Note 30 — NOTES, AUTHORITIES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Footnote 30:

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The word vagra, diamond, is a constituent in scores of names of sutras, especially those whose contents are metaphysical in their nature. The Vajrasan, Diamond Throne or Thunderbolt seat, was the name applied to the most sacred part of the great temple reared by Asoka on the site of the bodhi tree, under which Gautama received enlightenment. "The adamantine truths of Buddha struck like a thunderbolt upon the superstitious of his age." "The word vagra has the two senses of hardness and utility. In the former sense it is understood to be compared to the secret truth which is always in existence and not to be broken. In the latter sense it implies the power of the enlightened, that destroys the obstacles of passions."—B.N., p. 88. "As held in the arms of Kwannon and other images in the temples," the vagra or "diamond club" (is that) with which the foes of the Buddhist Church are to be crushed.—S. and H., p. 444. Each of the gateway gods Ni-ō (two Kings, Indra and Brahma) "bears in his hand the tokko (Sanskrit vagra), an ornament originally designed to represent a diamond club, and now used by priests and exorcists, as a religious sceptre symbolizing the irresistible power of prayer, meditation, and incantation."—Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. 31.