University Press Scholarship Online. Sign in. Not registered? Sign up. Publications Pages Publications Pages. Recently viewed 0 Save Search. Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content. But this can only be seen if our attachment to words drops away therefore they are mountains. One can go more and more deeply into mountains, it is not possible to exhaust them, unless we reduce them to the status of a word and stop noticing. The sutra seems to be saying that the way we see A is bounded by our concepts of A, but this is not really what A is.
When we truly see A for what it is, it is because we have let go of our concepts, or preconceptions about it. This is a rather precise way of speaking about Sunyata, voidness, emptiness, direct experience unmediated by concepts and opinions. The law of identity is not really contradicted; it is just that we have a habit of taking the false for the real.
However, whilst this might seem to resolve an apparent logical dilemma, we should not overlook the power of the word therefore. What is being pointed to is a moment of fresh understanding, a kind of sudden eureka moment that involves seeing something in a different way from usual.
It is easy to experiment with examples where the costs of releasing a fixed idea are little in relation to the resulting reward. Investigating examples that are more challenging can indicate just how difficult it really is to realise the truth of what the Diamond Sutra is pointing to. For example, in a relationship dominated by fear, competition, cruelty or hatred, the idea that A is not A e. Consider how difficult it was for people in South Africa to heal the wounds of hatred during the truth and reconciliation process.
Likewise, returning to the paramita of generosity, it is not difficult to be generous when the cost to us is low, but what if the opportunity for generosity involves considerable expense of time, money or energy?
These are examples where attachment is strong, because the costs are high and yet on the journey of truly understanding what the Diamond Sutra points to, these kinds of chasms have to be crossed. Such examples point to why practice is so difficult, but also to why we are often impressed on encountering someone who is sincerely engaged on this journey.
The person who was reciting the Sutra had learned it by heart in the monastery of the Fifth Patriarch Hongren. Huineng set his affairs in order and went to the monastery to meet Hongren with the aim of becoming a novice monk. Hongren asked Huineng why he had come. A Buddha is wise and compassionate, but wisdom and compassion are big, potentially self-important words. When a person is being themselves without any artifice or self-centred agenda, they have no consciousness of being wise, compassionate, or heroic; unselfconsciously, they act according to the circumstances they encounter.
The Diamond Sutra addresses this in typically enigmatic fashion:. What the Tathagata says is perfection of wisdom Thus it is called the Perfection of Wisdom. The Heart Sutra sets out a vision of liberation, of emancipation, the path of going. The Diamond Sutra sets out the unbounded vision of the Mahayana, the path of returning.
To both visions the sutras apply the wisdom of emptiness. When we meditate, we go back to basics and we apply the wisdom of emptiness in our practice.
We try not to get caught in thinking, or trying to work things out logically, knowing that we have had a lifetime of that approach and knowing the limitations of reasoning. Instead, we sit on the cushion and meditate and eventually we find pain, the pain in our lives and the pain in our bodies: we face that pain and do our best to release it.
In the silence of meditation, we acknowledge mistakes that we have made, and in a spirit of contrition we let them go. We become aware of the processes of privileging and punishing ourselves and we let those go too. Meditation practice creates a space for prajna to arise and as we see from these two great sutras, prajna is fundamental to the path of the Bodhisattva, which is the path of compassionate action.
According to the translator Red Pine, the whole message of the Diamond Sutra is summed up by a single gatha that the Buddha recites in the Sutra:. Who looks for me in form who seeks me in voice indulges in wasted effort such people see me not. So we need not look for the Buddha in some other time or place.
This teaching is not dissimilar to another teaching from the Christian tradition. As a young man, St. Molaise spent some years living as a hermit in his cave on this beautiful island, but eventually went on a pilgrimage to Rome to further his studies and visit shrines.
An ancient Christian verse pertaining to such a mission is as follows:. To go to Rome much labour little profit the King you go to seek there unless you bring him with you you find him not. Shigenori Nagatomo Asian Philosophy, Vol. May not be quoted for commercial purposes. Anyone wishing to quote for non-commercial purposes may seek permission from the WCF Secretary. The Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra. The Diamond Sutra — The Path of The Bodhisattva Just as in the Heart Sutra the wisdom of emptiness Prajnaparamita shines like a light to illuminate the teachings of the first turning of the Dharma Wheel, so in the Diamond Sutra the same light illuminates the Mahayana teachings, the central theme of which is universal, not just personal, emancipation.
