Diamond sutra

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Prajnaparamita Bodhisattva (Java, Indonesia)

The Diamond Sutra ( Sanskrit : वज्रच्छेदिकाप्रज्ञापारमितासूत्र Vajracchedika-Prajnaparamita sūtra , Chinese  金剛般若波羅蜜多經  /  金刚般若波罗蜜经 , Pinyin Jingang bōrěbōluómìduō jīng , Jap. Kongō hannya haramitsu kyō , Manchu : enduringge wacir i lashalara sure i cargi dalin de akūnaha environment amba kulge i nomun ᡝᠨᡵᡠᡩᡳᠩᡤᡝ
ᠸᠠᠴᡳᡵ ᡳ
ᠯᠠᠰᡥᠠᠯᠠᡵᠠ
ᠰᡠᡵᡝ ᡳ
ᠴᠠᡵᡤᡳ
ᡩᠠᠯᡳᠨ ᡩᡝ
ᠠᡴᡡᠨᠠᡥᠠ
ᡤᡝᠪᡠᠩᡤᡝ
ᠠᠮᠪᠠ
ᡴᡠᠯᡤᡝ ᡳ
ᠨᠣᠮᡠᠨ; in short: 金剛 經  /  金刚 经 , jīngāng jīng , Japanese Kongō-kyō ) is one of the most important texts of Mahayana Buddhism and was written around the 1st century AD. It found widespread use in various Asian countries early on and is part of the “ Prajnaparamita Sutras” ( sanskr. “Prajnaparamita” = perfection of wisdom ). The first printed version of the sutra comes from Tibet, was made as a wood panel print and is dated May 11, 868. This document is considered to be the first book printing product in human history that can be dated with certainty , almost 600 years before the Gutenberg Bible . It was discovered in 1907 by the archaeologist Aurel Stein in the Mogao Grottoes near what is now the Chinese city of Dunhuang .

The full title of the sutra is "Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita" and means "The perfection of wisdom which [is so sharp that it] can split a diamond by itself" (diamond splitting perfection of wisdom).

shape

The relatively long Diamond Sutra is divided into 32 sections. It takes about 45 minutes to recite the entire sutra. The sutra is a structured dialogue between “Subhuti”, an experienced disciple of the Buddha , and the Buddha himself through questions and answers . Formally remarkable is the modern-looking self-reflective quality of the sutra: the sutra discusses the sutra, its beneficial effects and also talked about its future reception . The text therefore addresses itself.

content

Cut through the illusion

Diamond Sutra, Chinese woodcut, AD 868 (British Museum, London)

The sutra is said to be based on a sermon given by the Buddha in Śrāvastī in Jetavana . He answered questions from his follower Subhūti.

"Form is emptiness - emptiness is form": The Buddhist core idea from the Heart Sutra runs (although not explicitly) like a red thread through the Diamond Sutra. According to the teachings of the Buddha, there are two realities / two truths: 1.) on the one hand the world of form, the world of sensual phenomena, the world of the deceptive, one-sided, perceptions that are congealed in signs and concepts and 2.) on the other : the world of emptiness ( Shunyata ), the world of “ suchness ”, a sphere beyond form, beyond birth and death, beginning and end, self and non-self, a world beyond all concepts. But the Buddha would not be the Buddha if he limited himself to juxtaposing these two realities. Form and emptiness are ultimately one, there is no duality of form and non-form - both are forms of expression of one and the same reality, two faces of one and the same world.

A parable that illustrates this thought goes like this: A wave in the ocean is only apparently an isolated, self-sufficient phenomenon - it is part of the ocean, it emerges from it. The wave ultimately consists exclusively of elements that are non-wave (form is emptiness). Nevertheless, the wave does not completely dissolve in the ocean; despite being embedded in the ocean of the universal, it remains a wave, an individually existent phenomenon (emptiness is form).

