Prajnaparamita


Prajñāpāramitā means "the Perfection of Wisdom" or "Transcendental Knowledge" in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Prajñāpāramitā refers to a perfected way of seeing the nature of reality, as well as to a particular body of Mahāyāna scriptures, known as the Prajñāpāramitā sutras, which includes such texts as the Heart Sutra and Diamond Sutra.
The word Prajñāpāramitā combines the Sanskrit words prajñā "wisdom" with pāramitā, "excellence," "perfection," "noble character quality," or "that which has gone beyond," "gone to the other side," "transcending." Prajñāpāramitā is a central concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism and is generally associated with ideas such as emptiness, 'lack of svabhāva', the illusory nature of things, how all phenomena are characterized by "non-arising" and the Madhyamaka thought of Nāgārjuna. 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." Some Prajnāpāramitā sūtras are thought to be among the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras.

History

Earliest texts

Western scholars have traditionally considered the earliest sūtra in the Prajñāpāramitā class to be the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra or "Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines", which was probably put in writing in the 1st century BCE. This chronology is based on the views of Edward Conze, who largely considered dates of translation into other languages. This text also has a corresponding version in verse format, called the , which some believe to be slightly older because it is not written in standard literary Sanskrit. However, these findings rely on late-dating Indian texts, in which verses and mantras are often kept in more archaic forms.
According to Edward Conze, the PP literature developed in nine stages: An urtext similar to the first two chapters of the Sanskrit Ratnagunasaṃcaya Gāthā; Chapters 3 to 28 of the Ratnagunasaṃcaya are composed, along with the prose of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā. This base text was further expanded with material from the Abhidharma, and concessions to the "Buddhism of Faith". This process led to further expansion into larger PP sūtras as well as contraction into the shorter sūtras. This expanded corpus formed the basis for the Indian PP Commentaries, Tantric PP works and Chinese Chan texts. Jan Nattier also defends the view that the Aṣṭasāhasrikā developed as various layers were added over time. However, Matthew Orsborn has recently argued, based on the chiastic structures of the text that the entire sūtra may have been composed as a single whole.
A number of scholars have proposed that the Mahāyāna Prajñāpāramitā teachings were first developed by the Caitika subsect of the Mahāsāṃghikas. They believe that the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra originated amongst the southern Mahāsāṃghika schools of the Āndhra region, along the Kṛṣṇa River. These Mahāsāṃghikas had two famous monasteries near Amarāvati Stupa and Dhānyakataka, which gave their names to the Pūrvaśaila and Aparaśaila schools. Each of these schools had a copy of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra in Prakrit. Guang Xing also assesses the view of the Buddha given in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra as being that of the Mahāsāṃghikas. Edward Conze estimates that this sūtra originated around 100 BCE.
In 2012, Harry Falk and Seishi Karashima published a damaged and partial Kharoṣṭhī manuscript of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. It is very similar to the first Chinese translation of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā by Lokakṣema whose source text is assumed to be in the Gāndhārī language; Lokakṣema's translation is also the first extant translation of the Prajñāpāramitā genre into a non-Indic language. Comparison with the standard Sanskrit text shows that it is also likely to be a translation from Gāndhāri as it expands on many phrases and provides glosses for words that are not present in the Gāndhārī. This points to the text being composed in Gāndhārī, the language of Gandhara. The "Split" manuscript is evidently a copy of an earlier text, though Falk and Karashima do not give an estimate on how old the original may be.
In contrast to western scholarship, Japanese scholars have traditionally considered the Diamond Sūtra to be from a very early date in the development of Prajñāpāramitā literature. The usual reason for this relative chronology which places the Vajracchedikā earlier is not its date of translation, but rather a comparison of the contents and themes. Some western scholars also believe that the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra was adapted from the earlier Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.
Examining the language and phrases used in both the Aṣṭasāhasrikā and the Vajracchedikā, Gregory Schopen also sees the Vajracchedikā as being earlier than the Aṣṭasāhasrikā. This view is taken in part by examining parallels between the two works, in which the Aṣṭasāhasrikā seems to represent the later or more developed position. According to Schopen, these works also show a shift in emphasis from an oral tradition to a written tradition.

