The Diamond Sutra

Tchakuka An ancient kingdom located in what is now the Yarkand region of Xinjiang, China., and thereafter influenced appreciably a considerable part of the Buddhist Church.

In the year 1836, Csomo Körösi Alexander Csoma de Kőrös (1784–1842), a Hungarian philologist who compiled the first Tibetan-English dictionary. published an account of the Tibetan translation, which interesting document may be consulted in Vol. XX. of the Asiatic Researches. The Diamond Sutra is therein designated "The Sutra of Wonderful Effects," a treatise by means of which Sakyamuni Buddha instructs Subhuti, one of his conspicuous disciples, in The Prajna Paramita original: "Prajna Paramita" or transcendent wisdom.¹

To Kumarajiva,² a native of Kashmir, who gained

greatest philosopher of the Buddhists, and as such styled "one of the four suns which illuminate the world." original: "Tchatvara Suryas" His own peculiar tenets have been perpetuated by a distinct metaphysical school called Madhyamika (Literally The Middle Way original: "Juste Milieu"), the characteristics of which are a sophistic nihilism which dissolves every proposition into a thesis and its antithesis, and denies both. "The soul," said Nagardjuna, "has neither existence nor non-existence, it is neither eternal nor non-eternal, neither annihilated by death nor non-annihilated." The tenets of this school are condensed in Nagardjuna's commentary on the Mahaprajna Paramita S'astra The Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom, a massive foundational text of Mahayana Buddhism.. He spent the later part of his life in a monastery at Kosala . . . (correct date probably 194 A.D.). After his death he received the title Bodhisattva An enlightened being who seeks to help all others reach enlightenment.. He is the author of many S'atras Philosophical treatises.." (Compare Eitel's Handbook of Chinese Buddhism.)

¹ See the preface to The Vagrakkhedika original: "Vagrakkhedika"; likely a variant spelling of Vajracchedika, the Sanskrit name for the Diamond Sutra, meaning "The Cutter that is like a Diamond.".

² Kumarajiva was referred to as "one of the four suns of Buddhism" original: "Tchatvara Suryas". He laboured in China as a most active and judicious translator, and is credited with having introduced a new alphabet. One of Kumarajiva's Chinese designations—Tung-Sheo—meant that, although young in years, he was ripe in the wisdom and virtues of old age. (Compare Eitel's Handbook of Chinese Buddhism.)