The Diamond Sutra (Chin-Kang-Ching) or Prajna-ParamitaUnknown
Religion
The Diamond Sutra (Chin-Kang-Ching) or Prajna-Paramita
Unknown
Buddhism; Buddhism -- Sacred books
The Sanscrit term Samgna,[22] usually rendered into Chinese by “Ming”
and into English by “Name,” seems to deserve our further attention.
Like the term Dharma, a clear knowledge of “Samgna” is indispensable
for a correct understanding of our text.
In one of the opening passages of _The Diamond Sutra_, we find that
Sakyamuni Buddha, in reply to an enquiry by Subhuti, suggests that by
means of this “wisdom,” enlightened disciples shall be enabled to
bring into subjection every inordinate desire.
“_Every species of life, whether hatched in the egg, formed in the
womb, evolved from spawn, produced by metamorphosis, with or without
form or intelligence, possessing or devoid of natural instinct—from
these changeful conditions of being I command you to seek deliverance
in the transcendental concept of Nirvana. Thus you shall obtain
deliverance from the idea of an immeasurable, innumerable, and
illimitable world of sentient life; but, in reality there is no idea
of a world of sentient life from which to obtain deliverance. And why?
Because, in the mind of an enlightened disciple, there have ceased to
exist such arbitrary ideas of phenomena as an entity, a being, a
living being, or a personality._”
A similar process of reasoning appears to permeate the whole of _The
Diamond Sutra_, and whether appertaining to a living being,[23] a
virtue,[24] a condition of mind,[25] a Buddhist kingdom,[26] or a
personal Buddha,[27] there is implied in each concept a spiritual
essence, only imperfectly described, if not entirely overlooked, in
the ordinary use of each particular name. Shakespeare enquired,
“What’s in a name?” and in a thought inspired by the rose and its
delicious fragrance, suggested with Buddha, that there is little, or
nothing, in a name which explains the real nature of an object. Even a
“particle of dust” seems, to the Buddhist mind, to embody in its
composition a subtle spiritual element, entirely “inscrutable,” and
quite “incomprehensible.”
According to the Mahayana School of Buddhist thought, objects and
their respective names are alike unreal and illusory. Objects and
names, in the abstract, represent merely the products of untutored and
unenlightened minds. Nothing is real, in the sense that it is
permanent. Everything appears to be subject to irrevocable Laws of
change and decay. As the things which we see are temporal, it is
essential for our intellectual development, that we focus our thoughts
upon the things which are Unseen and Eternal. Many minds are
susceptible of deception by the fleeting phenomena of life; but behind
these phenomena there is an essential element, entirely spiritual,[28]
uninfluenced by arbitrary ideas or changeful conditions, which
“pervades all things,” and is “pure” and “unchanging.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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