The Vajra (Diamond) Sutra

March 11 lecture©
as outlined by a Buddhist monk
(Listen ‘live’ or recorded audio explanations at
www.wondrousdharma.org)

Q&A Pain in the leg? – pointing to the mind

S 26 The Dharma Body is not appearances
S 27 Not destroyed nor annihilated
S 28 No greed and nothing acquired

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 Verse for opening a sutra
• Homage to the Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra and the
Vajra assembly of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (3x)

• The unsurpassed, deep, profound, subtle, wonderful

Dharma,
• In a hundred thousand million eons, is difficult to
encounter,
• Now that I’ve come to receive and hold it, within my
sight and hearing,
• I vow to fathom the Thus Come One’s true and
actual meaning.

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 Q&A
Question: Is there a balance between letting it be and taking
action to uncross the legs when you feel the pain?

Comments:

• “Let it be’ is to be patient.

• “Taking action” is to uncross the legs.

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 Q&A
• When you first sit in full lotus, you may find that you have
pain in the legs and back in the first half hour.

• Then after persevering and constant practice, you find

that you begin to feel the pain in, say, after an hour.

• Then from more practice and perseverance, you find that

you begin to feel the pain in after an hour and a half of
sitting.

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 Q&A
• Whatever happened to the pain in the first half hour and the first
hour? It disappeared.

• But because you practiced constantly, that it takes a period of

time to come to this. This is the gradual teaching.

• Had you not uncross your leg at any point in time you feel
painful, you will find that the pain disappears faster. This is
similar to the sudden teaching.

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 Q&A
• The point is this: it is the mind that is in pain rather than the leg.

• Pain or pleasure comes from the same discriminating mind

when fathomed truly doesn’t exist at all because this is the false
mind.

• Similarly ‘let it be’ and ‘take action to uncross the legs’ comes
from the discriminating false mind.

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 Q&A
• The point when you uncross your legs is the point where you let
the false mind take over.

• Though you endure the pain by letting it be, you are also
recognizing the false mind because there is a person who
endure.

• Patience is a virtue but the thought of emptying the pain has not
been fully emptied.

• If you ignore the pain through the mind as if it doesn’t exist,

then you will succeed it.

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 Q&A

• To ignore the pain through the mind is to focus the mind

on the meditation topic rather than on the pain and the
object of pain which is the self.

• To do so, it is either you do gradually or suddenly;

gradually or suddenly realizing that the true mind is the
mind that doesn’t think of the pain.

• In the alternative, you use patience to endure and ‘let it

be’ but with deep contemplation as…

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 Q&A

• Though patience may take you to the limit, it will not

transcend the limit until the thought in mind is put down

• To penetrate the limit is to suddenly realized that

everything including this pain is made from the mind and
therefore it is not real.

• In this case, the mental pain and the object of pain don’t
exist at all; hence there is not even the person who
endures the pain.
• This qualifies as prajna paramita when realizing it was all
made from the mind. 9
 S 26 The Dharma body is not appearances

Sutra: Sutra: “Subhuti, what do you think, is it possible to

contemplate the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two
Physical Appearances?”
Subhuti said, “So it is. So it is. It is possible to
contemplate the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two
Physical Appearances.”
The Buddha said, “Subhuti, if one could contemplate
the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two Physical
Appearances, then a Wheel Turning Sage King
would be the Thus Come One.”

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 S 26 The Dharma body is not appearances
Sutra: Subhuti addressed the Buddha, “World Honored
One as I understand what the Buddha has said, one
should not contemplate the Thus Come One in his
Thirty-two Physical Appearances.”
Comments:
• Why shouldn’t we see the Buddha in his Thirty-two
Physical Appearances?
• It is because the appearance is just the Transformation
body and not the true Dharma Body.
• The Transformation body dwells in this false world of
existence and therefore it is not permanent.

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 S 26 The Dharma body is not appearances

Question: “The Appearance of Reality is without

appearance.” (s 14). What do you mean by without
appearance and how do we apply in our daily life?
Comments:
• “The Buddha’s life span knows no birth or death. Thus it
is limitless and boundless nayutas of asamkhyeyas of
eons: eternal in the Pure Land of Eternal Stillness and
Light, not produced and not extinguished
• The Buddha-nature is light; but that refers to the
wonderful light of basic enlightenment. Basic
enlightenment is the natural inherent enlightenment of us
all, and it is also the Buddha’s light. And it is from this
light that the beings are transformed.”(VM Hsuan Hua)
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 S 26 The Dharma body is not appearances

• “Eternal stillness and not produced and not extinguished”

is expressed in the Vajra Sutra s 29 “The Thus Come
One does not come from anywhere nor does he go
anywhere. Therefore he is called the Thus Come
One.”

• And s 32 of the Vajra Sutra teaches how to be without

appearance: “By not grasping at appearance and
being in unmoving thusness.” what is meant by unmoving
thusness?...

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 S 26 The Dharma body is not appearances

• Venerable Master Hsuan Hua explains, “Everything is

produced from the self nature and within the mind which
is ‘thus, thus unmoving’ true reality is to be found. Seen
in this way this state is the original nature exactly; it is
the highest enlightenment.”

