Prajñāpāramitā Research Articles

Vajradhātvīśvarī and Vairocana: Mirror Tantric Images in 10th-Century Cambodia

This article explores a collection of ten-armed, five-headed figures featured in 10th-century Khmer Buddhist miniature shrines. While traditionally identified as representations of Prajñāpāramitā, the female deity embodying “the Perfection of Wisdom”, this article puts forth a new interpretation, suggesting these images depict the Khmer iteration of two dual tantric Buddhist deities, Vairocana and Vajradhātvīśvarī, linked to the Sarvatathāgata-tattvasaṁgrahanāmamahāyānasūtra (STTS). The key insight for this hypothesis stems from an examination of a newly identified shrine located in the Battambang National Museum featuring mirrored male and female figures, prompting a reconsideration of their traditional identification. The link to the mentioned STTS text provides an explanatory framework for the unique iconographic features of these images.

반야바라밀(Prajñāpāramitā)은 멸진정(Nirodhasamāpatti)인가?

The prajñāpāramitā is often translated as the perfection of wisdom, meaning ‘the highest wisdom.’ There has been an active debate in academic circles as to whether this perfection of wisdom is a kind of wisdom with conceptual understanding or a concentration beyond such understanding. This paper moves away from Prajñāpāramitā texts, which have been the main focus of such studies, and examines the perfection of wisdom in the Daśabhūmikasūtra. This is because there are narratives in the scripture that imply that the perfection of wisdom is the same as the absorption of extinction(nirodhasamāpatti) or the cessation of ideation and feeling(saṃjñāvedayitanirodha).
 In Chapter II, this paper finds traces of the absorption of extinction in the seventh stage of the Daśabhūmikasūtra, which states that bodhisattvas from the sixth stage (i.e., abhimukhī bhūmiḥ) can “enter into extinction (nirodhaṃ samāpadyate) but do not realize it.” It singles out the ‘dwelling of/in prajñāpāramitā (prajñāpāramitāvihāra) of the sixth stage as a candidate for the absorption of extinction.
 Chapter III clarifies that, in the context of successive dwellings (anupūrvavihāra), the dwelling of/in prajñāpāramitā equates to the absorption of extinction (nirodhasamāpatti), given the narrative of the third stage (i.e., prabhākārī bhūmiḥ) describes eight dwellings successively except for the nirodhasamāpatti, the culminating point of this succession.
 In Chapter IV, this paper shows that the ‘realization of extinction (nirodhasākṣātkriyā),’ both in the context of the investigation of the four noble truths and the context of nirodhasamāpatti, results in becoming an arhat who will be free from saṃsara after this life. It, therefore, infers that the statement “he/she does not realize extinction (na nirodhaṃ sākṣātkaroti)” relates to bodhisattvas’ means (upāya) postponing final nirvāṇa until he will have attained all the attributes of the [perfectly enlighted] Buddha(s).
 Chapter V points out that bodhisattvas’s resolve to “not give up on the sentient beings by not realizing the reality limit” based on great compassion gives rise to the intuitive experience of “dwelling of/in prajñāpāramitā” instead of nirodhasamāpatti. This intuitive experience in the mode of shining light, which can be compared to the experience of the path of vision in mainstream Buddhism, is not the same as the absorption of extinction.
 Through these steps, this paper suggests that in the Daśabhūmikasūtra, the perfection of wisdom presents itself as concentration and that the author(s) or editor(s) of the Sūtra, keeping in mind the altruism of bodhisattvas, have transformed the nirodhasamāpatti into prajñāpāramitāvihāra, expecting the result of ‘postponing final nirvāṇa’ for the sake of all other beings.

14세기 전기 전주최씨 崔誠之·文度 집안의 불교경영

The main objective of this article is to analyse how the Choi(崔) family undertook their Buddhist woodblock printing business in the early 14th century from a new perspective. Particularly, this paper thoroughly examines Choi Sung-Ji and his son Choi Moon-Do’s printing business and their style of administering temples under their influence. Also, it will carefully look into their unique operating system of the Haein-Temple’s Tripitaka-Woodblock(海印寺大藏經板) printing in the early 14th century. At first, Choi Moon-Do started the Haein-Temple’s Tripitaka-Woodblock printing work from the 6th month of the lunar calendar year of 1337(忠肅王復位 3年). A total of 600 mass volumes of 『Maha prajnaparamita Sutra(The Perfection of Transcendental Wisdom·大般若波羅蜜多經)』 was stored at the Chen-huasun-Temple(天和禪寺) that represents Choi family’s “Wishing Hall(願堂).” Choi Moon-Do started this Buddhist woodblock printing project in a bid to devote to his deceased parents. Moreover, Choi Sung-Ji governed both the Chenhuasun-Temple and the Sunwon-Temple as their family’s Wishing Halls. These Wishing Halls were founded especially for Choi Sung-Ji family’s and his personal well-being. Chenhuasun-Temple was also a place where cultural exchange of Buddhism with the Chinese Won(元) dynasty carried out. Lastly, Choi Sung-Ji and his wife obtained the approval to initiate this Buddhist scripture printing campaign from the Goryeo emperor Chungsuk(忠肅王) and the Daejangdogam(高麗國大藏都監) which functioned as a task-force engraving Haein-Temple’s Tripitaka-Woodblock during the Mongol’s invasion to Goryeo. This presswork financially supported by Choi Moon-Do was possible due to the well-conserved Haein-Temple’s Tripitaka-Woodblock preserved at the Ganghwado Island(江華島)’s archive treasury which was stationed near the capital.

