1 00:00:00,263 --> 00:00:02,016 The Diamond Sutra barely ranked in India 2 00:00:02,302 --> 00:00:03,455 so how did it conquer China 3 00:00:04,102 --> 00:00:04,936 last episode we said 4 00:00:05,343 --> 00:00:07,062 the Prajnaparamita sutras were like a thunderclap 5 00:00:07,062 --> 00:00:09,355 exploding up from under Mahayana Buddhism 6 00:00:09,382 --> 00:00:11,875 and completely rewriting the direction of Buddhism 7 00:00:12,063 --> 00:00:12,775 but here is the thing 8 00:00:13,022 --> 00:00:14,836 that thunderclap in India 9 00:00:14,862 --> 00:00:16,635 did not actually reach the most people 10 00:00:16,830 --> 00:00:20,923 the original Prajnaparamita was a huge work of eight thousand lines 11 00:00:20,990 --> 00:00:22,283 later it kept expanding 12 00:00:22,350 --> 00:00:23,483 twenty five thousand lines 13 00:00:23,510 --> 00:00:24,064 one hundred thousand lines 14 00:00:24,390 --> 00:00:25,443 thicker and thicker 15 00:00:25,591 --> 00:00:29,963 Indian Buddhist scholars spent centuries studying those giants 16 00:00:30,111 --> 00:00:31,910 and buried among those heavy volumes 17 00:00:31,911 --> 00:00:33,604 was one very short chapter 18 00:00:33,671 --> 00:00:35,163 only about three hundred lines 19 00:00:35,351 --> 00:00:40,083 in India top masters like Asanga and Vasubandhu did comment on it 20 00:00:40,150 --> 00:00:42,724 but it was never the focus of scholarly debate 21 00:00:43,895 --> 00:00:45,828 yet these three hundred lines 22 00:00:45,855 --> 00:00:48,068 after crossing the ocean to China 23 00:00:48,135 --> 00:00:51,627 became the most famous Buddhist text in all of China 24 00:00:52,095 --> 00:00:53,068 bar none 25 00:00:53,575 --> 00:00:55,087 it is the Diamond Sutra 26 00:00:56,422 --> 00:00:56,735 hello 27 00:00:57,221 --> 00:00:57,694 hi everyone 28 00:00:57,941 --> 00:00:58,874 I am Leo Wang 29 00:00:59,221 --> 00:01:00,260 in today's episode 30 00:01:00,261 --> 00:01:02,154 I am not unpacking the content of the Diamond Sutra 31 00:01:02,541 --> 00:01:04,915 that belongs to the scripture reading series 32 00:01:05,022 --> 00:01:08,394 over there we spent a whole episode on its content 33 00:01:08,861 --> 00:01:11,554 today I want to talk about a historical mystery 34 00:01:11,982 --> 00:01:16,075 a short text that barely ranked in India's Prajnaparamita family 35 00:01:16,381 --> 00:01:18,694 how did it pull off a comeback in China 36 00:01:19,381 --> 00:01:21,060 what road did it travel 37 00:01:21,062 --> 00:01:22,515 what people did it meet 38 00:01:22,622 --> 00:01:24,554 what rhythm of its age did it catch 39 00:01:24,581 --> 00:01:26,455 to reach the status it holds today 40 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:30,172 first let us be clear what the Diamond Sutra actually is 41 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:32,293 its Sanskrit title translated literally 42 00:01:32,320 --> 00:01:34,832 is the Diamond Cutter Perfection of Wisdom Sutra 43 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:37,493 but it is not a standalone scripture 44 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:41,412 Xuanzang later translated the entire Prajnaparamita corpus into Chinese 45 00:01:41,639 --> 00:01:42,972 six hundred scrolls in all 46 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:44,332 divided into sixteen assemblies 47 00:01:44,559 --> 00:01:46,733 the Diamond Sutra is the ninth