"Perfection of Wisdom" is a translation of the Sanskrit term prajñā pāramitā (Devanagari: प्रज्ञा पारमिता, Chinese: 般若波羅蜜多/般若波罗蜜多, Pinyin: bānruò-bōluómìduō, Japanese: hannya-haramita), which is one of the aspects of a bodhisattva's personality called the paramitas. The Sanskrit language ( , ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. ... Rigveda manuscript in Devanagari (early 19th century) DevanāgarÄ« (देवनागरी — in English pronounced ) (ISCII – IS13194:1991) [1] is an abugida alphabet used to write several Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri and Nepali from Nepal. ... Pinyin is a system of romanization (phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script) for Standard Mandarin, where pin means spell and yin means sound. The most common variant of pinyin in use is called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n), also known as scheme... In Buddhist thought, a bodhisattva (Pali: bodhisatta; Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: púsà; Japanese: 菩薩 bosatsu; Korean: ë³´ì‚´ bosal ; Tibetan changchub sempa (byang-chub sems-dpa); Vietnamese: Bồ Tát; Thai: พระโพธิสัตว์) is a being who is dedicated to assisting all sentient beings in achieving complete Buddhahood. ... Pāramitā (Sanskrit) or Parami (Pāli): Perfection or Transcendent. In Buddhism, the Paramitas refer to the perfection or culmination of certain practices. ...

The Perfection of Wisdom Sutras or Prajñāpāramitā Sutras are a genre of Mahayana Buddhist scriptures dealing with the subject of the Perfection of Wisdom. The term Prajñāpāramitā alone never refers to a specific text, but always to the class of literature. SÅ«tra (sex) (Sanskrit) or Sutta (Pāli) literally means a rope or thread that holds things together, and more metaphorically refers to an aphorism (or line, rule, formula), or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. ... Relief image of the bodhisattva Kuan Yin from Mt. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by...

History

The earliest sutra in this class is the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra or "Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines", which was probably put in writing about 100 BCE and is one of the earliest Mahayana sutras. More material was gradually compiled over the next two centuries. As well as the sutra itself, there is a summary in verse, the Ratnaguṇasaṁcaya Gāthā, which some believe to be slightly older because it is not written in standard literary Sanskrit. (Redirected from 100 BCE) Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC - 100s BC - 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC Years: 105 BC 104 BC 103 BC 102 BC 101 BC - 100 BC - 99 BC 98 BC 97...

Between the years 100 and 300 this text was expanded into large versions in 10,000, 18,000, 25,000 and 100,000 lines, collectively known at the "Large Perfection of Wisdom". These differ mainly in the extent to which the many lists are either abbreviated or written out in full; the rest of the text is mostly unchanged between the different versions. Since the large versions proved to be unwieldy they were later summarized into shorter versions, produced from 300 to 500. The shorter versions include the Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra) and the Diamond Sutra (Prajñāpāramitā Vajracchedikā Sūtra). These two are widely popular and have had a great influence on the development of Mahayana Buddhism. Tantric versions of the Prajnaparamita; literature were produced from 500 on. The 2nd century is the period from 101 - 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... This Buddhist stela from China, Northern Wei period, was built in the early 6th century. ... The Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra or Heart Sutra or Essence of Wisdom Sutra (Sanskrit: प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदयसूत्र Prajñāpāramitā Hridaya SÅ«tra; Chinese: 般若波羅蜜多心經, BōrÄ›bōluómìduō XÄ«njÄ«ng; Japanese: 般若心経, Hannya Shingyō; Korean: Pannya Shimgyŏng) is a well-known Mahāyāna Buddhist sutra that is very... The Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedika-prajñāpāramitā-sÅ«tra), The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra that Cuts like a Thunderbolt, is a short Mahayana sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom genre, which teaches the practice of the avoidance of abiding in extremes of mental attachment. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This Buddhist stela from China, Northern Wei period, was built in the early 6th century. ...

Teachings

The following is a quotation used with permission.

"At first sight, The Perfection of Wisdom is bewildering, full of paradox and apparent irrationality. Yet once one accepts that trying to unravel these texts without experiencing the intuitions behind them is not satisfactory, it becomes clear that paradox and irrationality are the only means of conveying to the reader those underlying intuitions that would otherwise be impossible to express. Edward Conze succinctly summarized what The Perfection of Wisdom is about, saying, 'The thousands of lines of the Prajñāparamitā can be summed up in the following two sentences: Eberhart (Edward) Julius Dietrich Conze (1904 - 1979) was born in London of mixed German, French, and NetherlandsDutch ancestry. ...

1. One should become a bodhisattva (or, Buddha-to-be), i.e. one who is content with nothing less than all-knowledge attained through the perfection of wisdom for the sake of all beings.
2. There is no such thing as a bodhisattva, or as all-knowledge, or as a 'being', or as the perfection of wisdom, or as an attainment. To accept both of these contradictory facts is to be perfect.'