Larger PP sutras

The Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā ''Sūtra is one of the largest PP sutras, comprising three volumes of the Tibetan Kangyur. It was also one of the most important and popular PP sutras in India, seeing as how there are numerous Indian commentaries on this text, including commentaries by Vimuktisena, Haribhadra, Smṛtijñānakīrti, and Ratnakarashanti. The sutra also survives in the original Sanskrit, which was found in Gilgit. It also exists in four Chinese translations.
According to Nattier, the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā is basically the Aṣṭasāhasrikā base text which has been "sliced" up and filled with other material, increasing the length of the text considerably. This process of expansion continued, culminating in the massive Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, the largest of the PP sutras.
According to Joseph Walser, there is evidence that the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra and the Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra have a connection with the Dharmaguptaka sect, while the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra does not.
Other PP texts were also composed which were much shorter and had a more independent structure from the Aṣṭasāhasrikā. Regarding the shorter PP texts, Conze writes, "two of these, the Diamond Sūtra and the Heart Sūtra are in a class by themselves and deservedly renowned throughout the world of Northern Buddhism. Both have been translated into many languages and have often been commented upon.". Jan Nattier argues the Heart Sutra to be an apocryphal text composed in China from extracts of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā'' and other texts c. 7th century. Red Pine, however, does not support Nattiers argument and believes the Heart Sutra to be of Indian origin.

Esoteric Prajñāpāramitā texts

During the later phase of Indian Buddhism, Tāntric Prajñāpāramitā texts were produced from the 8th century up to the 11th century CE. These later esoteric Prajñāpāramitā sutras are generally short texts which contain mantras and/or dhāraṇīs and also reference esoteric Buddhist ideas. They often promote simple practices based on recitation which lead to the accumulation of merit and help one reach awakening.
Esoteric Prajñāpāramitā sutras include texts such as the Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, the famous Heart Sutra, the Ekaślokikā prajñāpāramitā, Svalpākṣarā Prajñāpāramitā, Kauśikā ''Prajñāpāramitā, Saptaślokikā Prajñāpāramitā, the *Prajñāpāramitānāmāṣṭaśataka and the Candragarbha Prajñāpāramitā. Some of these sources, like the Svalpākṣarā, claim that simply reciting the dharanis found in the sutras are as beneficial as advanced esoteric Buddhist practices. These scriptures may have been recited in esoteric rituals and two of them remain in widespread use today: Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya and the Adhyardhaśatikā .''

Prajñāpāramitā in Central Asia

By the middle of the 3rd century CE, it appears that some Prajñāpāramitā texts were known in Central Asia, as reported by the Chinese monk Zhu Zixing, who brought back a manuscript of the Prajñāpāramitā of 25,000 lines:

China

In China, there was extensive translation of many Prajñāpāramitā texts beginning in the second century CE. The main translators include: Lokakṣema, Zhī Qīan, Dharmarakṣa, Mokṣala, Kumārajīva, Xuánzàng, Făxián and Dānapāla. These translations were very influential in the development of East Asian Mādhyamaka and on Chinese Buddhism.
Xuanzang was a Chinese scholar who traveled to India and returned to China with three copies of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra which he had secured from his extensive travels. Xuanzang, with a team of disciple translators, commenced translating the voluminous work in 660 CE using the three versions to ensure the integrity of the source documentation. Xuanzang was being encouraged by a number of the disciple translators to render an abridged version. After a suite of dreams quickened his decision, Xuanzang determined to render an unabridged, complete volume, faithful to the original of 600 fascicles.
An important PP text in East Asian Buddhism is the Dazhidulun, a massive commentary on the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā translated by Kumārajīva. There are also later commentaries from Zen Buddhists on the Heart and Diamond sutra and Kūkai's commentary is the first-known Tantric commentary.

