The Diamond Sutra (Chin-Kang-Ching) or Prajna-ParamitaUnknown
Religion
The Diamond Sutra (Chin-Kang-Ching) or Prajna-Paramita
Unknown
Buddhism; Buddhism -- Sacred books
[40] Compare Beal’s rendering in the Kin-Kong-King, “Tathagata is
the explanation as it were of all systems of Law.” See also _The
Book of the Manifesting of the One and Manifold_ in _The Song
Celestial_, the verse commencing:—
“Thou, of all souls the Soul!
The comprehending whole!”
In conversation with Chinese monks regarding the meaning of this
impressive passage, we found that they invariably approved of a
suggested rendering, that “Buddha is the _One_ in whom all Laws
become intelligible.”
[41] Compare the observations made by Sir Edwin Arnold in his
preface to _The Song Celestial_, regarding the date when that
famous Brahmanic poem was composed; and the gentle indication
that in its teaching may be found “echoes of the lessons of
Galilee, and of the Syrian incarnation.”
[42] An instructive exposition of this subject by J. Muir, Esq.,
entitled _The Progress of the Vedic Religion towards Abstract
Conceptions of the Deity_, may be consulted in the _Jour.
R.A.S.,_ 1864–65.
[43] In colloquial Chinese there is a noteworthy saying, that
“Buddha is simply a condition of mind.” This “condition of mind”
is beautifully expressed by a “classic” couplet, which, rendered
into English, means “as pure as the image of the moon in a
river,” and “as lovely as the bloom of a flower in a mirror”
(Shui-Li-Chï-Yüeh, Ching-Li-Chï-Wha).
[44] Compare the beautifully expressed sentiment of Akhnaton,
Pharaoh of Egypt, concerning “the One in whom all Laws are
intelligibly comprehended.” “There is no poverty for him who hath
Thee in his heart.” (See _Life and Times of Akhnaton_.)
[45] Rhys Davids, when he expounded the doctrine of Karma in
_Buddhism_, clearly indicated the Buddhist position, “that
whatever a man reaps, that he must also have sown.” Chinese
Buddhists appear to be assured, “that if a man reaps sorrow,
disappointment, pain, he himself, and no other, must at some time
have sown folly, error, sin; and if not in this life, then in
some former birth. Where then, in the latter case, is the
identity between him who sows and him who reaps? _In that which
alone remains_ when a man dies, and the constituent parts of the
sentient being are dissolved; in the result, namely, of his
action, speech, and thought, in his good or evil _Karma_
(literally his ‘doing’) which _does not_ die.”
[46] In the concept Karma, Sakyamuni Buddha suggested the
revealing of a _moral cause_ which explained the otherwise
insoluble riddle of the evident inequalities, and consequent
sufferings of life.
[47] Compare _Buddhism_.
[48] “The much-canvassed Ritschlian doctrine of the _Worth_—or
‘value-judgments,’ in which the peculiarity of religious
knowledge is supposed to lie.” For the introduction of the term
into theology we are indebted to Herrmann, _Die Religion, etc._,
and Kaftan, _Das Wesen_. _See_ Orr’s, _The Ritschlian Theology and
The Evangelical Faith_.
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