The Vajra (Diamond) Sutra

February 25 lecture©
as outlined by a Buddhist monk
(Listen ‘live’ or recorded audio explanations at
www.wondrousdharma.org)

Q&A Vigor and the Vajra Sutra

Q&A Able to distinguish ‘pink elephant’ but
unmoving in the primary sense
S 26 The Dharma Body is not appearances

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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 : What is the role of vigor pertaining to the Vajra Prajna
Paramita Sutra? Does it end when one realizes bodhi or
awakening?
Answer:
• Because of the difficulty to subdue the mind, the only path to
really subdue the mind is through vigor.

• Once awakened to the principle, one continues to be vigorous.

A Buddha is by nature vigorous.

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 Q&A

• Shakyamuni Buddha and Venerable Ananda both

brought forth the bodhi resolve at the time of Buddha
Emptiness King.

• Yet Shakyamuni Buddha has already become a Buddha

because he was diligent and vigorous in his practice.

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 Q&A
• Great Master Sixth Patriarch was awakened to the principle
that basically there was nothing at all, so how could there be
defilement?

• Great Master 5th Patriarch: “Is the rice ready?”

• Hui Neng replied, “The rice has long been ready. It is now
waiting only for the sieve.”
• The explanation by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua is “The rice
has long been ready. It is now waiting to be sieved….
• Here the sieve represents getting rid of the filth.

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 Q&A
• Chapter 4 of the Lotus Sutra tells of the poor son who spent
twenty years of getting rid the filth of the delusion of views and
the delusion of thoughts.”

• Later on the 5th Patriarch says, “Start on your journey now and
go south as fast as possible. Do not speak too soon, for the
Buddhadharma arises from difficulty.”

• The Great Master 6th Patriarch lived among hunters for 15

years teaching Dharma to them as appropriate.

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 Q&A

• The period subsequent is similar to the awakening of a

Chan Master Huitai Yuanjing when he read from the
Verse of Perfect Enlightenment “One must hit the ball
quickly by the swift waters”

• The Chan Master was awakened to the fact that he must

be vigorous if he were to succeed getting rid of the “dung
and filth”.

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 Q&A
Question: I have no problem in becoming a vegetarian. But I cannot
avoid thinking of “Pink elephant” when someone mentions
“Pink elephant”. Is it the case of shallow samadhi power
(mental absorption) just as in the case of a meditator who hears
a truck passing by but at the same time he does not notice the
clock ticking?
Answer:
• There are 2 aspects to this matter – samadhi concentration and
wise contemplation.

• Being able to be vegetarian but not being able to avoid ‘pink

elephant’ is because of the varying attachments in the karmic
consciousness.

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 Q&A
• Not being able to listen to the ticking of the clock yet cannot
avoid the sound of the truck reflects the intensity of mental
concentration in relation to the degree of distraction.

• Though one may listen to the sound of the truck, yet if one
takes the sound as a sound; this itself is wise contemplation.

• The same applies to hearing ‘pink elephant’; though one may

hear yet treat the sound as sound is wise contemplation.

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 Q&A
• A sound is a sound without forming any opinion; it would
mean treating the sound as empty and the stillness
arising is concentration.

• The Vajra Sutra says, ‘all appearances are empty and

false’ and a sound of a word is one such appearances.

• The Vajra Sutra says ‘produce a thought without

relying on anything’ would mean treating the sound
without forming an opinion or retaining it in mind.

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 Q&A
• Thinking of ‘pink elephant’ on hearing ‘pink elephant’ is
the subtle attachment to distinguish it so.

• Though we are fully able to discriminate ‘pink elephant’

yet we remain unmoving in the primary sense by not
following up or retaining it.

• Thinking of pink elephant but forming an opinion of it is

to treat the sound of words as something real and
existing; ‘pink elephant’ has moved you.

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 Q&A
• Contemplating that ‘all thoughts are not thoughts’, we therefore
don’t give rise to a thought to turn the sound of words into an
annoyance; this is being unmoved.

• This qualifies as wise contemplation; not rejecting the sound

‘pink elephant’ yet not accepting ‘pink elephant’ by not retaining
anything in mind.

• This is the meaning of simply taking the sound as sound.

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 Q&A
• Yet if one could contemplate that the sound, be it pure or
impure, good natured or evil natured, pleasing or frightening –
that all sounds are of one appearances that they are all
fundamentally or inherently not existent, then one has already
abide in Reality.

• Nothing would then moved one because one understands

Reality that everything is fundamentally not real but a
projections or appearances of the mind.

• And so there is no reaction or response to the sound.

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 Next week’s Q&A
Background to Question:
• I am in conflict regarding acceptance and trust of the universe.

• I am currently unhappy with my current life and there is little to

no option for me to change it right now.

• I have always tried to believe that the universe will take care of
me so long as I am true to myself and have faith, yet I can’t
seem to catch a break.

• It has definitely made me doubt my faith.

Question: Is there a balance between letting life take its course

and taking life in to your own hands? 14
 S 26 The Dharma body is not appearances

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

contemplate the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two
Physical Appearances?”
Comments:
• In s 5 the Buddha had said that “all appearances are empty
and false”, yet here the Buddha still ask the question whether
we can contemplate the 32 appearances of a Buddha.

• The question was raised because earlier on the Buddha had

taught that the reward for practicing of blessings and wisdom
for 100 eons will result in one having the 32 physical
appearances.

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 S 26 The Dharma body is not appearances

Sutra: Subhuti said, “So it is. So it is. It is possible to

contemplate the Thus Come One in his Thirty-two
Physical Appearances.”
Comments:
• Is it the case that Subhuti who is foremost in emptiness
does not know that ‘all appearances are empty and
false”?

• No, it is just the Buddha and Subhuti is playing a role to

bring out any doubts that may linger in the minds of the
people in the assembly and in the future.

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 S 26 The Dharma body is not appearances
Sutra: 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.”
Comments:
• The Thirty-two Physical Appearances are just the reward of
having cultivated blessings and wisdom for 100 eons.
• And so it is not surprising that the Wheel Turning Sage King
also has these appearances.

• The Buddha when he was just born was predicted to

become either a Buddha if he chooses to practice the
spiritual path or become a Wheel Turning Sage King.
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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.”

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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.
• Though the Buddha has emphatically swept away all
appearances, it does not mean annihilation because every
living being has the Buddha nature which is eternal. 22
 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 annihilations. This is not
the case.

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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) 24