Tibet

The PP sutras were first brought to Tibet in the reign of Trisong Detsen by scholars Jinamitra and Silendrabodhi and the translator Ye shes De. Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism generally studies the PP sutras through the Abhisamayālaṅkāra and its numerous commentaries. The focus on the Abhisamayālaṅkāra is particularly pronounced in the Gelug school, who according to Georges Dreyfus "take the Ornament as the central text for the study of the path" and "treat it as a kind of Buddhist encyclopedia, read in the light of commentaries by Je Dzong-ka-ba, Gyel-tsap Je, and the authors of manuals ."

Texts

The Main Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras

An Indian commentary on the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, entitled Vivṛtaguhyārthapiṇḍavyākhyā, lists eight Prajñāpāramitā sūtras which were "taught to bodhisattvas" and are seen as superior because they are superior "in eliminating conceptually imaged forms".
The eight texts are listed according to length and are the following:
  1. Triśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra: 300 lines, alternatively known as the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra
  2. Pañcaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra: 500 lines
  3. Saptaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra: 700 lines, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī's exposition of Prajñāpāramitā
  4. Sārdhadvisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra: 2,500 lines, from the questions of Suvikrāntavikrāmin Bodhisattva
  5. Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra: 8,000 lines
  6. Aṣṭadaśasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra: 18,000 lines
  7. Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra: 25,000 lines.
  8. Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra: 100,000 lines.

    Xuanzang's Prajñāpāramitā Library

The Chinese scholar and translator Xuanzang is known for his translation of a massive Sanskrit collection of Prajñāpāramitā sutras called "the Xuánzàng Prajñāpāramitā Library" or "The Great Prajñāpāramitāsūtra".
Xuanzang returned to China with three copies of this Sanskrit work which he obtained in South India and his translation is said to have been based on these three sources. In total it includes 600 scrolls, with 5 million Chinese characters.
This collection consists of 16 Prajñāpāramitā texts:
  • Prajñāpāramitā sūtra in 100,000 verses
  • Prajñāpāramitā sūtra in 25,000 verses
  • Prajñāpāramitā sūtra in 18,000 verses
  • Prajñāpāramitā sutra in 8,000 verses
  • An abridged version of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtra in 8,000 verses
  • Devarājapravara prajñāpāramitā sūtra - a part of the Questions of Suvikrānta
  • Prajñāpāramitā sūtra in 700 verses
  • Nāgaśripa-priccha Prajñāpāramitā
  • The Diamond Sutra
  • Prajñāpāramitā sūtra in 150 verses
  • Ārya pañcapāramitānirdeśa nāma mahāyāna sūtra
  • The Questions of Suvikrānta
A modern English translation: The Great Prajna Paramita Sutra translated by Naichen Chen.

In the Tibetan Kangyur

In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the Abhisamayālaṅkāra is traditionally said to be a commentary to seventeen Prajñāpāramitā source texts. These are seen as the most important PP sutras and they collectively known as the "Seventeen Mothers and Sons".
The Six Mothers are:
  1. The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines, Tohoku Catalogue # 8.
  2. The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-five Thousand Lines, Toh 9.
  3. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines, Toh 10.
  4. The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines, Toh 11.
  5. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, Toh 12.
  6. The Verses that Summarize the Perfection of Wisdom, Toh 13.
The Eleven Sons are:
  1. The Perfection of Wisdom in Seven Hundred Lines, Toh 24.
  2. The Perfection of Wisdom in Five Hundred Lines, Toh 15.
  3. The Illustrious Perfection of Wisdom in Fifty Lines, Toh 18.
  4. The Principles of the Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred and Fifty Lines, Toh 17.
  5. The Twenty-five Entrances to the Perfection of Wisdom, Toh 20.
  6. The Perfection of Wisdom in a Few Syllables, Toh 22.
  7. The Perfection of Wisdom Mother in One Syllable, Toh 23.
  8. The Perfection of Wisdom for Kauśika, Toh 19
  9. The Perfection of Wisdom Teachings “The Questions of Suvikrāntavikrāmin”, Toh 14.
  10. The Sūtra on the Perfection of Wisdom "The Diamond Cutter", Toh 16.
  11. The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom, the Blessed Mother, Toh 21.
In the Prajñāpāramitā section of the Kangyur, there are also other Prajñāpāramitā sutras besides the seventeen Mothers and Sons:
  • The Hundred and Eight Names of the Perfection of Wisdom, Toh 25.
  • The Perfection of Wisdom for Sūryagarbha, Toh 26.
  • The Perfection of Wisdom for Candragarbha, Toh 27.
  • The Perfection of Wisdom for Samantabhadra, Toh 28.
  • The Perfection of Wisdom for Vajrapāṇi, Toh 29.
  • The Perfection of Wisdom for Vajraketu, Toh 30.

