The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion, Thich Nhat Hanh

Thich Nhat Hhan is a Vietnamese Zen master, poet, peace activist, author and founder of the Plum Village Tradition. He coined the term “Engaged Buddhism” in his book ‘Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire‘. He promotes non-violent solutions to conflict through deep listening and loving speech. During his 1966 stay in the US he had a dialogue with Martin Luther King and urged him to publicly denounce the Vietnamese War. In 1967 King nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. In his nomination, King said, “I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of [this prize] than this gentle monk from Vietnam. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity”

This is a wonderful commentary on the Diamond Sutra. He takes the sometimes abstract sounding ideas of the sutra and explains them in a way that can be used in our daily lives. We can see the deep ecology that arises from such a reading.

In his introduction he invites us to read the sutra first before looking at the commentaries. “Dont rush into the commentaries or you may be unduly influenced by them. Please read the sutra first. You may see things that no commentator has seen.”

The Diamond Sutra is part of the Prajñāpāramitā (The Perfection of (Transcendent) Wisdom) series of sutras. The main concept of these sutras is the concept of emptiness. Thay’s way of explaining this using his concept of interbeing is extremely helpful in getting to grips with emptiness.

We are guided by Thay with compassion through the teaching. For example, looking at the extract below,

“And When this innumerable, immeasurable,
infinitate number of beings have become liberated,
we do not, in truth, think that a single being has
been liberated“

At first this looks contradictory, but Thay explains that the Buddha is presenting the principle of formlessness. A true practitioner helps in a spontaneous way. There is no distinction between the one who is helping and the one who is being helped. Thay shows this as an example of interbeing. The helper is connected to the one who is being helped. As he puts it, “When our left hand is injured our right hand takes care of it right away. It doesn’t stop to say, “I’m taking care of you. You are benefiting from my compassion.” The right hand knows very well that the left hand is also the right hand. There is no distinction between them.”

At the heart of the Diamond Sutra are the four notions that we need to remove.

“Why is this so? If, Subhuti, a bodhisattva holds
on to the idea that a self, a person, a living being,
or a life span exists, that person is not an authentic
bodhisattva.”

On first inspection we would assume that all these are true. There is a self, a person, a living being and a lifespan. Why is the Buddha saying these things don’t exist? Thay explains that ‘Self’ refers to a permanent, changeless identity. Buddhism teaches us that nothing is permanent. As Thay explains, “a self is made entirely of nonself elements, there is really no such entity as a self.”

He then explains the concept of a person in a similar way. It “is made only of non-person elements – sun, clouds, wheat, space and so on.” We have to get past the barrier of the idea of a person and a non-person. We should not differentiate between humans and other animals. Thay gives us a warning here, which could be quite prophetic, given what has happened during the 2020 pandemic. “The results of discriminating between human and non-human are global warming, pollution, and the emergence of many strange diseases. In order to protect ourselves, we must protect the non human elements.”

In order to understand the concept of a ‘living being’ we cannot separate ourselves from non-living elements. It is the non-living that makes the living possible.

How do we then explain a ‘life span’? We usually think of this as beginning at birth and ending when we die. Again, life and death are one. Thay looks at the question by looking at he human body. “During one so-called life span, there are millions of births and millions of deaths. Cells in our body cease to be every day…Our planet is also a body, and we are each a cell in that body. Must we cry and organise a funeral every time one cell of our body or one cell of the Earth’s body dies?”

Thay uses an amusing story from his life to reflect his understanding of the Diamond Sutra. He says that he loves to walk slowly through the countryside, taking in all around him. He talks of the pleasure of having a pee in the open air. So much more pleasant than a bathroom. For years he was uneasy about peeing in the woods. He had too much respect for the trees.
“We usually think of our bathroom at home, made of wood, tile, or cement, as inanimate and we have no problem peeing there. But after I studied the Diamond Sutra and I saw that wood, tile and cement are also marvellous and animate, I began to feel even uncomfortable using my own bathroom. Then I had a realization. I realized that peeing is also a marvelous and wondrous reality, our gift to the universe. We only have to pee mindfully, with great respect for ourselves and whatever surroundings we are in.”

The book is full of wondrous insight. A great introduction to the Diamond Sutra.

For More information on the work of Tich Nhat Hanh click on the link below.