The Diamond sutras

[Nick Weech]

Diamond Sutra - Wikipedia


A copy of the Tang dynasty–Chinese version of the Diamond Sūtra was found among the Dunhuang manuscripts in 1900 by Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu and sold to Aurel Stein in 1907.[2] They are dated back to 11 May 868.[3]


Wang Yuanlu - Wikipedia


Aurel Stein - Wikipedia


***


Dunhuang manuscripts - Wikipedia


The majority of the surviving texts come from a large cache of documents produced at the historic printing center between the late 4th and early 11th centuries, which had been sealed in the so-called 'Library Cave' (Cave 17) at some point in the early 11th century. The printing center at Sachu (Dunhuang) was also Tibet's imperial printing house during the 8th and 9th centuries, when Tibet controlled the Silk Roads.[1][2]


The Library Cave was discovered by a Daoist monk called Wang Yuanlu in 1900, and undocumented contents of the caves were subsequently taken to England and France by European explorers Stein and Pelliot. Knowing the philological value of the Dunhuang manuscripts, Stein and Pelliot bought them from Wang and took them from China to Europe.


In addition to the Library Cave, manuscripts and printed texts have also been discovered in several other caves at the site. Notably, Pelliot retrieved a large number of documents from Caves 464 and 465 in the northern section of the Mogao Caves. These documents mostly date to the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), several hundred years after the Library Cave was sealed, and are written in various languages, including Tibetan, Chinese, and Old Uyghur.[3]


The Dunhuang documents include works ranging from history, medicine[4] and mathematics to folk songs and dance. There are also many religious documents, most of which are Buddhist, but other religions and philosophy including Daoism, Confucianism, Nestorian Christianity, Judaism, and Manichaeism, are also represented. The majority of the manuscripts Pelliot took and are stored in the Bibliothèque nationale de France's collection are in Tibetan.[5] Other languages represented are Chinese, Khotanese, Kuchean, Sanskrit, Sogdian, Tibetan, Old Uyghur, Prakrit, Hebrew, and Old Turkic.[6] The manuscripts are a major resource for academic studies in a wide variety of fields including history, medicine, religious studies, linguistics, and manuscript studies.[7]

Part two follows after a moment ...

 

[Nick Weech]

PART TWO: Pending approval of course ...



Rudolf Hoernlé - Wikipedia

Bower Manuscript - Wikipedia

The fragmentary manuscript was analysed, edited, translated, and published by Calcutta-based Rudolf Hoernle.

Islam Akhun - Wikipedia

Asanga - Wikipedia Yogachara - Wikipedia

Lambert Schmithausen - Wikipedia

Sandhinirmocana Sutra - Wikipedia

Like many early Mahāyāna sūtras, precise dating for the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra is difficult to achieve. Étienne Lamotte believed that the text was assembled from earlier, independent fragments.[6] Other scholars believe that the apparently fragmentary nature of the early versions of the scripture may represent piecemeal attempts at translation, rather than a composite origin for the text itself.[7] The earliest forms of the text may date from as early as the 1st or 2nd Century CE.[7] The final form of the text was probably assembled no earlier than the 3rd Century CE, and by the 4th Century significant commentaries on the text began to be composed by Buddhist scholars, most notably by Asaṅga.[7]

Étienne Lamotte - Wikipedia

He is also known for his French translation of the Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa (Chinese: 大智度論, English: Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom), a text attributed to Nāgārjuna. Lamotte thought that the text was most likely composed by an Indian bhikkhu from the Sarvastivada tradition, who later became a convert to Mahayana Buddhism. Lamotte's translation was published in five volumes but unfortunately remains incomplete, since his death put an end to his efforts.

Nagarjuna - Wikipedia

Very little is reliably known of the life of Nāgārjuna and modern historians do not agree on a specific date (1st to 3rd century CE) or place (multiple places in India suggested) for him.[8] The earliest surviving accounts were written in Chinese and Tibetan centuries after his death and are mostly hagiographical accounts that are historically unverifiable.[8]

“Nagarjuna, the founder of Madhyamaka, is an enigma. Scholars are unable to agree on a date for him (within the first three centuries AD), or a place (almost anywhere in India), or even the number of Nagarjuna's (from one to four). This article suggests that none of the commonly advanced arguments about his date or habitat can be proved; that later Nagarjunas are more likely to have been (in some sense) the authors of pseudepigrapha than real indi[1]viduals; that the most attractive (though unproved) reading of the evidence sets Nagarjuna in the general area of Andhra country in about the third century AD [2]”

Madhyamaka - Wikipedia

“ It is well known that medieval Chinese Taoism was influenced by Mahayana Buddhism. One particular school, the Chongxuan (重玄, "Twofold Mystery") founded by Cheng Xuanying (fl.632–650), was particularly involved in borrowing and adapting madhyamaka concepts like emptiness, the two truths and the catuskoti into their Taoist philosophical system.[193]

“ As noted by Ruegg, Western scholarship has given a broad variety of interpretations of madhyamaka, including: "nihilism, monism, irrationalism, misology, agnosticism, scepticism, criticism,dialectic, mysticism, acosmism, absolutism, relativism, nominalism, and linguistic analysis with therapeutic value".[235]

Jay L. Garfield likewise notes:

Modern interpreters differ among themselves about the correct way to read it as least as much as canonical interpreters. Nagarjuna has been read as an idealist (Murti 1960), a nihilist (Wood 1994), a skeptic (Garfield 1995), a pragmatist (Kalupahana 1986), and as a mystic (Streng 1967). He has been regarded as a critic of logic (Inada 1970), as a defender of classical logic (Hayes 1994), and as a pioneer of paraconsistent logic (Garfield and Priest 2003).[236]

These interpretations "reflect almost as much about the viewpoints of the scholars involved as do they reflect the content of Nāgārjuna's concepts".[237] ”

 

[Tapioca]

I know you are talking about the history and authenticity of the diamond sutra that we know.

