Everyday Zen Podcast

Second talk on the Diamond Sutra, Red Pine Edition Diamond Sutra 2 By Zoketsu Norman Fischer | May 21, 2008 Abridged and edited by Barbara Byrum and Deborah Russell The sutra begins with Subhuti asking the Buddha about the bodhisattva path that we are following. How should a bodhisattva stand, walk, and control her thoughts? That is the question that elicits the whole material of this sutra. This is to be taken literally - how to stand, how to walk, and how to work with our thoughts - but also figuratively. How to "stand" might mean what qualities should we develop; what guidelines to ethical conduct should we have; how can we control our thoughts; what attitudes should we be developing? The Buddha's surprising and wonderful response was not to take up the details of that question, but instead to say that all a bodhisattva has to do is to give rise to a thought, to give birth to a thought. And the thought is, "I will save all beings." All kinds of beings, no matter what kind, will be saved, and havin