    Commentaries

There are various Indian and later Chinese commentaries on the Prajñāpāramitā sutras, some of the most influential commentaries include:
  • Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa a massive and encyclopedic text translated into Chinese by the Buddhist scholar Kumārajīva. It is a commentary on the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. This text claims to be from the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna in the colophon, but various scholars such as Étienne Lamotte have questioned this attribution. This work was translated by Lamotte as Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse and into English from the French by Gelongma Karma Migme Chodron.
  • Abhisamayālaṅkāra, the central Prajñāpāramitā shastra in the Tibetan tradition. It is traditionally attributed as a revelation from the Bodhisattva Maitreya to the scholar Asanga, known as a master of the Yogachara school. The Indian commentary on this text by Haribadra, the Abhisamayalankaraloka, has also been influential on later Tibetan texts. There is also another Indian commentary to the AA by Vimuktisena.
  • Śatasāhasrikā-pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāṣṭādaśasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā-bṛhaṭṭīkā, often attributed to Vasubandhu.
  • Satasahasrika-paramita-brhattika, attributed to Daṃṣṭrāsena.
  • Dignāga's Prajnaparamitarthasamgraha-karika.
  • Ratnākaraśānti's Prajñāpāramitopadeśa.

    Themes in Prajñāpāramitā sutras

Core themes

The Bodhisattva and Prajñāpāramitā

A key theme of the Prajñāpāramitā sutras is the figure of the Bodhisattva which is defined in the 8,000-line Prajñāpāramitā sutra as:
A Bodhisattva is then a being that experiences everything "without attachment" and sees reality or suchness as it is. The Bodhisattva is the main ideal in Mahayana, which sees the goal of the Buddhist path as becoming a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings, not just yourself:
A central quality of the Bodhisattva is their practice of Prajñāpāramitā, a most deep state of knowledge which is an understanding of reality arising from analysis as well as meditative insight. It is non-conceptual and non-dual as well as transcendental. Literally, the term could be translated as "knowledge gone to the other ", or transcendental knowledge. The Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra says:
A further passage in the 8,000-line Prajñāpāramitā sutra states that Prajñāpāramitā means that a Bodhisattva stands in emptiness by not standing or supporting themselves on any dharma, whether conditioned or unconditioned. The dharmas that a Bodhisattva does "not stand" on include standard listings such as: the five aggregates, the sense fields, nirvana, Buddhahood, etc. This is explained by stating that Bodhisattvas "wander without a home" ; "home" or "abode" meaning signs of sensory objects and the afflictions that arise dependent on them. This includes the absence, the "not taking up" of even "correct" mental signs and perceptions such as "form is not self", "I practice Prajñāpāramitā", etc. To be freed of all constructions and signs, to be signless is to be empty of them and this is to stand in Prajñāpāramitā. The Prajñāpāramitā sutras state that all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the past have practiced Prajñāpāramitā. Prajñāpāramitā is also associated with Sarvajñata in the Prajñāpāramitā sutras, a quality of the mind of a Buddha which knows the nature of all dharmas.
Image:Gandhara, rilievo col buddha shakyamuni che medita nella grotta indrashala e il buddha dipankara, II-III secolo.jpg|thumb|280x280px|Gandharan depiction of the Bodhisattva prostrating at the feet of the past Buddha Dipankara
According to Karl Brunnhölzl, Prajñāpāramitā means that "all phenomena from form up through omniscience being utterly devoid of any intrinsic characteristics or nature of their own." Furthermore, "such omniscient wisdom is always nonconceptual and free from reference points since it is the constant and panoramic awareness of the nature of all phenomena and does not involve any shift between meditative equipoise and subsequent attainment."
Edward Conze outlined several psychological qualities of a Bodhisattva's practice of Prajñāpāramitā:
  • Non-apprehension
  • No settling down or "non-attachment"
  • No attainment. No person can "have," or "possess," or "acquire," or "gain" any dharma.
  • Non-reliance on any dharma, being unsupported, not leaning on any dharma.
  • "Finally, one may say that the attitude of the perfected sage is one of non-assertion."

