Diamond Sutra

What Hacker News says

1. MrLeapJul 2024
   I love the Diamond Sutra. I read it every few years. To me, it's very funny. how can one read about all the absolutely galactic scale quantity of "merit" to be gained right next to explanations about the illusory nature of words without laughing?

   It's layered like an onion. One layer is meant to free people from illbeing. Another layer is for error correction codes and to make the message 'viral'. Another layer opened my eyes to incontrovertible truth about the noisy approximations and lossy signals that comprise the the human experience. So many layers read rather mystically at first, but you can always cut through it and find out it's not magic, it's really the way things are.

   From another angle, it's a blob of metadata around a packet that contains instructions to all sentient beings -- in my words: "Relax. Be compassionate to yourself and others. All barriers to compassion are illusions. Tell this to other people. If you need to reformat the content as a listicle to get through to grandma, that's cool."

   There's other angles. It's a fascinating document.

   I believe the massively intelligent person(s) who composed it had a sincere objective to help all life.

   Show morethread
2. gbuk2013Jul 2024
   For me the Diamond Sutra is the essence of Mahayana Buddhism.

   > To me, it's very funny. how can one read about all the absolutely galactic scale quantity of "merit" to be gained right next to explanations about the illusory nature of words without laughing?

   It’s all part of one of the central themes that accumulating merit is for the phenomenal world and ultimately meaningless for the transcendent.

   “A bodhisattva does not need to build up virtue and happiness… A boddhisatva gives rise to virtue and happiness but is not caught up in the idea of virtue and happiness.”

   Show morethread
3. getpostJul 2024
   Ken McLeod[0] is teaching a 6 week class Tuesday evenings on the Diamond Sutra at The Alembic[1][2] in Berkeley. The first class was last week. It may be possible to join now and watch the first class online.

   Ken recommends the Red Pine[3] and Thich Nhat Hanh[4] translations.

   [0] https://unfetteredmind.org/ [1] http://berkeleyalembic.org/ [2] https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/practicing-the-diamond-sutra-w... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Sutra-Red-Pine/dp/1582432562/ [4] https://www.amazon.com/Diamond-That-Cuts-Through-Illusion/dp...

   Show morethread
4. rg111Jun 2023
   A more fitting title would be: "46 Books that American Intellectuals and Academics Talk About the Most".

   When it puts Diamond Sutra on top, I thought that this list is going to be interesting.

   But then I saw it didn't include Bhagavad Gita, The Quran, or anything from China or Japan- I was disappointed and saw this as another list.

   There were other books that moved more mass of people, changed history in more profound and lasting ways thatn the ones listed here.

   Show morethread
5. johndhiJan 2023
   My background is as a follower of Osho (the guru from Wild Wild Country). I have read some of the Buddhist texts (Dhammapada, Diamond Sutra), and I've spent some but not a ton of time with "Buddhist" teachers.

   My view of this article: while I appreciate anyone writing about religion today, I don't really love what the article says and it sounds a bit like a general criticism of organized religion from someone hoping it's something it of course isn't.

   What does it matter that your friends aren't serious or religious enough for your liking? This is ultimately a solo pursuit. What does it matter that you can find a sutra from Gautama that sounds sexist? This isn't about Gautama. What does it matter that an interpretation of what Gautama said is 'modern' or 'original'? This isn't about that.

   This (religion) is about your personal religiousness. Your spirituality. There's a lot of beauty in the world of Buddhism to experience. It isn't for me, either, but I'm not angry or resentful about that.

   Show morethread
6. rblionFeb 2019
   The Diamond Sutra, the world's first printed book (868 AD) and it was hidden in a secret cave for centuries. It was brought to the West in 1900.

   http://diamond-sutra.com/

   thread