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Prajnaparamita Project
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If even as many buddhas, blessed ones as there are grains of sand in forty-eight Ganges rivers are unable to express the mass of merit of the one writing it out, what need is there to mention that whoever writes it out or reflects on it or reads it will become a treasury of the Dharma?
–Sanghata Sutra
Writing the Prajnaparamita for World Peace
The Prajnaparamita Sutra contains the highest teachings of the Buddha and is among the most precious texts available in the world today. Due to the power of this text, writing it out is a way to generate tremendous merit and receive blessings.
According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche, one of the main ways to create the causes needed to build the Maitreya Buddha statue in India is to write out the Prajnaparamita Sutra in pure gold. The completed sutra will be enshrined in the heart of the statue. The Prajnaparamita Project provides the material resources needed to support the efforts to write out this precious text.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche writing the Prajnaparamita Sutra, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
In the late 1990’s, Lama Zopa Rinpoche began writing out the 8,000-verse Prajnaparamita Sutra in pure gold, and he continued for over a decade until 2011, when Rinpoche manifested a stroke that left his hand too unsteady to write. With remarkable determination, Rinpoche practiced for ten years, and in 2021 he began writing the sutra again. Venerable Tsenla is now continuing the writing from where Rinpoche left off in 2023, bringing this precious work toward completion.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche writing the Prajnaparamita Sutra with Ven. Tsenla, Aptos, California, United States, 1999. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
Following Rinpoche’s guidance, two dedicated students are writing out the 12,000-verse Prajnaparamita in pure gold on archival-quality rainbow paper: Venerable Tsering, a Kopan monk, and Jane Seidlitz, a long-time student, each working on different volumes. In 2013, Ven. Tsering was interviewed about his eleven years working on this project. Among many inspiring remarks, he said, “…having one project you receive from your guru, you take it as your project and carry on. Then if you have an attitude like that, I think that is one reason to be able to carry on.”
In 2024, Ven. Tsering shared further reflections on his work, looking back on more than two decades of writing the Prajnaparamita Sutra in pure gold and his commitment to continuing it according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s wishes. He spoke about the profound importance of this practice for accumulating merit, removing obstacles, fulfilling the wishes of the FPMT community, and bringing peace to the world.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche showing Ven. Tsering corrections to the shape of the letters, Aptos, California, United States, June 2017. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
The benefits that come from writing out sutras such as the Prajnaparamita are extensive.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has said: “There is unbelievable, unbelievable merit in writing this text. The benefits are spoken of in the sutra The Condensed Jewel Quality where it says: Building a Stupa of The One Gone to Bliss, making the stupa of the Seven jewels, and making as many of these to fill many thousands of ten millions worlds, that equaling the number of sand grains in the river Ganges and then making offerings to these stupas by many sentient beings (infinite sentient beings of all the existing worlds making offerings of lights, incense and flowers etc. three times a day for eons). Consider the merit obtained from this compared with the following: If one writes this Sutra—the Mother Prajnaparamita taught by the Buddha having the ten powers, keeps this text and makes offerings to it and pays respect to it, the merit of the latter is infinitely greater!”
If the whole of the great three thousand worlds were completely, entirely filled with stupas, the size of Mount Meru, made of the seven types of jewels, comparing to that, if one writes the Prajnaparamita, in the duration of a finger snap, at least, one achieves the patience of the profound Dharma—great inconceivable exalted merits. To clarify, one universe of one thousand world systems is a great thousand world; one thousand great thousand worlds is a great two thousand universe or world, while one thousand of these (great two thousand worlds) is a great three thousand world. One stupa directs the mind to Enlightenment and creates inconceivable merit, and with that merit, one can meditate on emptiness without fear.
—From the Sutra Kuntse Jampa Sengyey Chenpoi Do
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with Ven. Tsering, Ven. Gelek, and Jane Seidlitz, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, December 2022.
Writing Out Sutras
Sutras are records of teachings given by the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni. The Buddha’s discourses were memorized by his disciples and later written down in various languages, with the most complete collections preserved in Pali and Sanskrit.
“Even writing one letter from Prajnaparamita, even writing one letter, one syllable, the benefits are unbelievable, unbelievable, more than making extensive offerings, skies of extensive offerings to all the buddhas, so many eons, the merits you collect are unbelievable.” — Lama Zopa Rinpoche
In 2021, Rinpoche gave a two-part teaching on the incredible benefits of writing out this precious sutra. In the first video below, Rinpoche explains these benefits in depth and describes the process of writing the sutra, including the need for precise calligraphy and high-quality materials.
In the second video, Rinpoche explains that simply by hearing this sutra, writing it out, reading it aloud, or memorizing it, you create unfathomable merit. By doing so, life after life, you crush the oceans of samsaric suffering and destroy the delusions. This is how profound the sutra is: it enables you to reach enlightenment.
Continuing Rinpoche’s Wish
Lama Zopa Rinpoche expressed his heartfelt wish that this practice continue long into the future:
“My idea is that even when I’m dead [for students] to continue this gold writing as much as possible; for it to continue even after I’m dead. I didn’t have that idea at the beginning, but for the last two or three years I’ve had that idea, to do it all the time.
“For example, similarly, we build statues or stupas, then even after we are dead, we may be in hell, somewhere far away from this universe, but the stupa or statue we built still benefits sentient beings. For as long as it exists, continuously from life to life, it benefits sentient beings—even the birds, the flies, the people, anybody who sees that holy object—and it brings them to enlightenment. Anybody who can see that, anybody from far or near, from life to life wherever we are born, it benefits sentient beings all the time, as long as it can last, however many years it lasts, hundreds of years.
“So like that, I thought to continue the gold writing of the Prajnaparamita.”
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche, May 2018, Bendigo, Australia
Budget
We are inviting individuals to generate merit and receive the blessings of these sutras by contributing to this fund. The ongoing work of writing out the Prajnaparamita Sutra in pure gold costs approximately US$25,000 per year. Every contribution, large or small, directly supports this meaningful practice.
Offer Your Compassionate Support
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with offerings before the completed first volume of the Prajnaparamita Sutra, Aptos, California, United States, February 2011. Photo by Ven. Thubten Kunsang.
Prajnaparamita Project News & Updates
Rejoicing in the Creation of Holy Objects for All Beings: Grants Offered in 2024
The Prajnaparamita Project is a project of FPMT Inc. All donations made to the fund are tax-deductible within the United States in accordance with IRS Code article 501(C)(3) to the extent allowed by law.
For questions about the Prajnaparamita Project, please contact the Charitable Projects Director.
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