Transliteration: shes rab
<noun> "prajñā". Translation of the Sanskrit "prajñā". Defined as pra "a better or the best kind of" jñā "knowing or mind". This refers to the intelligent portion of a person's mind. It is like intelligence but is used slightly differently because intelligence is the general faculty of being able to understand using the intellect and can range from very dull to very acute whereas "prajñā" means "good intelligence" even if it is not strong. The term has a wide range of use though is generally used to indicate the mental faculty of precise understanding. It can function in a dualistic mind or a non-dualistic mind as follows.I. In dualistic mind, generally speaking it is the faculty of intelligence which looks at and precisely determines the something the mind wants to know about. The ཤེས་རབ་གི་མིག་ eye of prajñā is used in every field of learning and study both worldly and beyond worldly as the basic tool of the mind that discriminates the various aspects of the subject at hand so that each part and piece is known correctly for itself and in relation to the whole.
Thus prajñā is one of the key factors of the path to enlightenment. 1) "prajñā" is a སེམས་བྱུང་ mental event which is one of the ཡུལ་ངེས་བྱེད་ལྔ་ five object determining factors. It is defined as that which functions to discriminate the object before it in mind and thus to determine its qualities. 2) Its importance to the path of enlightenment is shown as its inclusion in བྱང་ཆུབ་ཕྱོགས་མཐུན་གྱི་ཆོས་སུམ་ཅུ་སོ་བདུན་ "the thirty-seven factors conducive to enlightenment" both as one of the རྣམ་བྱང་གི་དབང་པོ་ལྔ་ "five faculties of the side of enlightenment" and one of the སྟོབས་ལྔ་ "five forces". This prajñā is the same as the one defined in one above but here it is taught as a mental factor required for progress on the path to enlightenment. It is taught as the faculty of discrimination used to discriminate the Buddhist path and the reality pointed out by it correctly. 3) "prajñā" is the name of the third of the འཇིག་རྟེན་ལས་འདས་པའི་ཕུང་པོ་ལྔ་ "five transcendental aggregates". 4) The name of the sixth of the ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་དྲུག་ six pāramitās of a bodhisatva.
II. More generally speaking, "prajñā" is the main tool of the mind used to investigate and discriminate reality on the Buddhist path. As such it is heavily used in Buddhist literature, especially in the prajñāpāramitā literature of the second turning of the wheel where it becomes the principal means by which reality is known. prajñā is regarded as a quality of the female side. It's counterpart is upāya or method, which is the male side. The path to enlightenment involves the unification of the two.
III. 1) In a non-dualistic mind, it is one, particular quality of ཡེ་ཤེས་ wisdom; the ability of the wisdom to discriminate objects precisely. E.g., in the tantric systems in general, there is the སོ་སོར་རྟོག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ "individually discriminating wisdom" of the padma family which is prajñā as an aspect of wisdom. 2) In the གསང་སྔགས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པ་ "secret mantra Vajrayāna", it is an important part of the third empowerment called the ཤེས་རབ་ཡེ་ཤེས་དབང་བསྐུར་ "prajñājnāña empowerment". In that case it refers to knowledge of reality as a feminine principle which is used to conjoin the practitioner with the wisdom mind that is reality.