ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses prajnaparamita through misunderstanding the role of this faculty that the status of Buddhist Tantra has been falsely explained, as though Mahayana Buddhism and Tantra under the name of Mantrayana are two distinct and different things. The Buddhist prajna is not like the Hindu Sakti, the new power created by the gods to wreak havoc on their opponents, the Asuras; but the old passive faculty become powerful for helping some beings over the opposition to be godlike. In the Hindu theory, the gods have to come up with a new plan; in the Buddhist conception, man must find a new role for his capacities. The Buddhist Tantras are so imbued with Buddhist terminology, mainly of Mahayana Buddhist variety, that it is necessary to first study Mahayana Buddhism, especially in its formal presentation in the Madhyamika and Yogacara schools.
