Prajñāpāramitā

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Key Term	Prajñāpāramitā
Hover Popup Choices	Perfection of Wisdom; Prajnaparamita
In Tibetan Script	ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་; ཤེར་ཕྱིན་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa; sher phyin
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	प्रज्ञापारमिता
Romanized Sanskrit	prajñāpāramitā
Chinese Script	般若波羅蜜多
Chinese Pinyin	bōrě bōluómìduō
Japanese Transliteration	hannya haramitta
Korean Script	반야바라밀다
Korean Transliteration	Banyabaramilda
English Standard	Perfection of Wisdom
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	Perfection of Wisdom
Ives Waldo's English Term	transcendent wisdom
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	A class of Mahāyāna Sūtras which represent some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sutra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the Dharma Wheel and especially the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school.
Has the Sense of	The term itself references a type of intelligence or discernment or knowledge that embodies the insight which transcends the notions of the three spheres of agent, object, and action.
Did you know?	This can also refer to a female deity who is known in the Tibetan tradition as the Great Mother (yum chen mo).
Definitions
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism	See page 656: In Sanskrit, “perfection of wisdom” or “perfect wisdom”; a polysemous term, which appears in Päli accounts of the Buddha’s prior training as a bodhisattva (P. bodhisatta), but is widely used in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Prajñāpāramitā refers to a level of understanding beyond that of ordinary wisdom, especially referring to the the wisdom associated with, or required to achieve, buddhahood. The term receives a variety of interpretations, but it is often said to be the wisdom that does not conceive of an agent, an object, or an action as being ultimately real. The perfection of wisdom is also sometimes defined as the knowledge of emptiness (śūnyatā). As the wisdom associated with buddhahood, prajñāpāramitā is the sixth of the six perfections (pāramitā) that are practiced on the bodhisattva path.
Rangjung Yeshe's English Term	Transcendent Knowledge, prajnaparamita. Intelligence that transcends conceptual thinking. 'Transcendent' literally means 'gone to the other shore' in the sense of having departed from 'this shore' of dualistic concepts. The Mahayana teachings on insight into emptiness, transcending the fixation of subject, object and action. Associated with the Second Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. Prajnaparamita, the Perfection of Insight. perfection of wisdom; transcendent wisdom, transcendent knowledge, "the intelligence of reaching the other share", transcending intelligence, knowledge, the perfection of wisdom, def. {'khor gsum mi rtog pas chos kyi rang bzhin ba rtogs pa ni} ultimate transcendent knowledge
Wikipedia	wikipedia:Prajnaparamita.
RigpaWiki	rigpa:Prajnaparamita.

A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school.

A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school.

The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections.

Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion.

Three successive stages of the Buddhist teachings. Though they are traditionally attributed to the historical Buddha, modern scholarship tends to view them as developmental stages that occurred over the course of an extended period of time, with interludes of several centuries, in which we see major doctrinal shifts often based on seemingly newly emergent scriptural sources.

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections.

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.

Three successive stages of the Buddhist teachings. Though they are traditionally attributed to the historical Buddha, modern scholarship tends to view them as developmental stages that occurred over the course of an extended period of time, with interludes of several centuries, in which we see major doctrinal shifts often based on seemingly newly emergent scriptural sources.