Buddhism: Diamond Sutra and Zen Meditation
How can we resolve afflictions? Explore the Buddhist teachings of the Diamond Sutra and learn how Buddhists experience 'emptiness' with HKU Space.
Duration
6 weeks
Weekly study
3 hours
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Explore the meaning of ‘prajñā-pāramitā’ in relation to attaining buddhahood
How can we resolve afflictions?
The Diamond Sutra is one of the most historically important texts in Buddhism. On this course, you will explore the meaning of ‘prajñā-pāramitā’ from the Diamond Sutra. You will learn why and how the zen school uses the teachings of the Diamond Sutra to attain buddhahood.
You will also consider the four stages of buddhahood and what is meant by the ‘adornment of the pure land’.
Week 1
Course introduction
Course introduction
In this activity, you are going to watch the introductory video, read the articles that introduce the course and meet our lead educator, Dr Cheung Siu Nang Bruce.
Some key concepts of The Diamond Sutra
In this activity, you are going to learn key concepts of The Diamond Sutra
Week 2
To attain Buddhahood in ‘day-to-day’ experiences
Introduction
Part 1 Introduction
Section One: The Reason for the Dharma Assembly
The Buddha lives in the world, which is no different from how people in general engage in daily life; there is nothing unusual about it.
Section Two: The Well-manifested Makes a Request
Subhuti discovered that the Buddha ‘had such serenity and ease in his everyday life’; this was rare.
Section Three: The Orthodox Truth of The Great Vehicle
The approach to subdue afflictions: There is nothing unusual about the attainment of Buddhahood, it is only to wipe away the differences between all living beings and the Tathagata (the Buddha)
Section Four: Marvelous Conduct without Attachment
The Buddha’s life is like the sun shining upon the entire earth. That is ‘bestowing alms without any attachments’.
Week 3
The Unconditioned Phenomena are the heart of attaining Buddhahood
Introduction
Part 1 Introduction
Section Five: Genuine Discernment of Suchness
When one perceives the thirty-two marks of the Buddha, who wouldn’t start having desires and aspirations? The Buddha says ‘Everything with form is unreal’.
Section Six: True Faith is Rare
If we ‘develop faith in these lines and accept them as embodying the Truth’, we will know the seeds which all buddhas sowed in us are beginning to wake up. We understand the Truth. We should not grasp at non-dharma.
Section Seven: Nothing Attained and Nothing Spoken
The Unconditioned Truth is not speech or thinking, neither is it what is said or thought about. It transcends deliberate efforts and is being in communion with the life of the bigger self.
Section Eight: All Things Comply with Dharma
The ‘scriptural dharma’ is the ‘dharma’ which can be heard (the four-lined verses), it cannot do without language. The four-lined verses are passed on to others through the sense of hearing. All buddhas arise from here.
Week 4
Four stages of Buddhahood and Adornment of the Pure Land
Introduction
Part 1 Introduction
Section Nine: The One Form is No Form
The four stages of liberation: (1) ‘Taking refuge’, (2) ‘The present moment and the growth in joy’, (3) ‘Karma is not a problem’, (4) ‘Everlasting samādhi’
Section Ten: Adornment of the Pure Land
The adornment of the Pure Land is not a matter of form (phenomenon). This is contemplation on equality; ‘Bringing the existence of the world into the sacred experience of the original vow.’ This is contemplation on purity.
Week 5
From a person who ‘receives and holds four-lined verses’, to a buddha who ‘expounds the four-lined verses for to others’
Introduction
Part 1 Introduction
Section Eleven: The Supremacy of Unconditioned Blessings
The original life goal of all living beings is self-awakening (that they themselves are buddhas, and wish to save others); All men of virtue and sages are known as such on account of the Unconditioned Phenomena.
Section Twelve: Venerating the True Teaching
Those who ‘widely disseminate the four-lined verses so that it will spread to all parts of the world’, should be ‘venerated just as if they were the Buddha’.
Week 6
The Unconditioned Phenomena is “The Vájra-cchedikā Prajñā-pāramitā”
Introduction
Part 1 Introduction
Section Thirteen: Receiving and Holding the Dharma of Suchness
This section summarise the ways of having “The Vájra-cchedikā Prajñā-pāramitā”
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