Contemplation: Its Cultivation and Culmination Through the Buddhist Glasses.

Buddhist account of consciousness provides a new way of looking into contemplation, where absorption into meditation does not only bring in changes in the neural level but in the very personality of the individual, turning him into a good human being. The Buddhists recommend the practice of vipassanā, literally meaning insight but actually standing for the realization of the supreme enlightenment breaking off all the internal fetters through the practice of seven different types of purity, such as purity of morals, mind, views, and insight, etc. In early and later Buddhist literature, it has been categorically emphasized that one should not practice solitary mindfulness but should practice enriching the higher qualities of the mind such as compassion, friendliness, etc. The point is that the contemplated individual, the Bodhisattva, should possess the perfection of wisdom (prajñā-pāramitā) and be equipped with the skill of upāyas. The practice of these upāyas, however, will not create any new bondage for the contemplative mind. When the individual is able to attain this broad outlook, he will be said to achieve the highest contemplation – this is the ultimate objective of Buddhist meditation. Meditation is needed for this change of outlook – transition from “I” to “we”. This is the only way to bring peace of mind and peace to the whole world.

Critical Reflections on Abiding-Places in the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines

This article focuses on the real abiding of the mind-body complex demonstrated in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajnāpāramitā with an emphasis on how Buddhist teachings explore the notion of abiding-places or temporary residences in one lifetime. The key findings of this article can be summarized in the following key points. First, any abiding-place enduring for long lifespans, including those temporary residences in one lifetime, are impermanent and devoid of own-being. Second, in terms of an abiding-place per se, none of the abiding-place is qualified to be real abiding-place for the mind-body complex due to the lack of own-being. Third, the misconception that the mind-body complex can permanently settle in a fixed abiding-place not only leads to emotional fluctuations, but also lays a preposterous emphasis on environmental surroundings. Fourth, bodhisattvas cultivate prajnāpāramitā so their mind-body complexes can abide rightly. Fifth, bodhisattvas channel sentient beings to the real abiding of the mind-body complex through helping sentient beings relieve suffering and abide in any of the Three Paths of cultivation, i.e., śrāvakayāna, pratyekabuddhayāna, and bodhisattvayāna.

智山声明の「理趣経」と「五悔」から見る中曲旋法について

智山声明の「理趣経」と「五悔」から見る中曲旋法について

“On Golden Tablets”: The Cleveland Museum of Art’s Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Manuscript as a Self-Referential Icon

This article examines the paintings on the five surviving illuminated palm-leaf folios and the interiors of the two wooden covers of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s almost complete Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, or the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra, from the early twelfth century (CMA, Acc. No. 1938.301). Earlier scholarship on the CMA manuscript has overlooked the importance of the first folio, which depicts centrally a female personification of the Prajñāpāramitā text itself. Focusing on the details of the image and comparing it to the other instances of the figure in the manuscript, I argue that the golden image of Prajñāpāramitā on folio 1v serves as the core self-referential icon of the manuscript, alluding to not only the content of the text itself, but also to the very manuscript the image resides in. This essay shows the ways in which South Asian palm-leaf manuscripts can be understood from the purview of materiality, already well established in the scholarship of western European medieval parchment manuscripts.

