Diamond Sutra by Red Pine Review

[@franciscocastrovidela9007]

I absolutely love Red Pine - his Collected Songs of Cold Mountain has been my go-to book for many years now

[@mitra4311]

Red Pine is a true Zen master and educator. Only after reading this book I got a glimpse of understanding of what Diamond Sutra is about. And Platform Sutra with his comments - mind changing reading!

[@dbuck1964]

Thanks Brad. I really appreciate the way you make this type of literature more accessible for the rest of us.

[@fatsamurai007]

I saw Red Pine do a reading of selected bits of "The Clouds Should Know Me By Now", it was the first time I'd ever heard of him. I was so enthralled that I bought the first book of his that I could find, which happened to be "The Heart Sutra." I had read many Zen/Buddhist books at that time (including the Heart Sutra itself) and I was thoroughly impressed with his rendition. So good! I've enjoyed everything of his that I've read, even the Platform Sutra. Thanks for this video!

[@ceruleandusk]

Really love your take on this. His translation of "The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma" is my favorite book of all time; The Lanka is also great; The "Heart Sutra" is short and his commentary on point. The Diamond Sutra on the other hand... I quit reading it midway through and never finished. If I feel like I'm not understanding or getting anything from a book it becomes REALLY hard for me go finish it.

[@Scott.Jones608]

I'm re-reading Red Pine's Tao Te Ching translation right now (I'd wholeheartedly recommend it). He puts a lot of great insightful commentary on each of the chapters from multiple sources.

[@mitra4311]

Thank you for this information!

[@danzacjones]

THIS IS LITERALLY THE GREATEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN (that I have read)

[@HardcoreZen]

It's a good one.

[@StugletofDoom]

I've been thinking about exploring the lotus sutra. If I may ask what are your thoughts on the lotus and is there a translation you would recommend?

[@kenh5317]

Bummer. “Ontological” is my favorite word. Putting seriousness aside, I’ve been wondering about Red Pine’s translations and this video is very helpful. Thank you.

[@joeg3950]

After years of studying in Chicago, it is widely acknowledged that it is part of ancient “advertising” but also that it is part of the oral tradition before the printing press. So, many scholars would agree with you on that. In my opinion, Red Pine’s translations are very good and that I would use the texts in a university class. Because I’ve been reading these types of texts for years, I just accept those passages and drive on to the juicy parts. As a former type of scholar, I think his book is just right. Usually, heavily formalized scholarly books don’t do that much for their fields, and my background involves Hegel, Foucault, Spivak, Lukacs, Frankfurt School, etc. An advisor once said to me, “If you can’t say it simply, then maybe you shouldn’t say it all.” Good stuff

[@HardcoreZen]

Thank you. It's good to know I'm not the only one who sees those parts as a sort of "advertising."

[@GregMilner]

Thanks for the review. I have been wondering about this one for a while (I have the Heart Sutra one). Love the videos.

[@saralawlor780]

Thank you Brad, very interesting. I really appreciate these videos. If a choice between this Red Pine book and the Light that shines through Infinity by Dainin Katagiri which you talked about recently which choice should I make? I have been studying and practising zen for a few years and have read your books, plus quite a few others zen books. I like the sound of both the Red Pine and the Katagiri. Any thoughts?

[@pajamawilliams9847]

Red Pines translation of the Platform Sutra was what blew me away and got me to start taking Buddhism seriously.

[@chatnoir8524]

Hi Brad, I appreciate the videos. Do you have any videos on responsible news intake? I am finding it difficult balancing my current events/news/going-ons intake. Is it okay to not read the news? If you can direct me to any content related to my question that would be much appreciated.

[@Barbarossa19]

I will give you a starting point for Brad's videos for your question. I have noticed he doesn’t prefer to dig through past video’s 😉 Perhaps Brad can correct the mistakes I will likely make. Starting around Mar 12, 2020, with the first of these listed videos, Brad began working out the craziness of the Coronavirus as it began to cause turmoil. If you look at the chronologic list of Hardcore Zen videos you will be able to pick up the trail. I have listed a few others which are germane to your question with UNSUBSCRIBING on May 6, 2020, being very specific. Keep in mind this last is no final answer from Brad only part of the process. Cheers Zen & the Fear of Disease kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5e0lKRsjsatf68 How Zen Can Help in a Time of Global Pandemic -- kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWm6hIV6p5KigtE What Can We Do? (Following Circumstances) -- kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIvHamSpipekfqc Following Circumstances Follow up Video -- kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHq4koucg6ihaZI UNSUBSCRIBING -- kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqKzoZuvp9qVfbM

