Good afternoon. Thank you everybody for turning out. So as you know, this is the class on the Diamond Sutra, the Vajra Chetika Prajnaparamita Sutra. Please come in. I was, this will be the main class I teach this summer. There's going to be plenty of other classes. As you know, teachers coming and going all summer long. I did a short introductory class earlier this summer. This will be the main class I teach this summer. And I don't know how long it will be, actually. I have the ambition to go through the entire sutra. As I study it, as I've been studying it, I notice more and more comes up. There's so much... I would like to share. I have a wealth of details that I find utterly fascinating.

[01:08]

But I'm really interested in your feedback. Maybe it's too many details that I find utterly fascinating. And you might be thinking, when are we going to talk about emptiness? Good question. Well, we're going to. Believe me. So... I also want to say that for these classes, given the nature of guest season, just how guest season is and so forth, everyone's personal days and work schedule, coming to one class is not a commitment to coming to the others. If you missed the first one, it doesn't mean you can't come to subsequent ones. It's fine. I hope that each class will be a standalone event. But we are... My intention is to go through the entire sutra. It's... Well, what can we say about the Diamond Sutra?

[02:10]

It's very important to the Zen school, the Diamond Sutra is. And I feel like, apart from the Friday service in City Center, where we pick up the Edward Kansa translation... and just start chanting from a random place, that's the most exposure to the Diamond Sutra I've had. That and hearing about how important it is to the Zen school. Actually, why? You know, I've never really got into it, nor have I been to a class on it. Just so happens. That and Case 28 in the Mumongkan, okay, Diamond Sutra's in there. And Wei Nung's experience wandering through the marketplace and hearing the Diamond Sutra and having an awakening experience as a young man, that's pretty much it. If you were to ask me, what do I know about the Diamond Sutra?

[03:10]

I just finished. I just finished telling you everything I knew about the Diamond Sutra till this summer. I think maybe I still don't know anything about the Diamond Sutra, but I've really been enjoying studying it. I know that, at least for some of you, for a long time, going back to the last practice period, I was saying, you know, well, what do you want to teach this summer, Greg? What are you going to teach? And I kept changing my mind. Like, many times, I would say, I'm going to teach Jumar Samadhi. Or I'd say, I'm going to teach... What else did I say? What else did I say? Somebody said, oh, you mean what Paul taught in the practice period? They're like, oh, yeah, well, okay, maybe not that. And a couple of other things. And actually, in the spring work period, I believe it was spring work period, Goyo and I went to New Camaltoli Hermitage down the Veser coast for Four Winds Council.

[04:22]

And we spent the night there. to go to the Four Wands Council meeting, which was hosted at New Coalty. I was in the kitchen there, and I picked up this book by Red Pine, Bill Porter. Pretty impressive. I started reading it, and it blew my mind. What was this doing in a Benedictine hermitage? Probably we can thank Father Cyprian for that. But... Yeah, this book was a revelation to me. To write this book, Red Pine studied commentaries of 53 different Chinese teachers commenting on the Diamond Sutra. He also very carefully translated I own, it turns out, I own 13 distinct

[05:24]

English translations of the Diamond Sutra. Translated from various Chinese sources, Kumarajiva is the most popular, Sanskrit, Tibetan, by different scholars. I have a few of them in text, and the rest are on my hard drive. I do like this one the best. This is Red Pai's translation from Sanskrit and Chinese. very well informed and very well thought out. I can tell he really put a lot of thought into it to really bring forth the Dharma and the flavor of this Dharma, this teaching. So I could start anywhere. But I thought I would say something about the Diamond Sutra in recent history, in cultural history. Because some people, now I've been talking about, I'm going to teach this class, and some people have said, oh yes, that's the oldest known surviving printed book.

[06:37]

How many people here knew that? Yeah. It exists in the British Library in London, England. What's it doing there? That's an interesting question. Just for your information, it was printed, it's dated May 11th, 868, the year 868 of the Common Era, which makes it 587 years, approximately 587 years older than the Gutenberg Bible. It's the first complete a woodblock printing, example of printing on paper that exists in the world. How did it come to be in the British Museum? You may wonder. When Buddhism was spreading from India into China, it followed the Silk Route.

