The Diamond Sutra

INTRODUCTION

bear in mind the significant words incorporated in the Light of Asia An epic poem by Edwin Arnold (1879) that popularized the life of Buddha for English-speaking readers:—

" And time hath blurred their script and ancient sense,
Which once was new and mighty, moving all. "

Max Müller A pioneering 19th-century scholar of comparative religion stated¹ that The Diamond Sutra A fundamental text of Mahayana Buddhism focused on the nature of reality and non-attachment 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."

By referring to our Chinese text, we are led to suppose that The Diamond Sutra was "delivered expressly for those who had entered the Path which leads to Nirvana The state of liberation from the cycle of suffering and rebirth," and for those who are "attaining to the ultimate plane of Buddhic thought." Our Chinese annotators also appear to be unanimous in suggesting, that the "spiritual wisdom" of The Diamond Sutra is understood only in its rudimentary forms, by those of immature or uninitiated mind.

Concerning what has been termed the "agnosticism" of The Diamond Sutra, Sakyamuni Buddha The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, when he admissibly delivered the text, indicated clearly that there is a sense in which the "highest perfect knowledge"² may be referred to as "unknown." Dante appears to have had a similar difficulty regarding "knowledge" and "power" wherewith to express the higher forms of spiritual experience; and the following lines, constituting the opening stanzas of The Paradiso The final part of Dante’s Divine Comedy, describing his journey through Heaven, may serve to elucidate the Buddhist position.

1 In the preface to The Diamond Cutter original: "The Vagrakkhedika," the Sanskrit title of the sutra.
2 "Supreme spiritual wisdom." In Beal's translation of the Diamond Sutra original: "Kin-Kong-King," the Chinese title, "The unsurpassed, just, and enlightened heart." (Sanskrit: The Heart of Unsurpassed, Right, and Complete Enlightenment original: "Annuttara Samyak Sambodhi Hridaya").