In the opening exchange, Subhuti asks the Buddha the following question: "It is rare, Bhagavan, most rare, how the Tathagata, the fully enlightened one, blesses fearless bodhisattvas with the best of blessings and how the fully enlightened one entrusts fearless Bodhisattvas with the greatest of trusts.
The Buddha replies: "Subhuti those who would now set forth on the bodhisattva path should give rise to this thought: however many beings there are, in whatever realms they might exist, in the realm of complete Nirvana I should liberate them all…" That's some project, little wonder that the Dalai Lama once, when speaking about practice, said there is no rush! Emptiness tells us that we have to step out of that ballpark altogether. Emptiness points to the most radical transformation of our entire outlook with regard to ourselves and the world.
Emptiness not only means the end of the world as we know it, but that this world never really existed in the first place. It has that name because it teaches the heart of the Mahayana, primarily in terms of the view. However, the basic motivation of the Mahayana is also implicitly contained in this sutra in the form of Avalokiteshvara, the great bodhisattva who is the embodiment of the loving-kindness and compassion of all buddhas.
It is actually the only Prajnaparamita Sutra in which Avalokiteshvara appears at all, and in it he is even the main speaker. Thus, the Heart Sutra teaches emptiness through the epitome of compassion. It is often said that, in a sense, emptiness is the heart of the Mahayana, but the heart of emptiness is compassion.
If we look at the larger Prajnaparamita Sutras , we see that they teach both aspects extensively. In addition to teaching about emptiness, they also speak about the path in great detail, such as how to cultivate loving-kindness and compassion, how to do certain meditations, and how to progress through the paths.
Without developing a soft heart and compassion, which like water softens our mental rigidity, there is a danger that the teachings on emptiness can make our hearts even harder. If we think we understand emptiness, but our compassion does not increase, or even lessens, we are on the wrong track.
Therefore, for those of us who are Buddhists, it is good and necessary to give rise to compassion and bodhichitta before we study, recite, and contemplate this sutra. All others may connect with any spot of compassion that they can find in their hearts. In yet another way, we could say that the Heart Sutra is an invitation to just let go and relax. That might sound simplistic, but if we do that and actually make it into a contemplation on what all those things such as depression, fear, war, and economic crisis actually are, it can become very powerful, maybe even more powerful than the original words in the sutra.
Usually we are not that interested in, for example, our ears and whether they really exist or not, so with regard to contemplating what emptiness means, one of the basic principles of the Prajnaparamita Sutras is to make the examination as personal as possible. It is not about reciting some stereotypical formula or the Heart Sutra without ever getting to the core of our own clinging to real existence with regard to those phenomena to which we obviously do cling, or our own egoclinging.
Therefore, in order to make it more relevant to our life, we have to fill those in. In particular I remember a stupa in Beijing that reflected the links between Tibetan Buddhist Masters and the Chinese Emperors, which contained a statue of Vajrabhairava. Later, during the Cultural Revolution all religions were considered aspects of blind faith and efforts were made destroy them. However, it seems that it takes more than that to uproot long ingrained faith and after Deng Xiao Ping relaxed restrictions, Buddhism has revived.
A university survey some years ago found evidence of million Buddhists in China, which friends tell me has grown to million. The key thing is to be sincere and to put what you believe into practice.
All these different traditions teach love, compassion and tolerance even if they hold different philosophical views. While I have immense respect for Buddhist philosophical positions, I never say that Buddhism is the best tradition. To do so would be as mistaken as saying that one particular medicine was the best for everyone in all circumstances. He said,. O monks and scholars, As gold is tested by burning, cutting and rubbing, Examine my words thoroughly And accept them only then—not just out of respect for me.
His Holiness discussed his childhood interest in mechanical toys and how, when he visited China in , he visited factories and power plants and burned with curiosity to know how they worked.
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