[07:43]

And there's various oases in the dry parts of the world on the Silk Route. And one such place along... the northern desert wastes of northern China is called Dunhuang. And it's here that the famous Dunhuang Caves and grottoes, which are full of vast amounts of reverential Buddhist art, exist. And in antiquity, fearing invasions from northern wards, a lot of scripture, writings, various manuscripts, were sealed up in the Don Juan caves to protect them from barbarians. And it was very dry and cool in that environment. And so all these teachings that were printed on paper were perfectly preserved until the early part of the 20th century when an invading barbarian

[08:51]

by the name of Mark Orlstein, discovered them. The one story from one source says, the archaeologist Sir Mark Orlstein purchased it in 1907 in the walled-up Mogao Caves near Dunhuang in northwest China from a monk guarding the caves. That's one version of the story. Another version is, I think the version that the Chinese will tell you, is that he was a pirate, and he looted the Tanhuang Caves, 29 packing cases of priceless manuscripts, and smuggled them out of China. A year later, a Frenchman named Monsieur Pelliot, another explorer, looted a similar quantity and sent them to Paris. This discovery of these sutras, including all kinds of written documents, including Old Testament in Hebrew, they found in the Dohuan Caves, revolutionized Buddhist scholasticism for all Buddhists, actually.

[10:20]

But Sir Marx Orlstein, he was knighted for his achievements. He got a knighthood. And Monsieur Pelliot are universally reviled by the Chinese as pirates who plundered the bones of their cultural heritage. Oldest known, surviving, printed book, dated printed book. So I just thought I'd share that interesting story with you, get things rolling. Now I would like to talk about the Diamond Sutra in the context of Buddhist history. So in practice period, we chant 2,500 and one year ago. I think we're up to and one. the great Tathagata entered nirvana.

[11:22]

According to how you count it, I think that's as good a reckoning as anyone else's. Buddhism is what we call Buddhism, or what in East Asia might be called the Buddha way, Buddha, is approximately two and a half millennia old. Starting with the one we all know, know and love, old man, Shaka Sama, Shakyamuni Buddha, who lived in North India, somewhere along the border of present-day India and Nepal in the foothills of the Himalayas. After the great Tathagata entered Nirvana, the so-called First Council happened. the elders of Buddha's Sangha, people whose names you know very well, like the Keshapar brothers and Shariputra and Subuti and the rest, got together and they had the first council to clarify the teachings.

[12:37]

The story has it that the Venerable Ananda repeated all the Buddha's teachings by memory. He was renowned for his memory. At this time, the Dhamma and the Vinaya were codified. The council said, let's have a common agreement. Let's all get on the same page, as it were, agreement about what are the teachings and what are the rules. About 100 years later, the second council took place around differences over codes of conduct, the Vinaya. There was a group of people majority, actually, they called themselves the Mahasangika. Maha meaning great and Sangha meaning Sangha. The Mahasangika and the Staviras. And the Mahasangika wanted a more liberal interpretation of Vinaya.

[13:41]

And so there was the first of numerous schisms, actually, in Buddhist history. Numerous schools, more than I can... get into today. It would be too much, and I can't keep them straight anyway. But I refer you, as I mentioned in my introductory class, if you're curious, the best source I've ever found is Andrew Skeleton's Concise History of Buddhism. So the Mahasangika and the Staviras eventually would become, after numerous permutations, the Mahayana and the Theravada. Staviras branched off and there was another school, became the Theravada and the school of the elders. And that became what we call Southern Buddhism or Nikaya Buddhism or original Buddhism, which relies on the Pali Canon for the teachings, the codified teachings and the Vinaya, the code of conduct.

[14:47]

And Mahayana Buddhism, is what we think we're practicing here in Tassajara. It's another story, and I'm going to get into that a little bit. So this codifying of the Buddha's teaching led to a great many lists. We talked about this in the intro class, right? Buddhism, there's so many lists because it's easy to memorize lists. So there's lots of lists in Buddhism, including eventually what is known as the Abhidhamma. This happened at the Third Council under King Ashoka. The Third Council of Buddhism happened approximately 250 years before the Taman era, and that's when they introduced the Abhidhamma or Abhidhamma.

