So, one is the Perfection of Wisdom in 25, Lines. Another is the Perfection of Wisdom in 20, Lines, and then 8, lines, and so on. It is often taught within Buddhism that the shorter Prajnaparamita sutras are distillations of the longer ones and that the brief and highly distilled Diamond and Heart sutras were written last. But many scholars suspect the shorter sutras are the older ones, and the longer sutras are elaborations. Scholars believe the original text of the Diamond Sutra was written in India some time in the 2nd century CE.
Kumarajiva is believed to have made the first translation into Chinese in CE, and the Kumarajiva text seems to be the one most often translated into English. This chapter division has been preserved to this day, although translators do not always use Prince Chao-Ming's titles.
It is recorded in Huineng's autobiography that when he was an adolescent selling firewood in a marketplace, he heard someone reciting the Diamond Sutra and immediately became enlightened. It is believed the Diamond Sutra was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan in the late 8th or early 9th century.
The translation is attributed to a disciple of Padmasambhava named Yeshe De and an Indian scholar named Silendrabodhi. An even older manuscript of the Diamond Sutra was discovered in the ruins of a Buddhist monastery in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, written in a language of Gandhara.
A complete woodblock printed scroll of the Diamond Sutra, dated CE, was among several texts preserved in a sealed cave near Dunhuang, in Gansu Province, China. In a Chinese monk, Abbot Wang Yuanlu, discovered the sealed door to the cave, and in a Hungarian-British explorer named Marc Aurel Stein was allowed to see inside the cave. Stein chose some scrolls randomly and purchased them from Abbot Wang.
Eventually, these scrolls were taken to London and given to the British Library. It would be a few years before European scholars recognized the significance of the Diamond Sutra scroll and realized how old it was.
It was printed nearly years before Gutenberg printed his first Bible. If you are caught in the idea of a dharma, you are also caught in the ideas of a self, a person, a living being, and a life span. If you are caught in the idea that there is no dharma, you are still caught in the ideas of a self, a person, a living being, and a life span. That is why we should not get caught in dharmas or in the idea that dharmas do not exist. In ancient times when the Tathagata practiced under the guidance of the Buddha Dipankara, he did not attain anything.
To create a serene and beautiful Buddha field is not in fact to create a serene and beautiful Buddha field. That is why it is called creating a serene and beautiful Buddha field. When they give rise to this intention, they should not rely on forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, or objects of mind. They should give rise to an intention with their minds not dwelling anywhere.
He cannot rely on forms when he gives rise to that mind, nor on sounds, smells, tastes, tactile objects, or objects of mind. He can only give rise to the mind that is not caught in anything.
Subhuti, the Tathagata is one who speaks of things as they are, speaks what is true, and speaks in accord with reality. He does not speak deceptively or to please people. Subhuti, if we say that the Tathagata has realized a teaching, that teaching is neither graspable nor deceptive. She will not see anything. But when a bodhisattva does not depend on notions to practice generosity, she is like someone with good eyesight walking under the bright light of the sun.
She can see all shapes and colors. In truth there is not one single being for the Tathagata to bring to the other shore. If the Tathagata were to think there was, he would be caught in the idea of a self, a person, a living being, or a life span. Subhuti, what the Tathagata calls a self essentially has no self in the way that ordinary persons think there is a self.
But the Diamond takes us away from that Impermanence was expounded by the historical Buddha in the first turning teachings, and the Diamond is opening a door to something beyond that.
It would be a shame to miss it. The several English translations of the Diamond are of varying quality. Many of the translators have attempted to make sense of it and, in doing so, have utterly scrambled what it's saying. This translation is an example. The translator was trying to be helpful, but in attempting to render something intellectually graspable he erased the deeper meaning. But in the more accurate translations, something you see over and over is a conversation like this:.
Now, this doesn't just happen once. It happens over and over assuming the translator knew his business. For example, these are snips from Red Pine's translation:. As you read the sutra if the translation is accurate , from Chapter 3 on you run into this over and over again.
If you aren't seeing it in whatever version you are reading, find another one. To fully appreciate what is being said in these little snips you need to see the larger context. My point is that to see what the sutra is pointing to, here is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. A kind of dialect has developed that we call Buddhist Hybrid English.
Harrison hopes that his work on the Diamond Sutra, which is set for publication in , will avoid some of the problems often found in the translation of Buddhist texts. From the reviews he has gotten from Buddhist philosophers who have seen preliminary versions of his translation, it looks like he may be on to something. Copyright Complaints. Skip to main content. Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube Subscribe. Buddhist Diamond Sutra.
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