VAJRACHCHEDIKA PRAJNAPARAMITA SUTRA OF GAUTAMA THE BUDDHA

Buddha’s Most Precious Sutra

Although Gautama the Buddha spoke for over forty years, he is reported to have said that he never uttered a single word. The Diamond Sutra is one of his mysterious unuttered sutras and is considered by Buddhists to be the most precious.
It is said that just by hearing the sutra, people have become enlightened.
Sometimes a sutra may feel remote and obscure, but has such a magnetic pull that you want to understand it. With his trademark humor, Osho draws us into the magic of this sutra through jokes and anecdotes, transforming it into something alive and relatable for today’s seekers of truth.

The Buddha has said…Nederlands

The Diamond Sutra: Een hedendaagse Boeddha spreekt over een van de meest krachtige Sutra’s van Gautama the Boeddha.
“Het leven is Perfect” betoogt Osho. Hierover wil een vragensteller meer weten.
Het behelst: vooraf geen idee over wat perfect is. Het gaat niet om een vergelijking. Het leven is perfect zoals het er is.
Een gebochelde man protesteerde toen een Meester tegen zijn gehoor zei, dat alles perfect is. “Kijk naar mij…”riep hij uit. “Ik ben er het bewijs van, dat dit niet klopt!” “Welnu” zei de Meester “Volgens het leven klopt het wel: jij bent de perfecte gebochelde.”

Het boek The Diamond Sutra is verkrijgbaar bij de Boekhandel of via internet.

Fragment from the The Diamond Sutra

VAJRACHCHEDIKA PRAJNAPARAMITA SUTRA OF GAUTAMA THE BUDDHA

THE LORD THEN SAID:
‘YES, SUBHUTI, FOR THE TATHAGATA HAS TAUGHT THAT THE DHAMMAS SPECIAL TO THE BUDDHAS
ARE JUST NOT A BUDDHA’S SPECIAL DHAMMAS.
THAT IS WHY THEY ARE CALLED “THE DHAMMAS SPECIAL TO THE BUDDHAS”.’

The Diamond Sutra will appear to most of you as absurd, as mad. It is irrational but not anti-rational. It is something beyond the reason, that’s why it is so difficult to express it in words.
Once a whisky-drinking, chainsmoking and popcorn-munching American priest was staying with me. Roaming in my library, accidentally he found The Diamond Sutra. For just ten to fifteen minutes he looked into it here and there, then he came to me and said, “This man Buddha must have been mad. And not only was he mad, he had mad followers too.’
I can understand his statement. Buddha will look mad to you too, because he is trying to say that which cannot be said. He is trying to catch hold of something which is essentially elusive. Hence all these strange sayings — they ARE strange. They are strange because the way they are put, the way they are expressed, is not logical. It does not make any sense, not at least on the surface.
And if you have not felt something of the beyond, it is very difficult for you to understand what Buddha is trying to do. We can understand only that which we have experienced, if not in toto then at least in part. Otherwise our understanding remains rooted in our experience.
It happened:
Charlie had been to school that morning for the first time. When he came home his mother said, “Well, Charlie, how do you like school?”
“I like it well enough, but I have not got my present yet.”
“Your present?” queried the mother. “What do you mean?”
“Teacher said, when she saw me, ‘You may sit here for the present, little man.’ I sat there all morning and didn’t get a thing!”

Now, a small child’s understanding is a small child’s understanding. And that’s how you are — small children as far as Buddha is concerned, as far as his statements are concerned. His statements are of the ultimate experience. You will have to be very very patient, only then something will start dawning in your consciousness. They are of utter significance. Even if a single statement is understood, that will prove radical, that will change you from your very roots.

A father took his young son to an opera for the first time. The conductor started waving the baton and the soprano began her aria. The boy watched everything intently and finally asked, “Why is he hitting her with his stick?”
“He is not hitting her with the stick,” the father explained.
“Then why is she screaming?”
In your mind many times these ideas will come: What is Buddha saying? It looks so utterly mad, it doesn’t make sense. It is beyond sense. You will have to gather yourself together to climb to something higher than you. You will have to stretch your hands towards the beyond. Even if you can touch just a fragment of these sayings, your life will not be the same again.
But it is difficult. We live rooted in the earth. We are like trees rooted in the earth. Buddha is a bird on his wings in the sky. Now these trees rooted in the earth are trying to understand the message of the bird who has no roots in the earth any more, who is flying in the sky, who knows the vastness, the infinity of the sky. He has a different understanding, a different vision. And the distance is immense.
Only very few can have a few glimpses of what Buddha is trying to do. Something of absolute value is being conveyed to you. If you cannot understand then remember that you cannot understand. Don’t say, like that whisky-drinking, chainsmoking, popcorn-munching priest, that Buddha is mad. Don’t say that, beware of that. It is easier to say that Buddha is mad. Then you are freed of the responsibility of understanding; then you can close The Diamond Sutra and forget all about it.
If you say, “It is beyond me,” then there is challenge. When you say, “Maybe I am very childish, juvenile. I cannot understand, I have to grow into my understanding. How can Buddha be mad?” then there is a challenge and you start growing.
Always remember that: never decide about the other. Even if Buddha is mad, take it as a challenge. You will not lose anything. If he is mad, then too you would have gone beyond your boundaries just in the effort to understand him. If he is not mad then you have met with something precious, then you have stumbled upon a great treasure.