This core statement is expressed in numerous variations in the Diamond Sutra. The sutra asks one to look behind the surface of the phenomena and to see through the illusion that reality is exhausted in the surface of the sensually tangible and conceptually fixable phenomena. That is why the actual title of the sutra is correctly and completely translated: “The diamond that cuts through the illusion” (vajracchedika sutra). The diamond - that is the teaching of the Buddha, and actually there are several illusions that are cut through in this sutra:

  • the illusion that one has an independent self-existence, that one is separate and independent,
  • also the illusion that one can grasp the true nature of being through signs (concepts), but ultimately also
  • the illusion that one is completely absorbed in emptiness and that one has no existence beyond it. "Form is emptiness - emptiness is form".

The intention of this teaching is to escape the restriction by the limits of language - the puzzling paradoxes of the Diamond Sutra aim at a wisdom that breaks all logic and transcends all concepts. " Subhuti, you must know that the meaning of this sutra is beyond thoughts and words ".

Four wrong perceptions

The Buddha's teaching has many philosophical elements. Therefore, in Buddhism, the human act of perception is repeatedly problematized and questioned: What do we see? Do we see the true nature of things or just our ideas / images / signs of things? In the Diamond Sutra there are four misconceptions / perceptions that are repeatedly addressed:

  • the idea of ​​a self (separate, self-contained self)
  • the idea of ​​a person (separation of human and non-human)
  • the idea of ​​a living being (separation of animate and inanimate matter)
  • the idea of ​​a life span (birth and death)

All these ideas are tied to the sphere of phenomena, remain in the realm of conceptual-rational distinction, and thus miss the true nature of things which go beyond these ideas.

The Diamond Sutra ends with the Buddha's invitation to overcome the non-reality modes of perception and to regard all appearances as empty (form is emptiness - emptiness is form):

"Like a star, a mirage, a butter lamp,
like an illusion, dew drops, air bubbles in the water,
like a dream, a lightning bolt, a cloud -
look at everything that is put together."

The Dialectic of the Diamond Sutra

Words like the following are found in almost every section of the sutra: “ What are all called dharmas (phenomena) are actually all non-dharmas. That is why they are all called dharmas. “The paradoxical three step of all these sentences corresponds roughly to the following scheme:

  • 1) What is called A 2) is not A 3) and therefore it is called A.

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

  • 1) "If we look at A very carefully and precisely 2) and we recognize that A is not A, 3) then we see A in its highest prime" (The Diamond Sutra, p. 59).

Or to put it another way:

  • 1) "If we look deeply at a Dharma 2) and see everything in it that is not this Dharma, 3) then we begin to see this Dharma." (Ibid., P. 69)
  • Or: "If we can see the non-rose elements when looking at a rose, then it is safe for us to use the word rose ." (Ibid., P. 117)

The paradox dissolves the moment it becomes clear that these sentences jump back and forth between the realities mentioned at the beginning, each referring to different truths, or better: different sides / aspects of the same truth.

Print version from the year 868

Aurel Stein discovered a printed version of the sutra in 1907 during his second major expedition in northern China in the Mogao grottoes near Dunhuang. In this find, which is considered to be the oldest copy of letterpress printing that has survived worldwide, ie it can be dated with certainty, individual sheets of paper were printed using several blocks and then put together to form an approximately 530 cm long roll. The printing is based on the first translation of the Kumārajīva , which he made between 405 and 413.

The cover picture shows a preaching Buddha seated on a lotus throne under a canopy. He wears a left-handed swastika on his chest, a symbol of infinity in Chinese, and in East Asian Buddhism for the transmission of Buddha-nature . With his right hand he leads the Kartari - Mudra (dt "scissor gesture".) Made. Two bodhisattvas lie on clouds, two more flank a group of monks on the right. Two protective gods and the lions at their feet watch over the table on which offerings are lying. In front of it, a disciple of the Buddha kneels, who, as the lower inscription on the left edge of the picture shows, is the Abbot Subhuti , one of the ten main disciples. From the right a king approaches with his entourage who wants to pay homage to the Buddha. The upper inscription on the left edge of the picture shows that the Buddha preaches in the Jetavana temple garden near Shravasti .

