Tibetan Texts > Bka’ ’gyur > Bka’ ’gyur Master Doxographical Categories > Perfection of Wisdom [Scriptures], the Middle Turning

1.2 Perfection of Wisdom [Scriptures], the Middle Turning

By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)

This section contains thirty-six works (D.9-D.44) classified as Perfection of Wisdom (ཤེར་ཕྱིན་, sher phyin, prajñāpāramitā) literature, which are according to tradition the second of the three “Turnings of the Wheel of the Buddha’s Word.” The major works in this category are arranged by size, from the 100,000-Line Perfection of Wisdom in twelve volumes (the largest single work in the Kangyur) to the Diamond Banner Sūtra of only one-half folio (D.31).

These are followed up by thirteen works (D.32-D.44) grouped not by topic or size but rather by translator. Translated by Ānandaśrī and Nyima Gyentsen (ཉི་མ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་, nyi ma rgyal mtshan), the placement of these works in the Perfection of Wisdom section is anomalous, as they appear to to be Theravada texts.

Literature:

• Conze, Edward. The Prajñāpāramitā Literature. The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton, 1960.
• Conze, Edward, trans. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and Its Verse Summary. Bolinas, CA: Four Seasons Foundation, 1973.
• Lancaster, Lewis, ed., and Gómez, Luis, assoc. ed. Prajñāpāramitā and Related Systems: Studies in Honor of Edward Conze. Berkeley: University of California Regents, 1977.
• Lancaster, Lewis. “Prajñāpāramitā Literature.” In Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr., Vol. 2, 666-667. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003.
• Skilling, Peter. “Theravādin Literature in Tibetan Translation.” Journal of the Pali Text Society 19 (1993): 73-140.