Why is Prajñāpāramitā also an empty mark?

Original text: 佛说般若波罗蜜。即非般若波罗蜜。是名般若波罗蜜。

Explanation: The Mahāyāna dharma of prajñā-pāramitā that the Buddha taught to sentient beings is not an actually existent prajñā-pāramitā; there is not truly a prajñā-pāramitā — it is merely provisionally named prajñā-pāramitā, and its dharma-mark is also empty.

Prajñā-pāramitā is an Indian term; translated into Chinese it means "great wisdom that reaches the other shore," a metaphor for the nirvāṇic state of the vajra mind (vajra-citta) or the prajñā mind-essence, which is free of the shore of birth and death. Both this shore and the other shore are states, provisional names, not entities, and not ultimate reality; there is no substantial mark of a this-shore or an other-shore. Therefore prajñā-pāramitā is of empty mark, provisionally named prajñā-pāramitā. By the same principle, the six pāramitās are also of empty mark, without real substance, not ultimate reality; pāramitā is a provisional name, and the six perfections likewise have no substantial essence or mark — they are empty marks of arising, ceasing, and change conjured forth by the vajra mind. Upon reaching the shore, one abandons the raft; after buddhahood is attained and cultivation is complete, there is no longer any need to practice the dharma of the pāramitās.

Any dharma that can be established and exist only by relying on the vajra mind-essence is a conjured empty mark and false mark, without substance or an intrinsic self-existing nature. From the vajra mind-essence the Prajñā-pāramitā Sūtra evolved; sentient beings rely on practicing prajñā-pāramitā to accomplish the buddha path, and after attaining buddhahood, they abandon the Prajñā-pāramitā Sūtra, with no further need to study it or rely upon it. The appearance of the Prajñā-pāramitā Sūtra came about because the buddhas proclaimed it in accordance with sentient beings' ripened conditions for study and practice; if the conditions were not complete, the buddhas would not teach the Prajñā-pāramitā Sūtra, and this sūtra would have no occasion to appear before sentient beings. Therefore the Prajñā-pāramitā Sūtra is an interpretation and annotation of the nature of the vajra mind-essence, not the vajra mind-essence itself; hence it is not the true mark but a false mark. And the principles expounded in the sūtra, named prajñā-pāramitā, likewise do not represent the vajra mind-essence itself; therefore they are also not the true mark but an empty mark — and for this kind of empty mark, the name prajñā-pāramitā was given.