Click here for full details of the campaign
Since its founding 12 years ago,* 84000—named for the number of teachings the Buddha is said to have given—has awarded more than US$6 million in grants to teams of translators around the world, including Tibetan scholars and Western academics. In just 12 years, with the endorsement of all four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, 84000 continues to strive forward, supported by some of the most learned living teachers of the Vajrayana tradition.
As followers of the Buddha, we say that the body of Buddha Shakyamuni has, supposedly, gone 2,500 years ago. The mind of the Buddha can only be materialized if you practice and achieve enlightenment one day. The only thing that is tangible—something you can communicate with and work with—is the speech of the Buddha; and that is in the form of Kangyur and Tengyur, which we are now translating. You can really help in every form and in every way.
(Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche)
* 84000 Launches Video Campaign to Mark 10 Years of Preserving the Tibetan Buddhist Canon (BDG)
See more
84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha
The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand Lines (84000)
Welcome to the Reading Room (84000)
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84000 Announces that 25 Per Cent of the Tibetan Kangyur Is Now Freely Available in English
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UPDATE: 84000 Launches New App, with Insights from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
84000 Founds Assistant Professorship in Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto
84000 Partners with UC Santa Barbara to Translate the Tibetan Buddhist Canon
84000 Launches Special Edition of The Hundred Deeds Sutra Illustrated by Children in Lockdown
84000 Announces the Historic Publication of a Major Buddhist Sutra Never Before Available in English
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84000 Launches Video Campaign to Mark 10 Years of Preserving the Tibetan Buddhist Canon
