Prajñāpāramitā and Related Systems

The book is organized into several thematic sections. The first part focuses on the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, including its role in the development of early Mahāyāna and textual-historical observations on its chapters. The next sections examine the Vajracchedikā, the Heart Sūtra, and other Prajñāpāramitā-related materials, including Chinese and Khotanese textual evidence. Later parts address the bodhisattva tradition, especially the bodhisattva as wonder-worker and the bodhisattva ideal in the Aṣṭa and Pañca Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras. The volume then moves into the Ekayāna tradition, the relation between śūnya, cakra, and tathāgatagarbha, and broader Mahāyāna developments such as vision quests, Madhyamaka and Yogācāra controversy, Mahāyāna literature in Sri Lanka, and the notion of non-existence. The final section treats related systems, including studies on evil and its conquest, Sarvāstivāda and Vaibhāṣika materials, Buddhist mysticism, and the relationship between prajñā and dṛṣṭi. Through these studies, the volume presents Prajñāpāramitā not as an isolated textual corpus, but as a pivotal intellectual matrix for understanding Mahāyāna philosophy, textual transmission, and Buddhist doctrinal innovation.