Āryaprajñāpāramitāvajracchedikāṭīkā
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आर्यप्रज्ञापारमितावज्रच्छेदिकाटीका
Āryaprajñāpāramitāvajracchedikāṭīkā
འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཅོད་པའི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་པ།
'phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa'i rgya cher 'grel pa
An Extensive Commentary on "The Perfection of Wisdom, ‘The Diamond Cutter’ (Sūtra)" (84000)
Text
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Description
This is Kamalaśīla's commentary on the Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra (the "Diamond Cutter" Perfection of Wisdom sūtra), preserved in the Tibetan Tengyur. Notably, its own colophon gives a fuller title than the standard catalog heading—'phags pa rdo rje gcod pa dbu ma'i tshul du rgya cher 'grel pa, "An Extensive Commentary on the Diamond Cutter in the Manner of Madhyamaka"—explicitly signaling its Madhyamaka interpretive framework from within the text itself. Kamalaśīla (d. 795 CE) was a major Indian Madhyamaka scholar and student of Śāntarakṣita, renowned above all for his role in the Samye debate against the Chinese Chan teacher Moheyan and for his three-part Bhāvanākrama ("Stages of Meditation"), composed at the request of the Tibetan emperor. His engagement with the Vajracchedikā fits within this broader context: the sūtra was a text of real importance in the doctrinal controversies of late eighth-century Tibet, cited by both Kamalaśīla and Moheyan in support of their respective positions, alongside works like the Laṅkāvatārasūtra. This commentary stands alongside the commentary by Vasubandhu as one of the major Indian exegetical treatments of the sūtra to survive in Tibetan translation. The Tibetan translation is credited to the Indian preceptors Mañjuśrī and Jinamitra, together with the editor-translator Yeshe De.
Reference
Kamalaśīla (slob dpon ka ma la shI la). Āryaprajñāpāramitāvajracchedikāṭīkā [आर्यप्रज्ञापारमितावज्रच्छेदिकाटीका]. 'phags pa shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa rdo rje gcod pa'i rgya cher 'grel pa [འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཅོད་པའི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་པ།]. [An Extensive Commentary on "The Perfection of Wisdom, ‘The Diamond Cutter’ (Sūtra)" (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3162 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3162&typ=2.
Interconnections
1 Classical commentary of
One of the most revered and recited scriptures of the perfection of wisdom genre (prajñāpāramitāsūtras), perhaps second only to the Heart Sūtra, both of which became especially popular in the East Asian Buddhist traditions. It is a crucial source for Mahāyāna tenets of selflessness and the emptiness of phenomena, and its discourse is framed as an explanation of how to enter into the vehicle of the bodhisattvas by developing and sustaining their enlightened perspective.
2 Scholarship
Based on the study of two Indian commentaries extant in Tibetan on the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, the paper investigates the significance of the title of this exceedingly popular Mahāyāna scripture. Tracing back the symbolism of the vajra to its origin in Vedic myth, it proceeds to show the survival of its imagery in the Buddhist idea of the vajropama-samādhi. This is followed by an analysis of Kamalaśīla's explanation of the meaning of the term "Diamond-Cutter", which relates it to a threefold path-structure inherent in the text itself. Then the central topic of the sūtra, the support of abhisamaya is analysed and found to be allied in meaning to vajropama-samādhi and āśraya-parāvṛtti, the "conversion of support". The next part of the paper seeks to extend this symbolism to the rest of the āśraya constituting the text, utilising Vasubandhu's explanation of the meaning of "non-corruption" (mi nyams-pa). Finally, the essential meaning of "vajra-cutting" is found to be encapsulated in the seemingly paradoxical threefold logical pattern repeatedly employed by the sūtra: X is (spoken of as) no-X; therefore it is (called or spoken of as) X.
Based on the study of two Indian commentaries extant in Tibetan on the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, the paper investigates the significance of the title of this exceedingly popular Mahāyāna scripture. Tracing back the symbolism of the vajra to its origin in Vedic myth, it proceeds to show the survival of its imagery in the Buddhist idea of the vajropama-samādhi. This is followed by an analysis of Kamalaśīla's explanation of the meaning of the term "Diamond-Cutter", which relates it to a threefold path-structure inherent in the text itself. Then the central topic of the sūtra, the support of abhisamaya is analysed and found to be allied in meaning to vajropama-samādhi and āśraya-parāvṛtti, the "conversion of support". The next part of the paper seeks to extend this symbolism to the rest of the āśraya constituting the text, utilising Vasubandhu's explanation of the meaning of "non-corruption" (mi nyams-pa). Finally, the essential meaning of "vajra-cutting" is found to be encapsulated in the seemingly paradoxical threefold logical pattern repeatedly employed by the sūtra: X is (spoken of as) no-X; therefore it is (called or spoken of as) X.
1 A topic of
Based on the study of two Indian commentaries extant in Tibetan on the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, the paper investigates the significance of the title of this exceedingly popular Mahāyāna scripture. Tracing back the symbolism of the vajra to its origin in Vedic myth, it proceeds to show the survival of its imagery in the Buddhist idea of the vajropama-samādhi. This is followed by an analysis of Kamalaśīla's explanation of the meaning of the term "Diamond-Cutter", which relates it to a threefold path-structure inherent in the text itself. Then the central topic of the sūtra, the support of abhisamaya is analysed and found to be allied in meaning to vajropama-samādhi and āśraya-parāvṛtti, the "conversion of support". The next part of the paper seeks to extend this symbolism to the rest of the āśraya constituting the text, utilising Vasubandhu's explanation of the meaning of "non-corruption" (mi nyams-pa). Finally, the essential meaning of "vajra-cutting" is found to be encapsulated in the seemingly paradoxical threefold logical pattern repeatedly employed by the sūtra: X is (spoken of as) no-X; therefore it is (called or spoken of as) X.
