Buddhist
Hour
Radio Broadcast on Hillside 88.0 FM
Buddhist Hour Script
330 for Sunday 23 May 2004
This script is entitled:
Reading The Diamond-Cutter Sutra
Today we would like to offer you one of the teachings
provided at our Centre - the Diamond Cutter Sutra taught by the
Buddha Shakyamuni.
We pay our deepest respect and send our
heartfelt gratitude to Geshe Michael Roach and the entire lineage of
Teachers extending back to the Buddha Shakyamuni, for providing this
excellent teaching and the means for us to receive this
teaching.
This teaching is Course VI of The Asian Classics
Institute's Correspondence Courses. Taught by Geshe Michael Roach, it
is a complete Study Course consisting of the audio recordings from
the original class series held in New York USA, along with the
supporting materials from each class. The entire course may be
downloaded from the web site address www.world-view.org
We
commenced this course on 7 May 2004 and study one class a week, each
Friday evening from 8:00pm onwards. The course has eleven
classes.
We would like to read the second part of the English
translation of the Diamond-Cutter Sutra to you, which are reading in
parts over three weeks. Today is the second day of the reading of
this sutra. Please listen in next week to hear the third and final
section of the sutra.
We request the blessings of the Buddha
Lineage holders for the Diamond Cutter Sutra so that we may come to
fully understand the Sutra.
The Buddha Lineage holders
are:
Buddha
Maitreya 500BC
Manjushri 500BC
Asanga
350AD
Nagajuna 200AD
Haribhadra 800AD
Chandrakirti
650AD
Suvarnadripa 1000AD (lived in Indonesia)
Atisha 982 -
1054AD
Drompton Je 1005 - 1054AD
Geshe Drolungpa 1100AD
Je
Tsong Kapa 1357 - 1419
Ngawang Drakpa C.1410
Gyaltsab Je 1364
- 1432
Kedrup Je 1365 - 1430
His Holiness The 3rd Dalai Lama
1543 - 1588
The 1st Panchen Lama 1567 - 1662
His Holiness The
5th Dalai Lama 1617 - 1682
The 2nd Panchen Lama 1663 -
1737
Pabonka Rinpoche 1878 - 1941
Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche 1901
- 1981
His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama 1935 -
Khen Rinpoche
Geshe Lobsang Tharchin 1921 -
Geshe Michael Roach 1952 -
This
Sutra is spoken by the Buddha answering questions put to Him by
Subhuti, a junior Monk who lived at the time of the Buddha.
We
begin with the prayer that is done at the start of each
teaching.
Offering The Mandala
Here is the great
Earth,
Filled with the smell of incense,
Covered with a blanket
of flowers,
The Great Mountain,
The Four
Continents,
Wearing a jewel,
Of the Sun, and Moon.
In
my mind I make them
The Paradise of a Buddha,
And offer it all
to You.
By this deed
May every living being
Experience
The
Pure World.
Idam guru ratna mandalakam niryatayami.
Refuge
and The Wish
I go for refuge
To the Buddha, Dharma, and
Sangha
Until I achieve enlightenment.
By the power
Of
the goodness that I do
In giving and the rest,
May I reach
Buddhahood
For the sake
Of every living being
Dedication
of the Goodness of a deed
By the goodness
Of what I have
just done
May all beings
Complete the collection
Of
merit and wisdom,
And thus gain the two
Ultimate
bodies
That merit and wisdom make.
A Buddhist Grace
I
offer this
To the Teacher
Higher than any other,
The
precious Buddha.
I offer this
to the protection
Higher
than any other,
The precious Dharma.
I offer this
To the
guides
Higher than any other,
The precious Sangha.
I
offer this
To the places of refuge,
To the Three jewels,
Rare
and supreme.
***
The Ones Thus Gone have stated as well
that whatever planets there may be are planets that could never
exist. And this is precisely why we can speak of them as
"planets.”
The Conqueror spoke once more:
O
Subhuti, what do you think? Should we consider someone to be One Thus
Gone, a Destroyer of the Foe, a Totally Enlightened One, a Buddha,
just because they possess the 32 marks of a great being?
Subhuti
respectfully replied,
O Conqueror, we should not. Why is it so?
Because these 32 marks of a great being described by Those Gone Thus
were said, by Those Gone Thus, to be marks that could never exist.
And this is precisely why we can speak of them as "the 32 marks
of One Gone Thus.”
