2016/04/22

Diamond Sutra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Diamond Sutra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Diamond Sutra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frontispiece of the Chinese Diamond Sūtra, the oldest known dated printedbook in the world
Part of a series on
Mahāyāna Buddhism
Buddha inside lotus
Portal icon Mahayana Buddhism portal
The Diamond Sūtra(Sanskrit:Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) is aMahāyāna (Buddhist) sūtrafrom the Prajñāpāramitā, or "Perfection of Wisdom" genre, and emphasizes the practice ofnon-abiding and non-attachment. The Diamond sutra is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras inEast Asia, and is a key object of devotion and study in Zen Buddhism.
A copy of the Chinese version of Diamond Sūtra, found among the Dunhuang manuscripts in the early 20th century by Aurel Stein, was dated back to May 11, 868.[1]It is, in the words of the British Library, "the earliest complete survival of a datedprinted book."[2]

Title[edit]

The Sanskrit title for the sūtra is the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, which may be translated roughly as the "Vajra Cutter Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra." In English, shortened forms such as Diamond Sūtraand Vajra Sūtra are common. The title relies on the power of the vajra(diamond or thunderbolt) to cut things as a metaphor for type of wisdom that cuts and shatters illusions to get to ultimate reality. The sutra is also called by the name Triśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (300 lines Perfection of Insight sutra).
The Diamond Sūtra has also been highly regarded in a number of Asian countries where Mahāyāna Buddhism has been traditionally practiced. Translations of this title into the languages of some of these countries include:
  • Sanskrit: वज्रच्छेदिकाप्रज्ञापारमितासूत्र, Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra
  • Chinese: 《金剛般若波羅蜜多經》, Jingang Banzuopoluomiduo Jing(Chin-kang Pan-Jo-p'o-lo-mi-to Ching); shortened to 《金剛經》,Jingang Jing (Chin-kang Ching)
  • Japanese: 金剛般若波羅蜜多経, Kongō hannya haramita kyō, shortened to 金剛経, Kongō-kyō
  • Korean: 금강반야바라밀경, geumgang banyabaramil gyeong, shortened to 금강경, geumgang gyeong
  • Mongolian: Yeke kölgen sudur[3]
  • Vietnamese Kim cương bát-nhã-ba-la-mật-đa kinh, shortened to Kim cương kinh
  • Tibetan འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཅོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, Wylie: ’phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo

History[edit]

Statue of Kumārajīva in front of the Kizil Caves in Kuqa,Xinjiang province, China
The full history of the text remains unknown, but Japanese scholars generally consider the Diamond Sūtra to be from a very early date in the development of Prajñāpāramitā literature.[4] Some western scholars such as Gregory Schopen also believe that the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra was adapted from the earlier Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.[4] Early western scholarship on the Diamond Sūtra is summarized by Müller.[5]
The Vajracchedika sutra was an influential work in the North Indian Mahayana Buddhist tradition. Buddhist philosophers such as Asangaand Vasubandhu wrote commentaries on the sutra.
The first translation of the Diamond Sūtra into Chinese is thought to have been made in 401 CE by the venerated and prolific translatorKumārajīva.[6] Kumārajīva's translation style is distinctive, possessing a flowing smoothness that reflects his prioritization on conveying the meaning as opposed to precise literal rendering.[7] The Kumārajīva translation has been particularly highly regarded over the centuries, and it is this version that appears on the 868 CE Dunhuang scroll. It is the most widely used and chanted Chinese version.[8]
In addition to the Kumārajīva translation, a number of later translations exist. The Diamond Sūtra was again translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by Bodhiruci in 509 CE, Paramārtha in 558 CE, Dharmagupta (twice, in 590 and in 605~616), Xuanzang (twice, in 648 CE and in 660~663), and Yijing in 703 CE.[9][10][11][12]
The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda monastery at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, in the 7th century CE. Using Xuanzang's travel accounts, modern archaeologists have identified the site of this monastery.[13] Birchbark manuscript fragments of several Mahāyāna sūtras have been discovered at the site, including the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (MS 2385), and these are now part of the Schøyen Collection.[13] This manuscript was written in the Sanskrit language, and written in an ornate form of the Gupta script.[13] This same Sanskrit manuscript also contains the Medicine Buddha Sūtra (Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhārāja Sūtra).[13]
The Diamond Sūtra gave rise to a culture of artwork, sūtra veneration, and commentaries in East Asian Buddhism. By the end of the Tang Dynasty (907) in China there were over 800 commentaries written on it (only 32 survive), such as those by prominent Chinese Buddhists likeSengzhao, Xie Lingyun, Zhiyi, Jizang, Kuiji and Zongmi.[14] One of the best known commentaries is the Exegesis on the Diamond Sutra byHuineng, the Sixth Patriarch of the Chan School.[15]

