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Buddhist Wisdom: The Diamond Sutra and The Heart Sutra
A landmark publication when it first appeared in 1958, Buddhist Wisdom offered Western readers a unique combination of both The Diamond Sutra -- one of the cornerstone texts of Mahayana Buddhism -- and The Heart Sutra, perhaps the most important of all Buddhist texts, in a single authoritative volume. With its appearance in the Vintage Spiritual Classic series, this definitive translation by the Western scholar of Buddhism Edward Conze is now available to a new generation of readers.
127 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
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370 people want to read
About the author
Edward Conze
33 books28 followersEberhart Julius Dietrich Conze, who published as Edward Conze, studied Indian and comparative philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Hamburg. He later lectured in psychology, philosophy, and comparative religion at Oxford, held a number of academic appointments, and served as Vice-President of the Buddhist Society.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 1, 2015
I remember trying to read a volume of sutras which were the official translations from the Pali. It was so disappointing. Repetitive and abstruce, utterly unreadable in fact. I will admit that this was in part my fault. I didn't know the literature as well then. My knowledge is still virtually schematic, but I've come across a few good bibliographies in Armstrong and elsewhere that have led me to the present volume. It is a thoughtful, semi-coherent translation of two sutras from the Sanskrit: The Diamond Sutra and The Heart Sutra. The commentary is on target. (Except for the 10 pages or so of the Diamond Sutra when Conze offers no commentary at all, so impenetrable is the original text; this is just one way in which Conze seems careful to avoid discursive redoubts where there might be needless wheel spinning.) In other words, the book is well edited. My only word of caution would be to prepare yourself for the full out use of paradox. For a Westerner paradox can be frustrating. The text does ultimately make sense, but you may need to undergo multiple patient readings before it yields fully its charms. The process of reading such books, I have found, is like osmosis. One must immerse oneself in the text, and slowly the understanding of no-understanding comes about. But this book is mostly about how classical Buddhism was taught for many hundreds of years. For more direct access to the core of a streamlined form of American Buddhism that I have found transformative, I strongly recommend Pema Chödrön's books, especially Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living, The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times and When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times.
April 28, 2021
Meh, too much Conze in it, which is ironic given the subject matter.
July 24, 2009
Very interesting book. Good for days of thoughtfulness. And some interesting insights into Buddhism. I really appreciated this comment from the introduction: "No one who uses a dictionary--for other than orthographic reasons--can have escaped the shock of discovering how very far ahead of us our words often are. How subtly they record distinctions towards which our minds are still groping..." and from the preface: "...'although our age far surpasses all previous ages in knowledge, there has been no correlative increase in wisdom.' At times it may even appear as though the rapid growth of scientific knowledge has been bought at the expense of much of the wisdom which our less well-instructed forefathers could draw upon." So interesting. Here is a look to a tradition where Wisdom was actively sought after. There is maybe something to learn in it, even without subscribing to Buddhism.
March 31, 2011
I am finished. By that, do not think I mean it is finished, nor that it lacks finishedness. That is why it is called "finished."
March 26, 2020
A real mental trip between paradox and non-dualism.
October 30, 2012
Unless you can read the original, it is good to take two or more different translations and read them parallel (perhaps as practice, with a group). Since the version by Thich Nhat Hanh has already been cited, I'm adding this rendition, for triangulation.
The same approach is necessary for, say, Basho.
Speaking of literary translation, perhaps it is true that our recent, contemporary investigations into Sanskrit- and Chinese-based cultures constitutes a Renaissance II ; certainly, the West's translation of BuddhaDharma is a great engine for much outstanding literary translation of our time.
Once The Heart Sutra's been studied and practiced, there's this Diamond ... wisdom beyond wisdom.
The same approach is necessary for, say, Basho.
Speaking of literary translation, perhaps it is true that our recent, contemporary investigations into Sanskrit- and Chinese-based cultures constitutes a Renaissance II ; certainly, the West's translation of BuddhaDharma is a great engine for much outstanding literary translation of our time.
Once The Heart Sutra's been studied and practiced, there's this Diamond ... wisdom beyond wisdom.
March 1, 2012
Wonderful translation and commentary!
September 16, 2025
#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads # Buddhism, Foundational Texts & Scriptures
Reading Buddhist Wisdom feels like entering a different register of Buddhism entirely. After the plainspoken clarity of the Dhammapada or Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, this slim volume drops you into the heart of Mahayana philosophy—the paradoxical, shimmering world of emptiness, non-attachment, and non-form. Edward Conze’s translation brings together two of the most celebrated Prajñāpāramitā texts, the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra, in a way that preserves both their austerity and their startling power.
The Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) is a dialogue between the Buddha and his disciple Subhūti, and it systematically dismantles any clinging to concepts: the idea of a self, of beings to be saved, and of dharmas as fixed realities.
Conze’s translation stays close to the Sanskrit and Chinese versions, maintaining the sutra’s recursive, almost hypnotic rhythms. Each passage seems to chip away at your ordinary way of thinking, like a sculptor removing stone rather than adding clay. Where a text like the Dhammapada offers practical aphorisms, the Diamond Sutra feels more like a meditation koan extended over chapters—a sustained attempt to push the reader into non-dual awareness.
