Toh 3220Untitled

Exposition of the Prajnaparamita Sutra (Toh 3220) — The Northern Mahayana Canonical Tradition

Background

This sutra belongs to the Prajnaparamita Sutra collection, one of the core scriptural bodies of the Mahayana tradition. The Prajnaparamita collection was transmitted through the centuries and developed especially strongly in the Northern canonical tradition, particularly the Tibetan and ancient Chinese traditions. The Prajnaparamita sutras teach Prajnaparamita, the unsurpassed perfection of wisdom, one of the six bodhisattva practices that bodhisattvas cultivate in order to attain buddhahood.

The Prajnaparamita sutras are often taught by the Buddha, the Blessed One, at sacred places, commonly Vulture Peak (Gridhrakuta), with the participation of immeasurable bodhisattvas and divine assemblies. The content revolves around understanding "true emptiness" (shunyata), not as complete nonexistence from an ontological standpoint, but as the inner lack of real nature in all dharmas. This is the foundation of the Prajnaparamita-bhumi, the ground of Prajnaparamita.

Main Contents

Although this sutra has not been provided with full detailed information, according to the Northern Prajnaparamita tradition, its main content often discusses the ten emptinesses (dasha-shunyata): inner emptiness, outer emptiness, inner-and-outer emptiness, emptiness of the unconditioned, emptiness of the limitless, emptiness of the indeterminate, emptiness of the immeasurable, emptiness of the supreme, emptiness of emptiness, and emptiness of all dharmas.

The sutra emphasizes that bodhisattvas practice Prajnaparamita not in order to seek something "better," but to remove mistaken conceptions about self (atma) and the self-nature of dharmas (dharmatman). When practicing Prajnaparamita, practitioners are not bound by ideas and are not bound by views constructed in this life. This is called "practice free from conceptual thought" (anupabrana-bhavana), cultivation not through discriminating wisdom that divides subject and object.

The sutra also often contains the declaration (pratijnapti) of bodhisattvas' vows to protect and propagate the Dharma method of Prajnaparamita, so that all sentient beings may awaken in the future.