Prajnaparamita

Prajnaparamita (Sanskrit, f, प्रज्ञापारमिता, Prajñāpāramitā; prajna of "wisdom " and paramita: literally " other shore " in the sense of " transcendence / perfection ", ie: " transcendent / Perfect Wisdom " ) called in Mahayana Buddhism Maximum of six paramitas ( transcendent virtues ) that characterize the path of a bodhisattva to Nirvana.

Importance

Prajna is not only supreme wisdom, so the knowledge of the "emptiness" ( śūnyatā ) or the insubstantiality of all phenomena, but is considered as an ontological principle, synonymous with bodhichitta and Dharmakaya. Buddhas have this knowledge not only in the conventional sense, but are this knowledge, manifested in human form.

Explanations are in Mahaprajnaparamita Sūtra (大 般若 经; jp: . Daihannya ( haramitta ) - kyō; Pinyin: Bore - bōluómìduō ) survived. The Mahaprajnaparamita - Hridaya Sutra ( Heart Sutra ) and the Vajraccheddika - Prajnaparamita Sutra ( the Diamond Sutra ) are the best known and most translated texts from the Prajnaparamita Sutra. Xuanzang ( Hsuan - tsang WG ) translated the texts in the years 660-663 in 600 fascicles into Chinese ( totaling about 80 times in the New Testament, 25 times the whole Bible ). The Japanese transmission was created by 712 in the era ( Nengo ) WADO. It contains the 16 ( Sermons ) meetings at the four locations ( Japanese: shisho Juroku -e ), which in Buddhism symbolically significant numbers seem 16 and 4 not chosen at random.

Bodhisattva

Personalized Prajnaparamita is the personification of the Prajnaparamita Sutras (see also Heart Sutra, Diamond Sutra ) in the form of a female bodhisattva. It is regarded as the incarnation of the Buddha's words and a symbol of the completion highest wisdom and knowledge. In the Heart Sutra it is referred to as the "Mother of all the Buddhas of all times".

Prajnaparamita is in most regions where Mahayana Buddhism became widespread, known. In addition to the Sanskrit names Prajnaparamita she wears there include the following names: haramitsu, Hannya Bosatsu Dai Hannya (Japanese), Shes -rab - pha - rol - phyin or Yumchenmo ( Tibetan), Bilig -un Chinadu Kichaghar -a -sen Kürük (In Mongolian ).

Of special importance was Prajnaparamita in the early Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia - the kingdom of Angkor (now Cambodia ), and the Javanese Sailendra dynasty. Before the Theravada Buddhism, which recognizes as a single Bodhisattva Maitreya, was on the mainland to the dominant Buddhist school and Islam displaced Buddhism on the Indonesian islands, she was there beside Avalokiteshvara (also called " Lokeshvara " ) the most important Bodhisattva and sometimes was as one of its manifestations considered. As a female deity was worshiped alongside Mañjuśrī and Tara already in the Indian Singarasi Temple.

Portraits

In the portraits of the Prajnaparamita two meanings of their appearance express:

The majority of the representations of the Prajnaparamita show it in human form, shirtless, wearing a sarong and adorned with an ornate belt and a three-tiered crown which is often provided with an image of the Buddha Amitabha. Most carries in his right hand the texts of the Prajnaparamita Sutras and in the left hand a lotus bud. In Tibet it is wrapped in the full dress of a Bodhisattva and holds in both hands each a lotus, the right of a white or blue, left a blue (sometimes instead the sutras ). Your skin color in the Tibetan pictures is white or yellow and instead of the Buddha Amitabha sometimes with a portrait of Aksobhya in her hair knots. The hands she usually holds in the gesture of the Dharmachakra mudra, underlining its role as the embodiment of the teachings of the Buddha, the Dharma ( Dharmachakra is the "wheel / chakra of teaching / Dharma "). In addition to this main form there is in Tibet portraits that show it with four arms. In these cases, it holds the lotus and the sutras in two hands and performs with the other two, the Dharmachakra mudra from.

The second, especially in Tibet widespread, form of Prajnaparamita expresses her tantric significance. Here she is shown with eleven heads and 22 arms.

Japanese and Chinese pictures, mostly as thangkas ( scroll paintings ) or part of a mandala implemented, is rarely used as sculptures, Prajnaparamita show usually with two or six arms. She holds the sutras in the left (main) hand and leads with the right, the Abhaya mudra (gesture of protection, benevolence and peace ) from.