ABSTRACT
The term prajna-paramitais usually rendered in English as 'Perfection of Wisdom' which accurately reflects the Sanskrit grammatical structure of paramita as an abstract noun connoting a completed or accomplished set of conditions. However, in Buddhism one practices the paramitas as a means of both self-improvement and other-improvement. One progresses along the Buddhist marga by practicing the paramitas and one also offers aid to other sentient beings by means of the paramitas. Buddhists constructed elaborate road maps of the path to liberation, specifying every nook and cranny along the way. This literary genre became very popular, and one of the ways a school asserted its difference from other schools was to draw a different map. These tended to be intricate, scholastic enterprises, densely packed with terms and categories. The best known Yogacara contribution to this genre, the vast Yogacarabhumi sastra, is possibly the most comprehensive, but not the only Yogacara offering.