***
Then the Conqueror
said,
And I tell you further, o Subhuti: Suppose some woman or man
were to give away their own body, and do this with as many bodies as
there are drops of water in the Ganges. And suppose on the other hand
that someone held even so little as four lines of verse from this
teaching, and taught it to others. The second person would create
much greater merit from their act than the former; their merit would
be countless, and
beyond all calculation.
And then, by the
sheer power of the teaching, the junior monk Subhuti began to weep.
And when he had wiped away his tears, he spoke to the Conqueror in
the following words:
This presentation of the Dharma given by
Those Gone Thus, o Conqueror, is wondrous. O You who have Gone to
Bliss, it is truly a wonder. O Conqueror, in all the time that has
passed from the time I was able to gain wisdom until now, I have
never heard this presentation of the Dharma.
***
O
Conqueror, any living being who can think correctly of the sutra that
you have just taught is wondrous in the highest. And why is it so?
Because, o Conqueror, this same correct thinking is something that
could never exist. And this is precisely why Those Gone Thus have
spoken of thinking correctly; of what we call "thinking
correctly.”
O Conqueror, the fact that I can feel this
way towards this presentation of the Dharma that you have made, the
fact that I believe in it, is for me no surprising belief.
But
when I think, o Conqueror, of those to come in the future-of those in
the last five hundred who take up this particular presentation of the
Dharma, and who hold it, or read it, or comprehend it-then truly do
they seem to me wondrous in the highest.
***
And these
beings who come, o Conquering One, will not be beings who ever slip
into any conception of something as a self; or into any conception of
something as a living being; or into any conception of something as
being alive; or into any conception of something as being a
person.
And why is it so? Because, o Conqueror, these same
conceptions-conceiving of something as a self, or as a living being,
or as being alive, or as being a person-could never exist at all. And
why is this so? Because the Enlightened Ones, the Conquerors, are
free of every kind of conception.
***
And when Subhuti
had spoken these words, the Conqueror spoke to this junior monk
Subhuti as follows:
O Subhuti, this it is, and this is it. Any
living being who receives an explanation of this sutra and who is not
made afraid, and is not frightened, and who does not become
frightened, is wondrous in the highest.
Why is it so? Because,
o Subhuti, the One Thus Gone now speaks to you the highest
perfection; and the highest perfection which the One Thus Gone now
speaks to you is that same highest perfection which Conquering
Buddhas beyond any number to count have spoken as well. And this is
precisely why we can even speak of it as the "highest
perfection.”
And I say to you further, o Subhuti, that
the perfection of patience spoken by the Ones Thus Gone is a
perfection that doesn't even exist.
***
Why is it so?
Because, o Subhuti, there was a time when the King of Kalingka was
cutting off the larger limbs, and the smaller appendages, of my body.
At that moment there came into my mind no conception of a self, nor
of a sentient being, nor of a living being, nor of a person-I had no
conception at all. But neither did I not have any conception.
Why
is it so? Suppose, o Subhuti, that at that moment any conception of a
self had come into my mind. Then the thought to harm someone would
have come into my mind as well.
The conception of some sentient
being, and the conception of some living being, and the conception of
person, would have come into my mind. And because of that, the
thought to harm someone would have come into my mind as well.
***
I
see it, o Subhuti, with my clairvoyance: I took, in times past, five
hundred births as the sage called "Teacher of Patience."
And all during that time I never had any conception of a self, or of
a living being, or of something being alive, or of a person.
And
this is why, o Subhuti, that the bodhisattvas who are great beings
give up every kind of conception, and develop within themselves the
Wish to achieve perfect and total enlightenment.
And they
develop the Wish within them without staying in any of the things you
see, nor in sounds, nor in smells, nor in tastes, nor in the things
you can touch, nor in any object of the thought as well. Neither do
they develop this Wish within them staying in what these objects
lack. They develop the Wish without staying in anything at
all.
***
And why is it so? Because these things to stay
in never stay themselves. And this then is why the One Thus Gone has
said that "Bodhisattvas should undertake the practice of giving
without staying.”
And I say to you further, o Subhuti,
that this is how bodhisattvas give all that they have, for the sake
of every living being. And this same conception of anyone as a living
being is a conception that does not exist; when the One Gone Thus
speaks of "every living being," they too are living beings
that do not even exist.
And why is it so? Because, o Subhuti,
the One Thus Gone is one who speaks right. He is one who speaks true.