Preliminary Knowledge of Super-Substance Studying —The Heart Sutra of the Wisdom of Going to the Parallel Cosmos of Super-Substance of Full Text

The Buddha is the greatest scientist. You want to have no branch of mathematics, physics, and chemistry in 2575 years ago, that is, 565 BC. The scientific development is extremely underdeveloped. The Buddha can clearly explain the law, characteristics, theorems and methods of super-materials in the parallel universe, which is the emptiness of the present physics. Its merits are far beyond the founding of all physics theories such as Newton, Einstein, and unified field theory. The sum of human wisdom. Prajna Paramita is the wisdom of reaching the other side, and the way to reach the parallel universe. Namo Amitabha. The Buddha is the first major religion among the world's three major religions: the first Buddha was born in 565 BC, 565 years earlier than its religion. Second, other religions used the Buddhist world of Western and Western bliss, and the view of the great father, third. The Buddha is a woman with great compassion and compassion. She does not want to be a woman and turns a woman into a man. Other religions regard people as devils. They are contradictory to their own mother (the devil). Fourth, the Buddhist scriptures are other religious contents. On the 100th times, the fifth, the Buddha believes that the trillions of Buddhas are identical, and the universe is seen in all four, while other religions are the center of the universe, but I am the only one. There is also the end of the trial is also by the end of Buddhism, the King of Fire will be interrupted with his sin.

Preliminary Knowledge of Super-Substance Studying (2) — The Almighty King Kong Sutra of Going to the Parallel Cosmos of Super-Substance of Full Text Chinese to English

King Kong Prajna Paramita（going to the parallel cosmos of super-substance）utra full text translator. The static mass exists in the direction perpendicular to the direction of motion of the photon. Which is photon has dynamic inertia in the direction perpendicular to the direction of motion of the light; this has long been confirmed by scientific experiments. Positive and negative electron encounters will become a pair of gamma photons, simultaneously; a pair of gamma photons will be transformed into a pair of and negative electrons. This fully explains that and negative electrons are composed of photon, which is and negative electrons are composed of electricity and magnetism; this is uniform with the existence of static mass in the direction of motion perpendicular to the photon. Which is when the photon moves along the surface of and negative electrons in and negative electrons, the photon rotating moving in the curved space, the static mass expressed in the direction perpendicular to the motion of the photon is the mass of and negative electrons. Both positrons and negative electrons can be produced in protons and neutrons that make up the nucleus. This fully demonstrates that protons and neutrons are composed of and negative electrons. Other particles can be produced by protons and neutrons in a high-energy particle collider, indicating that other particles are also composed of and negative electrons. From this, in the everything is composed of two elements, namely electricity and magnetism. Simultaneously, electricity and magnetism form positrons and negative electrons, and in addition to everything in the electricity and magnetism also form a magnetic pole (north magnetic pole) and a negative magnetic pole (south magnetic pole). Thus, and negative electrons constitute the universe and the and there is a universal repulsive force between the universe and the universe; the and negative magnetic poles constitute the universe of the magnetic universe and the there is also a universal repulsive force between the universes and the universe. Therefore, in the world, it consists of four universes: the the the magnetic and the universe. Our big bang is just like an electronic one, called the material universe, and also the antimatter universe, the positive magnetic universe, the antimagnetic universe, these four A cosmic child, due to the existence of universal repulsive force and universal gravitation, will form a greater balance. Through the above analysis, we have reason to believe that in addition to the existence of electrical and magnetic elements, there will certainly be other countless single elements, two elements, three elements, four elements... Only these existences that are related to matter can now be identified in two ways: the brightness (golden) single element exists in the and the darkness single element exists in the universe. These two universes exist in parallel cosmos with our that is, in our surroundings and in space, in addition to matter; there are material-related brightness elemental elements and darkness elemental elements. This is all the laws and phenomena elaborated in Buddhism.

The Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines

The Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines

Chingen’s Views on Sūtras Treated in the <i>Hokke-Genki</i>: On Sūtras Other Than the <i>Lotus Sūtra</i>

This paper focuses on how Chingen’s Hokke-Genki features sūtras other than Lotus Sūtra. In the Hokke-Genki, the Perfection of Wisdom sūtra is treated negatively, and the Huayan jing is treated positively. Further, the Hokke-Genki shows a strong competitiveness against the Suvarṇabhāsottama-sūtra. However, on the other hand, the Hokke-Genki claimed that it should not argue over the superiority or inferiority of the sūtras. This claim was inherited by texts such as the Konjaku Monogatari-Shū and Genkō-Shakusho. In addition, this paper also discusses the fact that a unique motif “Flying scriptures in the sky” can be seen in the stories that recognize the combination of the Lotus Sūtra and the Guan Wuliangshuo jing.

Perfection of Wisdom—a Spectroscopic and Microscopic Analysis of a Twelfth-Century Buddhist Sūtra

Perfection of Wisdom—a Spectroscopic and Microscopic Analysis of a Twelfth-Century Buddhist Sūtra

Shunyata, A Philosophical Endeavor Against Assured Philosophical Method in Realizing Truth and Existence and Establishing Perfection of Wisdom Through Non-dual Experience

Madhyamaka defines existence in self-being. There is interdependency between all beings and the human mind. Everything is empty from self-being. Emptiness is universal. Madhyamaka stands midway between affirmation and negation or being and non-being. The only way to comprehend absolute reality is to abandon the realm of reason which, in turn, leads to non-dual (Advaita) experience. Ultimate reality is nothing but universal Emptiness. However, Shunya is empty of self-being as well. In this paper, I have tried to elucidate and criticize Emptiness from the ontological aspect for everything of which the existence of interconnection or interdependency of all entities and mind is inevitably apprehended, though still empty of self-being. From the epistemological perspective, I confronted the fact that it is not possible to describe the emptiness of the world, outcome of intuitional experience of Nirvana, unless the consciousness preserves to maintain, basis for establishing Yogacara thesis.

