The Diamond Sutra
William Gemmell (translator)
517 passages indexed from The Diamond Sutra (William Gemmell (translator)) — Page 10 of 11
License: Public Domain
The Diamond Sutra, passage 218
[3] “Gatha—hymns and chants, narratives containing moral expositions in metrical language. A Chinese text says, ‘32 characters form one Gatha,’ which refers to a certain variety of Gatha called Aryagiti, a metre consisting of 32 instants.”—_Handbook of Chinese Buddhism_. Eitel.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 407
The Lord Buddha addressed Subhuti, saying: “What think you? If a disciple, having obtained all the treasures of this universe,[1] were to bestow these in the exercise of charity, would such a disciple consequently enjoy a considerable merit?” Subhuti assenting, said: “Honoured of the Worlds! such a disciple would consequently enjoy a very considerable merit.”[2]
The Diamond Sutra, passage 498
[2] “The wise man, the preacher, who wishes to expound this Sutra, must absolutely renounce falsehood, pride, calumny, and envy.... He is always sincere, mild, forbearing; ... he must feel affection for all beings who are striving for enlightenment ... they are greatly perverted in their minds, those beings who do not hear, nor perceive ... the mystery of the Tathagata. Nevertheless will I, who have attained this supreme, perfect knowledge, powerfully bend to it the mind of every one (Burnouf, _par la force de mes facultés surnaturelles_), whatever may be the position he occupies, and bring about that he accepts, understands, and arrives at full ripeness.”—_Saddharma-Pundarika_. H. Kern.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 7
It would appear that the peculiar charm of the Buddhist philosophy, and the remarkable purity of the Buddhist faith, are becoming more generally appreciated in Europe. Should this imperfect rendering of _The Diamond Sutra_, even in the faintest degree, confirm this just sense of appreciation, or prove a gentle incentive to further enquiry, then its unexpected publication may prove to be not entirely unjustified.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 256
The Lord Buddha addressed Subhuti, saying: “Supposing a man with a body as pretentious as Sumeru,[5] prince among mountains, would you esteem such a body as being great?” Subhuti replied, saying: “Exceedingly great, Honoured of the Worlds! And why? Because, the Lord Buddha referred not to a physical body,[6] but to mental and spiritual concepts of bodies, in which sense a body may be regarded as really Great.”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 135
[6] The Chinese text is _ta-pi-k’u_—greater disciples. Our Chinese editor of _The Diamond Sutra_ suggests that there are different grades of discipleship. The “lesser disciples” are those who have abandoned every form of vice, and are striving after virtue. The “greater disciples” are those to whom virtue has become spontaneous, and who have ceased to strive after its attainment.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 389
[8] “And if a Bodhisattva were to say: ‘I shall deliver all beings,’ he ought not to be called a Bodhisattva. And why? Is there anything, O Subhuti, that is called a Bodhisattva? Subhuti said: ‘Not indeed!’ Bhagavat said: ‘Those who were spoken of as beings, beings indeed, O Subhuti, they were spoken of as no beings by the Tathagata, and, therefore, they are called beings. Therefore Tathagata says: “All beings are without self, all beings are without life, without manhood, without personality.”’”—_The Vagrakkhedika_. Max Müller.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 95
[8] This information may be found in Max Müller’s _Vagrakkhedika_, and represented, doubtless, at the period when it was written, a considerable part of the knowledge available on the subject.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 276
[1] “Sarvanikchepa, by which you deal With all the sands of Gunga, till we come To Antah-Kalpas, where the unit is The sands of ten crore Gungas.”—_The Light of Asia_. Sir Edwin Arnold.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 205
[11] “Our little systems have their day, They have their day and cease to be; They are but broken lights of Thee, But thou, O Lord, art more than they.”—Tennyson.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 212
The Lord Buddha addressed Subhuti, saying: “What think you? If a benevolent person bestowed as alms, an abundance of the seven treasures[1] sufficient to fill the universe, would there accrue to that person a considerable merit?”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 78
