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| 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 | |
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| Mahāyāna Buddhism |
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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 noble 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.