Diamond Sutra

The Diamond Sutra ( Sanskrit: वज्रच्छेदिकाप्रज्ञापारमितासूत्र Vajracchedikā - Prajnaparamita sūtra, Chinese金刚 般若 波罗蜜 多 经/金刚 般若 波罗蜜 经, Pinyin Jingang bōrěbōluómìduō jīng, Japanese hannya Kongō haramitsu kyō, in short:金刚 经/金刚 经, Jingang jīng, jap. Kongō - kyō ) is one of the most important texts of Mahayana Buddhism, and was written about in the 1st century AD. It has been found in various Asian countries early on a wide distribution and is part of the " Prajnaparamita Sutra " (Sanskrit " prajnaparamita " = Perfection of Wisdom ). The first printed version of the Sutra comes from China, was produced as woodblock printing and is dated May 11, 868. This document is considered the first with certainty be dated book printed product of human history, almost 600 years before the Gutenberg Bible. It was discovered in the Mogao Grottoes in the Chinese city of Dunhuang in 1907 by the archaeologist Aurel Stein.

The full title of the sutra is " Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita ", meaning " The perfection of wisdom [ is so sharp that they] can even split a diamond " ( diamond -splitting perfection of wisdom ).

Form

The relatively long Diamond Sutra is divided into 32 sections. The recitation of the entire Sutra takes about 45 minutes to complete. The Sutra is an opportunity for questions and answers structured dialogue between " Subhuti ," an experienced student of the Buddha, and the Buddha himself Formal remarkable is also the seemingly modern self-reflexive quality of the Sutra in Sutra is the sutra, its beneficial effects and also its future reception spoken. The text thus addressed himself

Content

Cut the illusion

The Sutra is based on a sermon that has kept the Buddha at Jetavana in Sravasti. He answered questions his trailer Subhuti.

" Form is emptiness - emptiness is form ": The Buddhist core idea from the Heart Sutra takes place (though not explicitly ) as a red thread by the Diamond Sutra. According to the teaching of the Buddha, there are two realities / two truths: 1 ) on the one hand the world of form, the world of sensual experiential phenomena, the world of signs and clotted in terms deceptive, as one-sided, perceptions, and 2 ) on the other side: the world of emptiness ( Shunyata ), the world of " suchness ", a realm beyond form, beyond birth and death, beginning and end, self and non-self, a world beyond all concepts. The Buddha would not be the Buddha, when he limited himself to face these two realities each other. Form and emptiness are ultimately one, there is no duality of form and non- form - both are expressions of one and the same reality, two faces of one and the same world.

A parable like this idea illustrate: A wave in the ocean is only apparently an isolated, self- explanatory phenomenon - it is part of the ocean, follows on from it. Thus, the wave is ultimately only of elements which are non- wave ( form is emptiness ). Nevertheless, the wave is not completely in the ocean on, it stays despite their embedded -ness in the ocean of universal a shaft, a custom -existent phenomenon ( emptiness is form ).

This core message is propagated in the Diamond Sutra in numerous variants. The sutra asks us to look beyond the surface of the phenomena and to see through the illusion that reality is exhausted in the surface of the sensually tactile and conceptual fixable phenomena. Why is the actual title of the sutra translated correctly and completely: " The diamond that cuts through illusion " ( vajracchedika sutra ). The diamond - this is the teaching of the Buddha, and actually there are several illusions that are intersected in this sutra:

• The illusion that we have an independent self- existence is separate and independent,
• Further the illusion that one could capture the true essence of the same characters ( words ), but ultimately
• The illusion that it was going to completely and have no existence beyond the emptiness. " Form is emptiness - emptiness is form ."

The wisdom of the Buddha exceed the limits of language - the puzzling paradoxes of the Diamond Sutra are busting expression of all logic and all terms transcendent wisdom. " Subhuti, you need to know that the meaning of this sutra is beyond thoughts and words."

Four misconceptions

The teaching of the Buddha has many philosophical elements. Therefore, in Buddhism, the human act of perception is always problematized and questioned: What do we see? Do we see the true nature of things, or just our ideas / images / sign of things? In the Diamond Sutra, there are four Misconceptions / perceptions to be addressed again and again:

• The idea of ​​a self ( detached, standing for themselves self )
• The notion of a person (separation of human and non -human )
• The idea of ​​a living being (separation of living and non -living matter )
• The idea of a life span (birth and death)

All of these ideas are the sphere of phenomena arrested remain in the region conceptual- rational distinction and thus miss the true nature of things that exceeds these ideas.