[15:52]

This is not going to work. I had such a good idea I was going to save paper, which is still a good idea. But this dry erase board might be kind of shocked. I made this picture for the intro class. See, there are three baskets. It's called the Triptitica. All the Buddhist teachings go into three baskets. I'm actually going to just revert to Sanskrit words. And probably it would be Dhamma. But in Sanskrit, we say Dhamma. And why am I using Sanskrit? I won't get into, actually. But be brief. That's what Mahayana Buddhism is in Sanskrit. Vinaya. That's the rule. So the Dhamma is, you know, the... Oh, excuse me.

[16:55]

Let's say sutras. The sutra-pitaka is all the dharma. The chupitaka, the three baskets, is all the dharma. The sutra-pitaka is the teachings of the Buddha and commentaries, sutras and sastras. Divanaya is the rules. And then around the time of King Nachoka and the third council for the... Stavira sect, which became gained privacy and royal patronage under King Ashoka, the great wheel-turning king, who set missionaries of Buddhism to places as far off as Greece and Egypt. The third basket, the Abhidharma, was codified. Now, what is the Abhidharma? Why is it important to understanding the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra as well?

[17:59]

This is a, well, you could say more lists, but as you know, or maybe you don't know, so maybe I should stand up again. I told somebody I was going to just throw a lot of Sanskrit words at you. The three marks of existence. What are the three marks of existence? Anicca. Anicca means... impermanence. Impermanence. Next. Right. Who said that? Me. Me. Yeah, because it was the Pali. So we could also say anatman in Sanskrit equals non-self.

[19:06]

And what's the other one? Our favorite. Dukkha. Suffering. Three months of existence, so-called. Okay, so very... shortlist. Buddhism is all about the lists. I'm telling you. So the Abhidharma is a system of philosophy and psychology. And it's a system of... a systematization of anatma. If we say no self, then we say, what is there? There's something. If it's non-self, what is it? Well, the stavira and later on, I'll mention another one because these folks were like huge people.

[20:15]

the Sarvastivadans, introduced what's called these Arbhidharma lists, which basically I like to think of as a periodic table of the elements for everything that exists in form and consciousness, all of reality. All of reality can be reduced to... These irreducible phenomena, which they call dharmas. You know how to spell dharmas. But I wanted to write it up here to emphasize... This is capital D dharma is the teachings. Small d dharma... is things, dharmas.

[21:16]

So we chant every day. All dharmas are marked by entities. Right? Chant that. It's the Heart Sutra. Chant that every day. Heart Sutra. Because the Abhidharma teaching were a kind of catalyst for prajnaparamita teaching. The Theravada Abhidharma has 82 dharmas. The Sarvastivadhan Abhidharma has 75 dharmas. I wrote here, plurality of momentary phenomena without reference to a permanent self. That's great. I'm on board with that.

[22:17]

Then, according to the Abhidharmas, each Dharma, each thing, each irreducible phenomena has... Maybe I'm going to have to use the paper. Good impulse. I think we'll never be able to erase this by race. Very important word in the list of Sanskrit words I'm going to throw at you. Can you say it? Svababha, that's fun to say. Svababha means own beingness, its own thingness. So, in the Sutra, in the Heart Sutra, for example, the Sutra says, no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no formations, no consciousness, right?

[23:24]

No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue. These are all dharmas. I didn't spell it right. It's my father. B-H-A-B-A. Sorry. I misspelled Svapava. That was the sticking point. That was the catalyst for the evolution of Prajnaparamita literature. Are you with me so far? Okay. This was the beginning of Mahayana Buddhism. This was a reaction to... All of this dry theory, all of this debate, and there was a lot of it. As Buddhism developed in India, it became a system of established, less and less were they wandering forest monks, and more and more established viharas, monasteries.

[24:25]

Tassahara is a vihara. Yes, it is. places where Buddhist monks and scholars gathered together to discuss, study, and debate the Dharma. And this systematic, highly intellectual approach began to rub a lot of people the wrong way. And they said, is this how we want to practice? I'm not saying everybody was practicing that way. Far from it. But a lot. Enough so that there was this shift of let's find a new way to practice. Let's look for other ways to practice. I would say a shift from intellectual to experiential. A shift from psychological to mystical. And very importantly...

