Make your dot-stars non-greedy, and use the 'm' modifier: 

$_="
Blah
junk
.PP
blah more stuff
.PP
boo
razz
";
print $1 if /^(\.PP.*?\n.*?\n\.PP)/m;
#prints
.PP
blah more stuff
.PP

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In reply to Re: match across specified # of lines by hbm
in thread match across specified # of lines by bill b

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
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