[@torontosteve]

He published a revised translation in 2018 , based on some newly discovered Sanskrit texts , it is a smaller books as he left out the commentaries that were in the original

[@teresadewi2144]

i like red pine's work on diamond sutra. i actually get to understand more about "anatta" by reading this book. as a theravadin, understanding anatta, anicca and dukkha is a must to be a sotapatti. there are other writings about anatta, but this book explains it like no other. tbh, zen teachings and videos help me understand more about anatta because these tell about anatta in daily lives. shohaku okumura's video where he explains the interconnectedness of everything also helps me to understand "anatta" eventhough he did not explicitly make the video to explain "anatta". red pine's book does not say explicitly that it is written to explain about anatta.However, the moment i finished reading, i realized that this book made me understand "anatta" and its ramifications on daily lives. I will read it again and again.

[@mitra4311]

I would comment that my readings of Diamond sutra were all worthless before reading Red Pine's book. The most important realization to me from this book is self renunciation. What are the consequences? Angry all judgements are gone resentment gone, no more fears. Emotions come and go. You clearly see that your self is nothing more than social illusion, a device for self deception and external manipulations. What are our precious thoughts? Are they ours? Or who knows who had taught us to think this or that way, to act this or that way, Express our fears and desires this or that way. Dear Red Pine. Thank you! Now I know it is not me any more.

[@kirkbest3238]

That’s was how they got your attention back then

[@blackbird5634]

Big fan of Red Pine, ''Bill Porter'' who went to China looking for Zen Hermits. He's the real deal.

[@lorenacharlotte8383]

The Diamond Sutra is already a complex sutra to both: comprehend and digest. It was written in a manner to put off any intent of giving rise to intellectual mind. The reader has no more choice that to read this sutra with a settle open mind in a tranquil environment where concentration is favorable. This is because this sutra and the Heart Sutra both penetrate in one through a different channel than the intelectual. The Diamond sutra transmits the impression as if was a sutra about action Form and non-form seem to continuously interact with each other. It gives very important key points of practice. Diamond Sutra is very short but Red Pine has written a book with many pages about it. I wouldn’t go for this book because I’m still exploring by myself the sutra. Don’t want anybody influencing myself experience with the Sutra. Thich Nhat Hanh advices to read first sutras allowing them to penetrate deep in one, sitting down allowing insight be manifested...before reading any commentary including his.

[@Teller3448]

"Form and non-form seem to continuously interact" Form and non-form...are they the same or different?

[@lorenacharlotte8383]

@@Teller3448 : What is the difference of having an idea about something (in this case form and no form) or not bearing in mind any idea and just let the mind opened to “Just This”?. In the first case because there is already an idea the mind is not opened to what is there. In the second case even when using the same words, these don’t lay upon over any idea but as something that arises and one tries to convey into words. Perhaps beyond form and no form it might be a universal essence as no-nonform from which everything emanates. I don’t know. Like an invisible ocean from which the waves are the form and the water the essence. A wave is made of water. It’s empty of self. It’s not separated from the ocean. It interacts with the ocean. It’s the ocean itself taking the form of a wave. But the contents of the wave is water.

[@Teller3448]

@@lorenacharlotte8383 Does the ocean belong to the wave?

[@Teller3448]

@@lorenacharlotte8383 Brad often quotes from a book called "I am That" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_That What is the difference between 'just this' and 'I am that'?

[@lorenacharlotte8383]

@@Teller3448 : Haven’t read that book but just some passages from it. Yes, it’s a very interesting book. It explains things using a different form of language but its essence communicates an insightful universal message. Here you go when we go beyond the form of any spiritual tradition we can also benefit from the wisdom from other practitioners in a different form spiritual tradition.

[@williamedmondson2360]

I am currently in the middle of the Heart Sutra by Red Pine, besides the books I have read by Brad Warner, it is one of the best i have rad!!!!

[@philmcdonald6088]

book recommend: THE BASIC SPACE OF PHENOMENA by longchen rabjam.

[@Riddlemewalker]

Would the diamond sutra be something that Nishijima Roshi would ever comment on? You mentioned before that his dharma talks were mostly or all Dogen all the time.

[@HardcoreZen]

He lectured almost exclusively about Dogen, although sometimes he lectured about Nagarjuna.