[25:27]

a shift from individual awakening to communal awakening, and a shift in terms of how the Buddha was seen and understood from historical to transcendental. And various cosmic Buddhas and visionary, this visionary Buddhism. And this is marked by the Mahayana scriptures, of which the Prajnaparamita literature are the first. So the Diamond Sutra, the Heart Sutra are part of the body of Mahayana scripture called Prajnaparamita literature. I know. We chant this one enough.

[26:30]

Did I spell this one right? Yes, I think so. Well, what exactly does that mean? I want, you know, those of the other classes I taught. I must realize by now this is a very unsatisfactory amount of class participation for me. So... Nobody's asking questions. I have noticed that you're all still awake, though, so that's a plus. What does practicality mean? I mean, you chant it all the time. What actually does it mean, do you think? Professional wisdom. Professional wisdom. Thank you very much. What does that mean? Let's start with this part. Did you say with them? Yes. Thank you very much. Yes? As in jhana, knowledge, prana, before knowledge. So, actually, yeah, that's true.

[27:40]

This is Sanskrit root etymology. Nya is like knowledge or gnosis. This is an Indo-European root word. So it's very similar to the English word knowledge or gnosis, g-n-o-s-i-s. Similar. That and pra is similar to pre. So it's what you know before you know. It's one sense of understanding it. Anybody else? Anything? Yes? Intuition, intuitive wisdom. I hear a lot, yes. Very often Buddhists equate prajna with understanding of emptiness and non-self.

[28:49]

Or as Thich Nhat Hanh says, we've learned to see with the eyes of entropy. It's a scholastic way to say that we see the emptiness fall down or transcendental wisdom. What about this part? Perfection, yeah. In the Mahayana, a very important core teaching are the perfections that are practiced by trainees like us. We're all practicing these. Go ahead. First one. Donna. Sheila. Sheila. Shanti. Shanti. That's with a little dot under it. Ooh, can you see? Birya. Birya. I'm probably missing some overspores though, so points out for that.

[29:54]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Doing well. Janna. Janna. E-H-Y-A-N-A. And finally, Prajna. That one. These are the six perfections that are practiced by trainee bodhisattvas like us. What are they? Generosity. Go lefty go. Morality. Ethics. You hate yourself. For goodness sakes. You hate yourself. Shanti. Patience. Forbearance. Patience. Forbearance. What's that? Tolerance. Tolerance. Some of you may know.

[30:55]

You've heard me say it enough times. I love Thich Nhat Hanh's translation of that word is inclusiveness. I like it very much because it's something active. It doesn't have a sense of just putting up with something. It's like enduring something. That's not how we practice it. These are active practices. Inclusiveness, I like it very much. Virya. Another Indo-European language, V, you know, vigor, vitality. What? Viryu. You said energy? Energy. Effort. Diligence. Very often translated as diligence. Stick-to-itiveness. Not getting discouraged. Dhyana. That was exciting. Wow.

[31:56]

This class is getting better by the second. Guess what? Then, that's what we're doing here. Actually, the Indian word, the Sanskrit word jhana, when it came from India to China, became chan. They said chan. When it came from China to Japan, chan became zen. Jhana is the practice of concentration. Cultivation is my upright city. And Prajna. I think we're exhausted that. It's short wisdom. But you know, the paramita has another meaning, right? It's an intentional pun. It's an intentional wordplay. We said what that was. There's an expression for that I told you when we were together last. Now I can't remember it. Something that scholastics like to say for an intentional pun.

[33:00]

But never mind. It's an intentional pun. It has two meanings, and both meanings are of importance. The first meaning is perfection, and the second is if you divide it up, para, going across, and ita, that which goes across, crossing over, crossing over to the other shore, crossing over from delusion to enlightenment, from samsara to nirvana, from confusion to clarity. what you will, suffering to non-suffering. These are the practices that help us to cross over. I like to think of this crossing over as creating connection or learning to see with the eyes of inner being. These are the practices that we do as bodhisattvas in training. So the Prajnaparamita literature began in North India around

[34:02]

Between the first century before the common era to the first century of the common era, somewhere in there was the first of the Prajnaparamita Sutras, which was the perfection of wisdom in 8,000 lines. Highly recommended. And then came along, perfection of wisdom in 100,000, 25,000, 18,000 lines. Somewhere between... 100 to 300 of the common era. And then somewhere between 300 and 500 of the common era, although some people date them earlier, a few people would say closer to 250 of the common era, the Mahaprajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra, which we chant every day, the Heart Sutra, and the Vajra Chetika Prajnaparamita Sutra, also sometimes known as the perfection of wisdom in 300 lines. It's short. I'm actually going to chant it day after tomorrow in the Kaisando, 7 o'clock.

