The Diamond Sutra (Chin-Kang-Ching) or Prajna-Paramita

10 The Chinese Ma-Ming.

11 Compare the Chinese text of the Chi-Sin-Pien—The Awakening of Faith.

12 In the preface to The Vagrakkhedika.

13 “Supreme spiritual wisdom.” In Beal’s Kin-Kong-King, “The unsurpassed, just, and enlightened heart.” (Sanscrit, “Annuttara Samyak Sambodhi Hridaya.”)

14 According to the text of The Diamond Sutra, the intellect of Sakyamuni Buddha sank so profoundly into the past, that he was enabled to speak confidently of his experiences in previous incarnations. (Compare pp. 56, 57.)

15 From the text adopted by Mr H. Oelsner, M.A., Ph.D., for The Temple Classics.

16 Dr Edkins, in his scholarly work Chinese Buddhism, seems to have regarded “the Law or body of doctrine” as an accurate definition of Dharma.

Dr Eitel, in his Handbook of Chinese Buddhism, explained Dharma by “Fah”—“Law”; and observed that it is “a general term for religious objects, especially for the Buddhistic Canon.”

Mr Vincent A. Smith, in Asoka, Buddhist Emperor of India, suggested that the Chinese Hsiao (piety), and the Latin Pietas, coincide with the Sanscrit term Dharma.

17 The Chinese phrase is “Fah-sing-chen-ru-hai.”

18See the Tao-Teh-Ching. Compare, also, the statement attributed to Confucius—“Nature and Truth cannot be adequately expressed.”

19 Or Dharma.

20 Compare The Light of Asia. Perhaps this aspect of the “Law” of Buddha may be conceived of as harmonising with Shakespeare’s idea of a “Divinity.”

21 It may be interesting to observe that, according to our Chinese text, Sakyamuni Buddha evidently disclaimed any desire to formulate, or to perpetuate, a stereotyped system of “Law” or “doctrine.” Sakyamuni Buddha also made it plain, that the “Law” which he enunciated, was presented before the minds of his disciples in the simile of a “raft”—a thing to be abandoned when the mind “touched the further shore” of everlasting truth. It seems to be in this tentative sense that intellectual Buddhists regard all ecclesiastical institutions, priesthoods, dogmas, ordinances, etc.; and we have met monks who would classify belief in the “efficacy” of religious rites or ceremonies, with obnoxious forms of “heresy” and “immorality.” (Compare Rhys Davids’ Buddhism.) With regard to the Buddhist objection concerning the “efficacy” of religious “rites,” compare the noble sentiments expressed in the following lines, delightfully rendered by Sir Edwin Arnold from the Bhagavad-Gita (The Song Celestial):—

“Serenity of soul, benignity,

Sway of the silent spirit, constant stress

To sanctify the nature,—these things make

Good rite, and true religiousness of mind.”

22 Max Müller suggests that Samgna and Dharma “correspond in many respects to the Vedantic Namarupe”—in Chinese Ming-Seh—name, form, or characteristic.

23 Compare p. 86.

24 Compare p. 55.

25 Compare p. 80.

26 Compare p. 76.

27 Compare p. 95.

28 Some modern Japanese Buddhists appear to regard this purely spiritual element as “essence of mind.”

29 From the preface to The Vagrakkhedika.

30 Compare p. 110.

31 Compare the interesting dialogue entitled The Enlightenment of Ananda, in which Sakyamuni instructs his distinguished disciple in ideas concerning the subjective and objective phenomena of mind.

32 Compare pp. 102, 103.

33 Bodhisattvas—greatly enlightened disciples.

34Vidya Matra Siddhi, a philosophical work by Vasubandhu, a native of Radjagriha, and disciple of Nagarjuna, founder of the Mahayana school. (Compare Eitel’s Handbook of Chinese Buddhism.)

35 Compare the process of reasoning which permeates the entire Diamond Sutra. We hope no injustice is done to our Japanese friends, by applying to their beautiful concept “essence of mind,” this familiar logical method of Sakyamuni Buddha.

36 Fah-Shen—the Law, or spiritual body. Compare Shen-Shen, the term usually employed in the Chinese rendering of the New Testament Scriptures to denote the spiritual body.

37 Gatha—usually a Scripture verse comprising four lines.

38 Compare the following lines from The Song Celestial.—

“I am not known

To evil-doers, ... nor to those

Whose mind is cheated by the show of things.”

39 In Buddhist phraseology, Yuen-Chioh means the study, by means of contemplation, of primary spiritual causes.

40 Compare Beal’s rendering in the Kin-Kong-King, “Tathagata is the explanation as it were of all systems of Law.” See also The Book of the Manifesting of the One and Manifold in The Song Celestial, the verse commencing:—