“_Manifold the renewals of my birth Have been.... When Righteousness Declines, O Bharata, when Wickedness Is strong, I rise, from age to age, and take Visible shape, and move a man with men, Succouring the good, thrusting the evil back, And setting Virtue on her seat again._”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 268
“But when they brought the painted palanquin To fetch him home, the bearers of the poles Were the four Regents of the Earth, come down From Mount Sumeru.”—_The Light of Asia_. Sir Edwin Arnold.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 303
“Subhuti, all these countless particles of dust Tathagata declares are no real particles; it is but an empty name by which they are known. Tathagata declares that all these systems of worlds composing the great chiliocosm are no real worlds; they are but empty names.”—_Kin-Kong-King_. Beal.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 154
[8] Compare the Chinese text of the famous Buddhist tract entitled _Awakening of Faith_, written by _Ma-Ming_ (Asvaghocha), “who flourished A.D. 50, under the Indo-Scythic king, Gondophares.”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 258
It is recorded in _The Diamond Sutra_ that the Lord Buddha, in previous incarnations, assiduously performed religious vows, and deferentially honoured all contemporary Buddhas. An image of a former master, Dipankara Buddha, may frequently be observed in Chinese Buddhist temples, immediately behind the more conspicuous figure of Sakyamuni Buddha. Amongst Chinese Buddhist anniversaries may be found the birthday of “the ancient Buddha, _Ran-Teng_” (Dipankara), and the period allocated for its observance is the 22nd day of the 8th month. (Compare Edkins’ _Chinese Buddhism_.)
The Diamond Sutra, passage 306
“The King saluted, and Queen Maya made To lay her babe before such holy feet; But when he saw the prince the old man cried ‘Ah, Queen not so!’ and thereupon he touched Eight times the dust, laid his waste visage there, Saying, ‘O Babe! I worship! Thou art He! I see the rosy light, the foot-sole marks, The soft curled tendrils of the Swastika, The sacred primal signs thirty-and-two, The eighty lesser tokens. Thou art Buddh, And thou wilt preach the Law and save all flesh Who learn the Law.’”—_The Light of Asia_. Sir Edwin Arnold.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 342
[14] “Because what is believed is not believed (not to be depended on).”—_The Vagrakkhedika_. Max Müller.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 99
[15] From the text adopted by Mr H. Oelsner, M.A., Ph.D., for _The Temple Classics_.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 439
“He obtains a glorious and endless splendour who teaches even one word thereof; he will not miss one consonant nor the meaning who gives this Sutra to others.”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 301
“After me repeat Your numeration.... By Pundarikas unto Padumas, Which last is how you count the utmost grains Of Hastagiri ground to finest dust.”—_The Light of Asia_. Sir Edwin Arnold.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 40
The Sanscrit term Samgna,[22] usually rendered into Chinese by “Ming” and into English by “Name,” seems to deserve our further attention. Like the term Dharma, a clear knowledge of “Samgna” is indispensable for a correct understanding of our text.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 37
_“It spreadeth forth for flight the eagle’s wings What time she beareth home her prey.”_
The Diamond Sutra, passage 263
The words _Chuang-Yen_, in a Buddhist sense, usually refer to the erection or adornment of temples and pagodas, almsgiving, or other work of merit. Used in conjunction with _Fuh-Tu_—Buddhist kingdoms, as exemplified by our text, _Chuang-Yen_ appears to convey a much wider meaning. Perhaps it refers to a spiritual creation and adornment by charity and virtue, of kingdoms owning allegiance to the Lord Buddha.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 501
“And how should he explain it? As in the sky: stars, darkness, a lamp, a phantom, dew, a bubble, a dream, a flash of lightning, and a cloud—thus should we look upon the world (all that was made).”—_The Vagrakkhedika_. Max Müller.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 313
The Lord Buddha, assenting, said unto Subhuti: “If, in future ages, disciples destined to hear this Scripture, neither become perturbed by its extreme modes of thought,[6] nor alarmed by its lofty sentiments,[7] nor apprehensive about realising its high ideals[8]—these disciples also, by their intrinsic merit, will incite superlative wonder and praise.”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 460
