Buddhist Wisdom Books: The Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra

Edward Conze was a scholar of Buddhist studies and one of the twentieth century's leading translators of Prajnaparamita literature, and this book, published by George Allen and Unwin, presents his scholarly English translations of the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra, two of the most influential Mahayana Buddhist texts, with his own introduction and commentary. Its strength is Conze's deep specialist command of the Sanskrit and Chinese textual tradition behind these sutras, translating directly from the primary sources rather than through an intermediary language. Its limit is its age, later Buddhist studies scholarship has refined some points of translation and interpretation since 1958, so specific technical or philosophical claims benefit from cross checking against more recent translations where precision matters.