Contents[edit]

A traditional pocket-sized folding edition of the Diamond Sūtra in Chinese
The Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra contains the discourse of the Buddha to a senior monk, Subhuti.[16] It's major themes are 
  • anatman (not-self), 
  • the emptiness of all phenomena (though the term 'Shunyata' itself does not appear in the text),[17] 
  • the liberation of all beings without attachment and 
  • the importance of spreading and teaching the Diamond sutra itself. 


In his commentary on the Diamond Sūtra, Hsing Yun describes the four main points from the sūtra as 
  • giving without attachment to self, 
  • liberating beings without notions of self and other, 
  • living without attachment, and 
  • cultivating without attainment.[18] 


According to Shigenori Nagamoto the major goal of the Diamond sutra is: "an existential project aiming at achieving and embodying a non-discriminatory basis for knowledge" or "the emancipation from the fundamental ignorance of not knowing how to experience reality as it is."[19]
In the sūtra, the Buddha has finished his daily walk to Sravasti with the monks to gather offerings of food, and he sits down to rest. ElderSubhūti comes forth and asks the Buddha a question: "How, Lord, should one who has set out on the bodhisattva path take his stand, how should he proceed, how should he control the mind?"[20] What follows a dialogue regarding the nature of the 'perfection of insight' (Prajñāpāramitā) and the nature of ultimate reality (which is illusory and empty). The Buddha begins by answering Subhuti by stating that he will bring all living beings to final nirvana - but that after this "no living being whatsoever has been brought to extinction".[20] 
This is because a bodhisattva does not see beings through reified concepts such as 'person', 'soul' or 'self', but sees them through the lens of perfect understanding, as empty of inherent, unchanging self.
A Nepalese sculpture of aVajra.
The Buddha continues his exposition with similar statements which use negation to point out the emptiness of phenomena, merit, the Dharma(Buddha's teaching), the stages of enlightenment and the Buddha himself. Japanese Buddhologist, Hajime Nakamura, calls this negation the 'logic of not' (Sanskrit:na prthak).[19] Further examples of the Diamond sutra's via negativainclude statements such as:[20]
  • As far as ‘all dharmas’ are concerned, Subhuti, all of them are dharma-less. That is why they are called ‘all dharmas.’
  • Those so-called ‘streams of thought,’ Subhuti, have been preached by the Tathagata as streamless. That is why they are called ‘streams of thought.’
  • ‘All beings,’ Subhuti, have been preached by the Tathagata as beingless. That is why they are called ‘all beings.’
  • “And whenever the Tathagata preaches about a ‘trigalactic megagalactic world-system,’ that has been preached by the Tathagata as systemless. That is why it is called ‘a trigalactic megagalactic world-system.’
The Buddha is generally thought to be trying to help Subhūti unlearn his preconceived, limited notions of the nature of reality. Emphasizing that all phenomena are ultimately illusory, he teaches that true enlightenment cannot be grasped until one has set aside attachment to them in any form.
Another reason why the Buddha makes use of negation is because language reifies concepts and this can lead to attachment to those concepts, but true wisdom is seeing that nothing is fixed or stable, hence according to the Diamond sutra thoughts such as "I have obtained the state of an Arhat" or "I will bring living beings to nirvana" does not even occur in an enlightened one's mind because this would be "seizing upon a self...seizing upon a living being, seizing upon a soul, seizing upon a person."[20] Indeed, the sutra goes on to state that anyone who says such things should not be called a bodhisattva. According to David Kalupahana the goal of the Diamond sutra is "one colossal attempt to avoid the extremist use of language, that is, to eliminate any ontological commitment to concepts while at the same time retaining their pragmatic value, so as not to render them totally empty of meaning."[17] 
Kalupahana explains the negation of the Diamond sutra by seeing an initial statement as an erroneous affirmation of substance or selfhood, which is then critiqued ("'all dharmas' are dharmaless"), and then finally reconstructed ("that is why they are called 'all dharmas'") as being conventional and dependently originated. Kalupahana explains this final reconstruction as meaning: "that each concept, instead of either representing a unique entity or being an empty term, is a substitute for a human experience which is conditioned by a variety of factors. As such, it has pragmatic meaning and communicative power without being absolute in any way."[17]
According to Paul Harrison the Diamond sutra's central argument here is that "all dharmas lack a self or essence, or to put it in other words, they have no core ontologically, they only appear to exist separately and independently by the power of conventional language, even though they are in fact dependently originated."[21]
The mind of someone who practices the Prajñāpāramitā or 'perfection of insight' is then a mind free from fixed substantialist or 'self' concepts:
"However, Lord, the idea of a self will not occur to them, nor will the idea of a living being, the idea of a soul, or the idea of a person occur. Why is that? Any such idea of a self is indeed idealess, any idea of a living being, idea of a soul, or idea of a person is indeed idealess. Why is that? Because the Buddhas and Lords are free of all ideas."[20]
Throughout the teaching, the Buddha repeats that successful memorization and elucidation of even a four-line extract of it is of incalculable merit, better than giving an entire world system filled with gifts and can bring about enlightenment. Section 26 also ends with a four-line gatha:
All conditioned phenomena
Are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow,
Like dew or a flash of lightning;
Thus we shall perceive them.”[22]
Paul Harrison's translation states:[20]
"A shooting star, a clouding of the sight, a lamp, 
An illusion, a drop of dew, a bubble, 
A dream, a lightning’s flash, a thunder cloud
— This is the way one should see the conditioned."