    Other Bodhisattva qualities

The Prajñāpāramitā sutras also teach of the importance of the other pāramitās for the Bodhisattva such as Ksanti : "Without resort to this patience they cannot reach their respective goals".
Another quality of the Bodhisattva is their freedom from fear in the face of the seemingly shocking doctrine of the emptiness of all dharmas which includes their own existence. A good friend is useful in the path to fearlessness. Bodhisattvas also have no pride or self-conception of their own stature as Bodhisattvas. These are important features of the mind of a bodhisattva, called bodhicitta. The Prajñāpāramitā sutras also mention that bodhicitta is a middle way, it is neither apprehended as existent or non-existent and it is "immutable" and "free from conceptualization".
The Bodhisattva is said to generate "great compassion" for all beings on their path to liberation and yet also maintain a sense of equanimity and distance from them through their understanding of emptiness, due to which, the Bodhisattva knows that even after bringing countless beings to nirvana, "no living being whatsoever has been brought to nirvana." Bodhisattvas and Mahāsattvas are also willing to give up all of their meritorious deeds for sentient beings and develop skillful means in order to help abandon false views and teach them the Dharma. The practice of Prajñāpāramitā allows a Bodhisattva to become:
"a saviour of the helpless, a defender of the defenceless, a refuge to those without refuge, a place to rest to those without resting place, the final relief of those who are without it, an island to those without one, a light to the blind, a guide to the guideless, a resort to those without one and....guide to the path those who have lost it, and you shall become a support to those who are without support."

Tathātā

Tathātā and the related term Dharmatā, and Tathāgata are also important terms of the Prajñāpāramitā texts. To practice Prajñāpāramitā means to practice in accord with 'the nature of Dharma' and to see the Tathāgata. As the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra states, these terms are generally used equivalently: "As the suchness of dharmas is immovable, and the suchness of dharmas is the Tathāgata." The Tathāgata is said in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra to "neither come nor go". Furthermore, the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra includes a list of synonyms associated with Tathāgata as also being "beyond coming and going", these include: 1. Suchness ; 2. Unarisen ; 3. Reality limit ; 4. Emptiness ; 5. Division ; 6. Detachment ; 7. Cessation ; 8. Space element. The sutra then states:
Apart from these dharmas, there is no Tathāgata. The suchness of these dharmas, and the suchness of the Tathāgatas, is all one single suchness, not two, not divided.... beyond all classification, due to non-existence.

Suchness then does not come or go because like the other terms, it is not a real entity, but merely appears conceptually through dependent origination, like a dream or an illusion.
Edward Conze lists six ways in which the ontological status of dharmas is considered by the Prajñāpāramitā:
  1. Dharmas are non-existent because they have no own-being.
  2. Dharmas have a purely nominal existence. They are mere words, a matter of conventional expression.
  3. Dharmas are "without marks, with one mark only, ie., with no mark." A mark being a distinctive property which separates it from other dharmas.
  4. Dharmas are isolated, absolutely isolated.
  5. Dharmas have never been produced, never come into existence; they are not really ever brought forth, they are unborn.
  6. Non-production is illustrated by a number of similes, i.e., dreams, magical illusions, echoes, reflected images, mirages, and space.
It is through seeing this Tathātā that one is said to have a vision of the Buddha, seeing this is called seeing the Buddha's Dharmakaya which is a not his physical body, but none other than the true nature of dharmas.