[35:09]

You're welcome to join me. I have several copies of the Thich Nhat Hanh translation. So, what was the Prajnaparamita literature all about? I have another sensitive word for you. I need to be happy. That's correct. That's the way most people understand it. This Abhidharma philosophy and psychology, useful as it is, and interestingly, Mayana schools have their own Abhidharma. There's Madhyamaka Abhidharma. There's Yojara Abhidharma. It's useful. It's useful, provided you can bear in mind, at least from the Mayana perspective, bearing in mind that all dharmas are marked by emptiness.

[36:17]

Shunyata. Empty of what? Empty of Svabhava. Empty of an own being. Empty of thingness. Basically, everything changes. Everything changes. That's what Suzuki Roshi said. What's Buddhism all about? He said, everything changes. Yeah. Being okay with that. All things, all dharmas exist only conditionally. Conditioned on what? Everything else. So this is the wisdom teachings. Seeing into... the fundamental nature of reality, prajnaparamita. But in the evolution of the Mahayana, I was saying that the evolution of the Mahayana arose from a longing for teachings

[37:26]

that were relevant and heartfelt. And more colorful, more visionary, more useful, perhaps, or applicable to all people, not only scholars. So there's a lot of emphasis on lay practice. In the end of the Diamond Sutra, even so early a sutra, they mention lay men and lay women. And of course, later on in the Mahayana literature, we get the Vimalakirti Sutra, which I taught on last summer, last summer practice period. We talked about the Vimalakirti Sutra and the chief person in that sutra is a lay person. Vimalakirti, what a guy. Despite their kind of, you know, they needed some help with the titling.

[38:40]

Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines, Perfection of Wisdom in 100,000 Lines, 25,000 Lines. Later on, they got a little more creative with the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra. But from the beginning, from the beginning, this Prajnaparamita literature... is not only about wisdom teachings, but very, very devotional in nature. It's marked by devotion. In fact, in the perfection of wisdom in 8,000 lines, that's where we get this thing we chant in practice period, the hymn to Prajnaparamita, right? Prajnaparamita was not just an idea or a practice. At this time, Prajnaparamita became, what's the word I want, embodied, worshipped. There were statues of Prajnaparamita, a woman. Prajnaparamita is the mother of Buddhas.

[39:43]

Where do Buddhas come from? They come from the perfection of wisdom. Where do Buddhas come from? They come from chunyata. But this is very devotional in flavor, actually. So we chant, homage to the perfection of wisdom, the lovely, the holy. The perfection of wisdom gives light on stain. The entire world cannot stain her. Now he's going to chant with me. She is a source of light, and from everyone in the triple world, she removes darkness. Most excellent are her works. She brings light so that all fear and distress may be forsaken and disperses the gloom and darkness of delusion. She herself is an organ of vision. She has a clear knowledge of all being of all dharmas for she does not stray away from it. The perfection of wisdom of the Buddhas sets in motion the wheel

[40:47]

love, Dharma. Thank you for that. We're not chanting that in the summer. Too bad. A lovely thing. That's from the perfection of wisdom in 8,000 lines. If that's not devotional in nature, I don't know what is. So it's very heartfelt. So within that devotion, love, hearts, poetry, and color. arises more Sanskrit words for you Wisdom and Kapash Kaliya.

[41:55]

Yeah, go ahead, please. Is Karina Pali? It's also sentient. Yeah, some are. Same. All same. So, I like to think of these as the two wings of the jumbo jet of the Maya. You need both wings. Actually, It makes perfect sense if you think, if you learn to see the eyes of the being, if you understand that all dharmas are marked by emptiness, that we are actually not separate, that self and other are not two, that everything we do, say, affects everything else, and we are affected by everything else that exists. because we live in this matrix of inner being. That's reality.

