The Diamond Sutra is one of the most well-known of the Prajnaparamita sutras (perfection of wisdom texts) of Mahayana Buddhism and takes the form of a discourse between the Buddha and one of his elder disciples, Subhuti, before a large assembly of monks. In this encounter, the Buddha strips away one by one his disciple’s misconceptions and doubts, each time refining the questions posed. Throughout the text, Subhuti’s understanding and experience of the true nature of reality are honed to a point where it allows him to bring to fruition for himself and the assembly the ‘Consummation of incomparable enlightenment’. Master Han Shan, the 16th century Ch’an Master, says of this Sutra:
It was said: ‘When all one’s doubts and repentance (for them) are wiped out for ever, one will abide in the wisdom of reality.’ This was the aim of the sutra.1
In this essay, I will explore some main themes of Diamond Sutra and how it has influenced me personally, as well as offering my own reflections on it. The two main translations I have used as reference are those of A. F. Price from the Shambala publication The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui-Neng and of Charles Luk’s translation of The Diamond Cutter of Doubts A Commentary on the Diamond Sutra by Ch’an Master Han Shan, which can be found in his book Ch’an and Zen Teaching.
I first picked up a copy of the Diamond Sutra during the Dalai Lama’s visit to Nottingham in 2008. I read it over a long period, reflecting on its contents before meditation sessions. I have re-read it a number of times since, which is possible due to its short length and it being broken down into 32 short verses. Later, I picked up the Lu Kuan Yu text, which gave me further insight into the structure of the sutra as well as a look into how a Chan Master from the past would have analysed it. This was a harder read as it was not broken down into the 32 verses. Luk says on this that, in the past, the text ‘has been wrongly divided into thirty-two chapters which seem to be unconnected random sayings’.2 The commentary by Han Shan gave me further insight into aspects of the text that I had previously missed, such as how the nature of the Buddha’s questions subtly shifts to allow for a further honing of Subhuti’s understanding.
The Sutra itself begins with a scene setting: the Buddha going about his ordinary life on his alms round. On his return, Subhuti praises him and poses a question:
O World Honoured One, when virtuous men or women develop the supreme-enlightenment mind, how should their minds abide and how should they be subdued?3
The question here is taken from Charles Luk’s translation, though in Price’s translation ‘Consummation of incomparable enlightenment’ is used instead of ‘Supreme enlightenment mind.’ In Sanskrit this is called anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. I prefer Price’s translation here, as I feel it conjures an explanation of enlightenment into English well, especially with the use of the word ‘consummation’. The Oxford Learners Dictionary describes consummation as ‘the fact of making something complete or perfect’.4 Here it is used to great effect to show enlightenment as a process rather than a fixed thing.
Right off the bat here Subhuti has asked the big Buddhist question: How do we become enlightened? That is where this text really cuts through, as it does not offer concrete answers, but instead continues to pose further questions – thus allowing Subhuti (and I feel the reader of the text) to deepen his understanding of the consummation of incomparable enlightenment.
One of the early devices of this text is stating that something neither is nor is not. In some places, it can used by the Buddha, such as from very early on where the Buddha states:
Yet when vast, uncountable, immeasurable numbers of beings have thus been liberated, verily no being has been liberated.5
And in other places it can be used by Subhuti himself answering a question of the Buddha’s, such as here:
As I understand Buddha’s meaning there is no formulation of truth called the consummation of incomparable enlightenment. Moreover, the Tathagata has no formulated teaching to enunciate. Wherefore? Because the Tathagata has said that truth is uncontainable and inexpressible. It neither is nor is not.6
This deals with a very difficult concept to express in words: the apparent existence of things, but also that, at the same time, the non-existence of these ‘things’. From the wrong seeing of this, the Buddha states that delusion arises.
