須菩提 於意云何 可以三十二相觀如來不 須菩提言 如是如是 以三十二相觀如來 佛言 須菩提 若以三十二相觀如來者 轉輪聖王即是如來 須菩提白佛言 世尊 如我解佛所說義 不應以三十二相觀如來 爾時世尊而說偈言 若以色見我 以音聲求我 是人行邪道 不能見如來
xū pú tí yú yì yún hé kě yǐ sān shí èr xiāng guān rú lái bù xū pú tí yán rú shì rú shì yǐ sān shí èr xiāng guān rú lái fó yán xū pú tí ruò yǐ sān shí èr xiāng guān rú lái zhě zhuǎn lún shèng wáng jí shì rú lái xū pú tí bái fó yán shì zūn rú wǒ jiě fó suǒ shuō yì bù yīng yǐ sān shí èr xiāng guān rú lái ěr shí shì zūn ér shuō jì yán ruò yǐ sè jiàn wǒ yǐ yīn shēng qiú wǒ shì rén xíng xié dào bù néng jiàn rú lái
Key Message
If you seek the Buddha through form, or through sound, you walk a deviant path and cannot see the Tathāgata. The dharma-body is beyond all form and beyond all sound.
▸Section 26 contains the most celebrated verse in the Diamond Sutra and one of the most quoted passages in all of East Asian Buddhism.
Section 26 contains the most celebrated verse in the Diamond Sutra and one of the most quoted passages in all of East Asian Buddhism. The exchange opens with a deliberate pedagogical trap. The Buddha asks whether the Tathāgata can be perceived through the thirty-two marks. On this occasion Subhūti — perhaps to demonstrate how easily even the wise can slip — answers: 'Yes, he can.' The Buddha immediately corrects him: if the Tathāgata could be perceived through the thirty-two marks, then the wheel-turning noble king (cakravartirāja) — who also possesses the thirty-two marks — would be a Tathāgata. Subhūti instantly corrects himself. Then the Buddha recites the famous verse: 'If one seeks to see me through form / If one seeks me through sound / This person walks a deviant path / And cannot see the Tathāgata.' The dharma-body (法身, fǎshēn; Sanskrit dharmakāya) is not the physical marks, not the sacred image, not the sacred sound — it is the Dharma itself, suchness itself, which is by nature without form.