He is one who speaks precisely what is. The One Thus Gone is one that
speaks, without error, precisely that which is.
***
And
I speak to you further, o Subhuti, of that thing where Those Gone
Thus reach some absolutely total enlightenment; and of that thing
which is the Dharma that they teach. It has no truth, and it has no
deception.
This, Subhuti, is how it is. Think of the example
of a man who has eyes to see, but who is sitting in the dark. He sees
nothing at all. You should consider a bodhisattva who has fallen into
things, and who then practices the act of giving, to be just like
this man.
And now, Subhuti, think of this man, a man with eyes
to see, as dawn breaks and the sun rises into the sky; think how then
he sees a whole variety of different forms. You should consider a
bodhisattva who has not fallen into things, and who then practices
the act of giving, to be just like this man.
***
I
speak to you further, o Subhuti, of those sons or daughters of noble
family who take up this particular presentation of the Dharma, and
who hold it, or read it, or comprehend it, or who go on to impart it
to others in detail, and accurately. These are the kind of people
that the Ones Gone Thus know. These are the kind of people that the
Ones Gone Thus look upon. Any living being like these people has
created a mountain of merit which is beyond all calculation.
And
I say to you further, o Subhuti: suppose there were some man or woman
who could give away, in a single morning, their own body, the same
number of times that there are drops of water in the Ganges River
itself. And suppose then at midday, and in the evening, they would
again give away their own body, the same number of times that there
are drops of water in the Ganges River. And suppose they were to keep
up this kind of behavior for many billion upon trillions of eons,
giving their bodies away.
***
I say to you that anyone
who hears this particular presentation of the Dharma, and who never
thereafter gives it up, creates much greater merit from this single
act than the others do: their merit is countless, and beyond all
calculation. And what need have I to mention then the merit of those
who take it up by writing it down, or who hold it, or read it, or
comprehend it, or who go on to impart it to others in detail, and
accurately?
Again I say to you, o Subhuti, that this
presentation of the Dharma is inconceivably great, and beyond all
compare. This presentation of the Dharma was spoken by the Ones Gone
Thus for those living beings who have entered well into the highest
of all ways; and it was spoken for those living beings who have
entered well into the foremost of ways.
***
Think of
those who take up this particular presentation of the Dharma, or hold
it, or read it, or comprehend it, or who go on to impart it to others
in detail, and accurately. These are the kind of people that the Ones
Gone Thus know. These are the kind of people that the Ones Gone Thus
look upon. Any living being like these people is possessed of a
mountain of merit beyond all calculation.
They are possessed
of a mountain of merit which is inconceivable, which is beyond all
comparison, which cannot be measured, which is beyond all measure.
Any such living being is one that I lift up, and carry forth upon my
own shoulders, to the enlightenment I have reached.
***
And
why is it so? O Subhuti, those who are attracted to lesser things are
incapable of hearing this presentation of the Dharma. Neither is it
something for those who see some self, or for those who see some
living being, or for those who see something that lives; and those
who see some person are incapable of hearing it; they are incapable
of taking it up; they are incapable of holding it; they are incapable
of reading it; and they are incapable too of comprehending it. There
would never be any place for them to do so.
And I say further
to you, o Subhuti: Any place where this sutra is taught thereby
becomes a place worthy of the offerings of the entire world, with its
gods, and men, and demigods. It becomes a place which is worthy of
their prostrations, and worthy of their circumambulations. That place
becomes a temple.
***
O Subhuti, any son or daughter of
noble family who takes up a sutra like this, or who holds it, or
reads it, or comprehends it, will suffer. They will suffer
intensely.
Why is it so? Because, o Subhuti, such beings are
purifying non-virtuous karma from the entire string of their previous
lives, karma that would have taken them to the three lower realms. As
they purify this karma, it causes them to suffer here in this life.
As such they will succeed in cleaning away the karma of these
non-virtuous deeds of their previous lifetimes, and they will as well
achieve the enlightenment of a Buddha.
***
Subhuti, I
see this with my powers of clairvoyance. In days long past-over the
course of countless eons that are themselves even more than
uncountable-far beyond the time even before the time of the One Gone
Thus, the Destroyer of the Foe, the Perfect and Totally Enlightened
One named "Maker of Light"-there came 840 billion billion
Buddhas. I was able to please them all, and never disturb their
hearts.