I re-read the diamond sutra and had forgotten the 32 physical marks of a Buddha.

Chapter 26-7 - Summary

Buddha: "Can you recognize a Buddha by 32 physical marks?"​

Subhuti: "Yes."​

Buddha: "You can't."​

Subhuti: "I understand you cannot recognize a Buddha by the 32 physical marks."​

Buddha: "You can."​

The 32 marks say he is 7 feet tall, very long webbed fingers and toes, recessed private organ, luminous golden skin, "a crown-protrusion made of radiant flesh, round and circling clockwise," extra teeth, very long tongue, canine teeth brightly luminated, blue eyes.

This crown protrusion is called an ushnisha and is made of flesh, it is not a top knot hairstyle. Some cultures depict it more like a flame.

The description of Buddha sounds like the stories of the white giants (usually violent cannibals) found around the world. If they said red hair it would seal the deal. Having a spiral protrusion from his head is new to me. Naturally his canines (eye teeth) are brighter than the other teeth.

32 Marks of a Buddha

1. On the sole of each of a Buddha’s feet and on the palm of each hand is the impression of a thousand-spoked wheel.
2. The soles of a Buddha’s feet are as smooth and level as the breast of a tortoise’s shell so that his feet are always firmly planted.
3. The fingers and toes of a Buddha are connected with a web of white light.
4. The skin of a Buddha, no matter how old he is, remains unwrinkled and as smooth as that of an infant nursing on his mother’s milk.
5. Seven parts of his body are rounded and slightly raised. These are the tops of each hand, foot, shoulder, and the back of his neck.
6. The fingers and toes are extremely long.
7. A Buddha’s heels jut out broadly from his feet.
8. The body of a Buddha is very straight and seven cubits tall. A cubit is the distance from elbow to fingertip; ordinary persons are usually four cubits tall.
9. His elbows and kneecaps do not stand out.
10. His bodily hair grows upwards.
11. His calves are well-rounded, like the legs of an antelope.
12. The arms of a Buddha are extremely long. When he sits cross-legged with his elbows at his side, his hands cover his knees so that his fingers can touch his seat.
13. His private organ is recessed and remains concealed.
14. His skin is luminous and golden in color.
15. His skin is likewise as fine and unblemished as purified gold free from all taints.
16. A Buddha’s bodily hair curls clockwise, with never more than one hair growing from each pore.
17. He has a white treasure-like curl of hair on his mid-brow that curls very tightly clockwise. When it is pulled from its tip, it extends a huge distance, and when released, it tightly recoils.
18. The upper torso of a Buddha becomes progressively broader, like that of a lion.
19. The top of a Buddha’s shoulders are round and well-connected to his neck, and his network of veins is not visible.
20. The area between a Buddha’s collarbone and shoulder is rounded, fleshy, and full, without any hollow depression.
21. A Buddha has a special faculty of taste that no matter what food he is given, it always tastes delicious.
22. The body of a Buddha is as stately and well-proportioned as a full-grown bodhi tree. The Pali tradition uses the analogy here of a banyan tree.
23. The top of his head has a crown-protrusion (ushnisha), made of radiant flesh, round and circling clockwise. When seen from a distance, it seems to be four finger-widths high, but upon closer scrutiny, its height can never be measured.
24. A Buddha’s tongue is extremely long and can reach the top of his head, his ears, and his chest.
25. His voice is melodious like that of an ancient song-bird, flowing without any effort, or like that of a Brahma. Whoever hears the voice of a Brahma is temporarily relieved of his or her problems. But the sound of a Buddha’s melodious and resonant enlightening speech can bring about full liberation from all fears.
26. His cheeks are round and full like those of a lion.
27. The eye teeth (canine teeth) of a Buddha are more brilliantly white than his other teeth are
28. His teeth are all of equal length.
29. A Buddha’s teeth are perfectly aligned and straight, with no gaps between them.
30. His teeth are forty in number, with an equal amount on the upper and lower jaw.
31. The black and white portions of a Buddha’s eyes are clear and distinct, with no red or yellow discolorations. The Furthest Everlasting Stream tradition adds that the eyes of a Buddha are dark blue like a blue water lily, while the Pali tradition simply has that a Buddha’s eyes are dark blue.
32. His eyelashes are beautiful and long, like those of a bull, with each hair distinct.

And I find this comforting.

“So I say to you – This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:”​

“Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;​

Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,​

Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.”​

“So is all conditioned existence to be seen.”​

Thus spoke Buddha.​

- Diamond Sutra Chapter 32​