An Introduction to the Prajnaparamita

The Buddha taught in three main phases called the three turnings of the wheel of dharma. The first turning of the wheel of dharma took place in Sarnath, India. In these first teachings the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths: the truth of suffering, the truth of the origination of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering and the truth of the path which leads to the cessation of suffering. By accustoming ourselves to these truths, by meditating upon them, we can achieve the state of a shravaka or a pratyekabuddha, who are individuals who achieve the fruition of the Hinayana. In the third turning of the wheel of dharma the Buddha taught on Buddha-nature or Buddha-essence which is present in all beings.

The teachings on the Prajnaparamita belong to the second turning of the wheel of dharma. The principal topic of the second turning is the exploration of voidness or emptiness of phenomena, and these teachings were mainly taught at Vulture Peak Mountain, which to this day can be visited at Rajgir in India.

The Buddha taught the Prajnaparamita very extensively. He taught it in depth in a text called The One Hundred Thousand Verses, in an intermediate text called The Twenty-five Thousand Verses, and in a concise text called The Eight Thousand Verses. These teachings on the Prajnaparamita also exist in an extremely concise and pithy form called The Heart Sutra, which is often chanted each day in Mahayana Buddhist centers. Finally, these teachings can be summed up in an even shorter form by the mantra of the Prajnaparamita, which is OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SWAHA, and in its shortest form in the letter AH.

    The Two Approaches to the Prajnaparamita

There are two main ways of approaching the meaning of the Prajnaparamita. The first is through a direct exposition of the meaning of emptiness and the second is through the indirect exposition revealing the hidden meaning of emptiness by discussing the paths and the spiritual levels. Within the direct exposition of the nature of emptiness, we are dealing with the understanding of emptiness that is the principal concern of the practice of a bodhisattva. In a more detailed method, if we approach it in an analytical way, one can examine the sixteen aspects of emptiness , which are, for example, the emptiness of externals, the emptiness of internals, the emptiness of externals and internals together. Another direct approach is to examine emptiness in terms of the relative level and the ultimate level.

The second method, the indirect exposition of emptiness, is to approach emptiness by studying spiritual progress on the five paths and the ten bodhisattva levels. The five paths are: the path of accumulation, the path of application, the path of insight, the path of cultivation, and the path of no more learning. By examining these five paths we can begin to understand emptiness by contemplating what takes place on each of these five paths in terms of a gradual increase in wisdom (Skt. prajna). We begin with wisdom based on simply hearing the teachings. This is followed by the wisdom that comes from contemplation of what we have learned through study. Later we actually meditate on emptiness to gain direct insight into emptiness.

The direct enumeration of emptiness comes mainly from the great masters Nagarjuna and Dharmakirti, who described emptiness in terms of logical reasoning. The indirect meaning of emptiness was presented by the great Arya Maitreya in this text on the Prajnaparamita and is called the Abhisamayalankara. In this teaching he gives the indirect meaning of emptiness by explaining the five paths and the ten bodhisattva levels.

   The Cultivation of Prajna

To begin with, we are living in samsara and samsara contains a great deal of suffering, hardships and difficulties. A closer examination shows that these difficulties and suffering spring from ignorance. Now the main way of removing ignorance, which is the cause of all these problems, is to cultivate wisdom, specifically, the wisdom that realizes emptiness.

We begin with just limited wisdom, and eventually through our practice this matures into a vast wisdom or jnana which is the wisdom of the Buddha. The most effective way to remove our negative states of mind is through wisdom. The classical example to illustrate the elimination of our suffering through developing wisdom is the example of the rope and the snake. If there is a rope which is coiled up in a dark room and we look at the rope not knowing it is a rope, we can mistake it for a snake. If we think it is a snake, then we panic, become frightened and experience much anguish. The mistaken idea is the cause of our suffering and is itself caused simply by our ignorance. We are ignorant of the true nature of the rope and believe it is a snake. The solution for eliminating our anguish is to actually know that it is really a rope and our belief that it was a snake was just a delusion. It is through this wisdom of seeing the true nature of the rope that we can eliminate our suffering in this situation.

In a similar manner, the great suffering and problems in our life all spring from not knowing the nature of the delusion which is our perception of the world. We don’t really need to resort to aggression or anger, yet we do. We don’t really need to give rise to desire or wanting, and yet we do. Our anger and desire cause many problems and difficulties. Now the very best way to remove the problems and suffering of life is to attack the very root of the problem, by understanding the delusion and the ignorance which have created the whole situation. We can see through this delusion by cultivating wisdom, and this shows us how important cultivating wisdom is for us.

When we talk of the Prajnaparamita we are talking about this perfection of wisdom, the wisdom that carries us to the other shore. This is precisely because there is nothing to equal this wisdom of emptiness. Cultivating prajna is the very best manner to eliminate the suffering of samsara and from it we can get a direct and true insight into the way things really are.

Unfortunately, because we have so many obscurations of mind, we cannot suddenly switch to a state of a very bright and vivid prajna. So we need to study the scriptures of the Buddha and the various Buddhist commentaries of the great masters (shastras). Having studied them, we can then contemplate and reflect very deeply about what we have read and heard. It is in this way that we can progressively cultivate prajna.

    The Study of the Sutras and Shastras

It is very beneficial to study the discourses given by the Buddha, which cover many areas. We can study those of the Hinayana and we can study those of the Mahayana. However, in Tibet, which was the land rich in Vajrayana teachings, there wasn’t a great emphasis placed on the teachings given by the Buddha himself; rather, an emphasis was placed upon the study of the discourses and commentaries (shastras) given by the great Buddhist masters living after the time of the Buddha. There is a good reason for the shastras being studied intensively in Tibet. When the Buddha was teaching, a disciple would ask a particular question and the Buddha would give an answer. Then another disciple would ask another question and the Buddha would answer that particular question. Throughout his life that is how the Buddha taught. He didn’t give long and structured discourses on one particular topic and then move on to the next topic in a sequence. As a result, after the Buddha’s paranirvana, some of the great Buddhist masters systematically arranged the various teachings according to the topics. Their works were entirely based on what the Buddha taught and not their own personal theories; yet they organized the Buddhist teachings in a systematic way. If we were to read the many sutras of the Buddha, because there are so many of them it would take a very long time to build up an organized picture of what the Buddha taught. It is much easier if we start by examining the shastras, which present the very pith of the teachings, summing up the teachings of the Buddha very concisely. Once we have a picture, we can then read the actual sutras of the Buddha and know that a particular one accords with a particular topic, and thus we can understand the teachings of the Buddha much better. This is why in Tibet much more emphasis was placed on the shastras.

We can take the example of the Prajnaparamita literature, which were actually teachings given by the Buddha in 100,000 stanzas consisting of four lines and comprising twelve Tibetan volumes. There is also the 25,000 stanza Prajnaparamita teaching in three volumes. Then there is the 8,000 stanza teaching in only one volume. So we can study the sixteen volumes on the Prajnaparamita taught by the Buddha or we can study the Ornament of Clear Realization which summarizes the entire meaning of these teachings in a few pages only.