e of the absolute
truth, that is to say of sunyata or the void, but is regarded as an
ontological principle synonymous with Bodhi and Dharma-kaya. Thus
Buddhas not only possess this knowledge in the ordinary sense but they
_are_ the knowledge manifest in human form, and Prajna is often
personified as a goddess. All these works lay great stress on the
doctrine of sunyata, and the non-existence of the world of experience.
The longest recension is said to contain a polemic against the
Hinayana.

The Diamond Cutter is one of the best known of these transcendental
treatises and the two short works called Heart of the Prajna-paramita,
which are widely read in Japan, appear to be brief abstracts of the
essence of this teaching.

2. The Saddharma-Pundarika, or Lotus of the Good Law,[131] is one of
the best known Mahayanist sutras and is highly esteemed in China and
Japan. It purports to be a discourse delivered by Sakyamuni on the
Vulture Peak to an assemblage of Bodhisattvas. The Lotus clearly
affirms the multiplicity of vehicles, or various ways of teaching the
law, and also the eternity of the Buddha, but it does not emphasize,
although it mentions, the doctrine of sunyata. The work consists of
two parts of which the second (chaps. XXI-XXVI) is a later addition.
This second part contains spells and many mythological narratives,
including one of an ancient Bodhisattva who burnt himself alive in
honour of a former Buddha. Portions of the Lotus were translated into
Chinese under the Western Tsin Dynasty 265-316 A.D. and it is quoted
in the Maha-prajna-paramita-sastra ascribed to Nagarjuna.[132] The
first part is probably not later than the first century A.D. The Lotus
is unfortunately accessible to English readers only in a most unpoetic
translation by the late Professor Kern, but it is a great religious
poem which starting from humanity regards religion as cosmic and
universal, rather than something mainly concerned with our earth. The
discourses of Sakyamuni are accompanied in it by stupendous miracles
culminating in a grand cosmic phantasmagoria in which is evoked the
stupa containing the body of a departed Buddha, that is a shrine
containing the eternal truth.

3. The Lalita-vistara[133] is a life of Sakyamuni up to the
commencement of his mission. Though the setting of the story is
miraculous and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas innumerable are freely spoken
of, yet the work does not enunciate the characteristic Mahayanist
do