At the heart of Buddhism lies the doctrine of the perfection of wisdom. The foremost principles of this teaching are the bodhisattva ideal of the religious life and the essential emptiness of all existence. The sutra known as The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines are the oldest version of the important Buddhist text, dating some two thousand years, and are the basis for the present translation.
Paradoxically, The Perfection of Wisdom exists as a guide to those seeking enlightenment, even as no guidance can be given. The book opens on a heavenly assembly of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, gods and monks as they debate the nature of existence and the right way of life. Their dancing interplay of simile, dialogue and seeming contradictions may at first bewilder, but as the melody of their words combine with the repetition of ideas, readers will find themselves drawn irresistibly to the philosophy.
The message of the Perfection of Wisdom is as applicable to the modern reader as it was to the monks who first studied the text two millennia ago: through an understanding of the perfection of wisdom, it is possible for all of us to detach from the suffering that binds us to the material world, and so move toward enlightenment. This important text is illustrated with extraordinary images taken from the earliest surviving Indian and Nepalese illustrated manuscripts of The Perfection of Wisdom - most of which have never been reproduced before.

Perfection of Wisdom, R.C. Jamieson, Viking Studio, Hardcover, 109 pages, $19.95.