“A Buddha is to be seen (known) from the Law; For the Lords (Buddha) have the Law-Body; And the nature of the Law cannot be understood, Nor can it be made to be understood.”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 278
“As much of the seven precious substances as would fill as many great chiliocosms as there are sands in all the rivers above described.”—_Kin-Kong-King_. Beal.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 11
_The Diamond Sutra_ is one of the most valued and widely read philosophical works in Buddhist literature. It is very popular amongst ardent Buddhists in China, and excepting the _Lotus of the Good Law_, and the _Leng-Yen-Ching_,[1] perhaps no other Sutra ascribed to Buddha is regarded by the Chinese with so great esteem.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 49
“Through the influence of habitual delusions, boundless worlds, innumerable varieties of things spring up in the mind. This boundless universe and these subtle ideas are not perceptible and knowable;[32] only Bodhisattvas[33] believe, understand, and become perfectly convinced of these through the contemplation of Vidyamatara[34] (all things are nothing but phenomena in mind); hence they are called imperceptible and unknowable. What are the perceptible and knowable phenomena?”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 104
[20] Compare _The Light of Asia_. Perhaps this aspect of the “Law” of Buddha may be conceived of as harmonising with Shakespeare’s idea of a “Divinity.”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 351
[1] Literally, for the _ta-cheng-che_—those of the great vehicle, _i.e._, the Mahayana faith. “They taught (the Mahayana school) that there were two methods of salvation, or, so to speak, two ways or two vehicles—the great and the little (Maha-Yana and Hina-Yana)—and indeed two Bodhis or forms of true knowledge which these vehicles had to convey (there was also a middle way). The former was for ordinary persons, the latter for beings of larger talents and higher spiritual powers.”—_Buddhism_. Sir Monier Williams.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 17
de Harlez, who, with the aid of the Tibetan, Manchu, and Chinese versions, published a French translation of the Sanscrit text of _The Diamond Sutra_ in the _Journal Asiatique_, 1892.[8] It has been observed[9] that “at first sight it may seem as if this metaphysical treatise hardly deserved the world-wide reputation which it has attained.” Regarding this descriptive “world-wide reputation,” devout Buddhists might suggest in extenuation, that throughout many centuries, the “spiritual wisdom” of _The Diamond Sutra_ produced in countless minds a “conscious blessedness of perfect peace.” This “spiritual wisdom” also appeared to be a “strong incentive to holiness,” and a grateful inspiration to those who had entered “the path which leads to Nirvana.” In a few renowned monasteries of Central China, our Buddhist friends frequently affirmed that, by contemplating the “spiritual wisdom” of _The Diamond Sutra_, the mind would inevitably become “transfused with the mellow light of imperishable truth.”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 357
[4] When the Lord Buddha delivered the Sutra known as the _Lotus of the Good Law_, it is recorded that five thousand followers forsook him, owing to what they regarded as a grave difficulty in complying with its intensely abstruse doctrines.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 305
“Can Tathagata be known by the thirty-two signs (of a hero)?”—_The Vagrakkhedika_. Max Müller.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 331
[8] “The heart of it is love, the end of it Is peace and consummation sweet.”—_The Light of Asia_. Sir Edwin Arnold.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 426
Subhuti enquired of the Lord Buddha, saying: “Honoured of the Worlds! did the Lord Buddha, in attaining to supreme spiritual wisdom, obtain nothing of a real or tangible nature?” The Lord Buddha replied, saying: “In attaining to supreme spiritual wisdom, not a vestige of Law or doctrine was obtained,[1] and therefore it is termed ‘supreme spiritual wisdom.’”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 419
The Lord Buddha addressed Subhuti, saying: “Do not affirm that the Lord Buddha thinks thus within himself, ‘I ought to promulgate a system of Law or doctrine.’ Have no such irrelevant thought! And why? Because, if a disciple affirmed that the Lord Buddha promulgated a system of Law or doctrine, he would defame the Lord Buddha, being manifestly unable to understand the purport of my instruction. Subhuti, regarding the promulgation of a ‘system of Law or doctrine,’ there is in reality no ‘system of Law or doctrine’ to promulgate, it is merely termed a ‘system of Law or doctrine.’”[1]