• Great Master Sixth Patriarch explains it as:

• “Fully able to discriminate among appearances,
• But unmoving in the primary sense
• The very act of viewing in this way
• Itself is the function of true Reality.”
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 S 26 The Dharma body is not appearances
Sutra: At that time, the World Honored One spoke a verse
saying:
• One who looks for me in forms,
• Seeks me in sounds,
• Practices a deviant path
• And will never see the Thus Come One.
Comments:
• The Buddha here is reassuring that one who sees appearances
are not practicing the Way.

• Any other way of looking at appearances as empty and false is

certainly not the teaching of the Buddha.

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 S 26 The Dharma body is not appearances

• Therefore the Buddha is emphatically sweeping all

appearances but that does not mean annihilation
because every living being has the Buddha nature which
is eternal.

• Buddhadharma ultimately leads us to nothing at all yet it

is not annihilation nor emptiness.

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 S 27 Not destroyed nor annihilated
Sutra: “Subhuti, you might have thought, ‘It was not
because he perfected his Physical Appearances that
the Thus Come One attained
anuttarasamyaksambodhi.’ Subhuti, do not think, ‘It
was not because he perfected his Physical
Appearances that the Thus Come One attained
anuttarasamyaksambodhi.’.
Comments:
• The Buddha here is cautioning that we might think that
when the Buddha swept away all appearances in s 26,
we might misunderstand it to be annihilationism. This is
not the case.

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 S 27 Not destroyed nor annihilated
Sutra: Subhuti, if you think in that way, then those who have
resolved their minds on annuttarasamyaksambodhi would
affirm the destruction of all dharmas. Do not think like that.
Why? Those who have resolved their minds on
anuttarasamyaksambodhi do not affirm the destruction of
the appearances of all dharmas.”
Comments:
• The above passage is affirming that the Buddhadharma is not
about annihilation but to dwell in the Middle Way.

• The Buddha nature is eternally and inherently complete and

perfect and everything manifest from it.

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 S 28 No greed and nothing acquired
Sutra: Subhuti, a Bodhisattva might fill up world systems equal
in number to the grains of sand in the Ganges River with
the seven precious gems and give them as a gift. But if
another person were to realize that all dharmas are devoid
of self and attain patience, that Bodhisattva’s merit and
virtues would surpass the merit and virtues of the previous
Bodhisattva.
Comments:

• All dharmas means everything living beings, the entire universe that is:
• It means even the teachings of the 3 Vehicles within the
Buddhadharma

• All dharmas include our self, living beings and the environment
which we come into contact as sense objects including our
thoughts. 19
 S 28 No greed and nothing acquired
• Why is everything devoid of self? It is without identity; it was all
one true appearance; being appearances from or projections of
the mind.

• One true appearance is without appearance (our inherent true

mind) yet within nothing everything manifest. (this world of
existence)

• All dharmas are devoid of self” would then mean everything is

originally empty; everything is fundamentally non existent but
appearances of the mind.

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 S 28 No greed and nothing acquired
• Because we see through everything as devoid of self, we see
through its true character that everything is inherently non
existent and empty.

• Therefore it is not surprising that the sutra says:

• “all dharmas are devoid of self and attain patience”- devoid
of self is the true character of Reality.

• Because everything or Reality is seen as empty and not real

but projections of the mind, one attains patience.

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 S 28 No greed and nothing acquired

• Extract of s 28: ‘But if another person were to realize

that all dharmas are devoid of self and attain
patience’

1. He sees every living being as empty and not real being

appearances of mind.

2. He sees every phenomena including thoughts as not real

or empty being appearances of the mind.

3. Therefore he attains patience with non producing of

dharmas or phenomena; nothing was produced nor
destroyed because originally there was nothing at all. 22
 S 28 No greed and nothing acquired
Sutra: Why Subhuti? Because Bodhisattvas do not
acquire blessings and virtues.
Comments:
• “Bodhisattvas do not acquire blessings and virtues”
would mean blessings and virtues originally don’t exist
because every living being is replete with blessings and
virtue of a Buddha.

• They are expedients to negate the false and reveal the

true. As such they are a product of projection of the
mind. This accords with Reality.

• Therefore nothing was acquired. This is prajna paramita

to see Reality in its true form. What is Reality? 23
 S 28 No greed and nothing acquired

• What is Reality?

• “The Appearance of Reality is without Appearances.”

(s 14) Basically there was nothing at all.

• From absolute nothingness comes this world of

existence which fundamentally doesn’t exist.

• When seen in this way, no blessings or virtues are

acquired in this world of existence which fundamentally
doesn’t exist.
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 S 28 No greed and nothing acquired

Sutra: Subhuti addressed the Buddha, “World Honored

One, how is it that Bodhisattvas do not acquire
blessings and virtues?”
“Subhuti, Bodhisattvas should neither be greedy for,
nor be attached to the blessings and virtues which
they foster. Therefore I say they do not acquire
blessings and virtues.”
Comments:
• Because we now see the Reality of Appearance of
blessings and virtues, we see it as fundamentally empty
and thus we do not greed for or attached to them.

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 Dedication of merit
• May every living beings,
• Our minds as one and radiant with light
• Share the fruits of peace, with heart of goodness
luminous and bright.
• If people hear and see, how hands and hearts can find in
giving unity
• May their minds awake, to great compassion, wisdom
and to joy.
• May kindness find reward; may all who sorrow leave their
grief and pain;
• May this boundless light break the darkness of their
endless night.
• Because our hearts are one, this world of pain turns into
paradise;
• May all become compassionate and wise (2x) 26