What is the significance of the Diamond Sutra?

Question: VAJRACHCHEDIKA PRAJNAPARAMITA SUTRA OF GAUTAMA THE BUDDHA THE LORD ASKED: WHAT DO YOU THINK, SUBHUTI, IS THERE ANY DHAMMA WHICH THE TATHAGATA HAS LEARNED FROM DIPANKARA?' SUBHUTI REPLIED: 'NOT SO, O LORD, THERE IS NOT.' THE LORD SAID: IF ANY BODHISATTVA WOULD SAY, "I WILL CREATE HARMONIOUS BUDDHAFIELDS," HE WOULD SPEAK FALSELY. AND WHY? THE HARMONIES OF BUDDHAFIELDS, SUBHUTI, AS NO-HARMONIES HAVE THEY BEEN TAUGHT BY THE TATHAGATA. THEREFORE HE SPOKE OF "HARMONIOUS BUDDHAFIELDS."' THE LORD SAID: 'AND AGAIN, SUBHUTI, SUPPOSE A WOMAN OR A MAN WERE TO RENOUNCE ALL THEIR BELONGINGS AS MANY TIMES AS THERE ARE GRAINS OF SAND IN THE RIVER GANGES; AND SUPPOSE THAT SOMEONE ELSE, AFTER TAKING FROM THIS DISCOURSE ON DHAMMA BUT ONE STANZA OF FOUR LINES, WOULD DEMONSTRATE IT TO OTHERS. THEN THIS LATTER ON THE STRENGTH OF THAT WOULD BEGET A GREATER HEAP OF MERIT, IMMEASURABLE AND INCALCULABLE.

Even in my relationship with you, words become less important all the time. Why should a buddha and a bodhisattva need to talk at all?

What are you talking about, about what talk? It never happened. Nobody has said anything and nobody has heard anything. The Diamond Sutra has no sutras in it, Mahasattva, that's why it is called The Diamond Sutra. It is an utter emptiness. If you get caught in the words you will miss the message. The Diamond Sutra is absolutely empty, there is no message in it. There is nothing to read and nothing to hear. It is utter silence. If you read something in The Diamond Sutra you have missed it. If you find some doctrine in it, some philosophy in it, then you must be imagining, it must be your dream. Buddha has not talked anything, neither has Subhuti heard anything. In that non-talking and non-hearing, something has happened -- something which is beyond words. Ananda has tried to capture that for you in words, but it was not…

Butei, the emperor of ryo, sent for fu-daishi to explain the diamond sutra. On the appointed day fu-daishi came to the palace, mounted the platform, rapped on the table before him, then descended and, still not speaking, left. Butei sat motionless for some minutes, whereupon shiko, who had seen all that had happened, went up to him and said, "may I be so bold, sir, as to ask whether you understood?" the emperor shook his head sadly. "what a pity," said shiko. "fu-daishi has never been more eloquent."

I have heard that Wittgenstein, a great Western philosopher, who comes nearest to the Zen attitude, used to say that he did not solve philosophical problems -- he dissolved them. And he used to say: "We leave things as they are but perhaps for the first time we come to see them as they are." Nothing can be done about things as they are. All that can be done is to help you to see them as they are. "We leave things as they are but perhaps for the first time we come to see them as they are." And again: "Philosophy simply puts everything before us, and neither explains nor deduces anything -- since everything lies open to view, there is nothing to explain." Yes, life is a mystery, and there is nothing to explain -- because everything is just open, it is just in front of you. Encounter…

Here, o sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form; the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness. Here, o sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness;

Buddha says nothing is ever defiled and nothing is ever immaculate. Purity, impurity, are mind attitudes. Can you tell about a tree whether it is moral or immoral? Can you say about an animal that he's a sinner or a saint? Try to see this ultimate vision: there is no sinner, no saint, nothing moral, nothing immoral. In this acceptance, where is the possibility of worrying? There is nothing to improve either! And there is no goal, because there is no value. This journey is a journey without any goal. It is a pure journey; it is a play, a leela. And there is nobody behind it, doing it. All is happening, and there is nobody doing it. If the doer is there then the problem arises -- then pray to the doer, then persuade the doer, then become friends with the doer. Then you will be benefitted, and those…

A monk was reciting the diamond sutra: "... If one sees that forms are not forms, he then sees buddha." the master was passing by and heard it. He then said to the monk "you recite wrongly. It goes like this: "if one sees that forms are forms, he then sees buddha.'" the monk exclaimed, "what you have said is just the opposite to the words of the sutra!" the master then replied, "how can a blind man read the sutra?"

IT IS ONE OF THE MOST VERY PREGNANT ZEN ANECDOTES. The Zen approach towards life is not of knowing but of being. Truth is not a question of knowing, it is a question of being. It is not something that you can accumulate from others, from scriptures, from traditions. It is not information: it is transformation. You have to come to a totally new birth. You have to die as you are and you have to be reborn. Jesus says to Nicodemus, "Unless you are born again you shall not enter into my kingdom of God." Nicodemus was a rabbi, a famous scholar, a very respected professor of religion, theology, philosophy, much more known than Jesus He could not understand what Jesus means: "Unless you are born again..." He said, "That means I have to wait for another life? It cannot happen in this life. He missed the whole point.…