The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom: With the Divisions of the Abhisamayālañkāra

The book opens with preliminary materials: abbreviations, preface, chapter headings of the Perfection of Wisdom in 18,000 Lines, divisions of the Abhisamayālañkāra, an introduction to Chapters 1–21, an outline, the full translation of the sutra, appendices, numerical lists, and an index. In the preface, Conze explains that the translation follows mainly the 25,000-line version adjusted to the structure of the Abhisamayālañkāra, while also using the 18,000-line and 100,000-line versions and various Chinese translations where they preserve older or clearer readings. The introduction presents the sutra as a Mahāyāna teaching centered on the Bodhisattva ideal, perfect wisdom, emptiness, compassion, and the paradox that one should strive for all-knowledge for the welfare of beings while realizing that Bodhisattva, beings, wisdom, attainment, and dharmas are ultimately not apprehensible.