Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c10.s6: Function of Prajñāpāramitā

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c10.s6

Language
English

Function of Prajñāpāramitā

c10.s6.1

The function of the *prajñāpāramitā* is to make a bodhisattva bear in mind that the *pāramitās*, *samādhis*, *samāpattis*, *phalas* or *bodhipakṣikadharmas*, which he has been practising, are only aids and expedients invented by Buddhas to help beings to the realisation of the ideal. Unlike the other *pāramitās*, the *prajñāpāramitā* is not to be practised. It is really a state of mind to be acquired by the help of the six *pāramitās* and the various Buddhistic practices. A bodhisattva may perfect himself in the *dānapāramitā*, but as there is every possibility of his forming a conception of the *dānapāramitā* as having a sort of existence (*svabhāva*), it may become for him an object of grasping (*grāhya*). He may also have a conception of the giver and the receiver and the thing given. It is to counteract all these conceptions, which are really misconceptions, that the *prajñāpāramitā* steps in and makes the bodhisattva try to develop a state of mind in which the *dānapāramitā* would appear to him as devoid of signs (*alakṣaṇa*), without any independent existence of its own, and at the same time eliminate from his mind any conception regarding the giver, the receiver or the thing given. In short, the function of the *prajñāpāramitā* is to convince a bodhisattva that the *dānapāramitā* or whatever it may be is really formless, baseless and is indistinguishable from *śūnyatā*. It serves as a guard to the bodhisattva, who has risen much above the average and acquired various meritorious qualities, but still may cling to some idea or concept which in itself may be highly pure and meritorious, but being an attachment must be got rid of. It is for this reason that the prajñāpāramitā has been extolled over all other pāramitās or virtues, and has been designated as the chief (nāyikā, pūrvaṅgamā) of all pāramitās.¹ The Aṣṭasāhasrikā² compares the prajñāpāramitā to the earth, on which all the other pāramitās rest, grow and produce the fruit of sarvajñatā (omniscience), and hence it is the producer of the Sarvajñas, the Tathāgatas.

c10.s6.2

¹ Aṣṭa., pp. 80, 81.

c10.s6.3

² Ibid.

Linked texts (1)