Connected to this, another device used is Subhuti responding to the Buddha’s questions by saying ‘x is merely a name’. For instance, ‘ “Stream entrant” is merely a name.’7 It is used in many different ways throughout the text to affirm the voidness of things. Concerning the short excerpt above, it is around here that the text deals with the aspect of no self as well. The Buddha questions Subhuti and he answers on the labels given to the different ‘stages’ of enlightenment. Such stages can give us something to anchor our practice to and aspire to, but here they are challenged by attachment. Even just saying ‘I am’ (in the case of this translation ‘Such am I’) we fall into the trap of giving ourselves and the supposed stages of our practice something solid we can cling to as well as attaching to a fixed version of ourselves.
It is partly this kind of reflection upon nondualism which, roughly half way through the text, assists Subhuti in a realisation which moves him to tears. He conceives an idea of fundamental reality, but knows that to realise this he must be aware of and see that this realisation is not a fixed thing in itself. If you read the commentary by Chan Master Han Shan, he states that the reason why Subhuti had been so moved was that this was the point where the Buddha was moving his understanding toward that of the Mahayana. He says that these discourses were the first gate to the Mahayna through the cutting off of all doubts and that Subhuti is being moved towards becoming a bodhisattva by realizing his essential mind.
After his realization, Subhuti re-asks his initial question now that he has reached a new point in his understanding. Han Shan comments on how this new section proceeds:
From now on, the [second half of the sutra] deals with the elimination of doubts harboured by Bodhisattvas who are already awakened to the prajña but who do not as yet relinquish the idea of the wisdom which could realize (prajña). They grasp this wisdom as an ego. This is the self-preservation and self-awareness of ego.8
The Buddha is now talking to a different audience, not just to Subhuti. In Han Shan’s commentary he states that the previous section had resulted not only in Subhuti’s awakening but in the ‘dissipation of the whole assembly’s doubts’.9
It is soon after this subtle change (at the end of verse 18 of the Shambala edition) that the text comes to what has probably been one of the most influential lines of the Sutra on my practice:
Subhuti, it is impossible to retain past mind, impossible to hold onto present mind, and impossible to grasp future mind.10
Since my first reading of this text, I have often reflected on this statement like a Koan. I have drawn upon its worth at such times as when my mind has been clogged with future thinking. It can cut straight through future thinking and, subsequently, when my mind tries to alight in the present, it still has no substantial ground to rest upon. It like a process of constant motion and stillness combined as one that brings silence to the mind. The mind has nowhere to alight and loses its substantiality.
In the second section of the sutra, the questions and the answers given are extremely subtle in their refinement of Subhuti’s understanding of anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. For instance, Subhuti asks:
In the attainment of the consummation of incomparable enlightenment did Buddha make no acquisition whatsoever?11
Here again we see the importance of the word consummation. After confirming Subhuti’s question, the Buddha states that the consummation of incomparable enlightenment is attained through freedom of separate selfhood, which he supports by saying (not for the first time) that there are no living beings to liberate. Again, there is teaching here on not trying to fix something permanently; otherwise, as the Buddha says on this subject, he would be partaking in an ego. He goes even further on this point by saying that ego is the same as non-ego, clarifying the existence/nonexistence paradox that this text so skillfully plays with.
In the penultimate verse, the Buddha speaks of cutting off ‘the arising of [views that are mere] aspects.’12 ‘Views’ seems to be a good word to use here. These false views that see things as fixed are themselves not fixed either and themselves need to be seen through. It is at this point that Han Shan states that the last of Subhuti ’s doubts were relinquished and says of the whole assembly:
their false views were broken up successively one after the other, and with the elimination of all idea of form and appearance, the mind had nowhere to alight.13
Before moving to the last verse of the text, I want to mention a recurring device of the text that offers an integral aid to bolster what I have spoken of above. It is the use of the benefits of material charity in comparison to the merit gained from receiving, retaining and teaching, only four lines of the text (or sometimes the whole text). These statements are made by the Buddha when he speaks to Subhuti at certain key points throughout the text. The extreme scale used to make these comparisons is of such magnitude that it makes it impossible for the reader to imagine, let alone calculate. In many of these cases the Buddha uses the sand grains in the Ganges River as multiplier. For instance, at one point the Buddha multiplies the Ganges River by the sand grains in the Ganges River itself and then states:
If a good man or woman filled three thousand galaxies of worlds with the seven treasures for each sand grain in all those Ganges rivers, and gave them away in gifts of alms, would he gain great merit?14
From here, he would then state that this extreme amount of merit would not compare to that attained by someone who did some form of receiving, retaining, using or explaining only four lines of the sutra. This really shows how this text is trying to say that it is more important than many other texts that came before, such as those of the Hinayana.
