金剛般若疏 1.11

1.11

Sixth, explaining the title of the sūtra, which is further divided into five headings: (1) explaining "Spoken by the Buddha"; (2) interpreting "vajra"; (3) explaining "prajñā"; (4) interpreting "pāramitā"; (5) elucidating "sūtra". The sūtra states, "Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā". In explanation: the title of a sūtra is of two kinds: first, complete; second, incomplete. The complete [form] should say, "Spoken by the Buddha: Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā"; the incomplete [form] simply says, "Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā". Question: For what reason do other sūtras not have "Spoken by the Buddha" in their titles? Answer: All sūtras personally spoken from the Buddha's mouth should indeed have "Spoken by the Buddha" in their titles. Those that do not include it do so for the sake of brevity. Question: Why then does this sūtra have "Spoken by the Buddha" in its title? Answer: The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa states: "There are five kinds of persons who speak [sūtras]: first, spoken personally from the Buddha's mouth; second, spoken by disciples; third, spoken by devas; fourth, spoken by ṛṣis; fifth, spoken by apparitional beings." Now, this sūtra was personally spoken from the Buddha's mouth and was not spoken by anyone else; therefore, it is titled "Spoken by the Buddha". Question: Other sūtras were also personally spoken from the Buddha's mouth and not spoken by anyone else; why do they not say "Personally Spoken by the Buddha"? Answer: As previously stated, in principle they really should be so titled, but it is omitted for the sake of brevity. Furthermore, sūtras such as the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā commissioned Subhūti to speak them and were not spoken by the Buddha himself; therefore, they could not be titled "Spoken by the Buddha", but are simply called Mahāprajñāpāramitā, as prajñā encompasses the expositions of both teacher and disciple. This sūtra is not like that: although addressed to Subhūti, the Buddha spoke it himself and did not commission him to speak it. Furthermore, speaking from principle, it ought to be titled "Spoken by the Buddha". Why is that? Various non-Buddhists such as the six teachers also all propounded sūtras. Now, fearing that people might fall into erroneous views and wishing to distinguish this from the six teachers, it is titled "Spoken by the Buddha" so as to cause people to have faith in and receive the Dharma. Furthermore, the Way does not operate in isolation; it must be propagated by human beings. Although the Dharma is the teacher of the Buddha, it must depend on the Buddha's exposition for the Dharma to be propagated. For this reason, entitling both the person capable of speaking and the Dharma that is spoken makes the meaning complete.