The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng (A.F. Price and Wong-Mou-lam)
Classic, Highly Recommended Zen Text
[My 4-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng” translated by A.F. Price and Wong-Mou-lam.]
Of the dozens upon dozens of Zen books I’ve read in the past forty years, just two make my Highly Recommended List (which I include in the books I write): “The Zen Teaching of Huang Po” and “The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng.” And more than coincidentally, these are the only Zen texts to make the “Books to Hang Out” List in Baba Ram Dass’s classic text, “Be Here now.” Ram Dass and I disagree on many things, but we see eye to eye on the preeminence of these two texts in the Zen tradition.
This text is really a two-for-one special, including both “The Diamond Sutra “(one of the two most important Indian Prajnaparamita Sutras; the other being “The Heart Sutra”) and “The Sutra of Hui Neng” (which consists of the sermons and sayings of Hui Neng , the most famous Zen Master of the Tang Dynasty). To emphasize how important “The Sutra of Hui Neng” is, I’ll quote the Translator’s Preface from the text: “… of all the Chinese works which have been canonized in the Tripitaka, this standard work of the Dhyana [Zen] school is the only one that bears the designation of ‘Sutra.’”
I’ll start my review with “The Diamond Sutra.” Although I recommend this Sutra for students of Mahayana Buddhism and Zen, it’s no longer my cup of tea. Decades ago, I was enamored with it, and for a couple of years, like a monk, I devoted my life to practicing what it preaches: non-attachment and non-abiding. Even though I experienced many profound formless samadhis and channeled intense kundalini energy via this practice of constant letting go, I eventually realized its limitations and moved on to superior, more integral Dharmas (Tibetan Dzogchen, Hindu Kashmir Shaivism, Ramana Maharshi’s Advaita Vedanta, and Adi Da’s Daism), which include and transcend the exclusive practice of self-emptying, which is just one third of an integral spiritual practice (with the other two thirds being the practices of Connecting (Presence + Oneness) and Receiving (Divine Power, the Sambhogakaya).
The real “Diamond” of spiritual life, which cuts through everything, is direct Awareness, the Force of Consciousness (or Mind) Itself. But the “Diamond Sutra” never talks about Awareness (the Dharmakaya), because, like other Prajnaparamita Sutras, it reduces everything to emptiness and the practice of self-emptying. Moreover, unlike Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra, it never talks about the Clear Light, the Sambhogkaya, which en-Light-ens a Bodhisattva. In sum, “The Diamond Sutra” is a hyper-apophatic, one-dimensional text, but a canonical one worthy of a read by anyone into Mahayana Buddhism and Zen.
The “Sutra of Hui Neng” is a mixed, though mainly positive, bag. The negative is the “Diamond Sutra”-inspired “fundamental principle” and dhyana (meditation) practice emphasized by the Patriarch: non-attachment (or non-abiding). The truth is, non-attachment is NOT the fundamental principle of spiritual life; the fundamental principle of spiritual life is connecting to and being en-Light-ened by Spirit. Yes, one needs to utterly let go (or be non-attached) in order to receive or conduct the Spirit-current (what Gautama called “the Stream” and later Buddhist the Sambhogakaya), but that self-emptying is just part of an integral spiritual practice. Because the exclusive practice of non-attachment is an incomplete, or one-sided, meditation practice, Zen eventually turned to koans and other “yang” consciousness practices to complement the “yin” one of non-attachment.
On the positive side, the Sutra of Hui Neng is an enjoyable read, because the Patriarch’s wisdom is dispensed via stories, exchanges with his students, and stanzas, some of which are all-time classics. Hui Neng’s most famous stanza, the one that earned him the Sixth Patriarchship, and the one I never forget, is: “There is no Bodhi Tree, nor stand of mirror bright, since all is void, where can the dust alight?”
Also on the positive side, the Patriarch describes enlightenment in Hindu-like terms, emphasizing the realization of the Essence of Mind (or Self/Buddha-nature). Moreover, according to the Patriarch, “… at all times the Essence of Mind is in a state of ‘Thusness,’” which equates to a state of ‘Isness’ or ‘Beingness’ rather than one of mere emptiness. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Patriarch provides clarity for those who, mistakenly, believe it is the [empirical] mind (rather than the flag or wind) that moves when one watches a flag waving in the breeze. According to the Patriarch, “… all things are a manifestation of the essence of [universal, transcendental] Mind,” which means it is really the formless One Mind (in the forms of mind, flag, and wind) that moves.
[My 4-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng” translated by A.F. Price and Wong-Mou-lam.]
Of the dozens upon dozens of Zen books I’ve read in the past forty years, just two make my Highly Recommended List (which I include in the books I write): “The Zen Teaching of Huang Po” and “The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng.” And more than coincidentally, these are the only Zen texts to make the “Books to Hang Out” List in Baba Ram Dass’s classic text, “Be Here now.” Ram Dass and I disagree on many things, but we see eye to eye on the preeminence of these two texts in the Zen tradition.
This text is really a two-for-one special, including both “The Diamond Sutra “(one of the two most important Indian Prajnaparamita Sutras; the other being “The Heart Sutra”) and “The Sutra of Hui Neng” (which consists of the sermons and sayings of Hui Neng , the most famous Zen Master of the Tang Dynasty). To emphasize how important “The Sutra of Hui Neng” is, I’ll quote the Translator’s Preface from the text: “… of all the Chinese works which have been canonized in the Tripitaka, this standard work of the Dhyana [Zen] school is the only one that bears the designation of ‘Sutra.’”
I’ll start my review with “The Diamond Sutra.” Although I recommend this Sutra for students of Mahayana Buddhism and Zen, it’s no longer my cup of tea. Decades ago, I was enamored with it, and for a couple of years, like a monk, I devoted my life to practicing what it preaches: non-attachment and non-abiding. Even though I experienced many profound formless samadhis and channeled intense kundalini energy via this practice of constant letting go, I eventually realized its limitations and moved on to superior, more integral Dharmas (Tibetan Dzogchen, Hindu Kashmir Shaivism, Ramana Maharshi’s Advaita Vedanta, and Adi Da’s Daism), which include and transcend the exclusive practice of self-emptying, which is just one third of an integral spiritual practice (with the other two thirds being the practices of Connecting (Presence + Oneness) and Receiving (Divine Power, the Sambhogakaya).
The real “Diamond” of spiritual life, which cuts through everything, is direct Awareness, the Force of Consciousness (or Mind) Itself. But the “Diamond Sutra” never talks about Awareness (the Dharmakaya), because, like other Prajnaparamita Sutras, it reduces everything to emptiness and the practice of self-emptying. Moreover, unlike Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra, it never talks about the Clear Light, the Sambhogkaya, which en-Light-ens a Bodhisattva. In sum, “The Diamond Sutra” is a hyper-apophatic, one-dimensional text, but a canonical one worthy of a read by anyone into Mahayana Buddhism and Zen.
The “Sutra of Hui Neng” is a mixed, though mainly positive, bag. The negative is the “Diamond Sutra”-inspired “fundamental principle” and dhyana (meditation) practice emphasized by the Patriarch: non-attachment (or non-abiding). The truth is, non-attachment is NOT the fundamental principle of spiritual life; the fundamental principle of spiritual life is connecting to and being en-Light-ened by Spirit. Yes, one needs to utterly let go (or be non-attached) in order to receive or conduct the Spirit-current (what Gautama called “the Stream” and later Buddhist the Sambhogakaya), but that self-emptying is just part of an integral spiritual practice. Because the exclusive practice of non-attachment is an incomplete, or one-sided, meditation practice, Zen eventually turned to koans and other “yang” consciousness practices to complement the “yin” one of non-attachment.
On the positive side, the Sutra of Hui Neng is an enjoyable read, because the Patriarch’s wisdom is dispensed via stories, exchanges with his students, and stanzas, some of which are all-time classics. Hui Neng’s most famous stanza, the one that earned him the Sixth Patriarchship, and the one I never forget, is: “There is no Bodhi Tree, nor stand of mirror bright, since all is void, where can the dust alight?”
Also on the positive side, the Patriarch describes enlightenment in Hindu-like terms, emphasizing the realization of the Essence of Mind (or Self/Buddha-nature). Moreover, according to the Patriarch, “… at all times the Essence of Mind is in a state of ‘Thusness,’” which equates to a state of ‘Isness’ or ‘Beingness’ rather than one of mere emptiness. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Patriarch provides clarity for those who, mistakenly, believe it is the [empirical] mind (rather than the flag or wind) that moves when one watches a flag waving in the breeze. According to the Patriarch, “… all things are a manifestation of the essence of [universal, transcendental] Mind,” which means it is really the formless One Mind (in the forms of mind, flag, and wind) that moves.
