Prajnaparamita information

Translations of
Prajñāpāramitā
Translations of; Prajñāpāramitā
English	Perfection of; Transcendent Wisdom
Sanskrit	प्रज्ञापारमिता; (IAST: Prajñāpāramitā)
Burmese	ပညာပါရမီတ ; (MLCTS: pjɪ̀ɰ̃ɲà pàɹəmìta̰)
Chinese	般若波羅蜜多 ; (Pinyin: bōrě bōluómìduō)
Japanese	般若波羅蜜多 ; (Rōmaji: hannya-haramitta)
Khmer	ប្រាជ្ញាបារមី ; (UNGEGN: prachnhéabarômi)
Korean	반야바라밀다 ; (RR: Banyabaramilda)
Mongolian	Төгөлдөр билгүүн
Sinhala	ප්‍රඥා පාරමිතා
Tibetan	་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་; (shes rab kyi pha rol tu chin pa)
Thai	ปรัชญาปารมิตา
Vietnamese	Bát-nhã-ba-la-mật-đa
	Glossary of Buddhism

Prajñāpāramitā (Sanskrit: प्रज्ञापारमिता) means the "Perfection of Wisdom" or "Perfection of Transcendental Wisdom". Prajñāpāramitā practices lead to discerning pristine cognition in a self-reflexively aware way, of seeing the nature of reality. There is a particular body of Mahayana sutras (scriptures) on this wisdom, and they form the practice sadhanas, such as the Heart Sutra.

The Transcendent Wisdom of the Prajanaparamita also transcends any single vehicle (yana) of Buddhist philosophy, as explained in the "Heart Sutra" through the replies Avalokiteshvara gives to Shariputra's question of how should sons and daughters of nobel qualities practice the Prajnaparamita:^[1]

"All the Buddhas of the three times by relying on the Prajnaparamita
Awaken completely
To the perfect, unsurpassable enlightenment."

Prajñāpāramitā may also refer to the female deity Prajñāpāramitā Devi, a samboghakaya Buddha of transcendental wisdom also known as the "Great Mother" (Tibetan: Yum Chenmo) who was widely depicted in Asian Buddhist art.^[2]

The word Prajñāpāramitā combines the Sanskrit words prajñā "wisdom" (or "knowledge") with pāramitā "perfection" or "transcendent". Prajñāpāramitā is a central concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism and is generally associated with ideas such as emptiness (śūnyatā), 'lack of svabhāva' (essence), the illusory (māyā) nature of things, how all phenomena are characterized by "non-arising" (anutpāda, i.e. unborn) and the madhyamaka thought of Nāgārjuna.^[3]^[4] Its practice and understanding are taken to be indispensable elements of the Bodhisattva path.

According to Edward Conze, the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras are "a collection of about forty texts ... composed somewhere on the Indian subcontinent between approximately 100 BC and AD 600."^[5] Some Prajnāpāramitā sūtras are thought to be among the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras.^[6]^[7]

^ Ju Mipham, (Wyl.) Bcom ldan 'das ma shes rab kyi pha rol to phyin pa'i snying po zhes bya ba bzhugs so ("Essence of Transcendent Wisdom, Essence of Bhagavati Prajnaparamita"), Avalokiteshvara's reply. In Thub chog byin rlabs gter mdzod bzhugs so, Dharma Samudra: Boulder, 1997
^ Müller, Petra. "Representing Prajñāpāramitā in Tibet and the Indian Himalayas. The iconographic concept in the Temples of Nako, rKyang bu and Zha lu".
^ Buswell, Robert; Lopez, Donald S. Jr., eds. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University Press, p. 945, "In the PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ literature and the MADHYAMAKA school, the notion of production comes under specific criticism (see: VAJRAKAṆĀ), with NĀGĀRJUNA famously asking, e.g., how an effect can be produced from a cause that is either the same as or different from itself. The prajñāpāramitā sūtras thus famously declare that all dharmas are actually ANUTPĀDA, or 'unproduced'."
^ King, Richard (1995), Early Advaita Vedānta and Buddhism: The Mahāyāna Context of the Gauḍapādīya-kārikā, SUNY Press, p. 113, "It is equally apparent that one of the important features of the prajnaparamita position is that of the nonarising (anutpada) of dharmas."
^ Conze, E. Perfect Wisdom: The Short Prajnaparamita Texts, Buddhist Publishing Group, 1993.
^ Williams, Paul. Buddhist Thought. Routledge, 2000, p. 131.
^ Williams, Paul. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations 2nd edition. Routledge, 2009, p. 47.

