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Eighty-Four Thousand Reasons to Translate the Canon

John Canti

Journal of Tibetan Literature (2024) 3 (1): 139-165.


Issue Section Criticism

Keywords Tibetan Buddhist canon, 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, Kangyur, Translation

Abstract

84000, a collaborative project to produce and publish translations of the canonical texts of Tibetan Buddhism and make them available to a broad readership, is entering its fifteenth year. This article focuses on some of the reasons for the project’s overall scope and the importance of the canonical texts.

བོད་བརྒྱུད་ནང་བསྟན་གྱི་གསུང་རབ་ཁག་ཨིན་བསྒྱུར་དང་པར་སྐྲུན་གྱིས་རྒྱ་ཆེའི་ཀློག་པ་པོ་རྣམས་ལ་འགྲེམ་སྤེལ་བྱེད་པའི་མཉམ་འབྲེལ་ལས་གཞི་བརྒྱད་ཁྲི་བཞི་སྟོང་ལོ་བཅོ་ལྔར་སོན་གྱིན་ཡོད་ལ། རྩོམ་ཡིག་འདིར་ལས་གཞི་དེ་ཡི་སྤྱི་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་དམིགས་ཡུལ་སྐོར་གྱི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་འགའ་དང་གསུང་རབ་དེ་དག་གི་གལ་ཆེའི་རང་བཞིན་བཅས་གཙོ་བོར་བཟུང་ཡོད།།

Authors

John Canti

Published 2024-05-31

How to Cite

Canti, John. 2024. “Eighty-Four Thousand Reasons to Translate the Canon”. Journal of Tibetan Literature 3 (1):139-65. https://doi.org/10.58371/jtl.2024.77.

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Copyright (c) 2024 John Canti

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English Language Works

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Conze, Edward. 1959. Buddhist Scriptures. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Patrul Rinpoche, Padmakara Translation Group (tr.). (1994) 2010. The Words of My Perfect Teacher.

London: Harper Collins. Revised 1998, Walnut Creek: Sage Altamira. Reprinted, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Thich Nhat Hanh. 1987. Old Path, White Clouds. Berkeley: Parallax Press.

Warren, Henry Clark. (1896) 1962. Buddhism in Translations. Harvard Oriental Series vol. 3. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Student edition, 1953. Reprint, New York: Atheneum.

Canonical Sources

The Absorption of The Thus-Gone One’s Wisdom Seal. Tathāgatajñānamudrāsamādhi. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 55 (mdo sde, da), folios 230.b–253.b. Toh 131. Translated by Dharmachakra Translation Committee. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh131.html

The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma. Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 68 (mdo sde, ya), folios 82.a–318.a; vol. 69 (mdo sde, ra), folios 1.b–307.a; vol. 70 (mdo sde, la), folios 1.b–312.a; and vol. 71 (mdo sde, sha), folios 1.b–229.b. Toh 287. Translated by Dharmachakra Translation Committee. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh287.html

The Chapter on Medicines. Bhaiṣajyavastu. Dergé Kangyur vol. 1 (’dul ba, ka), folios 277.b–311.a; vol. 2 (’dul ba, kha), folios 1.a–317.a; and vol. 3 (’dul ba, ga), folios 1.a–50.a. Toh 1–6. Trans- lated by Fumi Yao. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh1-6.html

The Chapter on Going Forth. Pravrajyāvastu. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 1 (’dul ba, ka), folios 1.a–131.a. Toh 1–1. Translated by Robert Miller. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh1-1.html

The Dedication “Fulfilling All Aspirations.” bsam pa thams cad yongs su rdzogs pa’i yongs su bsngo ba. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 68 (mdo sde, ya), folios 77.a–79.b. Toh 285. Translated by Alex- ander Csoma de Kőrös Translation Group. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh285.html

The Dedication “Protecting All Beings.” ’gro ba thams cad yongs su skyob par byed pa’i yongs su bsngo ba. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 68 (mdo sde, ya), folios 79.b–81.b. Toh 286. Translated by Alexander Csoma de Kőrös Translation Group. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh286.html

