Diamond Sutra – Talk 2 – 2008 Series`

Second talk on the Diamond Sutra, Red Pine Edition Diamond Sutra 2 By Zoketsu Norman Fischer | May 21, 2008 Abridged and edited by Barbara Byrum and Deborah Russell The sutra begins with Subhuti asking the Buddha about the bodhisattva path that we are following. How should a bodhisattva stand, walk, and control her thoughts? That is the question that elicits the whole material of this sutra. This is to be taken literally - how to stand, how to walk, and how to work with our thoughts - but also figuratively. How to "stand" might mean what qualities should we develop; what guidelines to ethical conduct should we have; how can we control our thoughts; what attitudes should we be developing? The Buddha's surprising and wonderful response was not to take up the details of that question, but instead to say that all a bodhisattva has to do is to give rise to a thought, to give birth to a thought. And the thought is, "I will save all beings." All kinds of beings, no matter what kind, will be saved, and having saved all beings, no being at all will be saved. Why? Because bodhisattvas have no perception of a self, no perception of a being, and no perception of a person. So in the beginning of the sutra, we see the point of the sutra and also the point of the bodhisattva path: the twin or double-edged sword of compassion and emptiness. Compassion and emptiness are two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, a tremendous altruism and love for all beings; and not only love, but a desire to be active in benefitting them. On the other hand, emptiness - the recognition that beings are not what we think they are, and that "saving" is not what we think it is. In emptiness, beings are without separateness, without substance, without fixed reality. That recognition is itself their salvation. Beings are suffering - we are suffering - because of not knowing who we are. And as soon as we know who we are, beings are saved, and we are saved. Seeing the empty nature of ourselves and beings is the salvation. This emptiness of beings could, on the one hand, certainly be seen as a philosophical assertion and a religious doctrine; but in this sutra we learn that emptiness does not have to do with a philosophical assertion or a religious doctrine. It actually has to do with our very acts of perception. Emptiness is a psycho-physical reality. It is there in the acts of perception. In English, as well as in Sanskrit, perception means literally "to grasp." To perceive something is to grasp something. On a practical level - apart from religious or philosophical interpretations - emptiness means physically to recognize that there is nothing to grasp, and, therefore, nothing to perceive. So perception can be soft, knowing that the perception that we usually practice is based on separate objects and is a kind of illusion, a kind of magic show. We are seeing something and interpreting it as being something that isn't actually there - a person, a being, a separate autonomous entity. So the compassion of the bodhisattva is a compassion that recognizes that perception - grasping objects - is false. This compassion is not an exhausting compassion, an obligatory compassion, a burdensome compassion, but a soft, energizing, non-exhausting compassion. So it is not hard, not troublesome, and not difficult. Then it makes sense that dana paramita is the next topic that is taken up in the sutra. How does a bodhisattva conduct herself? Having this altruism and emptiness at the same time, how do you practice giving? How do you practice benefitting others? The essence of giving as a bodhisattva practice - being a bodhisattva who practices emptiness as well as compassion - is giving without attachment. Giving based on non-perception, non-grasping of sights, smells, and so on. When you read this in the sutra, at first it seems esoteric or unusual; but actually we are quite used to this kind of talk.