[1] Ju Mipham, (Wyl.) Bcom ldan 'das ma shes rab kyi pha rol to phyin pa'i snying po zhes bya ba bzhugs so ("Essence of Transcendent Wisdom, Essence of Bhagavati Prajnaparamita"), Avalokiteshvara's reply. In Thub chog byin rlabs gter mdzod bzhugs so, Dharma Samudra: Boulder, 1997

[2] Müller, Petra. "Representing Prajñāpāramitā in Tibet and the Indian Himalayas. The iconographic concept in the Temples of Nako, rKyang bu and Zha lu".

[3] Buswell, Robert; Lopez, Donald S. Jr., eds. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University Press, p. 945, "In the PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ literature and the MADHYAMAKA school, the notion of production comes under specific criticism (see: VAJRAKAṆĀ), with NĀGĀRJUNA famously asking, e.g., how an effect can be produced from a cause that is either the same as or different from itself. The prajñāpāramitā sūtras thus famously declare that all dharmas are actually ANUTPĀDA, or 'unproduced'."

[4] King, Richard (1995), Early Advaita Vedānta and Buddhism: The Mahāyāna Context of the Gauḍapādīya-kārikā, SUNY Press, p. 113, "It is equally apparent that one of the important features of the prajnaparamita position is that of the nonarising (anutpada) of dharmas."

[5] Conze, E. Perfect Wisdom: The Short Prajnaparamita Texts, Buddhist Publishing Group, 1993.

[6] Williams, Paul. Buddhist Thought. Routledge, 2000, p. 131.

[7] Williams, Paul. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations 2nd edition. Routledge, 2009, p. 47.

Prajnaparamita information

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Edward Conze

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Prajna

Translations of Prajñāpāramitā
English	Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom
Sanskrit	प्रज्ञापारमिता (IAST: Prajñāpāramitā)
Burmese	ပညာပါရမီတ (MLCTS: pjɪ̀ɰ̃ɲà pàɹəmìta̰)
Chinese	般若波羅蜜多 (Pinyin: bōrě bōluómìduō)
Japanese	般若波羅蜜多 (Rōmaji: hannya-haramitta)
Khmer	ប្រាជ្ញាបារមី (UNGEGN: prachnhéabarômi)
Korean	반야바라밀다 (RR: Banyabaramilda)
Mongolian	Төгөлдөр билгүүн
Sinhala	ප්‍රඥා පාරමිතා
Tibetan	་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ (shes rab kyi pha rol tu chin pa)
Thai	ปรัชญาปารมิตา
Vietnamese	Bát-nhã-ba-la-mật-đa
Glossary of Buddhism

Mahāyāna Buddhism
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Teachings Bodhisattva Buddhahood Mind of Awakening Buddha-nature Skillful Means Transcendent Wisdom Transcendent Virtues Emptiness Two truths Consciousness-only Three bodies Three vehicles Non-abiding Nirvana One Vehicle Bodhisattva Precepts Bodhisattva vow Bodhisattva stages Pure Lands Luminous mind Dharani Three Turnings
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas Shakyamuni Amitabha Adi-Buddha Akshobhya Prajñāpāramitā Devī Bhaiṣajyaguru Vairocana Mañjuśrī Avalokiteśvara Vajrapāṇi Vajrasattva Maitreya Kṣitigarbha Ākāśagarbha Samantabhadra Tara Wrathful deities
Mahayana sutras Prajñāpāramitā sūtras Lotus Sūtra Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra Vimalakirtinirdeśa Pure Land Sutras Lalitavistara Sūtra Samādhirāja Sūtra Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra Tathāgatagarbha sūtras Śrīmālādevī Sūtra Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra Śūraṅgama Samādhi Sūtra Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra Ghanavyūha sūtra Golden Light Sutra Tathāgataguhyaka Sūtra Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra
Major schools Mādhyamaka Yogācāra Tiantai Tendai Huayan Zen Shingon Pure Land Nichiren Vajrayāna Tibetan Buddhism Dzogchen
Key figures Nāgārjuna Ashvaghosha Āryadeva Lokakṣema Kumārajīva Asanga Vasubandhu Sthiramati Buddhapālita Dignāga Bhāvaviveka Dharmakīrti Candrakīrti Zhiyi Bodhidharma Huineng Shandao Xuanzang Fazang Amoghavajra Saichō Kūkai Shāntideva Shāntarakshita Wohnyo Mazu Daoyi Jinul Dahui Zonggao Hongzhi Zhengjue Hōnen Shinran Dōgen Nichiren Śaṅkaranandana Virūpa Ratnākaraśānti Abhayākaragupta Nāropā Atisha Sakya Pandita Dolpopa Rangjung Dorje Tsongkhapa Longchenpa Hakuin Hanshan Taixu D. T. Suzuki Sheng-yen 14th Dalai Lama Thích Nhất Hạnh
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