'perfections' or literally, 'that which has reached the other shore.' In Buddhism, the paramitas are six or ten virtuous qualities or states of consciousness and also the path to perfect them. The title of this special scripture is dervied from two important Sanskrit terms, whose natures are intimately hinted towards here. The study of the Perfection of Wisdom sutras is emphasized in all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism - Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, and Geluk.' -The 14th Dalai Lama, Essence of the Heart Sutra (2005) Wisdom Publications Furthermore, the monastic student would also study many commentaries on these sutras there are at least twenty-one Indian commentaries that were translated into Tibetan and many more that originated in Tibet itself. A monk would spend an average of five to seven years studying these sutras in depth. 'In Tibet, the Perfection of Wisdom sutras also became an important subject for scholarly discourse in the monastic colleges. In the forms of Buddhism that developed in all of these countries, the Heart Sutra plays an important role - in fact, in many cases, a practitioner may recite it daily.

'Emphasizing the Mahayana ideal of the bodhisattva who aspires to liberate all beings, these Perfection of Wisdom sutras flourished in many countries, including China - from where they were brought to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam - and Tibet, from where they were transmitted to Mongolia, to the vast expanse of the trans-Himalayan region, and to areas within the Russian federation. It is part of the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition and includes the Heart Sutra, also called the Heart of Wisdom Sutra. The Perfection of Wisdom literature, the Prajnaparamita, is the principal genre among them. 'It is said there are eighty-four thousand collections of discourses, which the Buddha taught to accord with the diverse mental dispositions and spiritual inclinations of sentient beings.

Perfection of wisdom in buddhism