The sutras:
THE LORD THEN SAID:
‘YES, SUBHUTI, FOR THE TATHAGATA HAS TAUGHT
THAT THE DHAMMAS SPECIAL TO THE BUDDHAS
ARE JUST NOT A BUDDHA’S SPECIAL DHAMMAS.
THAT IS WHY THEY ARE CALLED
“THE DHAMMAS SPECIAL TO THE BUDDHAS”.’

Now look at the absurdity — but it is significant, it is very meaningful. What are the Dhammas of the Buddhas, the special characteristics of a Buddha? His special characteristic is that he has no characteristics, that he is utterly ordinary, that if you come across him you will not recognize him.
He is not a performer, he is not a politician, he is not an actor. He has no ego to perform. He is not there to convince anybody about his importance. He is utterly absent. That is his presence. That’s why these absurd statements.
His characteristic is that he lives as if he is dead; that he walks and yet nobody walks in him, that he talks yet nobody talks in him… there is utter silence, never broken.
Zen monks say Buddha never uttered a single word, and Buddha spoke for forty-five years continuously. If anybody can surpass him, that is me, nobody else can surpass him. And I say to you I have also not uttered a single word. Zen people are right. I agree with them with my own experience. I go on saying things to you and yet deep inside there is absolute silence, not disturbed by what I say. When I am speaking, the silence is there, not even a ripple arises in it.
I am here, in a way utterly present, in another way absolutely absent, because there is nothing arising in me which says ‘I’. Not that I don’t use the word; the word has to be used, it is utilitarian — but it connotes to no reality. It is just a utility, a convenience, a strategy of language; it corresponds to no reality. from Osho, The Diamond Sutra 

If you want to be MORE, be more CONSCIOUS

“Remember‚ you are only in the same proportion as you are conscious. If you want to be more‚ be more conscious. Consciousness imparts being. Unconsciousness takes being away. When you are drunk‚ you lose being. When you are fast asleep‚ you lose being. Have you not watched it? When you are alert‚ you have a different quality‚ you are centered‚ rooted. When you are alert‚ you feel the solidity of your being‚ it is almost tangible. When you are unconscious‚ just dragging by‚ sleepy‚ your sense of being is less. It is always in the same proportion as the consciousness is. 

Consciousness Creates You

“So Buddha’s whole message is to be conscious. And for no other reason‚ just for the sake of being conscious. Because consciousness imparts being‚ consciousness creates you‚ and a you so different from the you that you are‚ that you cannot imagine. A you where ‘I’ has disappeared‚ where no idea of self exists‚ nothing defines you‚ a pure emptiness‚ an infinity‚ unbounded emptiness. 

Aloneness is not Loneliness

“This‚ Buddha calls the state of meditation‚ samma samadhi‚ right state of meditation‚ when you are all alone. But remember‚ aloneness is not loneliness. Have you ever thought about this beautiful word‚ alone? It means all one. It is made of two words – all and one. In aloneness you become one with the all. 

“Aloneness has nothing of loneliness in it. You are not lonely when you are alone. You are alone‚ but not lonely because you are one with the all; how can you be lonely? You don’t miss others‚ true. Not that you have forgotten them‚ not that you don’t need them‚ not that you don’t care about them‚ no. You don’t remember others because you are one with them. All the distinction between one and all is lost. One has become the all‚ and all has become one. This English word alone is immensely beautiful. 

The Right Meditation is when you are One with all

“Buddha says samma samadhi is aloneness. The right meditation is to be so utterly alone that you are one with all. Let me explain it to you. If you are empty‚ your boundaries disappear because emptiness can have no boundaries. Emptiness can only be infinite. Emptiness cannot have any weight‚ emptiness cannot have any color‚ emptiness cannot have any name‚ emptiness cannot have any form. When you are empty‚ how will you divide yourself from others? Because you don’t have any color‚ you don’t have any name‚ you don’t have any form‚ you don’t have any boundaries. How are you going to make any distinctions? When you are empty‚ you are one with all. You have melted into existence‚ existence has merged with you. You are no longer an island‚ you have become the vast continent of being.”