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The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra
THE TRANSLATOR
Preface:
Translated by Tripitaka Dharma Master Kumarajiva during the Yao Qin Dynasty.
Commentary:
1. In the Yao Qin period, Tripitaka Master Kumarajiva translated the sutra, giving it the title the Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra. In later times the sutra came to be translated by five other Dharma Masters.
2. Dharma Master Bodhiruci translated it in the Yuan Wei period and used the same title as Kumarajiva.
3. Dharma Master Paramartha translated the sutra in the later Chen Dynasty also under the same title.
4. In the Sui Dynasty, Dharma Master Upagupta translated the sutra under a different title. He added the word “cutting,” calling it the Cutting-Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra.
5. In the Tang Dynasty during the 19th year of the reign period Zhen Guan, Dharma Master Hsüan Tsang translated the sutra, reversing Upagupta’s title slightly and calling it the Vajra Which Can Cut Prajna Paramita Sutra. Dharma Master Hsüan Tsang was a great, virtuous, high monk who walked from China to India via Siberia in order to study the sutras. After studying for fourteen years he returned to China to translate the works which he had collected.
6. Dharma Master Yi Jing also studied in India, and returned to China during the reign of Empress Wu Ce Tian who made great display of her patronage of Buddhism and commissioned Dharma Master Yi Jing to translate sutras. His translation of the sutra bore the same title as that by Dharma Master Hsüan Tsang.
Of those six translations, Dharma Master Kumarajiva’s is considered the finest. It was Vinaya Master Dao Xuan who discovered the reason Master Kumarajiva’s translations are the ones people most like to read and recite. Vinaya Master Dao Xuan especially cultivated the precepts and rules. In the Four Great Deportments – walking, standing, sitting, and lying down – he was extremely proper. As is said in the Shurangama Sutra, “He rigorously regulated his demeanor out of stern respect for the pure dharma.” Such deportment commands the respect of ghosts and spirits as well as that of men and gods. Vinaya Master Dao Xuan was a model for all to follow.
The Four Great Deportments refer to walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. Walk like the wind. That does not mean like a gale which tears down mountains, uproots trees, and blows over houses. It means like a gentle breeze. Stand like a pine. Sit like a bell. That does not mean like the bell’s clapper – always swaying to and fro. Sit like the ancient bells which were made so heavy nothing could move them. Then one has sufficient samadhi power. Lie like a bow. That is called “lucky lying down.” Put your right hand under your right cheek, and your left hand on your left thigh. Shakyamuni Buddha entered nirvana in the “lucky lying down” posture.
In response to Vinaya Master Dao Xuan’s superb cultivation of the Three-Thousand Deportments and the Eighty-Thousand Fine Practices, the gods brought him offerings. Those of you who wish to be high masters should protect and maintain the precepts and rules, and then the dharma protectors and good spirits will protect you. If you break the precepts, they will not. Vinaya Master Dao Xuan was “dignified and pure in Vinaya, a great model for the triple realm.” He was an example for those in the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm, and in response the gods brought him food to eat.
One day when a god appeared with food, Vinaya Master Dao Xuan asked him, “Why does everyone like Kumarajiva’s translations?”
The god, named Lu Xuan Chang replied, “Because Kumarajiva has been the master translator for the past seven Buddhas. The sutras he translated are the same as the Buddhas’ mind, so everyone likes to read and recite them.”
Moreover, when Kumarajiva was about to die he said, “I personally don’t know if there are mistakes in the sutras I have translated, but if there are none, when I am cremated my tongue will not burn. If I have made mistakes, and the translations are not in accord with the Buddhas’ mind, then my tongue will burn.” After Kumarajiva completed the stillness, his body was burned but his tongue remained untouched by the fire, fully certifying that the sutras which Dharma Master Kumarajiva translated are completely correct.
Yao Qin Dynasty. The Yao Qin (344-413 A.D.) is the name given to the reign period of Emperor Yao Xing. It is not the same as the Ying Qin, reign period of Qin Shi Huang, or as the Fu Qin, reign period of Emperor Fu Jian. When Fu Jian was assassinated by Yao Chang the dynasty was renamed Yao Qin in honor of the new emperor. Yao Chang in time was succeeded by his nephew Yao Xing, and the dynasty name Yao Qin was retained. It was during the reign of Yao Xing, a strong supporter of Buddhism, that Kumarajiva translated the sutra.
Tripitaka. Tripitaka refers to the three divisions of the Buddhist canon:
1. the sutra division, spoken for the study of samadhi;
2. the vinaya division, spoken for the study of morality; and,
3. the sastra division, spoken for the study of wisdom.
Dharma Master. Dharma Master has two meanings:
1. he masters the dharma and gives it to others, and
2. he takes the dharma as his master.
There are four kinds of Dharma Masters:
1. Those who explain the dharma for others, through lecturing sutras and discussing
principles of dharma;
2. Those who read and recite the sutras for others;
3. Those who write out the sutras for others; and
4. Those who accept and maintain the sutras themselves.
Kumarajiva. Kumarajiva was the son of Kumarayana, who refused to inherit his father’s high position in order to leave the home life and cultivate the Way. During his travels as a mendicant Kumarayana was received by the King of Kucha, a small country of central India, and invited to be National Master there. Later by imperial command he was forced to marry the King’s sister, Jiva. While she carried their son Kumarajiva, her wisdom and power of learning increased remarkably, a phenomenon which also occurred while Shariputra was in his mother’s womb.
Later Kumarajiva’s mother wished to leave the home life. Finally, after a period of fasting she received permission from her reluctant husband, who, although formerly a bhiksu, had by then developed a strong attachment to his beautiful wife. After Jiva became a bhiksuni she quickly certified to the first fruit of Arhatship.
The Sanskrit name Kumarajiva means “mature youth,” because even as a youth he had the virtuous conduct of an elder. In one day he could memorize more than thirty six thousand words. In two days he was able to recite the entire Dharma Blossom Sutra from memory. At age seven Kumarajiva left the home life. One day while visiting a temple in Kashgar with his mother, he picked up a huge censer on one of the altars and lifted it over his head as an offering to the Buddhas. After doing so he thought, “This is too heavy for me to lift” and the discrimination rendered him incapable of holding the censer, so that he had to cry out to his mother for help. From that experience he came to the sudden and total realization that everything is made from the mind alone.
During the Fu Qin Dynasty in China an astrologer predicted that a great sage would come. The Emperor Fu Jian recognized the sage to be Kumarajiva, and sent a massive army commanded by General Lü Guang to escort the Dharma Master to China. The King of Kucha, disregarding Kumarajiva’s advice that the advancing troops were not militant, countered the “invasion.” In the ensuing battle Kucha’s king was killed and his army defeated. Many political changes followed which delayed Kumarajiva’s arrival in China until the Yao Qin Dynasty. Kumarajiva established a translation center in Chang An, the capital city, where he translated over three hundred volumes of sutra texts, among them the Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, volume 577 of the Great Prajna Sutra.
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