The Diamond Sutra Chin Kang Ching

This book, first published in 1912, is an English translation of The Diamond Sutra from the Chinese text of Kumarajiva, one of the most metaphysical of the works ascribed to Buddha. With parallel passages and numerous annotations, this is a classic translation of the one of the most important texts in Chinese Buddhism.

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. We have represented this book in the same form as it was first published. Hence any marks seen are left intentionally to preserve its true nature.

An excerpt from the beginning of the INTRODUCTION. The Diamond Sutra is one of the most valued and widely read philosophical works in Buddhist literature. It is very popular amongst ardent Buddhists in China, and excepting the Lotus of the Good Law, and the Len Yen-Ching, perhaps no other Sutra ascribed to Buddha is regarded by the Chinese with so great esteem. In Japan, The Diamond Sutra appears to be perused extensively by what Max Muller termed the Shin-Gon sect, founded by Ko-Bo, a disciple of the renowned pilgrim Hiuen-Tsang, about the year 816 A.D. The Diamond Sutra was written originally in Sanskrit, and in process of time translated into the Tibetan, Chinese, Mongol, and Manchu languages. It represents the Mahayana school of Buddhist thought, a school founded by Nagardjuna, which flourished primarily at Tchakuka, and thereafter influenced appreciably a considerable part of the Buddhist Church. In the year 1836, Csomo Korosi published an account of the Tibetan translation, which interesting document may be consulted in Vol. XX. of the Asiatic Researches. The Diamond Sutra is therein designated "The Sutra of Wonderful Effects," a treatise by means of which Sakyamuni Buddha instructs Subhuti, one of his conspicuous disciples, in The Prajna - Paramita of transcendent wisdom. To Kumarajiva, a native of Kashmir, who gained distinction as a monk of the later Chin dynasty (am. 384-417), is conceded the honour of having first translated The Diamond Sutra into the Chinese language. Of subsequent Chinese translations, perhaps the most noteworthy is the text ascribed to the scholarly Hiuen Tsang, and completed about the middle of the seventh century. A rendering into English of Kumarajiva's Chinese translation was accomplished by the Rev. S. Beal, and published in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1864-65. The text and German translation of the Tibetan version were published in 1873 by M. Schmidt, in The Me'moires de l'Académie St Pétersbourg. The Mongolian translation was presented by the Baron de Constadt to the library of the Institut de France. The Manchu translation is in the possession of M. de Harlez, who, with the aid of the Tibetan, Manchu, and Chinese versions, published a French translation of the Sanscrit text of The Diamond Sutra in the Journal Asiatique, 1892. It has been observed that "at first sight it may seem as if this metaphysical treatise hardly deserved the worldwide reputation which it has attained." Regarding this descriptive "world-wide reputation," devout Buddhists might suggest in extenuation, that throughout many centuries, the "spiritual wisdom" of The Diamond Sutra produced in countless minds a "conscious blessedness of perfect peace." This "spiritual wisdom" also appeared to be a "strong incentive to holiness," and a grateful inspiration to those who had entered "the path which leads to Nirvana." In a few renowned monasteries of Central China, our Buddhist friends frequently affirmed that, by contemplating the "spiritual wisdom" of The Diamond Sutra, the mind would inevitably become "transfused with the mellow light of imperishable truth."

A masterful translation of the Diamond Sutra—with insightful commentary and helpful historical information for parsing this essential Zen Buddhist scripture Zen Buddhism is often said to be a practice of mind–to–mind transmission without reliance on texts—in fact, some great teachers forbid their students to read or write. But Buddhism has also inspired some of the greatest philosophical writings of any religion, and two such works lie at the center of Zen: The Heart Sutra, which monks recite all over the world, and The Diamond Sutra, said to contain answers to all questions of delusion and dualism. This is the Buddhist teaching on the perfection of wisdom and cuts through all obstacles on the path of practice. As Red Pine explains: The Diamond Sutra may look like a book, but it’s really the body of the Buddha. It’s also your body, my body, all possible bodies. But it’s a body with nothing inside and nothing outside. It doesn’t exist in space or time. Nor is it a construct of the mind. It’s no mind. And yet because it’s no mind, it has room for compassion. This book is the offering of no mind, born of compassion for all suffering beings. Of all the sutras that teach this teaching, this is the diamond.