It all depends on the craftsman

“The same piece of metal can be used to make ten thousand different utensils. It all depends on the craftsman.”  –  Hai-chueh

No other text is as important to Buddhists, especially Zen Buddhists, as reading the The Diamond Sutra. The translation by Red Pine is a popular one.

At the center of Zen is the Heart Sutra, which monks recite all over the world, and The Diamond Sutra is said to contain answers to all questions of delusion and dualism.

Red Pine explains – or makes it more confusing – by saying:

“The Diamond Sutra may look like a book, but it’s really the body of the Buddha. It’s also your body, my body, all possible bodies. But it’s a body with nothing inside and nothing outside. It doesn’t exist in space or time. Nor is it a construct of the mind. It’s no mind. And yet because it’s no mind, it has room for compassion. This book is the offering of no mind, born of compassion for all suffering beings. Of all the sutras that teach this teaching, this is the diamond. ”