The Diamond Sutra, passage 378
[2] “He should thus frame his thought: all things must be delivered by me in the perfect world of Nirvana.... And why? Because, O Subhuti, there is no such thing as one who has entered on the path of the Bodhisattva.”—_The Vagrakkhedika_. Max Müller.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 323
“Subhuti, in future ages, if a good disciple, whether man or woman, rigorously studies and observes the text of this Scripture; the Lord Buddha, by means of his Buddhic wisdom,[18] entirely knows and perceives that for such a disciple there is reserved a cumulative merit, immeasurable and illimitable.”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 134
[5] “A person of extraordinary piety and goodness. One of the former Djatakas of Sakyamuni when he was a prince, and forfeited the throne by liberality in almsgiving.”—_Handbook of Chinese Buddhism_. Eitel.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 80
“_Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The soul that rises with us, our life’s star, Hath had elsewhere its setting And cometh from afar._”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 328
[5] “But, O Bhagavat, there will not arise in them any idea of a self, of a being, of a living being, of a person, nor does there exist for them any idea of no-idea. And why? Because, the idea of a self is no-idea, the idea of a being is no-idea, the idea of a living being is no-idea, the idea of a person is no-idea. And why? Because, the blessed Buddhas are freed from all ideas.”—_The Vagrakkhedika_. Max Müller.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 24
_“La gloria di colui che tutto move Per l’universo penetra, e risplende In una parte più, e meno altrove.”_
The Diamond Sutra, passage 21
Max Müller stated[12] that _The Diamond Sutra_ represents a treatise on “metaphysical agnosticism,” and he excused its “endless repetition of the same process of reasoning” on the assumption, that the subject-matter of the _Sutra_ was probably “perfectly familiar to children and ignorant persons.”
The Diamond Sutra, passage 172
“All these I command and exhort to enter on the state of the unsurpassed Nirvana (Pari Nirvana), and for ever to free themselves from the conditions of being to which they severally belong.”—_Kin-Kong-King_. Beal.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 223
An erudite Chinese commentator suggests that the words _fei-fuh-fah_ are synonymous with _wu-wei-fah_—intuition, already observed in the preceding section. A familiar passage from _Lao-Tsz_, “Infinite truth is inexpressible,” is quoted by our commentator as serving to illustrate the difficulty of giving expression to an idea equivalent to the Law of Buddha.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 267
[5] “Sumeru is probably Elburz, an isolated mountain of the Caucasus range, 18,000 feet in height, and surrounded by low ground.”—_Chinese Buddhism_. Edkins.
The Diamond Sutra, passage 289
The discourses of Buddha are as a divine charm to cure the poison of evil desire; a divine medicine to heal the disease of anger; a lamp in the midst of the darkness of ignorance; a fire, like that which burns at the end of a Kalpa, to destroy the evils of repeated existence; a meridian sun to dry up the mud of covetousness; a great rain to quench the flame of sensuality; a thicket to block up the road that leads to the _Narakas_ (place of the wicked); a ship in which to sail to the opposite shore of the ocean of existence; a collyrium for taking away the eye-film of heresy; a moon to bring out the night-blowing lotus of merit; a succession of trees bearing immortal fruit, placed here and there, by which the traveller may be enabled to cross the desert of existence; ...
The Diamond Sutra, passage 46
“All things that are produced by causes and conditions are inevitably destined to extinction. There is nothing that has any reality; when conditions come things begin to appear, when conditions cease these things likewise cease to exist. Like the foam of the water, like the lightning flash,[30] and like the floating, swiftly vanishing clouds, they are only of momentary duration. As all things have no constant nature of their own, so there is no actuality in pure and impure, rough and fine, large and small, far and near, knowable and unknowable, etc. On this account it is sometimes said that all things are nothing. The apparent phenomena around us are, however, produced by mental operations within us, and thus distinctions are established....”