Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra

वज्रच्छेदिकाप्रज्ञापारमितासूत्र

Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra

འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཅོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

'phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo

大般若波羅蜜多經

Dà bān ruò jīng chū huì xù

The Diamond Sūtra; The Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra called The Diamond Cutter

D16   ·  T220,235,236,237,238,239

SOURCE TEXT

One of the most revered and recited scriptures of the perfection of wisdom genre (prajñāpāramitāsūtras), perhaps second only to the Heart Sūtra, both of which became especially popular in the East Asian Buddhist traditions. It is a crucial source for Mahāyāna tenets of selflessness and the emptiness of phenomena, and its discourse is framed as an explanation of how to enter into the vehicle of the bodhisattvas by developing and sustaining their enlightened perspective.

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Relevance to Buddha-nature

Though this is generally considered an important source text for the Madhayamaka teachings, it is quoted in the Uttaratantra, though it is not explicitly cited as the source of the quotation.

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Translations of This Text

• Price, A. F., and Wong Mou-Lam, trans. The Diamond Sutra and The Sutra of Hui Neng. The Clear Light Series. Berkeley, CA: Shambhala Publications, 1973.
• Read Pine, trans. The Diamond Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint Press, 2001.
• Ch'ih, Heng (Buddhist Text Translation Society), trans. The Diamond Sūtra: A General Explanation of the Vajra Prajñā Pāramitā Sūtra by Dhyāna Master Hsüan Hua. San Francisco: Sino-American Buddhist Association, 1974.
• Cornu, Philippe, and Patrick Carré, trans. Soûtra du diamant: Et autres soûtras de la voie médiane. Paris: Fayard, 2001.
• Conze, Edward, trans. Buddhist Wisdom Books Containing the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra. New York: Allen and Unwin, 1958.
• Conze, Edward, trans. Buddhist Wisdom Books Containing the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. https://terebess.hu/english/diamond.pdf.
• Conze, Edward, trans. "The Diamond Sutra." In Perfect Wisdom: The Short Prajñāpāramitā Texts, 122-39. London: Luzac, 1973.
• Beal, Samuel, trans. "Vajracchedika, the 'Kin Kong King,' or Diamond Sūtra." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1, no. 1/2 (1865): 1-24. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25207647.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Ac519a90328c18b31c9a4579be30dd1e3.
• Müller, F. Max, trans. "The Vagrakkhedikâ." In Buddhist Mahâyâna Texts, edited by F. Max Müller, pt. 2, 109–44. Sacred Books of the East 49. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1894. https://archive.org/details/buddhistmahy01asvauoft/page/108/mode/2up.
• Gemmell, William, trans. The Diamond Sutra (Chin-Kang-Ching), or Prajna-Paramita. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1912. https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.3882/page/n1/mode/2up.
• Konow, Sten, ed. and trans. "The Vajracchedikā in the Old Khotanese Version of Eastern Turkestan." In Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan: Facsimiles with Transcripts Translations and Notes, edited by A. F. Rudolf Hoernle et al., 214–39 (intro); 239-76 (text); 276-88 (trans). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1916. https://archive.org/details/cu31924023185584/page/n253/mode/2up.
• Wai-tao, Bhikshu, and Dwight Goddard trans. "The Diamond Sutra." In A Buddhist Bible. Rev. and enl. ed. Edited by Dwight Goddard, 87–107. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1938. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.279263/page/n95/mode/2up.
• Lee, Shao Chang, trans. "The Diamond Sutra: Translated from Kumarajiva's Chinese Version." In Popular Buddhism in China: With Translations of Ten Buddhist Poems, Thirty-Two Buddhist Proverbs, Hsüan Ts'ang's "Essence of the Wisdom Sutra," and Kumarajiva's "Diamond Sutra", 27–52. Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1940.
• Kuan, Ven. Cheng, trans. The Diamond Prajna-Paramita Sutra (The Diamond Sutra): An Annotated Edition with Chinese Text. 2nd ed. Taipei: Vairocana Publishing, 2007. https://archive.org/details/DiamondSutra/page/n1/mode/2up.
• Harrison, Paul. "Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā: A New English Translation of the Sanskrit Text Based on Two Manuscripts from Greater Gandhāra." In Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection. Vol. 3, edited by Jens Braarvig, 133–59. Oslo: Hermes Publishing, 2006. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c03ced75ffd204418037b7a/t/5c5306ce575d1f9230da8a6a/1548945103490/Diamond+Sutra-Paul+Harrison+tr.pdf.
• Schopen, Gregory, ed. and trans. "The Manuscript of the Vajracchedikā Found at Gilgit: An Annotated Transcription and Translation." In Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle: Three Mahāyāna Buddhist Texts, edited by Luis O. Gómez and Jonathan A. Silk, 89–139. Ann Arbor, MI: Collegiate Institute for the Study of Buddhist Literature and Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, The University of Michigan, 1989.
• Soeng, Mu, trans. The Diamond Sutra: Transforming the Way We Perceive the World. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000.
• Nhat Hanh, Thich, trans. The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion: Commentaries on the Prajñaparamita Sutra. Rev. ed. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2010. https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Thich%20Nhat%20Hanh%20-%20The%20Diamond%20That%20Cuts%20Through%20I.pdf
• Schopen, Gregory, trans. "The Perfection of Wisdom." In Buddhist Scriptures, edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., 450–63. London: Penguin Books, 2004.
• Poppe, Nicholas, trans. The Diamond Sutra: Three Mongolian Versions of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramirā; Texts, Translations, Notes, and Glossaries. Asiatische Forschungen 35. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1971.
• Tsultrim, Gelong Thubten (George Churinoff), trans. The Exalted Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Wisdom Gone Beyond Called The Vajra Cutter. Based on the Tibetan Lhasa Zhol printing. Portland, OR: Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, 2011. https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/sutras/vajra_cutter_sutra_c5.pdf.
• Gnoli, Raniero, ed. Testi Buddhisti in Sanscrito. Classici della Religioni 42. Turin, Italy: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1983.

