Toh 3817Untitled

Explanation of the Prajnaparamita Sutra (Toh 3817)

Context

This scripture belongs to the Prajnaparamita Sutra collection in the Northern Mahayana Tibetan tradition, one of the most foundational scriptural collections of Mahayana Buddhism. The Prajnaparamita collection includes many different sutras, from long versions such as the Prajnaparamita in 600 fascicles to concise texts such as the Heart Sutra. All are directed toward a single aim: transmitting Transcendent Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā), the wisdom that goes beyond all duality, all concepts, and all clinging to self.

In the Northern Tibetan tradition, the Prajnaparamita collection is regarded as the first teaching that the Buddha gave after his awakening. Yet these teachings were transmitted through “silence” or by profound metaphors, because Transcendent Wisdom cannot be clearly expressed in ordinary speech. Therefore the Prajnaparamita sutras are called the “Holy Mother of all Buddhas,” because from them arise all attainments of the path and all Buddhas.

Main Content

Although the full title of this scripture has not been provided, according to the tradition of the Prajnaparamita collection, its core content revolves around explaining the emptiness (śūnyatā) of all dharmas. Emptiness is not something that exists or does not exist, but the quality of all phenomena as both empty and complete, both without self-nature and boundlessly flexible.

The Prajnaparamita collection emphasizes that all entities — from matter to mind, from the sense faculties to their objects — have no fixed self (anātman, no-self). There is no independent “I,” no “thing attained,” and no “actor.” Even the bodhisattva does not hold the thought of a person who needs to be liberated.

From the very root of this emptiness, Transcendent Wisdom arises as a mode of awakening that goes beyond all concepts and all words.