Describing the Indescribable : A Commentary on the Diamond Sutra

by Yun, Master Hsing; Graham, Tom

• ISBN13: 9780861711864
• ISBN10: 0861711866
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Wisdom Publications

Summary

The Diamond Sutra is revered throughout Asia as one of the Buddha's most profound expressions of the nature of reality. A gem among the vast Perfection of Wisdom literature, the Diamond Sutra elicits an experience of eternal truth through its use of a seemingly paradoxical style, as the reader goes back and forth between "what is" and "what is not." Master Hsing Yun skillfully plumbs the depths of the Diamond Sutra, illuminating for us its power to change who we are and how we interpret our world.

Author Biography

Master Hsing Yun is the founder of Fo Guang Shan-an international Buddhist order with temples worldwide-the affiliated Buddha's Light International, and University of the West in Rosemead, California. Born in 1927, he is a forty-eighth patriarch of the Lin Chi (Rinzai) School of Zen Buddhism and lives in Taiwan.

Tom Graham, a scholar and translator of Chinese, worked in East Asia for ten years. He now resides in San Diego, California.

Table of Contents

Translator's Preface	vii
Introduction	1	(4)
Text of the Diamond Sutra	5	(26)
Master Hsing Yun's Commentary
The Causes of This Dharma Meeting	31	(6)
Subhuti's Request	37	(4)
The Heart of the Mahayana	41	(6)
The Heart of the Mahayana (continued)	47	(6)
The Wonder of Behaving Without Attachment	53	(6)
Seeing the Truth That Lies Beneath Perception	59	(4)
The Rarity of True Belief	63	(6)
Nothing Has Been Attained and Nothing Has Been Said	69	(4)
Enlightenment Comes from These Teachings	73	(8)
The Four Fruits Are Empty	81	(6)
Making the Buddha Realm Magnificent	87	(12)
The Unconditioned Is Supreme	99	(6)
Honoring the True Teaching	105	(4)
The Name of This Sutra	109	(8)
Ultimate Tranquility Beyond Lakshana	117	(6)
The Goodness of Upholding This Sutra	123	(4)
Purification of Karma	127	(6)
Complete and Utter Selflessness	133	(12)
One Body Sees All	145	(4)
Universal Transformation Within the Dharma Realm	149	(6)
Beyond Form and Lakshana	155	(2)
Speaking the Unspeakable	157	(2)
The Unattainable Dharma	159	(2)
Perfect Equanimity	161	(2)
True Generosity Lies in Upholding This Sutra	163	(2)
Transforming That Which Cannot Be Transformed	165	(2)
The Dharma Body Is Without Lakshana	167	(6)
Nothing Is Ended and Nothing Is Extinguished	173	(2)
Not Receiving and Not Wanting to Receive	175	(2)
Awesome Tranquility	177	(2)
Compound Lakshana	179	(2)
Not Giving Rise to Belief in Lakshana	181	(2)
Like Shadows, Like Bubbles, Like Dreams	183	(4)
Notes	187	(16)
Glossary	203	(6)
Suggested Further Reading	209