assembly 48 00:01:46,999 --> 00:01:50,052 think of it as chapter nine of an encyclopedia 49 00:01:50,490 --> 00:01:52,609 in the Indian Buddhist scholarly tradition 50 00:01:52,610 --> 00:01:56,729 scholars focused on the original eight thousand line Prajnaparamita 51 00:01:56,729 --> 00:01:59,782 and the version expanded to twenty five thousand lines 52 00:01:59,970 --> 00:02:02,223 those were the real battleground of Prajnaparamita thought 53 00:02:02,449 --> 00:02:04,768 a highly condensed short text like the Diamond Sutra 54 00:02:04,770 --> 00:02:06,383 was like the abstract of a paper 55 00:02:06,509 --> 00:02:07,250 in India 56 00:02:07,250 --> 00:02:09,902 its academic standing was far below the long texts 57 00:02:10,130 --> 00:02:11,823 but something strange happened 58 00:02:11,889 --> 00:02:12,602 this abstract 59 00:02:12,850 --> 00:02:14,089 once it reached China 60 00:02:14,090 --> 00:02:15,823 had its fate flipped completely 61 00:02:16,803 --> 00:02:17,877 the first key turning point 62 00:02:18,243 --> 00:02:19,177 was one man 63 00:02:19,484 --> 00:02:20,636 in the year four hundred and two 64 00:02:21,044 --> 00:02:22,816 a monk from Kucha 65 00:02:22,843 --> 00:02:24,696 translated this sutra in Chang'an 66 00:02:25,044 --> 00:02:26,657 his name was Kumarajiva 67 00:02:27,044 --> 00:02:29,337 every time I read Kumarajiva's story 68 00:02:29,403 --> 00:02:32,097 I feel how brutal fate can be 69 00:02:32,324 --> 00:02:33,657 he became a monk at seven 70 00:02:33,843 --> 00:02:36,296 at nine he went with his mother to Kashmir to study 71 00:02:36,484 --> 00:02:41,256 at twelve he was out debating down the most famous masters of the Western Regions 72 00:02:41,484 --> 00:02:43,457 the whole region called him a genius 73 00:02:43,966 --> 00:02:47,059 but then the Former Qin general Lu Guang destroyed Kucha 74 00:02:47,165 --> 00:02:49,459 and hauled him off to Liangzhou as war booty 75 00:02:49,885 --> 00:02:50,399 he was held there 76 00:02:50,805 --> 00:02:51,938 for seventeen years 77 00:02:52,286 --> 00:02:54,258 the moment Kucha fell 78 00:02:54,325 --> 00:02:55,845 Lu Guang got him drunk 79 00:02:55,846 --> 00:02:57,538 and forced him to break his vows and take a wife 80 00:02:57,966 --> 00:02:59,925 a man who had already seen through emptiness 81 00:02:59,925 --> 00:03:02,419 was forced to wallow in the most worldly mud 82 00:03:02,805 --> 00:03:04,179 try to imagine it 83 00:03:04,246 --> 00:03:07,698 a man who knows he was born to translate Buddhist scriptures 84 00:03:07,765 --> 00:03:09,739 but he is trapped in a border town 85 00:03:09,765 --> 00:03:10,818 unable to do anything 86 00:03:11,006 --> 00:03:12,299 waiting every single day 87 00:03:12,365 --> 00:03:14,459 not knowing if his chance would ever come 88 00:03:14,968 --> 00:03:16,940 until Yao Xing of the Later Qin sent troops 89 00:03:17,047 --> 00:03:19,460 and brought him from Liangzhou to Chang'an 90 00:03:19,847 --> 00:03:21,780 by then he was already fifty eight 91 00:03:22,088 --> 00:03:23,440 in the last twelve years of his life 92 00:03:23,688 --> 00:03:25,141 he barely ever stopped working 93 00:03:25,567 --> 00:03:27,720 he translated the Diamond Sutra the Lotus Sutra 94 00:03:28,167 --> 00:03:31,081 the Vimalakirti Sutra the Middle Treatise the Great Treatise on Wisdom 95 00:03:31,648 --> 00:03:34,421 every one became a cornerstone of Chinese Buddhism 96 00:03:34,928 --> 00:03:35,240 you see 97 00:03:35,648 --> 00:03:37,900 those seventeen years of pain were not wasted 98 00:03:38,327 --> 00:03:40,660 a man steeped in worldly suffering 99 00:03:40,847 --> 00:03:42,166 produced words 100 00:03:42,167 --> 00:03:43,981 that carry a different kind of warmth 101 00:03:44,255 --> 00:03:47,829 Kumarajiva rendered the Diamond Sutra in about five thousand characters 102 00:03:48,135 --> 00:03:50,428 even leaner than the Sanskrit original 103 00:03:50,776 --> 00:03:54,188 his method was completely different from Xuanzang's later approach 104 00:03:54,496 --> 00:03:56,188 Xuanzang chased fidelity 105 00:03:56,295 --> 00:03:58,708 every word had to match the Sanskrit exactly 106 00:03:58,975 --> 00:04:00,989 Kumarajiva chased fluency 107 00:04:01,336 --> 00:04:03,789 he wanted it to read to Chinese people like real Chinese 108 00:04:03,896 --> 00:04:06,308 as if these words had always been said this way 109 00:04:06,616 --> 00:04:10,308 he boldly cut the long repetitive Sanskrit formulas 110 00:04:10,456 --> 00:04:12,949 keeping only the core logic and the rhythm 111 00:04:13,304 --> 00:04:14,182 and the result 112 00:04:14,184 --> 00:04:17,062 the Diamond Sutra ended up with six different Chinese translations 113 00:04:17,063 --> 00:04:18,662 Kumarajiva's was the first 114 00:04:18,664 --> 00:04:23,876 then Bodhiruci Paramartha Dharmagupta Xuanzang and Yijing all tried 115 00:04:24,063 --> 00:04:25,583 but for sixteen hundred years 116 00:04:25,583 --> 00:04:28,076 Chinese readers have accepted only Kumarajiva's version 117 00:04:28,343 --> 00:04:30,342 walk into any temple today 118 00:04:30,343 --> 00:04:31,816 and hear someone chanting the Diamond Sutra 119 00:04:32,184 --> 00:04:33,876 the words you hear are his 120 00:04:34,383 --> 00:04:35,597 think about what that means 121 00:04:35,784 --> 00:04:38,556 whether a scripture can take root in another civilization 122 00:04:38,624 --> 00:04:40,237 shows you how much translation matters 123 00:04:40,784 --> 00:04:42,183 the same truth spoken aloud 124 00:04:42,184 --> 00:04:44,516 in the right language pierces the heart 125 00:04:44,624 --> 00:04:46,917 in the wrong language is just a pile of words 126 00:04:48,090 --> 00:04:50,344 but a good translation alone is not enough 127 00:04:50,611 --> 00:04:54,383 for a foreign classic to become the number one sutra elsewhere 128 00:04:54,491 --> 00:04:57,063 it has to react chemically with that soil 129 00:04:57,450 --> 00:04:58,969 the Chinese way of thinking 130 00:04:58,970 --> 00:05:01,143 differs from the Indian way in one big respect 131 00:05:01,411 --> 00:05:03,503 Indians love precise analysis 132 00:05:03,570 --> 00:05:06,664 they can split one concept into a hundred layers 133 00:05:06,731 --> 00:05:09,063 and each layer into twenty subtypes 134 00:05:09,210 --> 00:05:11,383 just look at the Abhidharma 135 00:05:11,411 --> 00:05:14,503 it is a full systems engineering manual for Buddhism 136 00:05:14,570 --> 00:05:16,263 so precise it is suffocating 137 00:05:17,245 --> 00:05:18,418 the Chinese are not like that 138 00:05:18,685 --> 00:05:21,658 Chinese taste has always leaned toward simplicity 139 00:05:22,045 --> 00:05:22,918 look at Chinese painting 140 00:05:23,365 --> 00:05:25,418 the empty space matters more than the image 141 00:05:25,766 --> 00:05:27,098 look at Chinese poetry 142 00:05:27,206 --> 00:05:29,579 twenty