3.2 (b): The Dhyāna in the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra

[Full title: 3.2: The Dhyāna in Mahāyāna Sūtras (b): The Dhyāna in the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra (i.e., “the Sūtras of Perfect Wisdom”)]

As above-mentioned, the Bodhisattva ideal, one of the essential elements of Mahāyāna, is a central theme in these sūtras, which form the foundations of the philosophy of the Middle Way (Mādhyamika). The influence of the sūtras of Perfect Wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) extends throughout virtually the whole of Mahāyāna Buddhism, but these texts have left their strongest stamp on the Dhyāna School.

As their name indicates, these sūtras have to do with Perfect Wisdom and indeed are basically an exaltation of prajñā, revered in these works as the mother of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the source of all merits and of final liberation. In the main text, a sūtra of eight thousand lines, wisdom is exalted in a variety of terms and expressions: “worthy of homage,” “excellent are all her works,” “unstained and the entire world cannot stain her,” “she brings light to the blind so that all fear and distress may be forsaken,” “in her we can find shelter,” “she cannot be crushed,” “she is the antidote to birth and death.”^[1] In these sūtras the significance of wisdom for the pursuit of salvation is evident. It is wisdom that sets the wheel of doctrine in motion. The new doctrine of the Wisdom school is thus considered by Mahāyāna to be the “second turning of the Dharma wheel,” second in importance only to the first teachings preached by Śākyamuni.

The Prajñāpāramitā sūtras (i.e., “the Sūtras of Perfect Wisdom”) also set forth the evangel of the Buddha by claiming silence as their highest and most valid expression. Wisdom, all-knowing and all-penetrating, is deep, inconceivable and ineffable, transcending all concepts and words. Most important, wisdom sees through the “emptiness” (Skt., śūnyatā, adj., śūnya; Jpn., kū) of all things (dharma). Everything existing is always “empty.” The broad horizon of meaning enveloping this word, which occurs throughout all the sūtras, suggests that in the attempt to grasp its content feeling must take precedence over definition. End the Heart Sūtra, the shortest of the Prajñāpāramitā texts, wisdom is related to the five skandhas, the constitutive elements of human beings, and to all things contained in them. The sūtra is recited daily both in the dhyāna and other Mahāyāna temples, often repeated three times, seven times, or even more. In drawn out, resounding tones the endless chanting echoes through the semidark halls: “kū-kū-kū,” i.e., empty, empty, empty. Like the Hīnayāna monk meditating on despicable objects (kammatthāna), the ordinary Japanese woman recites the word empty in order to grasp the transience and nothingness of this temporal world–a prerequisite for advance on the religious way of salvation. ^[2]

Of special importance for the dhyāna is the fact that Perfect Wisdom reveals the essence of enlightenment. As a synonym for emptiness and thusness,^[3] Enlightenment is neither existence nor nonexistence; it cannot be described or explained. “Just the path is enlightenment; just enlightenment is the path.”^[4]

Although the statements about Perfect Wisdom in. the basic early texts of the Prajñāpāramitā literature are open to transcendence, wisdom–even in its identification with emptiness, thusness, sameness, the Dharma realm, and enlightenment–remains in a state of suspension. It touches on the realm of the Absolute and yet is not itself an absolute being.

Lamotte sums things up this way in his monumental study and translation of one of the seminal texts of East Asian Buddhism:

Perfected Wisdom is not a being in the metaphysical order; nor is it a subsistent absolute to which one can adhere. It is rather a spiritual state. Transcending the categories of existence and nonexistence, empty of every quality, Perfect Wisdom can be neither affirmed nor denied: it is excellence in which nothing is lacking.... ^[5]

Among the later Prajñāpāramitā sātras, the dhyāna gives special importance to the Diamond Sūtra and the Heart Sūtra. As already mentioned, the Heart Sūtra enjoys a place of preeminence in cultic practice. Suzuki takes the magical formula that concludes the sūtra to be a kōan.^[6] In the sūtra’ s short version (the shortest form has only eighteen lines), he finds an introduction to the attainment of enlightenment in the form of a kōan.

The chief reason for the fondness of the dhyāna followers for the Diamond Sūtra lies in its liberal use of paradox. In numerous repetitions this sūtra drives home the paradox of “nothingness.”

What has been taught by the Tathāgata as the possession of marks, that is truly a no-possession of no-marks.... Hence the Tathāgata is to be seen from no-marks as marks....

The Tathāgata spoke of the “heap of merit” as a non-heap.... For the Tathāgata has taught that the dharmas special to the Buddhas are just not Buddha’s special dharmas.

Just that which the Tathāgata has taught as the wisdom which has gone beyond, just that he has taught as not gone beyond.

The Tathāgata has taught this as the highest (paramā) perfection (pāramitā). And what the Tathāgata teaches as the highest perfection, that also Blessed Buddhas do teach.... ^[7]

The negations of the Diamond Sūtra, like those of Zen in general, are meant to help one acquire intuitive knowledge. W. Gundert explains, from his Zen perspective, that “this kind of negation, which really is the highest form of affirmation... belongs to the style of the sūtras of Perfect Wisdom, especially that of the Diamond Cutter Sutra, the Vajracchedikā.”^[8] The Wisdom sūtras are meant to bring one to a religious experience in which one penetrates the emptiness of all things and grasps their suchness, an experience like the dispersing of darkness and the dawning of light. Just as emptiness is ineffable and immeasurable, neither increasing nor decreasing, so does suchness, “that unsurpassable and perfect illumination,” neither grow nor diminish.^[9] Emptiness, thusness, and Perfect Wisdom stand on a single line, elevated above the process of change and reaching into the realm of transcendence.

Not without reason, the school of the dhyāna considers itself the rightful heir to the teachings of Perfect Wisdom. Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch of the dhyāna, was awakened to the Great Enlightenment by a verse in the Diamond Sūtra: “Let your mind take its rise without fixing it anywhere.”^[10] The Diamond Sūtra remained his favorite ever after.

In the spiritual and intellectual climate of the dhyāna, negation and paradox were able to flourish. Enlightenment grasps all things “as they are,” that is, in their thusness. Zen masters offer invaluable aid in what Suzuki has aptly called “the handling of prajñā.”^[11]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

E. Come, Selected Sayings from the Perfection of Wisdom (London, 1968), pp. 61-2. Conze’s books have unlocked the Prajñāpāramitā literature for us. His The Prajñāpāramitā Literature, in which he describes all the texts whose translations exist in Chinese, Tibetan, other Asian languages, and in Western languages, and in which he investigates their origins and historical connections, is fundamental.

[2]:

Quoted from Zen Buddhism: A History p. 42.

[3]:

Conze, Selected Sayings from the Perfection of Wisdom (London, 1968), p. 114.

[4]:

Ibid., pp. 115-16.

[5]:

See Zen Buddhism: A History, p. 75.

[6]:

Dīgha-Nikāya T. Suzuki. Essay in Zen Buddhism, Vol. II., Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2005, p. 202.

[7]:

See Zen Buddhism: A History, pp. 44-5.

[8]:

Ibid., 45.

[9]:

Ibid.

[10]:

Dīgha-Nikāya T. Suzuki. Essay in Zen Buddhism, Vol. III., p. 91.

[11]:

Suzuki gives several examples of this in Essays in Zen Buddhism, III, pp. 250-55.