Dunhuang block print[edit]

Elder Subhūtiaddresses the Buddha. Detail from theDunhuang block print
There is a wood block printed copy in theBritish Library which, although not the earliest example of block printing, is the earliest example which bears an actual date. The book displays a great maturity of design and layout and speaks of a considerable ancestry for woodblock printing.
The extant copy has the form of a scroll, about 5 meters (16 ft) long. Thearchaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Steinpurchased it in 1907 in the walled-upMogao Caves near Dunhuang in northwestChina from a monk guarding the caves - known as the "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas".
The colophon, at the inner end, reads:
Reverently made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 13th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong [11 May 868].
This is approximately 587 years before the Gutenberg Bible was first printed.
In 2010 UK writer and historian Frances Wood, head of the Chinese section at the British Library, was involved in the restoration of its copy of the book.[23][24] The British Library website allows readers to view the Diamond Sutra in its entirety.[25]

Selected English translations[edit]

AuthorTitlePublisherNotesYearISBN
Max MüllerThe Vagrakkhedika or diamond-cutter, inBuddhist Mahayana Texts (Sacred Books of the East), F. Max Muller et al.Oxford University PressTranslation of the Vajracchedikā prajñāpāramitā from Sanskrit. Based on Muller's edition, the first Sanskrit edition published in the West, based on four Sanskrit manuscripts, one from Tibet, one from China, and two from Japan.1894
Daisetz Teitaro SuzukiThe Diamond SutraVariousTranslation of the Diamond Sutra1934
Schopen, GregoryThe Manuscript of the Vajracchedikā Found at Gilgit,in Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle: Three Mahāyāna Buddhist Texts, ed. by L. O. Gómez and J. A. SilkCenters for South and Southeast AsiaTranslation of the Diamond Sutra from the SanskritGilgit manuscript1989ISBN 978-0891480549
Thich Nhat HanhThe Diamond that Cuts Through IllusionParallax PressThe Diamond Sutra with a Vietnamese Thiền commentary1992ISBN 0-938077-51-1
Mu SoengThe Diamond Sutra: Transforming the Way We Perceive the WorldWisdom PublicationsTranslation of the Diamond Sutra with commentary2000ISBN 978-0861711604
Edward ConzeBuddhist Wisdom: The Diamond Sutra and The Heart SutraRandom HouseThe Diamond Sutra and The Heart Sutra, along with commentaries on the texts and practices of Buddhism2001ISBN 978-0375726002
Michael RoachThe Diamond Cutter, An Exalted Sutra of the Greater Way on the Perfection of WisdomTibetan-English edition, translated from the Tibetan translation of Shilendra Bodhi.2001
Red PineThe Diamond Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom; Text and Commentaries Translated from Sanskrit and ChineseCounterpointThe Diamond Sutra, translated from the Sanskrit (mostly from the editions by Max Muller and Edward Conze) with selections of Indian andChán commentary from figures such as Asanga,Vasubandhu, Huineng,Linji[disambiguation needed]and Chiang Wei-nung (1871-1938).2001ISBN 1-58243-256-2
Hsuan HuaA General Explanation: The Vajra Prajna Paramita SutraBuddhist Text Translation Society2002ISBN 0881394300
Nan Huai-ChinThe Diamond Sutra ExplainedPrimodia Media2004ISBN 0-9716561-2-6
A.F. Price and Wong Mou-LamDiamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui-nengShambhala ClassicsTranslation of the Diamond Sutra and Platform Sutra2005ISBN 978-1590301371
Paul HarrisonVajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā: A New English Translation of the Sanskrit Text Based on Two Manuscripts from Greater GandhāraHermes PublishingTranslation of the Diamond Sutra from the Sanskrit(compiled from Gilgit and the Schøyen collection manuscripts)2006

