Toh 3219Untitled

Exposition of the Prajnaparamita Sutra (Toh 3219)

Northern Canon — Mahayana

Background

This sutra belongs to the Prajnaparamita Sutra collection, one of the most important scriptural collections of the Northern Mahayana tradition. The Prajnaparamita collection was translated into Chinese and Tibetan in many different versions, each version focusing on one aspect of "prajna wisdom," the perfection of wisdom that goes beyond all discrimination.

In the Tibetan tradition, the Prajnaparamita sutras are regarded as the supreme expression of the wondrous Dharma, with content directed toward complete liberation through the direct recognition of shunyata, emptiness. This collection is the philosophical foundation of the Madhyamaka school and deeply influences the entire mode of Mahayana thought.

The recording of this sutra in the Toh, the great Tibetan Buddhist canon, shows that this is a document preserved in the ancient Tibetan Buddhist tradition, even though its title is no longer clear. Whatever its specific name, its content must certainly be related to explaining the nature of the Noble Eightfold Path or to profound aspects of the teaching on mind (Cittamatra/Yogacara) or luminous emptiness.

Main Contents

The Prajnaparamita sutras in general teach that all phenomena (dharmas) are without self-nature (anatman), having no fixed essence. The four dharmas, namely form (rupa), feeling (vedana), perception (samjna), and formations (samskara), are all empty of essence. Understanding this is not ordinary knowledge, but Prajnaparamita, transcendent wisdom, beyond conceptual thought (apratisthita).

In the Mahayana context, the sutra teaches that the bodhisattva, one who is directed toward unsurpassed bodhi, must cultivate the perfections, the six paramitas or ten paramitas according to the tradition. In particular, the perfection of wisdom (Prajna-paramita) cannot be expressed through words or concepts. It is the absolute absence of all subject, object, and action.