The Great Prajna Paramita Sutra, Volume 9

Book excerpt: Well Appearing One (Subhuti) said to the Buddha, "World-Honored One, as ignorance, action, consciousness, name and form, six sense spheres, contact, reception, craving, grasping, existence, birth, old age, death, worry, sorrow, misery, worry, anxiety, and upset are without arising, without extinction, selfless, nonexistent, empty, formless, without aspiration, far away, tranquil, unattainable, inconceivable, without awareness, and not becoming powerful, we must know that prajna paramita is also without arising, without extinction, selfless, nonexistent, empty, formless, without aspiration, far away, tranquil, unattainable, inconceivable, without awareness, and not becoming powerful. World-Honored One, it is based on this meaning to say that the prajna paramita of great bodhisattva is named great prajna paramita." (Fascicle 179.) Sakyamuni Buddha taught Great Prajna Paramita, the perfection of the unsurpassed wisdom of and beyond the world, in sixteen assemblies in four locations over twenty-two years. It was recorded posthumously by his disciples in six hundred fascicles of approximately five million words and is regarded as the largest canon in Buddhism. The Sanskrit original was translated into Chinese by Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang) during the seventh century (from 660 through 663). This text is now available in English.