Читать книгу The Diamond Sutra (Chin-Kang-Ching) or Prajna-Paramita онлайн

6 страница из 29

In the preface to The Vagrakkhedika, Max Müller made a critical observation regarding certain peculiarities of “‘style’ adopted in this treatise by the Buddhist philosophers who wished to convince their hearers of the truth of their philosophy.” From the Sanscrit text, perhaps it is difficult to realise fully what Asvaghochassss1 described as the “persuasiveness of Buddha’s eloquence”;ssss1 yet we may quite appreciate the academic instinct of Kumarajiva, whose work on The Diamond Sutra bears evidence of a laudable endeavour to produce a classic, which in the Chinese language is almost entirely beyond reproach.

In all our aspirations to translate or to interpret Buddhist texts, perhaps it might prove advantageous to bear in mind the significant words incorporated in the Light of Asia:—

“And time hath blurred their script and ancient sense,

Which once was new and mighty, moving all.”

Max Müller statedssss1 that The Diamond Sutra represents a treatise on “metaphysical agnosticism,” and he excused its “endless repetition of the same process of reasoning” on the assumption, that the subject-matter of the Sutra was probably “perfectly familiar to children and ignorant persons.”