characters can hold an entire universe 143 00:05:30,006 --> 00:05:30,639 Laozi said 144 00:05:31,086 --> 00:05:31,639 the way that can be spoken 145 00:05:31,886 --> 00:05:32,819 is not the eternal way 146 00:05:33,365 --> 00:05:33,838 Zhuangzi said 147 00:05:34,285 --> 00:05:35,459 once you get the fish forget the trap 148 00:05:35,805 --> 00:05:36,639 not one of these lines is long 149 00:05:37,125 --> 00:05:38,338 but chew on them 150 00:05:38,446 --> 00:05:40,059 and a whole lifetime is not enough 151 00:05:40,471 --> 00:05:42,563 the Diamond Sutra is exactly this kind of thing 152 00:05:42,871 --> 00:05:43,789 five thousand characters 153 00:05:43,791 --> 00:05:46,604 one idea cut over and over from different angles 154 00:05:46,671 --> 00:05:47,344 and at the very end 155 00:05:47,590 --> 00:05:49,724 even the cutting knife gets cut away 156 00:05:49,791 --> 00:05:50,503 this style 157 00:05:50,710 --> 00:05:52,310 and the Chinese Daoist aesthetic 158 00:05:52,310 --> 00:05:53,363 were a perfect match 159 00:05:53,551 --> 00:05:55,284 then add one practical reason 160 00:05:55,390 --> 00:05:56,784 the six hundred scroll Great Prajnaparamita Sutra 161 00:05:57,070 --> 00:05:59,303 how many Chinese would read that end to end 162 00:05:59,710 --> 00:06:00,303 too long 163 00:06:00,471 --> 00:06:01,750 the barrier too high 164 00:06:01,750 --> 00:06:02,503 but five thousand characters 165 00:06:02,750 --> 00:06:04,270 can be finished in one afternoon 166 00:06:04,270 --> 00:06:06,263 and every line lands like a small blade 167 00:06:06,431 --> 00:06:07,524 clean and sharp 168 00:06:07,551 --> 00:06:08,943 one read and Chinese people knew 169 00:06:09,150 --> 00:06:10,363 this belongs to us 170 00:06:11,399 --> 00:06:14,413 that is the second reason the Diamond Sutra caught fire in China 171 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:16,279 it was not just well translated 172 00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:19,012 it hit the aesthetic rhythm of Chinese culture 173 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:22,959 but what took the Diamond Sutra from popular to legendary 174 00:06:22,959 --> 00:06:24,252 was a third factor 175 00:06:24,466 --> 00:06:25,266 one man 176 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:27,692 an illiterate woodcutter 177 00:06:28,568 --> 00:06:31,060 one day around the middle of the seventh century 178 00:06:31,287 --> 00:06:32,661 in Xinzhou in Guangdong 179 00:06:32,767 --> 00:06:35,940 a young man barely twenty walked the street carrying firewood 180 00:06:36,287 --> 00:06:38,301 he passed the window of an inn 181 00:06:38,368 --> 00:06:40,140 and heard someone inside chanting a sutra 182 00:06:40,608 --> 00:06:41,601 line after line went by 183 00:06:41,928 --> 00:06:43,301 and he felt nothing 184 00:06:43,767 --> 00:06:46,181 but when one line drifted into his ears 185 00:06:46,447 --> 00:06:48,421 his entire world stopped 186 00:06:48,898 --> 00:06:49,612 the line was 187 00:06:50,019 --> 00:06:52,232 give rise to a mind that dwells nowhere 188 00:06:52,538 --> 00:06:54,591 he had no idea what those eight characters meant 189 00:06:55,059 --> 00:06:56,511 he could not even read 190 00:06:56,778 --> 00:06:57,911 but in that instant 191 00:06:57,978 --> 00:07:00,911 he said something inside him was split open 192 00:07:01,218 --> 00:07:02,872 it was not that he understood some idea 193 00:07:02,939 --> 00:07:04,711 his whole being was shaken 194 00:07:05,098 --> 00:07:07,471 like sitting in a dark room for a very long time 195 00:07:07,619 --> 00:07:09,872 when someone suddenly punches a hole in the wall 196 00:07:10,059 --> 00:07:11,312 and the light pours in 197 00:07:11,579 --> 00:07:14,031 before you can even work out what is outside 198 00:07:14,139 --> 00:07:15,071 but you know 199 00:07:15,139 --> 00:07:16,872 that light is real 200 00:07:17,558 --> 00:07:18,312 he put down the firewood 201 00:07:18,718 --> 00:07:19,932 said goodbye to his old mother 202 00:07:20,038 --> 00:07:21,331 and walked for months 203 00:07:21,358 --> 00:07:24,731 to find Hongren the fifth patriarch of Chan 204 00:07:25,118 --> 00:07:27,052 this woodcutter was called Huineng 205 00:07:27,399 --> 00:07:29,892 you may have heard many versions of Huineng's story 206 00:07:30,158 --> 00:07:31,798 but from the angle of historical lineage 207 00:07:31,798 --> 00:07:34,012 one detail really deserves attention 208 00:07:34,904 --> 00:07:36,157 before Huineng 209 00:07:36,224 --> 00:07:38,496 the core text of Chan was not the Diamond Sutra 210 00:07:38,743 --> 00:07:39,696 it was the Lankavatara Sutra 211 00:07:40,183 --> 00:07:42,837 from Bodhidharma down to the fourth patriarch Daoxin 212 00:07:42,904 --> 00:07:46,037 Chan used the Lankavatara to seal the mind 213 00:07:46,183 --> 00:07:47,703 but by Hongren's time 214 00:07:47,703 --> 00:07:50,157 he began teaching his students with the Diamond Sutra 215 00:07:50,224 --> 00:07:50,816 why the switch 216 00:07:51,604 --> 00:07:53,537 because the Lankavatara was too academic 217 00:07:53,804 --> 00:07:54,397 it is precise 218 00:07:54,643 --> 00:07:55,237 it is profound 219 00:07:55,763 --> 00:07:56,977 but the barrier is too high 220 00:07:57,523 --> 00:08:00,217 you need serious Buddhist training to get inside it 221 00:08:00,604 --> 00:08:02,136 the Diamond Sutra is different 222 00:08:02,563 --> 00:08:03,676 it does not lecture you on the eight consciousnesses 223 00:08:04,083 --> 00:08:05,376 or lecture you on seeds 224 00:08:05,443 --> 00:08:06,816 or lecture you on the three natures 225 00:08:07,284 --> 00:08:08,816 it tells you one thing only 226 00:08:09,124 --> 00:08:10,277 everything you are holding on to 227 00:08:10,963 --> 00:08:11,657 let go 228 00:08:11,973 --> 00:08:14,606 Hongren needed something more direct more fierce 229 00:08:14,894 --> 00:08:17,346 a scripture more like a blade to pass on the teaching 230 00:08:17,694 --> 00:08:19,867 the Diamond Sutra was exactly that blade 231 00:08:20,413 --> 00:08:22,387 and then Huineng appeared 232 00:08:22,574 --> 00:08:23,572 an illiterate man 233 00:08:23,574 --> 00:08:26,226 split open by a single line of this sutra 234 00:08:26,454 --> 00:08:28,212 later in Hongren's private room 235 00:08:28,214 --> 00:08:29,207 hearing that same line 236 00:08:29,493 --> 00:08:30,627 he fully awakened 237 00:08:30,853 --> 00:08:32,747 he went on to become the sixth patriarch of Chan 238 00:08:32,774 --> 00:08:35,747 one of the most important figures in Chinese Buddhist history 239 00:08:35,933 --> 00:08:37,733 and that instant of his awakening 240 00:08:37,733 --> 00:08:40,987 became the most famous scene in Chinese Buddhist history 241 00:08:41,414 --> 00:08:42,686 a man who could not read 242 00:08:42,973 --> 00:08:44,666 hit by one line from one sutra 243 