The text, to be read from top to bottom and in lines from right to left, first contains an admonition to the believers to recite a mantra of mouth cleaning. This mantra, written in Sanskrit with Chinese characters, follows. Then the vajra , after which the sutra is named, is invoked with eight different epithets . Only then is the title of the sutra mentioned and this brought. Later in the text follows a philosophical dialogue on emptiness between the Buddha Shakyamuni and Subhuti. The print concludes with prayer formulas ( dharani ) and the colophon “Revered for the 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 Hsien-t`ung reign” .

Sino-Japanese editions

In Japan there are several copies from the 4th year Tempyō 732:

  • Nanjio Canon Catalog [NJ] 10; Taishō VIII, 748c.17-752c.7: Translation of the Kumārajīva (late Qin dynasty 384-417) 14 leaves in 2 fascicles (ch.W.-G .: Chin-kang-ching; jp .: Kogō-kyō)
  • Nanjio Canon Catalog [NJ] 11: Translation of the Bodhiruci ( Northern Wei Dynasty ) 12th chapter, 17 sheets, 1 fascicle
  • Nanjio canon catalog [NJ] 12: obs. by Paramārtha (jp .: Shin tai) † 1st year Datjiän of the Ch'in dynasty, 71 years old. Copy 1 fascicle
  • Nanjio Canon Catalog [NJ] 13: translated by Xuanzang .
  • Nanjio canon catalog [NJ] 14: obs. by Yì Jìng ( Tang Dynasty ), cf. NJ 15
  • Nanjio canon catalog [NJ] 15: obs. from Dharmagupta , Sui Dynasty , the most literal of all transmissions. Hence the exact title Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra (Diamond-Cutting-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 . Often commented u. a. by: Asanga , translated into Chinese by Dharmagupta (NJ 1167), commented on by Vasubandhu , in Chinese by Bodhiruci d. Ä. 509 (NJ 1168). NJ 1192 probably comes from Guṇada , Chinese from Dīvakara in 683. Another commentary from Asaṇga, Chinese by Yì Jìng (NJ 1208) in 711, who also re-translated NJ 1168 in the same year (NJ 1231). The teachings of the 4th Tien-tai Patriarch Zhi Yi (538-597; Chinese  智 顗 , Pinyin Zhìyǐ , W.-G. Chih-i ), as always published by his disciple, form NJ 1550. The 5th Huayan Patriarch Zongmi (780-841; 宗密) gave a summary comment (NJ 1630), which was explained by his successor in 1024 (NJ 1631). A Zen commentary from the early Ming is NJ 1615.

literature

  • Cowell, EG; Vagaakkedikā or Diamond Cutter; in: Friedrich Max Müller, ed .: The Sacred Books of the East, Volume XLIX: Buddhist Mahāyāna Texts , Part II. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894, pp. 109-144 Internet Archive
  • Gemmell, William (transl.): The Diamond Sutra, Trübner, London 1912 Digitized
  • Price, AF; The Jewel of Transcendental Wisdom; London 1947 (Buddhist Society); 1955 udT: The Diamond Sutra
  • Thich Nhat Hanh: The Diamond Sutra. Comments on the Prajnaparamita Diamond Sutra (written 1988) Theseus 1996. Sutra text + commentary.
  • The Diamond Sutra: the essence of Buddhist wisdom, Angkor Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-936018-64-6 (translation by YS Seong Do, German translation by Kurt Graulich ), not in bookshops, but only through "International Zen Temple "available on a voluntary donation basis.

Web links

Commons : Diamond Sutra  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans H. Frankel: China to 960 ; in Propylaea World History, Volume VI - World Cultures / Renaissance in Europe , Verlag Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M., 1964, p. 257.
  2. ↑ Venerable Shi Yongyou: The Diamond Sutra in Chinese Culture , Buddha's Light Publishing, Haciend Heights (USA), 2005, p. 57
  3. ↑ Note: Corresponds to May 11, 868
  4. ^ Hans H. Frankel: China to 960 ; in Propylaea World History, Volume VI - World Cultures / Renaissance in Europe , Verlag Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M., 1964, p. 257.