Perfect Wisdom: The Short Prajnaparamita Texts [Paperback]

Edward Conze is one of the towering collosusses of Western Mahayana Buddhist scholarship, a name sccarcely surpassed in services to Buddhism since it first seeped into the Western consciousness. In this stupendous little book, Conze has translated and compiled an almost complete selection of the shorter Prajnaparamita texts, including the ubiquitous Vajra-Cutter (Diamond) and Hrdaya (Heart) Sutras but more notably several vastly less known sutras from the Sanskrit. He has included sections of sutric and tantric Prajnaparamita scriptures, making this a potent compendium of knowledge of little known Mahayana tantra. This absolutely stunning volume is essential for all libraries of Mahayana Buddhism.

Dr. Conze has collected a large number of short versions of the Prajnaparamita texts. They are informative and valuable especially regarding what Buddhists refer to as Emptiness. Indeed, the Tibetan Buddhists in addition to various Vajrayana texts, often cite and recommend the Prajnaparamita literature which is vast. This literature includes the famous Heart Sutra (which is actually about one page long!). I gave this particular book 4 stars because I've also read the intermediate length version (8000 lines) which is far better. I own (but haven't read yet) the large version (I think its 25,000 lines). There are even larger ones that Dr. Conze hasn't done too. Nevertheless, it might be best to read the short ones first to get a taste for the literature and then move on to the 8000 lines version (probably the one most referenced other than, perhaps, the Heart Sutra itself). Good reading!

The Prajnaparamita sutras are exceptionally profound Mahayana Buddhist texts that are by no means easy to understand. In attempting to read them it soon becomes apparent that the author or authors of these texts were scholastics thoroughly schooled in the intricacies of Indian Buddhist thought.

It also becomes clear that they must have been spiritual aristocrats, persons who had in fact achieved Enlightenment and who, though scholars, were writing from the point-of-view of the Enlightened. Given this, these texts present us with certain problems.

Edward Conze (1904-1979) has been called "the foremost Western scholar of the Prajnaparamita literature" and it seems to me that he has in his various works (such as, for example, his Buddhist Wisdom Books and to a lesser extent in the present book) gone as far as it is possible for a scholar to go in explaining these difficult sutras to a modern audience. I also feel that his many translations of the Prajnaparamita far surpass most others in their clarity and beauty.

Conze, however, although a brilliant translator and scholar and one who had actually practiced meditation, tells us himself that he was never able to reach Enlightenment. In his various editions, although he has certainly been able to give us accurate translations that bring out the literal meaning of the Prajnaparamita sutras, their deep spiritual significance that only a truly Enlightened one could make us powerfully feel had to be left to another to convey.

I first acquired Conze's 'Perfect Wisdom: The Short Prajnaparamita Texts' many years ago, have always loved it, and have often returned to it. It is a magical book, but to fully bring out its magic requires a different kind of teacher, one who could breathe life into it simply because it reflected his own experience. Happily just such a teacher appeared recently.

I would strongly urge readers of these texts to watch Steven Norquist's SIG 2010 Conference Video Presentation on Enlightenment (stevennorquist.com). Norquist, who is the author of Haunted Universe: The True Knowledge of Enlightenment, nowhere mentions the Prajnaparamita sutras in his talk. He doesn't need to since he has experienced their truths for himself. But despite never once referring to them, the story he recounts of his own experience adds a new and startling dimension of significance to them.

The sutras and Norquist are in fact complementary. Whereas the sutras will help you to better understand Norquist as a true Master, Norquist himself serves, albeit perhaps unwittingly, to open up the sutras for us in a way that a literal translation alone could never do. Personally I was blown away by how beautifully these sutras and Norquist dovetail and thereby serve to mutually illuminate each other. I think you may be blown away too.

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