Huineng’s Chan Buddhist Educational Psychological Path of Seeing Self-nature (jianxing)

A significant change of recent times in the field of Western psychology and therapy is introducing Chan Buddhist concept of “seeing self-nature” into psychology and therapy. The aim of “seeing self-nature” is to realize the basic nature of enlightenment in sentient beings through insight into the nature of things. This paper is an integrated study of Huineng’s Chan Buddhist educational psychology: self-cultivation pointing directly at the mind, and the topic of the paper will be carried out from two aspects: 1) the concept of “Buddha nature” and “Prajña” (the perfection of wisdom) in both The Platform Sutra and Another Biography of Master Caoxi (Caoxi dashi biezhuan), and 2) self-cultivation pointing directly at the mind: sudden-enlightenment path of seeing self-nature (jianxing).

Seven Calamities: Insight into the Kara-e Depicted Catastrophes of Japan

The Seven Calamities (1773, Cleveland Museum of Art) is an emakimono, or Japanese handscroll, created by Nijo Yana during the Edo Period of Japan depicting seven catastrophes that occurred in Japan throughout time. Buddhist Monk Nichiren used the seven calamities found in ancient sutras to explain the disasters agonizing Japan in his time and to stress the importance of following the Buddhist lifestyle. In order to keep the seven calamities at bay, the kings and rulers of Japan were required to recite and teach ancient sutras including the Prajna-Paramita sutra. As the legend tells it, Tathagata — honorific title of a Buddha — had committed this sutra to the kings and rulers because they had requisite power needed to establish the Law of the sutra, unlike the monks and nuns. Had the sutra not been extensively taught to the populace, the seven calamities would befall upon the land and punish the impudent humans that strayed away from Saddharma — Sanskrit for the Correct Law. In essence, it was up to the kings that Tathagata appointed to ensure order and balance to the lands by reciting the Prajna-Paramita. Each of the calamities were painted on paper with black ink, known as sumi-ink, contain ma, which means negative space, and use minimal color. This paper will dissect the history of the seven disasters of Japan and the reasoning behind their occurrence, analyze the use of Japanese sumi-ink combined with the kara-e Chinese style of art, and will contemplate the artist’s choice of substituting several of the seven original calamities with his or her own rendition and depiction of sequenced actions.

Redefining the Ideal Character: A Comparative Study between the Concept of Detachment in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā and Guo Xiang’s Theory of Eremitism at Court

The Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajnāpāramitā Sūtra (The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines) criticizes the traditional practice of dwelling in an isolated place for self-cultivation and advocates returning to the human realm with a liberated mind and compassionate engagement. This new theory of detachment aims at defining the Bodhisattva, a new ideal character, for the rising Mahāyāna movement. In his theory of eremitism at court, Guo Xiang 郭象 describes a sage image of governing the empire with a detached mind. This image is invested with the concept of self-liberation from reality and defines a new ideal character that actively engages in sociopolitical affairs while becoming freed from personal concerns. Guo Xiang’s sage image is similar to the Bodhisattva image in several aspects, and textual and historical evidence shows that Guo likely read the two early translations of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā and other Buddhist texts and was influenced by them to a certain extent. With the influence of Buddhist ideas, Guo completed the Mysterious Learning’s mission of harmonizing the teaching of names with spontaneity.

Restoration of a Treasure from the Collège de France Libraries

The library of the College de France’s Institute of Indian Studies, a research library mainly dedicated to the most recent publications in this field, also preserves works of art and numerous manuscripts acquired through donations and legacies. The oldest manuscript dates back to the eleventh century. It contains the text of The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, one of the main texts of Greater Vehicle Buddhism. It was gifted to the French Republic by the Nepalese Prime Ministe...

Publication status and the nature of the bibliography of the 『Vajracchedika prajnaparamita Sutra』 published in the Goryeo Dynasty

Publication status and the nature of the bibliography of the 『Vajracchedika prajnaparamita Sutra』 published in the Goryeo Dynasty

『八千頌般若』と『法華経』の共通性

『八千頌般若』と『法華経』の共通性

般若経の三乗における菩薩乗の意味

般若経の三乗における菩薩乗の意味