The Profound Consciousness-only Meaning of the Diamond Sutra (5)

The Sutra Title — The Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

Prajñā is the great transcendent wisdom, entirely different from worldly wisdom, and therefore it is not translated simply as "wisdom." Worldly wisdom is the wisdom for surviving within the world of the three realms. In the desire realm there are men and women, and thus there is desire between them—bearing and raising children to propagate offspring, creating wealth, manufacturing the necessities of life, engaging in research, invention, and creation, engaging in politics and managing enterprises. For the devas, all the necessities of life arise from their thoughts, and at all times they indulge in pleasure; the devas of the form realm abide in sublime states of meditative concentration (dhyāna), with no distinction of male or female and no need for food or drink, enjoying only the bliss of meditative concentration; the devas of the formless realm, though without physical bodies, possess profound meditative concentration, and their minds, abiding in samādhi, enjoy the blessings of concentration; the beings of the three evil destinies are always trying every means to reduce their suffering so as to obtain warmth, food, and survival. All of these belong to the wisdom realm and scope of the three-realm world, and none of them transcends birth-and-death and saṃsāra.

But the transcendent wisdom—prajñā—is neither inside nor outside the three realms; it is not subsumed under the dharmas of the three realms. Therefore prajñā is not directly translated as "wisdom," lest worldly people misunderstand and say, "We also have wisdom—superb wisdom in the fields of politics, economics, culture, psychology, and every profession." But all of these belong to the impermanent, conditioned dharmas of the mundane world; they are produced by the wisdom of prajñā, and only by relying on the wisdom of prajñā can they exist and develop. The wisdom of prajñā is measureless, boundless, and vast: the universe and empty space are contained within it. Measureless buddha-lands, measureless worlds of the lotus treasury, and measureless world-oceans are all established within empty space, all jointly manifested by the tathāgatagarbhas of the measureless, boundless sentient beings—this is called the one true dharma realm (ekatva-dharmadhātu). The ten dharma realms (the four sagely and six ordinary destinies) are all produced by Him. No matter how far humanity's spacecraft can fly, however far they fly, they cannot fly beyond empty space—and empty space does not lie outside the prajñā mind.