The dialectic of the Diamond Sutra

Formulations such as the following can be found in almost all parts of the Sutra: "That which all dharmas ( phenomena ) is called, which are all non -dharma in reality. That is why you are called all dharmas " The paradoxical Three step of all these sets is approximately equal to the following scheme. :

This paradox has the Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh resolved in his commentary on the Sutra as follows:

Or in other words:

The paradox dissolves in the moment in which it becomes clear that these rates between the realities mentioned jump back and forth to each other truths, or rather refer to other pages / aspects of the same truth.

Print version of the 868 year

Aurel Stein discovered in 1907, a print version of the Sutra during his second great expedition in North China in the Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang. This Fund, which is the oldest preserved worldwide, ie with security datierendes, copy of the printed book, single sheet of paper have been printed by several blocks and then assembled to form a approximately 530 cm long roll. The pressure is based on the first translation of the Kumarajiva, who prepared this 405-413.

The cover picture shows a preaching, seated on a lotus throne beneath a canopy Buddha. On his breast he wears a left-handed swastika, the Chinese symbol of infinity, in the East Asian Buddhism for the dissemination of the Buddha - nature. With his right hand he carries out the Kartari mudra (Eng. " scissor gesture "). Two Bodhisattvas store on clouds, two flanking the right, a group of monks. Two protective gods and the lion at her feet wake up in the table, lying on the offerings. Prior kneels a disciple of the Buddha who, as is apparent from the lower inscription on the left side, the abbot Subhuti, one of the ten chief disciples. From right to a king approaches his entourage who wants to pay homage to the Buddha. From the upper inscription on the left side shows that the Buddha at Jetavana Temple Garden preaches near Sravasti.

To be read from top to bottom and in rows from right to left text contains first a reminder to the faithful to recite a mantra of mouth cleaning. This in Sanskrit with Chinese characters circumscribed Mantra follows it. Subsequently, the Vajra, after which the sutra is named, called with eight different epithets. Thereafter, only the title of the sutra is called, and brought this. Later in the text a philosophical conversation about the emptiness between the Shakyamuni Buddha and Subhuti follows. The pressure closes with prayer formulas ( Dharanis ) and the colophon " Awesome prepared for general free distribution by Wang Chieh, in honor of his two parents on the 15th of the 4th month of the 9th year of the reign Hsien -t ` ung " from.

Sino - Japanese editions

In Japan, several copies exist from the 4th century Tempyo 732:

• Nanjio canon catalog [ NJ ] 10; Taishō VIII, 748c.17 - 752c.7: Translation of Kumarajiva (late Qin Dynasty 384-417 ) 14 sheets in 2 fascicles ( ch. W.-G.: Chin -kang- ching; jp: Kogo - kyō. )
• Nanjio canon catalog [ NJ ] 11: Translation of the Bodhiruci ( Northern Wei Dynasty) Chapter 12, 17 sheets, 1 fascicle
• Nanjio canon catalog [ NJ ] 12: ÜBS. of Paramārtha ( jp.: Shin tai ) † 1 year Datjiän the Ch'in dynasty, 71 years old. 1 copy of fascicle
• Nanjio canon catalog [ NJ ] 13: translated by Xuanzang.
• Nanjio canon catalog [ NJ ] 14: ÜBS. of the Yi (Tang Dynasty ), see NJ 15
• Nanjio canon catalog [ NJ ] 15: ÜBS. of Dharmagupta, Sui Dynasty, the most literal of all transmissions. Therefore, exact title Vajracchedikā - Prajnaparamita sūtra ( diamond cut -Wisdom Paramitta Sutra, jp. Kongō hannya haramitsu - kyō )

At the same time it is the ninth of the 16 sutras that make up the Japanese Daihannya - kyō. Frequently commented, inter alia, by: Asanga translated into Chinese by Dharmagupta (NJ 1167 ), comments of Vasubandhu, Chinese Bodhiruci of the Elder 509 (NJ 1168 ). NJ 1192 probably comes from Guṇada, Chinese Dīvakara of the year 683 Another comment by Asanga, by Chinese I Ching (NJ 1208) in the year 711, the NJ 1168 also in the same year newly translated (NJ 1231 ). The teachings of the 4th Tien -tai patriarch Zhi Yi ( 538-597 ;智 顗Chinese, Pinyin Zhìyǐ, W.-G. Chih -i), as always, edited by his pupils, form NJ 1550 The fifth Huayan patriarch Zongmi. ( 780-841 ;宗密) gave a summary commentary (NJ 1630), which was explained by his successor in 1024 (NJ 1631). A Zen Commentary from the early Ming NJ 1615th