Toh 3472Untitled

Exposition of the Prajnaparamita Sutra (Toh 3472)

Mahayana Tradition — Northern Canon

Context

This sutra belongs to the Prajnaparamita Sutra Collection — the body of wondrous sacred scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism, deeply transmitted through the Northern Canon (Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian). The Prajnaparamita Collection is the philosophical foundation of the Madhyamaka and Yogacara schools — the two greatest philosophical schools in the Mahayana.

Prajna is not ordinary wisdom but “transcendent wisdom” — the capacity to realize directly the selfless (anatman) and empty (sunyata) nature of all phenomena. This sutra was taught by Buddha Sakyamuni in order to guide bodhisattvas on the path to unsurpassed liberation.

Main Content

Although the title has not been clearly recorded in the descriptive information, the authentic Prajnaparamita sutras all revolve around one core theme: Prajnaparamita — the signless path of the Perfection of Wisdom gone beyond.

The sutra teaches that a bodhisattva practicing prajnaparamita must not cling to any dharma whatsoever. There is no existent dharma, no nonexistent dharma, no arising dharma, and no ceasing dharma. This is “practice without practice” — the bodhisattva’s mind must go beyond every concept, every distinction, and every grasping.

The sutra emphasizes the principle of “the emptiness of the three spheres” (triratra-aparamanu): the practitioner, the practice, and the fruition of practice — all three are without self-nature and without characteristics. When the bodhisattva attains this wisdom, they can liberate all beings without having any thought of liberating anyone, and without any thought of attaining anything. This is liberating beings without self and saving with an impermanent mind.

The sutra also teaches the bodhisattva’s “four immeasurable minds” (brahmavihara): loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity — yet always without clinging to any mind or any being. Generating bodhicitta is not generating a separate, formed mind, but generating a mind that is without discrimination and without signs.