00:08:44,773 --> 00:08:45,747 and pierced right through 244 00:08:46,175 --> 00:08:47,789 once this story spread 245 00:08:47,815 --> 00:08:50,748 no one could shake the standing of the Diamond Sutra again 246 00:08:51,256 --> 00:08:52,709 sit with that for a moment 247 00:08:52,935 --> 00:08:53,868 in India 248 00:08:53,975 --> 00:08:58,508 the stars of the Prajnaparamita system were epics of tens of thousands of lines 249 00:08:58,935 --> 00:09:01,189 scholars needed a whole lifetime to master them 250 00:09:01,455 --> 00:09:02,508 and in China 251 00:09:02,575 --> 00:09:05,908 an illiterate man was pierced straight through by the five thousand character digest 252 00:09:06,055 --> 00:09:07,854 this is not the victory of the Diamond Sutra 253 00:09:07,855 --> 00:09:09,175 it is the victory of the short 254 00:09:09,175 --> 00:09:10,049 the victory of the direct 255 00:09:10,335 --> 00:09:12,228 the victory of one line being enough 256 00:09:13,173 --> 00:09:16,065 there is one more piece of evidence for its power in China 257 00:09:16,132 --> 00:09:17,585 and a lot of people do not know it 258 00:09:18,012 --> 00:09:19,171 in the year nineteen hundred 259 00:09:19,173 --> 00:09:22,746 a sealed cave at the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang was opened by accident 260 00:09:23,093 --> 00:09:25,866 packed with ancient scrolls and documents 261 00:09:26,293 --> 00:09:27,651 and inside that treasure hoard 262 00:09:27,652 --> 00:09:29,285 was a printed copy of the Diamond Sutra 263 00:09:29,813 --> 00:09:32,346 with one line written clearly at the end of the scroll 264 00:09:32,652 --> 00:09:34,986 the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the ninth year of Xiantong 265 00:09:35,213 --> 00:09:36,986 that is the year eight sixty eight 266 00:09:37,333 --> 00:09:38,226 this scroll 267 00:09:38,252 --> 00:09:40,526 is the oldest known complete printed book 268 00:09:40,772 --> 00:09:43,866 in the world carrying a clear date 269 00:09:44,173 --> 00:09:47,585 nearly six hundred years before Gutenberg in Europe 270 00:09:48,651 --> 00:09:49,505 just think about it 271 00:09:49,572 --> 00:09:53,104 in the era when humans first mass printed text 272 00:09:53,251 --> 00:09:54,844 what did the Chinese choose to print 273 00:09:55,332 --> 00:09:56,484 not imperial edicts 274 00:09:56,812 --> 00:09:57,771 not military manuals 275 00:09:57,771 --> 00:09:58,484 not tax codes 276 00:09:58,771 --> 00:09:59,645 but the Diamond Sutra 277 00:10:00,291 --> 00:10:02,410 which tells you that in Tang China 278 00:10:02,411 --> 00:10:05,104 the Diamond Sutra was no longer just a scripture 279 00:10:05,291 --> 00:10:07,304 it was a piece of faith infrastructure 280 00:10:07,651 --> 00:10:11,025 copying the Diamond Sutra was believed to build enormous merit 281 00:10:11,171 --> 00:10:12,984 and printing it even more so 282 00:10:13,588 --> 00:10:14,382 around this one scripture 283 00:10:14,669 --> 00:10:16,761 ordinary people built a whole set of practices 284 00:10:16,988 --> 00:10:20,082 copying it chanting it printing it enshrining it 285 00:10:20,549 --> 00:10:24,842 Tang China was full of stories of miracles from reciting the Diamond Sutra 286 00:10:25,149 --> 00:10:27,602 a short text that barely ranked in India 287 00:10:27,709 --> 00:10:30,141 became in China from the temples to the streets 288 00:10:30,429 --> 00:10:33,561 the number one sutra read