But then Subhuti, there are those who, in the days of
the last five hundred, will take up this sutra, and hold it, and read
it, and comprehend it. And I tell you, o Subhuti, that the great
mountains of merit that I collected from pleasing all those Buddhas,
all those Conquerors, and from never disturbing their hearts, would
not come to a hundredth of the mountains of merit that these ones to
come will create. Nor would it come to a thousandth part, nor one
part in a hundred thousand, nor any other countable part, any part at
all; the difference could never be put in numbers; there is no
example I could use; no comparison; no reason at all to attempt any
comparison.
***
And suppose, o Subhuti, that I were to
describe just how many mountains of virtue would come to be possessed
by one of these women or men of noble family, the ones to come who
will create those mountains of merit. The living beings who heard me
then would go mad; their minds would be thrown into chaos.
I
tell you further, o Subhuti; and you must understand it: this
presentation of the Dharma is absolutely inconceivable; and how its
power ripens in the future is nothing less than absolutely
inconceivable as well.
O Conquering One, what of those who
have entered well into the way of the bodhisattva? How shall they
live? How shall they practice? How should they keep their
thoughts?
***
And the Conqueror replied,
Subhuti,
this is how those who have entered well into the way of the
bodhisattva must think to themselves as they feel the Wish to achieve
enlightenment:
I will bring every single living being to total
nirvana, to that realm beyond all grief, where they no longer possess
any of the heaps of things that make up a suffering person. Yet even
if I do manage to bring all these living beings to total nirvana,
there will be no living being at all who was brought to their total
nirvana.
And why is it so? Because, Subhuti, if a bodhisattva
were to slip into conceiving of someone as a living being, then we
could never call them a "bodhisattva." And so too if they
were to slip ino thinking of someone in all the ways up to thinking
of them as a person, neither then could we ever call them a
"bodhisattva.”
***
Why is it so? Because,
Subhuti, there doesn't even exist any such thing as what we have
called "those who have entered well into the way of the
bodhisattva.”
O Subhuti, what do you think? Was there
anything at all which the One Thus Gone ever received from the One
Thus Gone called "Maker of Light," which helped bring about
my total enlightenment within the unsurpassed, perfect, and total
state of a Buddha?
Thus did the Conqueror speak, and then did
the junior monk Subhuti reply to him, as follows:
O Conqueror,
there never could have been anything at all which the One Thus Gone
ever received from the One Thus Gone called "Maker of Light"
which helped bring about your total enlightenment within the
unsurpassed, perfect, and total state of a Buddha.
***
Thus
did he speak, and then did the Conqueror reply to the junior monk
Subhuti, in the following words:
O Subhuti, it is thus, and thus
is it. There is nothing at all which the One Thus Gone ever received
from the One Thus Gone called "Maker of Light" which helped
me bring about my total enlightenment within the unsurpassed,
perfect, and total state of a Buddha.
And if there had been, o
Subhuti, anything of the sort where the One Thus Gone reached his
total enlightenment, well then the One Gone Thus, "Maker of
Light," could never have granted me my final prediction, by
saying-
O child of Brahman family, in days to come you will
become One who has Gone Thus, a Destroyer of the Foe, a Totally
Enlightened Buddha called "Able One of the Shakyas.”
***
But
since, o Subhuti, there was nothing of the sort where the One Thus
Gone before you now reached his total enlightenment within the
unsurpassed, perfect, and total state of a Buddha, well then the One
Gone Thus named "Maker of Light" did in fact grant me my
final prediction, by saying-
O child of Brahman family, in days to
come you will become One who has Gone Thus, a Destroyer of the Foe, a
Totally Enlightened Buddha called "Able One of the
Shakyas.”
And why is it so? Because, o Subhuti, the very
words "One Gone Thus" are an expression that refers to the
real nature of things.
Now suppose, o Subhuti, that someone were
to say, "The One Gone Thus, the Destroyer of the Foe, the
Perfect and Totally Enlightened One, reached his total enlightenment
within the unsurpassed, perfect, and total state of a Buddha."
This would not be spoken true.
***
And why is it so,
Subhuti? Because there is no such thing as One Gone Thus reaching
their total enlightenment within the unsurpassed, perfect, and total
state of a Buddha.
Subhuti, this thing-where One Gone Thus
reached their total enlightenment-is something which involves neither
anything which is real nor anything which is false. And this is why
the Ones Gone Thus have said that "Every existing thing is
something of the Buddhas.”
