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An Exposition of the Prajnaparamita Sutra — Toh 3352
Background
This sutra belongs to the Prajnaparamita Sutras of the Northern Canon and represents a foundation of Mahayana Buddhist thought. The Prajnaparamita collection contains the most profound sutras concerning Supreme Wisdom—the capacity for cognition that transcends all concepts and distinctions. Sutra Toh 3352 is found in the Tibetan Buddhist Canon and contains teachings transmitted from India through Tibet and subsequently developed within the Northern Mahayana tradition.
The teaching setting of the Prajnaparamita sutras generally features Shakyamuni Buddha expounding the Dharma to bodhisattvas, with the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara as a central figure. These sutras were not taught so that listeners might memorize information, but so that their way of perceiving reality might be transformed. They are teachings intended for those who have already established a firm foundation in practice and are ready to penetrate the depths of the Dharma.
Main Content
In the Mahayana tradition, the Prajnaparamita sutras focus on Prajnaparamita—the Perfection of Wisdom, meaning the Supreme Wisdom that has gone beyond. Here, “going beyond” (paramita) means not only crossing the river of samsara, but also transcending the very concepts of “crossing over,” transcending language, concepts, and the distinction between subject and object.
The sutra teaches that bodhisattvas who practice prajnaparamita rely on no dharma whatsoever—they do not rely on form, nor do they rely on sound, smell, taste, touch, or mental objects. They do not even rely on “Prajnaparamita,” “bodhisattva,” or “Buddha.” This is the state of “having no object of dependence” (anirvachaniya)—it cannot be described or constrained by language or concepts.
Through this teaching, the Buddha teaches that the path to liberation is not the accumulation of knowledge or merit, but the relinquishment, layer by layer, of the coverings of discriminative thought. The mind of a Prajnaparamita bodhisattva is an “empty mind”
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