The Diamond Sutra

The Diamond Sutra is a Mahayana Buddhist text from the Perfection of Wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) literature. Its Sanskrit title, Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā, means “the perfection of wisdom that cuts like a diamond” or “like a thunderbolt”. The name suggests wisdom sharp enough to cut through every illusion.

The setting and form

The sutra takes the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and his disciple Subhūti at Śrāvastī. Subhūti asks how someone who has set out on the bodhisattva path, aiming at awakening for the sake of all beings, should stand, practise and control the mind.

The text is short and was translated into Chinese several times. The version by the translator Kumārajīva, from around the year 400, became the most widely read in East Asia.

Its main teaching

The Buddha's reply is that a bodhisattva should vow to lead all beings to nirvana, and yet recognise that no beings are led to nirvana. This seeming paradox is typical of the sutra. Its point is that a bodhisattva helps others without holding on to fixed ideas of a self, a being, a person or a life.

The same pattern runs through the text. Generosity should be practised without being attached to any sign or idea of it. The marks of the Buddha are not truly marks. Even the teaching is compared to a raft, to be let go of once the river is crossed. The sutra repeatedly praises copying, reciting and explaining even a single verse of it.

A well-known closing verse compares all conditioned things to a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, dew and a flash of lightning.

Its place in history

A printed copy of the Diamond Sutra found at Dunhuang in western China carries a date equivalent to 868 CE. It is held by the British Library and is the oldest known dated printed book.

Its place in practice

The Diamond Sutra has been especially important in Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen. According to tradition, Huineng, the sixth Chan patriarch, awakened on hearing a line from it. It is also studied in Tibetan Buddhism. Because its language is so paradoxical, many readers find it helpful to use a translation with notes or a teacher's commentary.