[42:57]

Therefore, it just makes sense. If I cut my left hand, my right hand goes, boom, like that, and I don't think about it because that's just how it is. These are both equally important. the rise of the Mahayana, and then how we get from back and forth from wisdom and compassion. That would be a little smiley face. Oh, I disagree. Upaya, which is skill and needs. Another very, very important concept Mahayana scripture that I have not yet mentioned is the Lotus Sutra. And the Lotus Sutra is all about upaya, all about skill and means.

[43:58]

How do we help people? How do we reach out to people in suffering? That's what my teacher always says. He says, I'm not so much about what or who. How? How shall we practice? This is what's important. So the story in the Lotus Sutra has, the most famous one is the story of the burning house. There are other parables about skill and means, but the most famous one is the parable of the burning house where there's a rich person and his kids are playing in the house and the house is on fire. But the kids love their toys so much they won't let go of their toys. And so the rich man, He tells his kids, oh, kiddies, I got even better toys outside. Because he couldn't get them to pay attention. They were too busy playing with their toys. He said, I got even better toys outside here. Come on outside and play with these toys.

[45:02]

So the kids come out of the burning house. And that's the story about how the Buddha is teaching us. Buddha's outside. Oh, yes. But we understand them as no toys. But if you stick with, I mean, we're going to get to this later, but you want to start talking about emptiness now is fine with me. If you stick with there are no toys, you're caught on that side. So there are toys. But how do we see them? We see them as new toys. We see them with the eyes of interviewing. We see into their fundamental shunyata. But they're still toys. Toys for all the kitties.

[46:04]

Nifty robes and a little stick. A fish up there. We can hit the fish. Priceless antiques, bells, and so forth. Tons of fun. Okay. We're doing well, actually. This is pretty much where I expected to be. The title, Vajra Cherka Prajnaparamita Sutra, is the name of the sutra in Sanskrit. Vajra Cherka means, actually, Vajra means diamond, and Cherka means means cut or cutting or cutter. So Thich Nhat Hanh calls it the diamond that cuts through illusion. This is actually his title. This is just like not the name of the book. This is Thich Nhat Hanh's translation of Vajra Jetika Prasmi Paramita Sutra.

[47:08]

He's fun that way. He just said, no, actually, that's what it's called. The diamond that cuts through illusion. I do think it's important that the cut part is included. The diamond is the hardest substance. The diamond is what's used to cut other substances, to craft other jewels or cut glass. What do we use? We use the diamond. The diamond will cut anything. Up in the Zen, though, we have the Bodhisattva Manjushri. Manjushri's got a sword. Maybe the sword's made out of a diamond. It will cut through illusion. Cut through confusion. Cut through the, you know, horse muffins. Yeah. Stuff we believe. What? You said horse muffins? I said horse muffins. It's the diamond that cuts through the horse muffins.

[48:15]

I don't know. And we, I think, discussed Prajnaparamita adequately. So that's the title. The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion or the Diamond Cutting Sutra. Sutra means scripture. or teaching. And it also shares an Indo-European language group with sutra, thread. So it's the thread of the teaching, connecting a discourse. When the sutra came to China, it was greatly taken up and translated many times by all the great ones, Kumarajiva, Xuanzang, and many others, took a stab at translating the Diamond Sutra.

[49:28]

Because, you know, it's short. So, you know, you're studying Sanskrit, I'll try translating this into Chinese. So it's been translated into Chinese many times. In the beginning, the 6th century of the Common Era, there was a young man named Prince Zhao Ming, who was a very, very devoted student of the Sutra. And this prince was the eldest son of someone who might be known to some of you. If you've ever been in a Shusou ceremony, where the Shusou read Case 1 of the Blue Cliff Record, Emperor Wu of Liang, he had an oldest son named Prince Chao. So while Emperor Wu was busy emptying his treasury to promote Buddhism and establish monasteries, which he thought would impress Bodhidharma, his son, equally devout, was studying the Diamond Sutra a lot and

[50:44]

He is, I don't know, but the story goes, he is credited with dividing the sutra into 32 chapters, and that's the format that has stuck. The sutra has 32 chapters. Can you guess the significance of 32 chapters? Very good. The lists really work. Yes. The Buddha's body was alleged to have 32 distinguishing marks. Call that the marks of the Tathagata. Some of them are really quite amazing. I can't be repeated. Oh, I think I can repeat them all in public, but I'm not going to. But, you know, full-sized heels, jaw like a lion, full round shoulders, body erect and upright.