The Good Eon. Bhadrakalpika. Dergé Kangyur vol. 45 (mdo sde, ka), folios 1.b–340.a Toh 94. Translated by Dharmachakra Translation Committee. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh94.html

The Hundred Deeds. Karmaśataka. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 73 (mdo sde, ha), folios 1.b–309.a, and vol. 74 (mdo sde, a), folios 1.b–128.b. Toh 340. Translated by Lozang Jamspal and Kaia Fischer. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh340.html

The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines. Aṣṭādaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 29 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, ka), folios 1.a–300.a; vol. 30 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, kha), folios 1.a–304.a; vol. 31 (shes phyin, khri brgyad, ga), folios 1.a–206.a. Toh 10. Translated by Gareth Sparham. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh10.html

The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines. Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā. Dergé Kangyur, (’bum, ka), folios 1.b–394.a; (’bum, kha), folios 1.b–402.a; (’bum, ga), folios 1.b–394.a; (’bum, nga), folios 1.b–381.a; (’bum, ca), folios 1.b–395.a; (’bum, cha), folios 1.b–382.a; (’bum, ja), folios 1.b–398.a; (’bum, nya), folios 1.b–399.a; (’bum, ta), folios 1.b–384.a; (’bum, tha), folios 1.b–387.a; (’bum, da), folios 1.b–411.a; and (’bum, a), folios 1.b–395.a (vols. 14–25). Toh 8. Chs. 1–13 translated by Gareth Sparham. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh8.html

The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines. Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 26 (shes phyin, nyi khri, ka), folios 1.b–382.a; vol. 27 (shes phyin, nyi khri, kha), folios 1.b–393.a; and vol. 28 (shes phyin, nyi khri, ga), folios 1.b–381.a. Toh 9. Translated by Padmakara Translation Group. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh9.html

The Play in Full. Lalitavistara. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 46 (mdo sde, kha), folios 1.b–216.b. Toh 95.

Translated by Dharmachakra Translation Committee. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2013. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh95.html

The Questions of Rāṣṭrapāla (1). Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 42 (dkon brtsegs, nga), folios 227.a–257.a. Toh 62. Translated by Vienna Buddhist Studies Translation Group. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh62.html

The Ratnaketu Dhāraṇī. Ratnaketudhāraṇī. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 56 (mdo sde, na), folios 187.b–277.b. Toh 138. Translated by Dharmachakra Translation Committee. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh138.html

The Stem Array. Gaṇḍavyūha. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 37 (phal chen, ga), folios 274.b–396.a; vol. 38 (phal chen, a), folios 1.b–363.a Toh 44–45. Translated by Peter Roberts. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh44-45.html

The Ten Bhūmis. Daśabhūmika. Dergé Kangyur vol. 36 (phal chen, kha), folios 166.a–283.a. Toh 44–31. Translated by Peter Roberts. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2021. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh44-31.html

Tai Situ Chökyi Jungné (ta’i si tu chos kyi ’byung gnas, 1700–1774). The Third Well-Spoken Branch: An Exact Account of How All the Victorious One’s Teachings Extant Today in the Land of Snow Mountains Were Put into Print. gsum pa rgyal ba’i gsung rab gangs ri’i khrod du deng sang ji tsam snang ba par du bsgrubs pa’i byung ba dngos legs par bshad pa’i yal ’dab. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 103 (lakṣmī), folios 98.a–112.a. Toh 4568–3. Translated by Lowell Cook and Benjamin Ewing. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh4568-3.html

Unraveling the Intent. Saṃdhinirmocana. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 49 (mdo sde, ca), folios 1.b–55.b. Toh 106, Translated by Gregory Forgues. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2020. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh106.html

The White Lotus of Compassion. Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 50 (mdo sde, cha), folios 129.a–297.a. Toh 112. Translated by Peter Roberts. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2023. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh112.html

The White Lotus of the Good Dharma. Saddharmapuṇḍarīka. Dergé Kangyur, vol. 51 (mdo sde, ja), folios 1.b–180.b. Toh 113. Translated by Peter Roberts. 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018. https://read.84000.co/translation/toh113.html

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