Recensions of This Text

Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra. (The Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra called The Diamond Cutter). Recension information:

Sanskrit	वज्रच्छेदिकाप्रज्ञापारमितासूत्र (Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra). Harrison, Paul, and Shōgō Watanabe, eds. (Sanskrit manuscript). Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, Vol. III. Oslo: Hermes Publishing, 2006. https://www2.hf.uio.no/polyglotta/index.php?page=volume&vid=1133. Pargiter. F. E. "Vajracchedikā in the Original Sanskrit," in A.F. Rudolf Hoernle, Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan. Oxford: Clarendon Pr., p. 176-195; cf. p. 239-288, 1916. Müller, Friedrich Max, trans. "Vagrakkhedikâ, The Diamond-Cutter." In Buddhist Texts from Japan, 13-46. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881–84. https://archive.org/details/buddhisttextsfr00bhgoog/page/n7/mode/2up. Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita. Edited by Vaidya, P. L. Darbhanga in: Mahayana-sutra-samgrahah, Part 1. Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute 1961 (Buddhist Sanskrit Texts, 17). Input by members of the Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Input Project: http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/403/1863 Conze, Edward. Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā. Rome: IsMEO (SOR 13); 2nd rev. ed, 1974, (originally published in 1957); ed. pp. 27-63, tr. pp. 65-92. Schopen, Gregory. The Manuscript of the Vajracchedikā Found at Gilgit, in Studies in the Literature of the Great Vehicle: Three Mahāyāna Buddhist Texts (ed. by L. O. Gómez and J. A. Silk) Ann Arbor, pp. 89-139, 1989.
Tibetan	འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཅོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, ('phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo). BCRD Link: http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/index.php?id=fe8dc4d8de32393b3d2e6e0e82d37cfa&enc=tibetan_wylie_title&coll=kangyur Derge 16, shes rab sna tshogs, ka 121a1-132b7 (vol. 34), translated by Śīlendrabodhi and Ye shes sde. Also appears in Q 739, sher phyin, tsi 161b2-175b8 (vol. 21, p.250); N 18, sna tshogs, ka 222a6-240a3 (vol. 34).; C 1006, sna tshogs, ka 169a8-186a6 (vol. 78); H 18, sna tshogs, ka 215a4-235b7 (vol. 34); J 18, sna tshogs, ka 151b8-164b8 (vol. 39); U 16, shes rab sna tshogs, ka 121a1-132b7 (vol. 34).
Chinese	大般若經初會序 (Dà bān ruò jīng chū huì xù), T220(09), 05: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0220.html, translated by Xuanzang. 金剛般若波羅蜜經 (Jīn gāng bān ruò bō luó mì jīng), T235, 08: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0235.html, translated by Kumārajīva. 金剛般若波羅蜜經 (Jīn gāng bān ruò bō luó mì jīng), T236, 08: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0236.html, translated by Bodhiruci. 金剛般若波羅蜜經 (Jīn gāng bān ruò bō luó mì jīng), T237, 08: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0237.html, translated by Paramārtha. 金剛能斷般若波羅蜜經 (Jīn gāng néng duàn bān ruò bō luó mì jīng), T238, 08: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0238.html, translated by Dharmagupta. 能斷 金剛般若波羅蜜多經 (Néng duàn jīn gāng bān ruò bō luó mì duō jīng), T239, 08: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0239.html, translated by Yijing.

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ ārya-vajracchedikā-nāma-prajñāpāramitā-mahāyāna-sūtra
Text exists in	~ Sanskrit ~ Tibetan ~ Chinese
Canonical Genre	~ Kangyur · Sūtra · sher phyin · Prajñāpāramitā
Literary Genre	~ Sūtras - mdo

sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

anātman - The nonexistence of the self as a permanent, unchanging entity. Skt. अनात्मन् Tib. བདག་མེད་པ་ Ch. 无我

Uttaratantra - The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. Skt. उत्तरतन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ Ch. 寶性論

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt. प्रज्ञापारमिता Tib. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་,ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ Ch. 般若波羅蜜多

prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt. प्रज्ञा Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ Ch. 般若

pāramitā - The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, power, aspirations, power and pristine wisdom are added to them ten perfections. Skt. पारमिता Tib. ཕར་ཕྱིན།,ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ། Ch. 波羅蜜

Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt. प्रज्ञापारमिता Tib. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་,ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ Ch. 般若波羅蜜多

Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt. प्रज्ञापारमिता Tib. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་,ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ Ch. 般若波羅蜜多

IsMEO - Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente

BCRD - The Buddhist Canons Research Database a project of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS) and the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies (CCBS) http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/

pramāṇa - In the Buddhist literature on pramāṇa, it refers to cognition that correctly apprehends its object without any deception or mistake. Such correct cognition include direct perception and inferential cognition. Skt. प्रमान Tib. ཚད་མ། Ch. 量

Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

The Awakening of Faith is a key source text for buddha-nature theory in East Asian Buddhism.

amalavijñāna - The ninth consciousness, the immaculate pure mind. Ch. 啊摩羅識,無垢識