Note 6 — THE DIAMOND SUTRA
William Gemmell translation
“What then, Subhuti? All the Buddhas, and all the perfect laws of the Buddhas, have sprung from (the principles of) this one Sutra; but, Subhuti, that which is spoken of as the Law of Buddha, is after all not such a Law (or, is a Law of no Buddha).”—Kin-Kong-King. Beal.
“Because, O Subhuti, the highest perfect knowledge of the holy and enlightened Tathagatas is produced from it; the blessed Buddhas are produced from it. And why? Because, O Subhuti, when the Tathagata preached: ‘The qualities of Buddha, the qualities of Buddha indeed!’ They were preached by him as no-qualities of Buddha. Therefore they are called the qualities of Buddha.”—The Vagrakkhedika. Max Müller.
An erudite Chinese commentator suggests that the words fei-fuh-fah are synonymous with wu-wei-fah—intuition, already observed in the preceding section. A familiar passage from Lao-Tsz, “Infinite truth is inexpressible,” is quoted by our commentator as serving to illustrate the difficulty of giving expression to an idea equivalent to the Law of Buddha.