Then comes the Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya), perhaps the most recited and beloved Mahayana scripture, condensed to a single page. “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” it declares, in one of the most famous paradoxes of religious literature.
Conze’s version preserves the stripped-down majesty of the text; it’s easy to see why it has been chanted for centuries across East Asia. Judith Simmer-Brown’s preface helps orient new readers, framing these sutras not as abstruse metaphysics but as living practices—texts to be recited, contemplated, and felt. She also contextualizes Conze’s scholarship, noting both his pioneering role in bringing Prajñāpāramitā texts to the West and the critiques of his somewhat idiosyncratic English.
What makes this book work is precisely that tension. Conze was not trying to produce a “smooth” or modernised translation; he wanted to be faithful to the conceptual strangeness of the originals. That means you don’t get the gentle, guiding hand you find in Thich Nhat Hanh or the practical orientation of Walpola Rahula. You get sutras that feel, at first, like riddles—or like mirrors reflecting back your own conceptual habits.
For readers who have been following this #Binge Reviewing journey from Old Path White Clouds through Ambedkar’s The Buddha & His Dhamma, this book will feel like stepping into a mountain temple after spending weeks in the village square: the air thinner, the silence louder, the view both disorienting and breathtaking.
At the same time, Buddhist Wisdom is remarkably accessible compared to full academic editions. Conze’s introductions to each sutra are concise and informative, pointing out themes without trying to tame them. The dual presentation also lets you see the continuum of Prajñāpāramitā literature: the Diamond Sutra as an extended discourse, the Heart Sutra as its distilled essence.
Reading them back-to-back highlights how Mahayana took the early Buddhist emphasis on impermanence and non-self and radicalised it into a teaching of emptiness that undercuts every form of grasping—even grasping at the dharma itself.
This is not a book you “finish” in the way you finish a biography. It’s a text to return to, to chant, and to puzzle over. The Dhammapada might give you moral clarity; Conze’s Buddhist Wisdom invites you into the spaciousness beyond concepts.
Taken together with the other works in this series, it marks a natural progression—from the Buddha’s life and early teachings, through the ethical path, into the high Himalayas of Mahayana insight. Reading it in this translation is a reminder that Buddhism is not only a history of a person or a set of practices but also a long, living conversation about reality itself.
Reading Buddhist Wisdom feels like entering a different register of Buddhism entirely. After the plainspoken clarity of the Dhammapada or Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, this slim volume drops you into the heart of Mahayana philosophy—the paradoxical, shimmering world of emptiness, non-attachment, and non-form. Edward Conze’s translation brings together two of the most celebrated Prajñāpāramitā texts, the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra, in a way that preserves both their austerity and their startling power.
The Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) is a dialogue between the Buddha and his disciple Subhūti, and it systematically dismantles any clinging to concepts: the idea of a self, of beings to be saved, and of dharmas as fixed realities.
Conze’s translation stays close to the Sanskrit and Chinese versions, maintaining the sutra’s recursive, almost hypnotic rhythms. Each passage seems to chip away at your ordinary way of thinking, like a sculptor removing stone rather than adding clay. Where a text like the Dhammapada offers practical aphorisms, the Diamond Sutra feels more like a meditation koan extended over chapters—a sustained attempt to push the reader into non-dual awareness.
Then comes the Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya), perhaps the most recited and beloved Mahayana scripture, condensed to a single page. “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” it declares, in one of the most famous paradoxes of religious literature.
Conze’s version preserves the stripped-down majesty of the text; it’s easy to see why it has been chanted for centuries across East Asia. Judith Simmer-Brown’s preface helps orient new readers, framing these sutras not as abstruse metaphysics but as living practices—texts to be recited, contemplated, and felt. She also contextualizes Conze’s scholarship, noting both his pioneering role in bringing Prajñāpāramitā texts to the West and the critiques of his somewhat idiosyncratic English.
What makes this book work is precisely that tension. Conze was not trying to produce a “smooth” or modernised translation; he wanted to be faithful to the conceptual strangeness of the originals. That means you don’t get the gentle, guiding hand you find in Thich Nhat Hanh or the practical orientation of Walpola Rahula. You get sutras that feel, at first, like riddles—or like mirrors reflecting back your own conceptual habits.
For readers who have been following this #Binge Reviewing journey from Old Path White Clouds through Ambedkar’s The Buddha & His Dhamma, this book will feel like stepping into a mountain temple after spending weeks in the village square: the air thinner, the silence louder, the view both disorienting and breathtaking.
At the same time, Buddhist Wisdom is remarkably accessible compared to full academic editions. Conze’s introductions to each sutra are concise and informative, pointing out themes without trying to tame them. The dual presentation also lets you see the continuum of Prajñāpāramitā literature: the Diamond Sutra as an extended discourse, the Heart Sutra as its distilled essence.
Reading them back-to-back highlights how Mahayana took the early Buddhist emphasis on impermanence and non-self and radicalised it into a teaching of emptiness that undercuts every form of grasping—even grasping at the dharma itself.