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up^ Soeng, Mu (2000-06-15). Diamond Sutra: Transforming the Way We Perceive the World. Wisdom Publications. p. 58.ISBN 9780861711604. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  2. Jump up^ "Online Gallery - Sacred Texts: Diamond Sutra". Bl.uk British Library. 2003-11-30. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved 2010-04-01.
  3. Jump up^ "Manuscript of a Mongolian Sūtra". World Digital Library. Retrieved2014-06-22.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: the Doctrinal Foundations. London, UK: Routledge. p. 42. ISBN 0-415-02537-0.
  5. Jump up^ Müller, Friedrich Max (1894). The Sacred Books of the East, Volume XLIX: Buddhist Mahāyāna Texts, Part II. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. xii–xix.
  6. Jump up^ "The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalog (T 235)". A. Charles Muller. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  7. Jump up^ Nattier, Jan (1992). "The Heart Sūtra: A Chinese Apocryphal Text?".Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 15 (2): 153–223.
  8. Jump up^ Yongyou Shi (2010). The Diamond Sūtra in Chinese Culture. Los Angeles: Buddha's Light Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-932293-37-1.
  9. Jump up^ "The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalog (T 236)". A. Charles Muller. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  10. Jump up^ "The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalog (T 237)". A. Charles Muller. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  11. Jump up^ "The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalog (T 220,9)". A. Charles Muller. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  12. Jump up^ "The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalog (T 239)". A. Charles Muller. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  13. ^ Jump up to:a b c d "Schøyen Collection: Buddhism". Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  14. Jump up^ Yongyou Shi (2010). The Diamond Sūtra in Chinese Culture. Los Angeles: Buddha's Light Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-932293-37-1.
  15. Jump up^ Hui Neng; Cleary, Thomas (1998). The Sutra of Hui-neng, Grand Master of Zen: With Hui-neng's Commentary on the Diamond Sutra.Shambhala Publications. ISBN 9781570623486.
  16. Jump up^ Buswell, Robert Jr; Lopez, Donald S. Jr., eds. (2013). "Subhuti", in Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 862. ISBN 9780691157863.
  17. ^ Jump up to:a b c Kalupahana, David J. A History of Buddhist Philosophy, page 156.
  18. Jump up^ Hsing Yun (2012). Four Insights for Finding Fulfillment: A Practical Guide to the Buddha's Diamond Sūtra. Buddha's Light Publishing. p. 87.ISBN 978-1-932293-54-8.
  19. ^ Jump up to:a b Nagatomo, Shigenori (2000). The Logic of the Diamond Sutra: A is not A, therefore it is A; Asian Philosophy 10 (3), 217-244
  20. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Harrison, Paul. Vajracchedika Prajñaparamita Diamond Cutting Transcendent Wisdom
  21. Jump up^ Harrison, Paul. (2006) 'Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā: A New English Translation of the Sanskrit Text Based on Two Manuscripts from Greater Gandhāra', in Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection (Vol. III). Hermes Publishing, Oslo, p.139.
  22. Jump up^ "The Diamond of Perfect Wisdom Sutra". Chung Tai Translation Committee. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  23. Jump up^ "Restoring the world's oldest book, the Diamond Sutra". BBC. December 5, 2010. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  24. Jump up^ Wood, Francis; Barnard, Mark. "Restoration of the Diamond Sutra".IDP News (38): 4–5. Archived from the original on April 5, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  25. Jump up^ "Copy of Diamond Sutra". bl.uk. Archived from the original on June 3, 2004.

Further reading[edit]

  • Cole, Alan (2005). For a close reading of the text's rhetoric, see chapter 4 of Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature (Berkeley: U Cal Press, 2005), pp. 160–196, entitled "Be All You Can't Be, and Other Gainful Losses in theDiamond Sutra."
  • William Gemmell (transl.): The Diamond Sutra, Trübner, London 1912.
  • Joyce Morgan and Conrad Walters: Journeys on the Silk Road: a desert explorer, Buddha’s secret library, and the unearthing of the world’s oldest printed book, Picador Australia, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4050-4041-9.

External links[edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Wikimedia Commons has media related toDiamond Sutra.
Posted by at
Labels: , ,