by emperors and illiterates alike 289 00:10:33,949 --> 00:10:35,002 now think about this again 290 00:10:35,069 --> 00:10:39,761 the long Prajnaparamita texts Indian scholars gave their whole lives to 291 00:10:39,909 --> 00:10:42,441 never once entered the life of an ordinary person 292 00:10:42,669 --> 00:10:44,667 while this condensed Diamond Sutra 293 00:10:44,669 --> 00:10:47,842 was chanted in China even by old women who could not read a word 294 00:10:48,108 --> 00:10:51,602 five thousand characters did what six hundred scrolls could not 295 00:10:52,388 --> 00:10:53,021 this comeback 296 00:10:53,309 --> 00:10:55,482 in the entire history of how religions spread 297 00:10:55,549 --> 00:10:57,281 counts as a miracle 298 00:10:58,096 --> 00:10:58,689 at this point 299 00:10:58,856 --> 00:10:59,974 I want to stop 300 00:10:59,976 --> 00:11:02,509 and ask the question this series keeps asking 301 00:11:02,895 --> 00:11:03,814 does this development 302 00:11:03,815 --> 00:11:06,748 bring us closer to what the Buddha saw under the bodhi tree 303 00:11:06,815 --> 00:11:08,328 or take us further away 304 00:11:08,976 --> 00:11:09,488 I think 305 00:11:09,856 --> 00:11:10,549 closer 306 00:11:10,976 --> 00:11:13,509 the core message of the Diamond Sutra is extremely simple 307 00:11:13,895 --> 00:11:15,509 do not cling to anything 308 00:11:15,655 --> 00:11:17,948 including not clinging to the teaching itself 309 00:11:18,376 --> 00:11:22,214 this matches the raft parable the Buddha told again and again in the early texts 310 00:11:22,216 --> 00:11:23,309 exactly 311 00:11:23,815 --> 00:11:25,248 the teaching is a tool for crossing the river 312 00:11:25,575 --> 00:11:27,029 once you are across you put it down 313 00:11:27,256 --> 00:11:28,974 if you do not even cling to the teaching 314 00:11:28,976 --> 00:11:30,328 what is left that could trap you 315 00:11:31,188 --> 00:11:33,042 but there is a trap hidden in here 316 00:11:33,269 --> 00:11:35,881 when the Diamond Sutra turns into a merit machine 317 00:11:35,948 --> 00:11:39,841 a tool where one copy averts disaster and one chant earns blessings 318 00:11:39,948 --> 00:11:44,162 it becomes precisely the thing the Buddha cut down inside that very sutra 319 00:11:44,509 --> 00:11:46,321 an object of attachment 320 00:11:46,709 --> 00:11:49,361 a scripture devoted to teaching you to let go of attachment 321 00:11:49,469 --> 00:11:51,922 became the scripture Chinese people cling to the most 322 00:11:52,188 --> 00:11:54,042 so is this the success of the teaching 323 00:11:54,109 --> 00:11:55,381 or the failure of the teaching 324 00:11:56,041 --> 00:11:56,834 I thought about it for a long time 325 00:11:57,121 --> 00:11:58,854 and I think maybe it is both 326 00:11:59,082 --> 00:12:00,135 the success is that 327 00:12:00,161 --> 00:12:02,721 it really did carry the deepest wisdom of Prajnaparamita 328 00:12:02,722 --> 00:12:04,694 to the widest possible group of people 329 00:12:04,962 --> 00:12:06,354 from Chang'an to Dunhuang 330 00:12:06,641 --> 00:12:08,375 from the palace to the woodshed 331 00:12:08,482 --> 00:12:10,814 every person literate or not 332 00:12:10,881 --> 00:12:14,854 had a chance to be struck by give rise to a mind that dwells nowhere 333 00:12:15,362 --> 00:12:16,115 the failure is that 334 00:12:16,482 --> 00:12:18,615 most people got hold of this blade 335 00:12:18,641 --> 00:12:20,294 