Negation and emptiness

Most modern Buddhist scholars such as Lamotte, Conze and Yin Shun have seen Śūnyatā as the central theme of the Prajñāpāramitā sutras. Edward Conze writes:
It is now the principal teaching of Prajñāpāramitā with regard to own-being that it is "empty." The Sanskrit term is svabhāva-śūnya. This is a tatpuruṣa compound, in which svabhava may have the sense of any oblique case. The Mahayana understands it to mean that dharmas are empty of any own-being, i.e., that they are not ultimate facts in their own right, but merely imagined and falsely discriminated, for each and every one of them is dependent on something other than itself. From a slightly different angle this means that dharmas, when viewed with perfected gnosis, reveal an own-being which is identical with emptiness, i.e in their own-being they are empty.

The Prajñāpāramitā sutras commonly use apophatic statements to express the nature of reality as seen by Prajñāpāramitā. A common trope in the Prajñāpāramitā sutras is the negation of a previous statement in the form 'A is not A, therefore it is A', or more often negating only a part of the statement as in, "XY is a Y-less XY". Japanese Buddhologist, Hajime Nakamura, calls this negation the 'logic of not'. An example from the Diamond Sutra of this use of negation is:
The rationale behind this form is the juxtaposition of conventional truth with ultimate truth as taught in the Buddhist two truths doctrine. The negation of conventional truth is supposed to expound the ultimate truth of the emptiness of all reality - the idea that nothing has an ontological essence and all things are merely conceptual, without substance.
The Prajñāpāramitā sutras state that dharmas should not be conceptualized either as existent, nor as non existent, and use negation to highlight this: "in the way in which dharmas exist, just so do they not exist ".

Māyā

The Prajñāpāramitā sutras commonly state that all dharmas, are in some way like an illusion, like a dream and like a mirage. The Diamond Sutra states:
Even the highest Buddhist goals like Buddhahood and Nirvana are to be seen in this way, thus the highest wisdom or prajña is a type of spiritual knowledge which sees all things as illusory. As Subhuti in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra states:
This is connected to the impermanence and insubstantial nature of dharmas. The Prajñāpāramitā sutras give the simile of a magician who, when seemingly killing his illusory persons by cutting off their heads, really kills nobody and compare it to the bringing of beings to awakening and the fact that this is also ultimately like an illusion, because their aggregates "are neither bound nor released". The illusion then, is the conceptualization and mental fabrication of dharmas as existing or not existing, as arising or not arising. Prajñāpāramitā sees through this illusion, being empty of concepts and fabrications.
Perceiving dharmas and beings like an illusion is termed the "great armor" of the Bodhisattva, who is also termed the 'illusory man'.

Sutra worship

According to Paul Williams, another major theme of the Prajñāpāramitā sutras is "the phenomenon of laudatory self reference—the lengthy praise of the sutra itself, the immense merits to be obtained from treating even a verse of it with reverence, and the nasty penalties which will accrue in accordance with karma to those who denigrate the scripture."

Later developments

According to Edward Conze, later Prajñāpāramitā sutras added much new doctrinal material. Conze lists the later accretions as:
  1. Increasing sectarianism, with all the rancor, invective and polemics that that implies
  2. Increasing scholasticism and the insertion of longer and longer Abhidharma lists
  3. Growing stress on skill in means, and on its subsidiaries such as the Bodhisattva's Vow and the four means of conversion, and its logical sequences, such as the distinction between provisional and ultimate truth
  4. A growing concern with the Buddhist of faith, with its celestial Buddhas and Bodhisattva and their Buddha-fields;
  5. A tendency towards verbosity, repetitiveness and overelaboration
  6. Lamentations over the decline of the Dharma
  7. Expositions of the hidden meaning which become the more frequent the more the original meaning becomes obscured
  8. Any reference to the Dharma body of the Buddha as anything different from a term for the collection of his teachings
  9. A more and more detailed doctrine of the graded stages of a Bodhisattva's career.

