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|definition=A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. The term itself references a type of intelligence, discernment, or knowledge that embodies the insight which transcends the notions of the three spheres of agent, object, and action. | |definition=A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. The term itself references a type of intelligence, discernment, or knowledge that embodies the insight which transcends the notions of the three spheres of agent, object, and action. | ||
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The Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit term ''pāramitā'' as ''pha rol tu phyin pa'', literally "gone to the other side", also functions as a basic definition and is often expressed figuratively as having arrived upon the far shore of a body of water. Hence, ''pāramitā'' is alternatively translated as transcendent perfections, transcendental or transcending actions, and even quite literally as "far-reaching attitudes." The term is deeply rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā literature, and the perfections themselves are so fundamental to the bodhisattva path, as it is practiced at the sūtra level of the Mahāyāna, that this tradition is often referred to as the ''pāramitāyāna'', a term used interchangeably with the ''bodhisattvayāna''. | The Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit term ''pāramitā'' as ''pha rol tu phyin pa'', literally "gone to the other side", also functions as a basic definition and is often expressed figuratively as having arrived upon the far shore of a body of water, typically the metaphorical ocean of suffering, saṃsāra. Hence, ''pāramitā'' is alternatively translated as transcendent perfections, transcendental or transcending actions, and even quite literally as "far-reaching attitudes." The term is deeply rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā literature, and the perfections themselves are so fundamental to the bodhisattva path, as it is practiced at the sūtra level of the Mahāyāna, that this tradition is often referred to as the ''pāramitāyāna'', a term used interchangeably with the ''bodhisattvayāna''. | ||
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