and set it up on the altar 336 00:12:20,401 --> 00:12:22,334 never once using it to cut themselves 337 00:12:22,682 --> 00:12:24,694 they chanted the Diamond Sutra ten thousand times 338 00:12:24,761 --> 00:12:28,535 and never once took a swing at the thing they actually cling to 339 00:12:29,210 --> 00:12:29,523 still 340 00:12:30,009 --> 00:12:31,168 have you ever considered 341 00:12:31,169 --> 00:12:32,448 that this paradox itself 342 00:12:32,450 --> 00:12:35,143 may be exactly what the Buddha saw coming 343 00:12:35,489 --> 00:12:37,702 he built a trigger into the sutra on purpose 344 00:12:38,169 --> 00:12:38,523 he said 345 00:12:38,970 --> 00:12:40,082 if you seek me in form 346 00:12:40,289 --> 00:12:41,648 or seek me in sound 347 00:12:41,649 --> 00:12:42,802 you are walking a false path 348 00:12:43,129 --> 00:12:44,542 and you will not see the Tathagata 349 00:12:44,970 --> 00:12:46,688 even attachment to the Buddha himself 350 00:12:46,690 --> 00:12:48,342 he cut away in advance 351 00:12:48,690 --> 00:12:49,603 it is just that most people 352 00:12:49,810 --> 00:12:51,528 copied that passage out too 353 00:12:51,529 --> 00:12:52,983 and set it on the altar 354 00:12:53,388 --> 00:12:53,742 all right 355 00:12:54,228 --> 00:12:56,722 today we followed the long march of a short scripture 356 00:12:56,988 --> 00:13:00,602 from an unremarkable little chapter in India's Prajnaparamita family 357 00:13:00,628 --> 00:13:03,242 to the number one sutra of an entire Chinese civilization 358 00:13:03,868 --> 00:13:07,921 a genius of translation a cultural resonance an illiterate man's awakening 359 00:13:08,029 --> 00:13:09,761 three forces stacked on top of each other 360 00:13:09,829 --> 00:13:11,322 and completed this comeback 361 00:13:12,029 --> 00:13:14,322 but the Diamond Sutra is after all only a blade 362 00:13:14,789 --> 00:13:16,401 it tells you what should be cut 363 00:13:16,628 --> 00:13:18,962 but it never answers a more fundamental question 364 00:13:19,549 --> 00:13:20,381 why can it be cut 365 00:13:21,069 --> 00:13:22,822 why can absolutely everything be cut away 366 00:13:23,588 --> 00:13:24,261 and after the cutting is done 367 00:13:24,588 --> 00:13:25,541 what is left 368 00:13:26,141 --> 00:13:26,654 there was one man 369 00:13:26,940 --> 00:13:28,554 who was not satisfied with only using the blade 370 00:13:29,180 --> 00:13:30,099 he wanted to prove 371 00:13:30,101 --> 00:13:32,753 that nothing in this world is beyond cutting 372 00:13:33,340 --> 00:13:35,054 and what he used was not faith 373 00:13:35,180 --> 00:13:36,140 not intuition 374 00:13:36,141 --> 00:13:37,074 but logic 375 00:13:37,300 --> 00:13:40,434 pure cold airtight logic 376 00:13:40,781 --> 00:13:42,314 this man was Nagarjuna 377 00:13:42,766 --> 00:13:43,566 next episode 378 00:13:43,621 --> 00:13:46,833 we meet the man who pushed emptiness to its absolute limit 379 00:13:47,535 --> 00:13:50,308 in the comeback story of the Diamond Sutra in China 380 00:13:50,334 --> 00:13:51,647 which part moves you the most 381 00:13:52,094 --> 00:13:53,448 is it Kumarajiva's translation 382 00:13:53,895 --> 00:13:55,227 is it the cultural resonance 383 00:13:55,334 --> 00:13:57,288 or is it Huineng's flash of lightning 384 00:13:57,934 --> 00:13:59,828 tell me in the comments 385 00:14:00,015 --> 00:14:00,727 I am Leo Wang 386 00:14:01,094 --> 00:14:02,347 see you next episode