VERSES
EXTRACT FROM
Dharma does not arise alone.
Relying on conditions it is born.
The Way is not practiced in vain.
Meeting conditions there is a response.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 2)
Wherever you go you are stuck by thorns,
Wherever you go you bump into walls.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 15)
“Good indeed is the liberation cloth!
Unsurpassed field
of blessings robe . . . “
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 24)
To be sparing with clothing increases life.
To be sparing with food increases blessings.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 25)
What is spoken is Dharma
What is practiced is the Way;
Even if you speak extremely well,
With no real practice, there is no real Way.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 32)
The road of words and language is cut off.
The place of the heart’s working is extinguished.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 33)
The Master said, “Shen, my Way is
threaded through by one.”
The Master left and the disciples
questioned, “What did the Master say?”
Tseng said, “The Way of the Sage
is that of loyalty and reciprocity.”
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 33)
You should know that such people have
not planted good roots with just one
Buddha, two Buddhas, three, four, or
five Buddhas, but have planted good
roots with measureless millions of
Buddhas.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 35)
Relentlessly cultivate morality concentration wisdom.
Put greed, anger and stupidity to rest.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 37)
Born from eggs due to thought,
born from wombs due to emotion,
born from moisture due to a process of union, and
born by transformation due to a process of separation.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 41)
Amitabha means Limitless Light.
Today we open the light, limitless light.
Limitless light illumines lands;
All living beings are limitlessly illumined.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 45)
If one sees me in form,
If one seeks me in sound,
He practices a deviant way,
And cannot see the Tathagata.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 47)
Basically Bodhi has no tree,
Nor any bright mirror stand.
Basically there is not one thing.
So where can dust alight?
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 54)
If one sees me in form,
If one seeks me in sound,
He practices a deviant way
And cannot see the Tathagata.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 56)
All with marks is false and empty.
If you see all marks
As no marks
Then you see the Tathagata.
Another:
There is no mark of self,
And no mark of others,
No mark of living beings
And no mark of a life.
Another:
All conditioned dharmas
Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows,
Like dew drops and a lightning flash.
Contemplate them thus.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 57)
Debating
– thoughts of victory and defeat –
Stands in contradiction to the Way.
Giving rise to the four-mark mind,
How can samadhi be obtained?
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 64)
Superior goodness is like water:
Water benefits the myriad things
and does not contend with them.
It flows to places which repel mankind
and thus it approximates the Way.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 64)
Those who look cannot see it,
Those who listen cannot hear:
There isn’t anything
At all.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 65)
There is no mark of self,
And no mark of others,
No mark of living beings,
And no mark of a life.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 71)
If one sees me in form,
If one seeks me in sound,
He practices a deviant way,
And cannot see the Tathagata.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 72)
All conditioned dharmas
Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows,
Like dew drops and a lightning flesh:
Contemplate them thus.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 73)
All with marks is false and empty.
If you see all marks
As no marks,
Then you see the Tathagata.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 74)
“Upon realization, I do not reproach myself for the past;
I know that in the
future I can rectify mistakes.
Aware that I am not
too far down the muddled path,
I have now awakened
to today’s rights and yesterday’s wrongs.”
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 89)
Conditioned giving which reaps
a heavenly blessing
Resembles brandishing
a sword in
empty space;
Just as when the arm grows tired
the sword must
fall,
Subsequent lives will fail
to sustain such
heights.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 101)
Within the doors of Buddha-work
Not one dharma
is rejected.
In the nature of true suchness
There is not one
mote of dust.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 120)
Then the Sagacious Subhuti said to the Buddha,
“World Honored One, will there be living beings in the
future
who will believe this Sutra when they hear it
spoken?”
The Buddha said,
“Subhuti, they are neither living beings
nor no living
beings. And why?
Subhuti, living
beings, living beings, are spoken of by the
Tathagata as no
living beings, therefore they are called
living beings.”
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 131)
I vow to cut off all evil.
I vow to do all good.
I vow to save all living beings.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 132)
Last year I was poor
But still had a place
For the point of
an awl.
This year I am so poor
I do not even have the awl.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 138)
If one sees me in forms,
If one seeks me in sounds,
He practices a deviant way,
And cannot see the Tathagata.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 141)
When the water is pure the moon appears.
When there are clouds the moon is hidden.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 149)
What comes and goes are the Buddha’s
Transformation bodies.
The Tathagata is eternally unmoving.
He is neither the same nor different from
Every place within the Dharma Realm.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 149)
All Dharma spoken by the Buddha
Was for the sake of the hearts of living beings;
If there were no hearts,
Of what use would Dharma be?
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 155)
Although sudden and gradual are different,
Upon completion they are one.
Why make divisions of North and South?
Sagely and common are parts of the one:
The basic nature is absolutely the same.
Do not discuss east and west.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 156)
What is emptiness?
Emptiness is existence.
What is existence?
Existence is emptiness.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 158)
All conditioned Dharmas
Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows,
Like dew drops and a lightning flash:
Contemplate them thus.
(Extract
from Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra or The
Diamond Sutra,
By Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua; Page 161)