Diamond is the most precious material on earth. Besides of its scarcity, diamond is also the hardest material on earth. Therefore it is adopted as the name of this Buddhist text. The full name of this text is: “金刚般若波罗密经”. “金刚” means hard/impenetrable; “般若” means wisdom; “波罗密” means conducts leading to liberation; “经” means sutra/text. Together it means: The text on the impenetrable wisdom towards liberation and enlightenment.
In the 6 core practices of Mahayana Buddhism (others 5 being charity, precepts, diligence, endurance, and concentration); wisdom is the last and perhaps the most important one. A clear and firm understanding and application of this impenetrable wisdom facilitates the practice of other 5, while the study and practice of other 5 does not necessarily results in arising of this wisdom. Therefore, in the foundation study of Chinese philosophy and spirituality, the Diamond Sutra is selected as a core text to be studied together with Daoist Daodejing and Confucius Analects.金刚指真实和坚固。金刚经的全名是：“金刚般若波罗密经”，“金刚”指硬/坚不可摧的;般若指智慧;“波罗密”指通往解放的途径;“经”指经文。整体的意思是：通往无上大道中坚不可摧的智慧。
在大乘佛教6个核心的修行项目中（其他5项分别为：布施，持戒，忍辱，精进，和禅定），智慧是最后一项，也许也是最重要的一项。学习并应用这个坚不可摧的智慧能帮助提升其他5项波罗密;但研究和实践其他5项波罗密并不一定能带来这智慧。因此，在中国哲学和心灵修炼的基础课程中，金刚经，与道家的道德经和儒家的论语，都被选为重点研究的经典之一。
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