    Selected English translations

;Larger and smaller Prajnaparamita Sutras
Scholarly
  • Edward Conze, Selected Sayings from the Perfection of Wisdom, Buddhist Society, London,. Portions of various Perfection of Wisdom sutras
  • Edward Conze, The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom, University of California,. Mostly the version in 25,000 lines, with some parts from the versions in 100,000 and 18,000 lines
  • Edward Conze, The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and its Verse Summary, Four Seasons Foundation,. The earliest text in a combination of strict translation and summary
  • Lex Hixon, Mother of the Buddhas: Meditation on the Prajnaparamita Sutra, Quest,. Selected verses from the Prajnaparamita in 8,000 lines
  • R.C. Jamieson, The Perfection of Wisdom, Extracts from the Aṣṭasahāsrikāprajñāpāramitā, Penguin Viking,. Foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama; illustrated with Cambridge University Library Manuscript Add.1464 & Manuscript Add.1643
  • Naichen Chen, The Great Prajna Paramita Sutra, Volume 1, Wheatmark,. Unabridged English translation of Xuanzang's Chinese rendition
  • Naichen Chen, The Great Prajna Paramita Sutra, Volume 2, Wheatmark,. Unabridged English translation of Xuanzang's Chinese rendition
  • Naichen Chen, The Great Prajna Paramita Sutra, Volume 3, Wheatmark,. Unabridged English translation of Xuanzang's Chinese rendition
  • Huifeng Shi , ', Asian Literature and Translation. Critically annotated translation of the first two chapters of Kumarajiva's 5th century translation of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines.
  • Stefano Zacchetti, In Praise of the Light: a critical synoptic edition with an annotated translation of chapters 1-3 of Dharmarakṣa's Guang zan jing 光讚經, being the earliest Chinese translation of the Larger Prajñāpāramitā, The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, Bibliotheca philologica et philosophica buddhica, v. 8.
Buddhist translators/commentators
  • , , , 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. The complete Prajnaparamita in 10,000 lines, translated from the Tibetan. With hyper-linked glossary and Tibetan text.
  • Gareth Sparham, ', |84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha. Full translation from the Tibetan version: Tohoku Catalogue No. 10.
;Heart Sutra and Diamond Sutra
Scholarly
  • Edward Conze, Buddhist Wisdom Books, Unwin,. The Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra with commentaries
  • Edward Conze,. Most of the short sutras: Perfection of Wisdom in 500 Lines, 700 lines, The Heart Sutra and The Diamond Sutra, one word, plus some Tantric sutras, all without commentaries.
  • Richard H. Jones, The Heart of Buddhist Wisdom: Plain English Translations of the Heart Sutra, the Diamond-Cutter Sutra, and other Perfection of Wisdom Texts, Jackson Square Books,. Clear translations and summaries of the most important texts with essays
  • Lopez, Donald S., Elaborations on Emptiness, Princeton,. The Heart Sutra with eight complete Indian and Tibetan commentaries
  • Lopez, Donald S., The Heart Sutra Explained, SUNY,. The Heart Sutra with a summary of Indian commentaries
  • Red Pine, The Diamond Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom; Text and Commentaries Translated from Sanskrit and Chinese, Counterpoint,. The Diamond Sutra with Chán/Zen commentary
  • Red Pine, The Heart Sutra: the Womb of Buddhas, Counterpoint,. Heart Sutra with commentary
  • Paul Harrison, ', Hermes Publishing, Oslo. Translation of the Diamond Sūtra from the Sanskrit based on the two oldest manuscripts
  • Gregory Schopen, The Perfection of Wisdom, in D. S. Lopez Jr., ed., Buddhist Scriptures, pp. 450–463. Translation of the Diamond Sutra
  • Kazuaki Tanahashi, The Heart Sutra: A Comprehensive Guide to the Classic of Mahayana Buddhism, Shambhala Publications,. English translation of the Heart Sutra with history and commentary
Buddhist translators/commentators