This is not a book you “finish” in the way you finish a biography. It’s a text to return to, to chant, and to puzzle over. The Dhammapada might give you moral clarity; Conze’s Buddhist Wisdom invites you into the spaciousness beyond concepts.
Taken together with the other works in this series, it marks a natural progression—from the Buddha’s life and early teachings, through the ethical path, into the high Himalayas of Mahayana insight. Reading it in this translation is a reminder that Buddhism is not only a history of a person or a set of practices but also a long, living conversation about reality itself.
March 19, 2022
Edward Conze is well known as the primary scholar of the prajnaparamita literature of Indian Buddhism which consists of numerous texts composed around a similar time (~1 BCE to 1 CE) around similar themes. The Diamond and Heart Sutras are the most well known representatives of this body of literature. There are many others.
Prajnaparamita means "the perfection of wisdom" or "supreme or perfect wisdom" and it was this literature that became the basis for the subsequent development of Mahayana Buddhism in the centuries following. The Diamond became especially important for the Chan/Zen school of Buddhism in China and Japan.
As a scholar, Conze was known to prefer literal translations of the original Sanskrit, and so his translations often eschew other aspects of a good translation for philological precision. I find these translations to be clunky and unsatisfying but useful in terms of learning more about Sanskrit words and phrases. His commentary is also that of a scholar and so he's not attempting to appeal to general readership as Thich Nhat Hanh's translation does (The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Diamond Sutra).
In my view, the best overall translation-commentary of the Diamond Sutra is the one by Red Pine - it's simply gorgeous, precious, magisterial: The Diamond Sutra. But I recommend comparing Red Pine's with Conze's with Thich Nhat Hanh's translations. You learn a lot by comparing how these teacher-scholars approach this revered text.
Prajnaparamita means "the perfection of wisdom" or "supreme or perfect wisdom" and it was this literature that became the basis for the subsequent development of Mahayana Buddhism in the centuries following. The Diamond became especially important for the Chan/Zen school of Buddhism in China and Japan.
As a scholar, Conze was known to prefer literal translations of the original Sanskrit, and so his translations often eschew other aspects of a good translation for philological precision. I find these translations to be clunky and unsatisfying but useful in terms of learning more about Sanskrit words and phrases. His commentary is also that of a scholar and so he's not attempting to appeal to general readership as Thich Nhat Hanh's translation does (The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Diamond Sutra).
In my view, the best overall translation-commentary of the Diamond Sutra is the one by Red Pine - it's simply gorgeous, precious, magisterial: The Diamond Sutra. But I recommend comparing Red Pine's with Conze's with Thich Nhat Hanh's translations. You learn a lot by comparing how these teacher-scholars approach this revered text.
February 14, 2023
Probably the two most important sutras in Mahayana Buddhism, wonderfully explored by the great Edward Conze (controversial to some...). I read this several times many years ago and recently explored it again when I began to put a record of my reading on Goodreads.
We can surely never have enough wisdom and the Buddha and Conze have that in droves. Conze to me always remains accessible and never too learned, which is a good thing, and surely how the Buddha would have wished his teaching to remain, even though there are many who might argue (from the Theravada tradition and elsewhere) that neither of these sutras were actually taught by Buddha Sakyamuni 2500 years ago. As to the truth of that, I can't say, only to say that reading these sutras does indeed bring wisdom and peace to mind - which at the end of the day is all that matters.
We can surely never have enough wisdom and the Buddha and Conze have that in droves. Conze to me always remains accessible and never too learned, which is a good thing, and surely how the Buddha would have wished his teaching to remain, even though there are many who might argue (from the Theravada tradition and elsewhere) that neither of these sutras were actually taught by Buddha Sakyamuni 2500 years ago. As to the truth of that, I can't say, only to say that reading these sutras does indeed bring wisdom and peace to mind - which at the end of the day is all that matters.
August 31, 2017
The translation of the sutras was good, no complaints. But the explanations left a lot to be desired. He comments on the first half of the Diamond sutra in a very dense and critical form, which is often just as confusing as the text. Then the second half, he claims that scholars believe them to be random teachings, and literally doesn't comment at all!
August 10, 2023
Illuminating commentary on the Diamond and Heart Sutras. The immense depth the author was able to delve into each sentence and concept of the Sutras definitely brought me new insights into Buddhist thought and ideas of Enlightenment in general.
August 5, 2020
4.5 stars
July 5, 2013
I had actually begun reading this book two days ago. While the Sutras themselves are short, they are densely packed with meanings and with meanings within meanings (as are all Sanskrit scriptures.) Edward Conze's commentaries are absolutely essential, but (as he himself admits) not always entirely understandable. The Truths within these advanced Sutras must be experienced through meditation and practice, which is not something I do. Nevertheless, I'm glad to have read them, and I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Buddhism or scriptures in general.
April 5, 2016
I had to stop reading at page 41. The book was way overdue. I thought the book would have the diamond and heart sutras. Which it kinda did. But it was a commentary about these sutras. Ok but not what I wanted to read. Does that make me a bad Buddhist?
December 20, 2007
I didn't like how the translation and commentary were mixed together. Way too much choppy commentary
June 30, 2015
Wow..
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews