Sutra Snippets for Everyday: An Easy Way of Getting to the Source
#2 - The Diamond Sutra - A Humble Beginning to the Perfection of Wisdom
Continuing this new Sutra Snippets for Everyday series where you can discover a direct relationship between you and the teachings of the Buddha, I’ll offer an additional reminder about sutra study. Even if you don’t understand a sutra when you first read it, if you keep reading it, you will be surprised at how an understanding happens despite yourself. In my experience, the understanding that comes from rereading a sutra goes deeper than the typical conceptual understanding you arrive at when reading a contemporary Buddhist teacher.
Let’s look at another of the Prajñāpāramitā (perfection of wisdom) texts, The Diamond Sutra. Actually, the Diamond Sutra’s title (in Sanskrit) is: Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, which means the "Vajra Cutter Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra." A vajra is associated with diamond or lightning bolt and is a term used for a powerful weapon that cuts, and is a metaphor for cutting illusions to get to the perfect wisdom that realizes ultimate reality.
From The Diamond Sutra Translation by Red Pine:
After begging for food in the city and eating his meal of rice,
he returned from his daily round in the afternoon, put his
robe and bowl away, washed his feet, and sat down on the
appointed seat. After crossing his legs and adjusting his body,
he turned his awareness to what was before him.
Your Everyday Take-Away:
Despite the fact that this first verse of the sutra seems to be merely a scene-setter, there are multiple teachings for us to take away in just this one verse.
Red Pine writes:
Whereas most sutras begin with some miraculous event, such as the quaking of the earth or radiating light from the Buddha's brow, the Diamond Sutra begins with the Buddha's everyday routine and stresses the importance of charity, along with its counterpart of forbearance, and the perspective of prajna wisdom in the practice of both.
And Thich Nhat Hanh writes that there are two factors the Buddha teaches about an authentic bodhisattva. One is the aspiration to bring all beings to enlightenment, the second is the wisdom of nondiscrimination.
He asks us, "How is this related to my life and the life of my community?" The answer is how we are in daily life. Are we supporting all beings? And are we seeing with nondiscrimination?
Let’s look closer at Thich Nhat Hanh’s question about how we are in daily life. One key take-away in this sutra, despite many, many puzzling mental contortions that play with our concepts, which anyone who has read even a bit of the sutra has discovered, The Diamond Sutra is very much focused on the everyday.
Remember, when reading this simple verse, that this is the Buddha, who has awakened, reached enlightenment. Yet, here he is begging for food, eating a simple meal of rice, folding his robe, putting his bowl away, and washing his own feet.
Then what does the Buddha do? “He turns his awareness to what was before him.”
This simple setting for the sutra and the Buddha’s activities is speaking to us and our everyday lives. No matter who we are—even if we’re rich—we spend our lives working to live. We need food, we need shelter, we need clothing. Although most of us don’t beg (at least not directly), we are engrossed in activities that sustain our lives and should be thought of the way the Buddha taught his monks about begging.
How do we do that? We should go through our work day with humility and diligence, interacting with our co-workers, managers, neighbors, friends, and family without discrimination. The Buddha cautions his monks to watch for feelings of pride and immediately rid themselves of them. Our work can either help us conquer egotism and arrogance or—depending on our intention and our mindfulness of that intention—inflate our egos.
Then, when our work is done, we should put away our work clothes and tools (smartphone notifications?) and turn our attention to what is before us.
Do we do that? Or do we continually find ways to do more, work more, or plan more? Do we forget to “adjust our bodies and turn our awareness to what’s in front of us” because we’re still plugging away on our phones or laptops, working or putting our thoughts on what isn’t right in front of us, like gossip, politics, or what someone posted on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook.
When the Buddha focuses on what is before him, he is practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness is to remember. Remembering to be present. Remembering to be aware.
The Buddha wasn’t doing anything sophisticated or beyond our everyday reach. He was practicing using whatever was in front of him as the basis for mindfulness.
Awareness is to be in and be “with” the present moment, without a self-focus or “watcher” judging and discriminating between what is in your thoughts and what is in front of you. Like the Buddha, the lesson here is to practice a relaxed attention to whatever arises, without worrying about intense concentration on a single focus … and without letting your thoughts carry you away to something, someone, or somewhere else.
If you would like more of these everyday teachings, you can subscribe to the podcast through your favorite podcast platform or listen on the website:
Everyday Buddhism: Making Everyday Better
Or join the Everyday Buddhism Membership Community or Everyday Sangha:
Join Membership Community or Everyday Sangha