Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Perfection of Wisdom
Short Perfection of Wisdom sutras centered on emptiness, non-attachment, and the bodhisattva path.
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Texts
Diamond SutraThe Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā — the Diamond-Cutter of Transcendent Wisdom — a Mahāyāna dialogue on emptiness, perception, and the dissolution of all conceptual supports; the text that ignited East Asian Zen and entered Western consciousness through Suzuki and the Beats.Heart SutraThe Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya — the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom — the most concentrated statement of Buddhist emptiness doctrine, the text that carried Buddhist thought into Western consciousness more completely than any other.The Diamond Sutra (Chin-Kang-Ching) or Prajna-Paramita — William GemmellWilliam Gemmell’s 1912 English translation of the Diamond Sutra from Kumarajiva’s Chinese text, in thirty-two chapters, with his preface, a long introduction on the sutra’s terms and teaching, 213 notes drawing on Chinese annotators and the Western Buddhist scholarship of his day, and the index.Vajra-chhediká, the Kin Kong King, or Diamond Sútra — S. BealThe Rev. S. Beal’s English translation of the Diamond Sútra from the Chinese, presented to the Royal Asiatic Society in December 1863 and printed in the first volume of the New Series of its Journal (1865): the opening dháraṅi, his short introduction, the dialogue of the Buddha and Subhúti in thirty-two titled sections, and eighteen notes.