And when we speak of "every
existing thing," o Subhuti, we are talking about every existing
thing that has no existence. And this, in fact, is why we can say
that "Every existing thing is something of the
Buddhas.”
***
You can think, o Subhuti, of the
illustration of a person with a body, whose body becomes larger.
And
then the junior monk Subhuti spoke again:
O Conqueror, the One
Gone Thus has just spoken of a person with a body, whose body becomes
larger. This same body, the One Thus Gone has also stated, is a body
that could never exist. And this is precisely why we can say a
"person with a body," or "a larger body.”
And
then the Conqueror spoke again:
O Subhuti, this is how it is.
Suppose some bodhisattva were to say, "I will bring all living
beings to total nirvana." We could never then call them a
"bodhisattva." Why is it so? Subhuti, do you think there is
any such thing as what we call a "bodhisattva?”
***
And
Subhuti respectfully replied,
O Conqueror, no such thing could
ever be.
The Conqueror then said,
This is why, o Subhuti,
that the One Thus Gone says that all existing things are such that no
living being exists, and nothing that lives exists, and no persons
exists.
And suppose, o Subhuti, that some bodhisattva were to
say, "I am working to bring about my paradise." That would
not be spoken rightly. Why is it so? Because, o Subhuti, the paradise
that you are working to bring about when you say "I am working
to bring about my paradise" is something that the One Thus Gone
has said that you could never bring about. And this is precisely why
we can even call them "paradises to bring about.”
***
And
suppose again, o Subhuti, that there were a bodhisattva who believed
that no existing object has a self, that "no existing object has
a self." This now is a person that the One Thus Gone, the
Destroyer of the Foe, the Perfect and Totally Enlightened One would
call a bodhisattva: a "bodhisattva.”
O Subhuti, what
do you think? Does the One Thus Gone possess the eyes of flesh?
And
Subhuti respectfully replied,
O Conqueror, it is indeed so: the
One Thus Gone does possess the eyes of flesh.
And the
Conqueror said, O Subhuti, what do you think? Does the One Thus Gone
possess the eyes of a god?
***
And Subhuti respectfully
replied,
O Conqueror, it is indeed so: the One Thus Gone does
possess the eyes of a god.
And the Conqueror said,
O
Subhuti, what do you think? Does the One Thus Gone possess the eyes
of wisdom?
And Subhuti respectfully replied,
O Conqueror,
it is indeed so: the One Thus Gone does possess the eyes of
wisdom.
And the Conqueror said,
O Subhuti, what do you
think? Does the One Thus Gone possess the eyes of all
things?
***
And Subhuti respectfully replied,
O
Conqueror, it is indeed so: the One Thus Gone does possess the eyes
of all things.
And then the Conqueror said,
O Subhuti, what
do you think? Does the One Thus Gone possess the eyes of an
Enlightened Being?
And Subhuti respectfully replied,
O
Conqueror, it is indeed so: the One Thus Gone does possess the eyes
of an enlightened being.
***
Here ends our reading of
The Diamond Cutter Sutra from pages 63 through 113 of the leaf
version.
We will continue our reading of this sutra next week,
the last of our reading in three parts.
May you come to see
emptiness.
May you come to full enlightenment and Buddhahood for
the sake of all sentient beings.
May you be well and happy.
May
all beings be well and happy.
Today's Buddhist Hour
Broadcast script was prepared by Anita M. Hughes, Julian Bamford,
Julie O'Donnell and Leanne Eames.
Next week on the Buddhist
Hour we will continue with the third part of the reading of the
Diamond Cutter Sutra.
Reference
The Diamond-Cutter
Sutra. Course VI. Level 1 of Middle way philosophy (Madhyamika) The
Asian Classics Institute. Taught by Geshe Michael Roach New York USA
online at www.world-view.org.
"Diamond Cutter Sutra"
An Exalted Sutra of the Greater Way on the Perfection of Wisdom.
Translation of this sutra from Sanskrit into Tibetan, and its
update into the newer translation standard, were completed by the
Indian master Shilendra Bodhi and Yeshe De. The translation from
Tibetan into English was completed by the American Geshe Lobsang
Chunzin, Michael Roach, with the assistance of the American woman
with lifetime vows, Christine McNally, in the gardens of Prince Jeta,
during the opening days of the third millennium after
Christ.
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