Toh 1951Untitled

Exposition of the Prajnaparamita Collection (Toh 1951)

Mahayana Tradition — Northern Tibetan Tradition

Background

This sutra belongs to the Prajnaparamita Sutra collection, the gathering of the most profound sutras in Mahayana Buddhism, especially in the Northern Tibetan tradition (Tibetan Buddhism) and East Asian Buddhism. Prajna is the Sanskrit for "prajna" (bodhicitta), meaning transcendent wisdom, beyond the distinctions of ordinary reason. Paramita means "going to the other shore," so Prajnaparamita is "the ultimate wisdom that goes to the other shore."

The Prajnaparamita collection was compiled during the period of vigorous Mahayana development, roughly from the first to the fifth century CE. It summarizes what Buddha Shakyamuni taught the bodhisattvas about the unreal nature (sunyata) of all dharmas, which is the foundation for attaining bodhi, awakened wisdom.

Main Content

Although the title of the sutra has not been specifically identified, this sutra in the Northern Tibetan tradition guides deeply into the nature of Prajnaparamita. The principal teachings focus on three fundamental points:

First, absence of intrinsic nature (atman-sunyata): All dharmas, from material form to consciousness, lack a fixed, independent, everlasting essence. In the Northern Tibetan tradition, especially the Madhyamaka school, this absence of nature is not absolute nonexistence, but the absence of an "independent" nature (svabhava), meaning that there is no separate essence existing independently.

Second, nonconceptual wisdom (nirvikalpaka-jnana): The bodhisattva must develop a kind of cognition that goes beyond dualistic concepts (subject-object, good-bad, existence-nonexistence). This wisdom is not external knowledge or logical inference, but "prajnaparamita": direct, immediate, radiant wisdom.