The central idea of The Perfection of Wisdom is complete release from the world of existence. The Perfection of Wisdom goes beyond earlier Buddhist teaching that focused on the rise and fall of phenomena to state that there is no such rise and fall — because all phenomena are essentially void. The earlier perception had been that reality is composed of a multiplicity of things. The Perfection of Wisdom states that there is no multiplicity: all is one. Even existence (samsara) and nirvana are essentially the same, and both are ultimately void. The view of The Perfection of Wisdom is that words and analysis have a practical application in that they are necessary for us to function in this world but, ultimately, nothing can be predicated about anything. In Buddhist thought, a bodhisattva (Pali: bodhisatta; Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: púsà; Japanese: 菩薩 bosatsu; Korean: ë³´ì‚´ bosal ; Tibetan changchub sempa (byang-chub sems-dpa); Vietnamese: Bồ Tát; Thai: พระโพธิสัตว์) is a being who is dedicated to assisting all sentient beings in achieving complete Buddhahood. ... Media:Example. ... Illustration depicting the transmigration of the soul. ... [ (Devanagari , Pali: Nibbāna निब्बान -- Chinese: 涅槃; Pinyin: niè pán), literally extinction and/or extinguishing (ie, of the passions) is a mode of being that is free from mind-contaminants (Kilesa) such as lust, anger or craving. ...

Within this context of voidness, The Perfection of Wisdom offers a way to enlightenment. It represents the formal introduction to Buddhist thought of a practical ideal — the ideal of a bodhisattva. Unlike an arhat or pratyekabuddha, beings who achieve enlightenment but cannot pass on the means of enlightenment to others, a bodhisattva should and does teach. A bodhisattva must practice the six perfections: giving, morality, patience, vigour, contemplation and wisdom. Wisdom is the most important of these because it dispels the darkness of sensory delusion and allows things to be seen as they really are."
--R.C. Jamieson : The Perfection of Wisdom (New York : Penguin Viking, 2000. ISBN 0-670-88934-2 pp. 8–9) Bodhi, the Pāli and Sanskrit word for awakening or enlightenment, is an abstract noun formed from the verbal root budh (awake, become aware, notice, know or understand), corresponding to the verbs bujjhati (Pāli) and bodhati or budhyate (Sanskrit). ...

For example, the Diamond Sutra concludes with: The Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedika-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra), The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra that Cuts like a Thunderbolt, is a short Mahayana sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom genre, which teaches the practice of the avoidance of abiding in extremes of mental attachment. ...

As stars, a fault of vision, a lamp,
A mock show, dew drops, or a bubble,
A dream, a lightning flash, or a cloud,
So should one view what is conditioned.

Stars cannot be grasped. Things seen with faulty vision do not really exist. Lamps only burn as long as they have fuel. A mock show is a magical illusion; it is not as it seems. Dew drops evaporate quickly in the heat of the sun. Bubbles are short lived and have no real substance to them. Dreams are not real, even though they may seem so at the time. Lightning is short lived and quickly over. Clouds are always changing shape. By realising the transient nature of things it is easier to detach from them and to attain Nirvana.

Nagarjuna's philosophical explorations of śūnyatā may be derived in part from the Prajñāparamitā literature. A statue depicting Nagarjuna at the Samye Ling Monastery, Dumfriesshire, Scotland Nāgārjuna (నాగార్జున in Telugu, 龍樹 in Chinese) (c. ... Śūnyatā, शून्यता (Sanskrit, Pali: suññatā), or Emptiness, is a term for a concept or set of concepts playing an important role in some versions of the Buddhist metaphysical critique, but also having important implications for Buddhist epistemology and phenomenology. ...

Selected English translations of Perfection of Wisdom sutras

Eberhart (Edward) Julius Dietrich Conze (1904 - 1979) was born in London of mixed German, French, and NetherlandsDutch ancestry. ... // Lex Hixon Alexander Paul Hixon, PhD, 1941-1995, spiritual teacher and author In his 53 years of life, Lex Hixon, an accomplished poet, philosopher and spiritual practitioner, explored extensively the truth of the great religious traditions. ... Eberhart (Edward) Julius Dietrich Conze (1904 - 1979) was born in London of mixed German, French, and NetherlandsDutch ancestry. ... Eberhart (Edward) Julius Dietrich Conze (1904 - 1979) was born in London of mixed German, French, and NetherlandsDutch ancestry. ... Thich Nhat Hanh Thích Nhất Hạnh (born 1926) is an expatriate Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist, and prolific author in English. ... Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism that places great importance on moment-by-moment awareness and seeing deeply into the nature of things by direct experience. ... Thich Nhat Hanh Thích Nhất Hạnh (born 1926) is an expatriate Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist, and prolific author in English. ... Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism that places great importance on moment-by-moment awareness and seeing deeply into the nature of things by direct experience. ... Eberhart (Edward) Julius Dietrich Conze (1904 - 1979) was born in London of mixed German, French, and NetherlandsDutch ancestry. ... Eberhart (Edward) Julius Dietrich Conze (1904 - 1979) was born in London of mixed German, French, and NetherlandsDutch ancestry. ...

External links

• Ekashari Prajnaparamita Sutra (English translation)
• Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra & Ratnagunasamcayagatha (English translation)
• The Prajnaparamita Literature Bibliography of the Prajnaparamita Literature
• Lotsawa House Translations of several Tibetan texts on the Prajnaparamita

See also

• Mahayana Sutras
  • Diamond Sutra
  • Heart Sutra