The Diamond Sutra - overcoming Suffering through Wisdom

This product is kind of donation, will not be listed in invoice. We can provide receipt if needed.

The Diamond is part a large canon of early Mahayana sutras called the Prajnaparamita Sutras. Prajnaparamita means "perfection of wisdom." In Mahayana Buddhism, the perfection of wisdom is the realization or direct experience of sunyata (emptiness). The Heart Sutra also is one of the Prajnaparamita Sutras. Sometimes these sutras are referred to as the "prajna" or "wisdom" literature.
 
Mahayana Buddhist legend says that the Prajnaparamita Sutras were dictated by the historical Buddha to various disciples. They were then hidden for about 500 years and only discovered when people were ready to learn from them. However, scholars believe they were written in India beginning in the 1st century BCE and continuing for a few more centuries. For the most part, the oldest surviving versions of these texts are Chinese translations that date from the early first millennium CE.
 
A vitally important message of the Diamond Sutra is that non-abiding should not be misconstrued as a nihilistic sort of practice. On the other hand, it also does not imply simply giving free reign to one's thoughts, since then, one is certainly going to get further wrapped up in the dense web of one's own spinning. Non-abiding necessitates the kind of moment-to-moment attentiveness that is awesome in its required subtlety. Nonetheless, with just a modicum of experience in meditative practice, the new student of the Diamond Sutra will no doubt begin to get some sort of feel for what is going on in this text. In a sense, it is simple: the thoughts, labels, signs, characteristics, etc., that we associate with given things, are nothing more than labels, and should not be imputed as the reality of the thing in itself, thus becoming reified objects of our desire and dislike. Yet there is also such a thing as thinking and seeing correctly, and it is permissible, nay, necessary, to use these notions, signs, and labels to function in daily life, and especially to study Buddhism for the aim of attaining enlightenment. Thus, Buddhism (and any other responsible contemplative tradition) cannot condone any attitude that recommends negating, or running away from any of the experiences that impinge upon our consciousness. Nor can it maintain that there is any such thing as a fixed, or final truth. As the Daodejing says, “The Way that can be taught is not the true Way.” Either of these extreme options are none other than another form of abiding, or appropriation.

目錄╱ Table of contents

經典念誦╱Sutra Chanting
靈鷲山前行法儀╱ LJM preparatory ritual for group practice
金剛般若波羅蜜經╱ The Diamond Sutra – overcoming Suffering through Wisdom
靈鷲山結行法儀╱ LJM closing ritual for group practice 
般若波羅蜜多心經╱ The Heart of the Perfection of Great Wisdom Sutra
千手千眼無礙大悲心陀羅尼（大悲咒）╱ The Great Compassion Mantra（Dabei Zhou）

經典意譯╱Sutra Text Translation in English
金剛般若波羅蜜經╱ The Diamond Sutra – overcoming Suffering through Wisdom
般若波羅蜜多心經╱ The Heart of the Perfection of Great Wisdom Sutra 

Appendix
金剛經釋義╱ The Sixth Patriarch Dajian Huineng’s Commentary on the Diamond Sutra