[@jamesw.9256]

I wouldn't base what I read on anything Dogen said. To my knowledge, he was the pretty extremist about several things, one being that buddhahood isn't available to lay practitioners which is a fringe view in relation to all of Mahayana Buddhism

[@kirkbest3238]

Has he don’t the vemalkhirti sutra yet

[@ronaldtan1434]

Namo Amituofo

[@josephwilson-doan4163]

Nice review brother. Thank you 🙏

[@berndg5018]

Thank you for this content

[@456creeper]

Did not understand this book at all, even with the explanatory notes. The central teaching of the book (if memory serves) is "make a vow to save all creatures, but when you do no creature will be saved." That didn't so much blow my mind as bounce off. Still does.

[@Teller3448]

Most Buddhist doctrine 'bounces off' the usual requirements for establishing the truth about anything. Saving all creatures is pure fantasy...so is saving even ONE creature. Everything in this realm depends entirely on personal aspiration.

[@gunterappoldt3037]

Reading books requires understanding. Doing systemtic hermeneutics, for example, means to do factor analysis: who, why, when, where, what for ...? This also applies, i.m.o., to Buddhism, whose history is also the history of herersies, because of the permanent struggle about the true Dharma, and the many claims of single factions to being in the "posession" of the truer Dharma ("relative universalims" rule). So, trying to understand "teachings" is always a challenge, and it is, i.m.o., hard do decide "absolutely objetively" whose hermeneutics is the best one.

[@Teller3448]

@Dean Miller What's important to remember is that these ideas are about physics...dreamed up by people who understood nothing about physics. They even tried to pretend that they were fished out of a lake...where they were being protected by serpent deities since the time of Shakyamuni many centuries prior.

[@luanau]

I think the central idea is non attachment which is probably in all Buddha's teaching. If you just do a thought experiment. If the idea of self is absent from your being would you perceive yourself? Would you perceive other beings? Surely not as the idea of self doesn't exist in you it would definitely not be projected onto other beings or things you see. Even the boundaries between object and subject would disappear as they themselves depend on the idea of a self. The universe would just be one vast seamless reality. This is just a thought experiment, imagine how wondrous it would be when we can truly arrive at what Buddha discovered.

[@bookerbooker6317]

Brad, I was wondering if you have read this short essay by Gary Snyder before, and what your views are of him in general? I found especially interesting the point in which he questions fear and anger as being part of the 'human condition', but also bound up in social and political factors. theanarchistlibrary.org/library/gary-snyder-buddhist-anarchism

[@OrthodoxChristianTeaching]

Hi Brad you might like to check out the book on a fellow American named The Life and Teachings of Fr Seraphim Rose

[@craigjackson6883]

Seraphim Rose was an interesting guy. Gay beatnik buddhist turned Russian Orthodox monk. From what I remember he had some "heretical" views but can't quite remember what they were.

[@mattrkelly]

That's the one I have!

[@benjaminpepin2247]

Hi Brad! Yesterday i found this article about makyo (I'll leave the link at the end) and thought it would make an interesting topic for a video if you haven't talked about it yet, it's something i struggled with in my practice and i guess I'm not the only one and i would like to know what you think about that, anyways here it is wwzc.org/dharma-text/makyo-me

[@proulxmontpellier]

"Brad Warner is not Brad Warner. He is called Brad Warner"... :)

[@HardcoreZen]

So true!

[@audreyb221]

ta-TAH-ga-ta

[@HakuYuki001]

NO-one-CARES-ya

[@medialords8647]

Not sutra the correct word is sutta In Pali language ...problem with indian Buddhism is that it's brahmanised by brahmins. They replace original words with their today's classical Sanskrit.

[@esamyllykoski7906]

That is merely modern theravada propaganda. Scholars like Etienne Lamotte say that Buddha must have spoken in several ancient indian languages, like the magadhan language. He visited almost all of the ancient indian 16 great states (Mahajanapada) and taught in them. The early sangha existed in several states or countries. Likewise the Dharma/teaching existed in close to twenty different languages and versions, maybe even more.

[@PołAlpajn]

Taki wielki kloc musiał budda przekazać żeby ludzie w końcu zrozumieli że sutry to bzdury i prawdziwa to ich koniec

[@osip7315]

the diamond "cutter" sutra blunter than my axe the idiots froth at the ears thinking they are hearing something the dregs never fade they only pass tastelessly away

[@MuerganoZFG]

Gassho