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“Perfection of Wisdom” is the English translation of the name of a large series of Mahayana Buddhist texts named in Sanskrit Prajnaparamita,.
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© 2007-11 Jayarava
except where noted
© 2007-11 Jayarava
except where noted
Prajñāpāramitā is a goddess of Wisdom. She is closely associated with the Perfection of Wisdom tradition, and indeed her name is usually translated as 'Perfection of Wisdom'. The Perfection of Wisdom tradition is one of the two great philosophical traditions of Mahāyana Buddhism. It is closely associated with Nagārjuna who is said to have retrieved the texts from the Nagas. Prajñāpāramitā is the personification of the prajñā. Vessantara calls her 'the book that became a goddess', and the tradition itself refers to her as the 'Mother of all the Buddhas'.
There are several forms of Prajñāpāramitā although she is always portrayed as a mature woman, with full breasts. In this four armed form her two main arms are held in the meditation mudra. The upper right arm is lightly holding a vajra, while the upper left arm holds the Aṣṭasahaśrika Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra - the Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 lines.
Seed Syllable
The seed syllable of Prajñāpāramitā, dhīḥ, is also associated with Mañjuśrī.
See also my essay The Seed Syllable of Perfect Wisdom.
Mantra
Siddhaṃ
Tibetan - Uchen
Transliteration
oṃ āḥ dhīḥ hūṃ svā hā
Clearly this mantra is not translatable into English as it is composed entirely of seed syallables (taking svāhā as a bīja)
![Wisdom Wisdom](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126341256/446491898.jpg)
![Wisdom Wisdom](http://thebestlifequotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/i-dont-need-a-perfect-life-i-just-want-to-be-happy.jpg)
To date I have not found any exegesis of this mantra - JR
The syllables individually: oṃ | āḥ | dhīḥ | hūṃ | svāhā
Comments
Because of interest in the Heart Sūtra mantra, which is also known as the 'Prajñāpāramitā mantra' this mantra is often overlooked. People are often surprised to discover that Prajñāpāramitā has her own mantra.
The text mentioned above, the Aṣṭasahaśrika Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, along with its verse summary the Ratnaguṇasaṁcayagāthā, is the earliest of the Perfection of Wisdom text. It was first translated into Chinese in 179 CE, which puts it amongst the the first Buddhist texts to be translated in China. The Aṣṭasahaśrika is the archetypal Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.
Another Prajñāpāramitā mantra
siddhaṃ
Transliteration
oṃ na mo bha ga va tyai ā rya pra jñā pā ra mi tā yai
oṃ namo bhagavatyai āryaprajñāpāramitāyai
translation
oṃ homage to the blessed noble perfection of wisdom
Comments
This homage is found at the beginning of Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, and Edward Conze often quotes it in his translations of Prajñāpāramitā texts. Conze, in a poetic mood, has also translated it as: Oṃ Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom the Lovely, the Holy!
Bhagava means 'fortunate', or 'blessed'. It is one of the most common ways of referring to the Buddha and is now frequently translated as the Blessed One. Ārya means 'noble', and originates from the word which the Vedic speaking tribes of Central Asia used to refer to themselves in contradistinction to the indigenous tribes of India and Persia. The word Iran, is a Persian version of the word Āryan.
Other Resources
- Dharmacari Vishvapani has composed a pūja to Prajñāpāramitā which contains this mantra and others.
- Essay on the seed syllable of Prajñāpāramitā, dhīḥ on Jayarava Rave.
- Talk six of six on the Buddhist Wisdom Teachings by Dharmacari Ratnaghosa mentions the mantra with an extract from 'Meeting the Buddhas'
The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines, gold caligraphy on handmade manuscript THE PERFECTION OF WISDOM IN 8,000 LINES (RiBa)A humble re-vision of the wonderful achievement of the late Dr.now of the21st Century.By([email protected])A Note from Richard Babcock: This ‘Re-Visioning’ of Dr. Conze's work is of the complete 32 Chapters in prose, which were compiled in his 1973 Edition titled, The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines & Its Verse Summary. There were 32 versified Chapters in the same book, which I have Re-Vised as well, but chose to not include them here along with this prosaical rendering, solely in the interests of clarity and what's hoped to be an easing of understanding. The several verse references numbers in squared brackets are consistent with the mentioned versified version, and some works by other authors as well. (see The Perfection of Wisdom; by R. Jamieson, published in 2000 by Viking Studio, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.)The term alone never refers to a specific text, but always to the class of literature.Brief HistoryThe earliest sutra in this class is the or ', which was probably put in writing about 100 BCE. More material was gradually compiled over the next two centuries.
As well as the sutra itself there is a summary in verse, the, which some believe to be slightly older as because it is not written in standard literary Sanskrit. This 8,000-line version is one of the earliest.Between 100 and 300 CE this text was expanded into large versions in 10,000, 18,000, 25,000 and 100,000 lines, collectively known as the '. 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 CE. The shorter versions include the and the. These two are widely popular and have had a great influence on the development of Buddhism.
Tantric versions of the Prajnaparamita literature were produced from the year 500 CE on.- 10:27, 30 May 2010 (UTC)Table of Contents.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.-from The Path to Bliss by H.H. The Dalai Lama, ISBN 1-55939-190-1, translated by Geshe, edited by Christine Cox, published by:'.the benefit from particular spiritual guides or teachers depends upon the recipient having karmic links with these beings. Thus, some spiritual teachers can be most effective and beneficial to only a certain number of disciples, and not to other beings. In order to understand this, it is helpful to read the sutras, such as The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, in which the buddhas and bodhisattvas, having seen that a certain practitioner had a stronger karmic link with another spiritual teacher, advised him to seek his own spiritual master. There will be sentient beings who may be able to see a buddha directly, but who may not benefit as much from that as they would from interaction with you, due to their having a deeper karmic link with you.' .Although your achievement of the omniscient state may not be beneficial to all living beings, it will definitely bring a lot of practical benefit to certain living beings. Therefore, it is very important that you work for your own achievement of the completely enlightened state.
Because there might be living beings who depend very much upon your guidance on the spiritual path, it is important that you take upon yourself the responsibility to work for the benefit of others. By thinking in such terms, you will be able to develop the strong belief that without attaining the omniscient state you will not be able to fulfill what you set out to do and truly benefit others.'
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