It has even tempted me with the line of text I use as koan. Maybe I could get some of that boundless merit if I went out there promoting that line? This was an interesting temptation of my mind that arose in my practice and actually helped me see through some of the desires I seek through it. It is a temptation that I have since let go of. This experience made me a little more wary of the text as I returned to it for this essay, though, what I had missed in previous readings was how this issue is dealt with in the text itself. Shortly after Subhuti’s realisation, the Buddha says that he cannot explain the extent of such merit gained as it would arouse suspicion, a point further supported when the Buddha says, ‘the significance of this discourse is beyond conception.’15 The translator leaves a footnote here commenting: ‘The extent and value of its meaning cannot be materially gauged.’16 If the fruits of this discourse were conceivable then it would put them in a position of being fixed which is counter to the actual teachings themselves contained within it.
Returning now to the final verse of this text, we find the Buddha offers a verse or gatha in relevance to what has been taught throughout:
All phenomena are like
A dream, an illusion, a bubble and a shadow.
Like dew and lightning.
Thus should you meditate upon them.17
Or in the A.F Price version, they use a translation by Kenneth Saunders from ‘Lotuses of the Mahayana’ (Wisdom of the East Series):
Thus shall ye think of all this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream;
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.18
In this poetic conclusion to the text, we are left with some practical advice from Master Han Shan. He informs the reader that for those who wish for the true void to appear they should meditate upon the dream, illusion, bubble, shadow, dew and lightning - something I have already explored in sitting meditation as well as in daily life. It helped to settle and silence my mind like other practice methods, so is something I will perhaps look into now and then in the future. I also used the latter translation to meditate upon much like a Koan, which gave me a different flavour of settling. I do love that translation for its simple poeticism too.
So, in this final gatha, I have been given something to work with in my practice. But not only that. I can truly say that, despite the challenges I faced putting the concepts of Diamond Sutra into words, writing this essay has provided me with a much greater understanding and connection to this key Mahayana text. For me it has been a reflection upon Subhuti’s and the assembly’s journey, which I feel has subtly guided my own along that path of consummation of incomparable enlightenment. For that I am truly thankful.
Notes
- 1987. “Ch’an and Zen Teaching.” In Ch’an and Zen Teaching, by Lu K’uan Yu. Century Paperbacks. 155
- (Yu, 1987, p. 149)
- (Yu, 1987, p. 158)
- (Anon., n.d.)
- (Mou-lam, 2005, p. 19)
- (Mou-lam, 2005, p. 24)
- (Mou-lam, 2005, p. 26)
- (Yu, 1987, p. 189)
- (Yu, 1987, p. 188)
- (Mou-lam, 2005, p. 39)
- (Mou-lam, 2005, p. 43)
- (Mou-lam, 2005, p. 52)
- (Yu, 1987, p. 204)
- (Mou-lam, 2005, p. 29)
- (Mou-lam, 2005, p. 36)
- (Mou-lam, 2005, p. 160)
- (Yu, 1987, p. 205)
- (Mou-lam, 2005, p. 53)
Bibliography
- Anon., n.d. Oxford Learners’ Dictionaries. [Online] Available at:
- www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/consummation
- [Accessed 5th February 2022].
- Mou-lam, A. P. a. W., 2005. The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui-neng. In: The
- Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui-neng. s.l.: Shambhala Classics.
- Yu, L. K., 1987. Ch’an and Zen Teaching. In: Ch’an and Zen Teaching. s.l.: Century