[51:52]

I like that. Lion-shaped body. Some of them, yeah, like hands reaching below the knees. That's kind of interesting. Voice deep and resonant, yeah. Eyes deep blue, eyelashes like a royal bull. Yes. And a white urn of curl that emits light between his eyebrows. Anyway, there's 32. I'm not going to name them all. But yes, actually, the story has it that Prince Zhao divided the sutra into 32 chapters because he considered the sutra not to be about the Buddha. He considered the sutra to be the body of Buddha. And Red Pine says the same thing in his introduction to his amazing book. This is the body of Buddha. Prajnaparamita is the mother of Buddhas. It gives birth to the body of Buddha.

[52:52]

So, as far as I know, the chapters don't align with specific marks of the Buddha, no. But the number 32 was not an accident. Because Chao Meng, who is alleged to have recited the sutra, 10,000 times. Is that right? Yes, 10,000 times. In his short life, he only lived to be 30. Considered it the body of the Buddha. Okay. Chapter 1. That's Sanskrit. It means, thus have I heard. Every, well, almost. Almost every Buddhist sutra starts out, thus have I heard, because, why? Ananda. Ananda, thank you. Thank you. What about Ananda? He was listening. He was listening.

[53:56]

At the first council, he recited, thus have I heard. And I think the Buddha actually was supposed to have told him to say that. So each sutra begins, thus have I heard. That's the voice of Ananda we're hearing, relating what he heard the Buddha teach. The word thus has been the subject of many commentaries, all by itself. And when it comes to titles, I thought, wow, I could just teach the whole class about the... just the title of the sutra, because it turns out that a teacher in China's Tiantai sect, according to Red Pine, once lectured for 90 days on just the word Miao, wonderful, in the title Miao Fa Lien Hua Ching, Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Dharma. So he just gave consecutive Dharma talks for 90 days on the word wonderful.

[55:03]

And a teacher of the Huayan sect, that's the Chinese school of Buddhism that studies the Avatamsaka Sutra, another very important Mahayana scripture that I have not yet mentioned, but I mentioned it just now. Hooray for the Mahavipulya Avatamsaka Sutra, the great universal flower garland sutra. This teacher of the Huayan sect once lectured every day for six years on the title alone. So, you know, we could do that, but I'm not going to. Thus have I heard that one time when the Bhagavan was staying in the monastery in Anathapindada's park in the Jetta Grove near Srivasti with a community of 1,250 bhikshus, fully ordained monks with many noble-minded bodhisattvas. The word Bhagavan is one of the ten epithets of the Buddha, the ten names of Buddha.

[56:12]

Tathagata, meaning thus gone or thus come. Arhat, meaning worthy one. Samyaksam Buddha, meaning perfectly self-enlightened. Vidya Karana Sampana, pardon my poor pronunciation, perfected in knowledge and conduct. I've never heard that one before. Sugata, well gone. Knower of the world, Loka Vid. unsurpassed, Anuttara, leader of persons to be tamed, Purusa Damya Sarati, teacher of the gods and humans, Sastadeva Mamushyanam, and the blessed one or fortunate one, Bhagavat or Bhagavan, or Buddha Bhagavan. Bhagavan comes from, it turns out, according to Red Pine, the Sanskrit word bhaga meaning vulva. How about that? That which gives birth. In other words, fiquant. Prosperous. One whose presence bestows prosperity.

[57:16]

Usually translated as the blessed one. That from which good things come. The Bhagavan. Was staying in the monastery in Anathapindada's park. I am so proud of myself. I got one sentence into chapter one. Hooray! Now, of course, we're not going to do that for the rest of the sutra. But I just want to provide some background and some context. And so in the next class, we will get into the sutra. And in the meantime, we can chant it together, if you wish. I have some copies of Thich Nhat Hanh's translation. We'll be chanting day after tomorrow, the 20th at 7 p.m. in the Kaisando. Thank you for your attention.

[58:18]

May our intention equally extend to every being.

[58:29]

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