Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

When Sangharakshita read the Diamond Sutra at 16 he realized he was a Buddhist. I didn't realize I was a Buddhist until I took a meditation class with Vajramati in 2002 in the Triratna tradition. I ended up going on a retreat that blew my mind. It was on the Brahma-viharas, and I never felt so healthy in my life.

Once on retreat, we read the sutra aloud, and since then every once in a while I read it. I've been reading the Heart Sutra too, to get back my ability to say it without reading, I had it memorized at some point. 

There's a teacher in Flushing, who his practice was reading it once a day. I have his book somewhere on my bookshelf. 

Elder Subhūti addresses the Buddha. Detail from the Dunhuang block print.

The Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra is the oldest printed book with a date (11 May 868) in it that is alive in civilization, and that's an amazing thing. It was found on the silk road in the Mogao Caves, 25 km from Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China. The presently resides in the British museum because Aurel Stein bought it from the Taoism monk who was tending the caves in 1907.

It is also the first known creative work with an explicit public domain dedication, as its colophon at the end states that it was created "for universal free distribution".

The Perfection of Wisdom Text that Cuts Like a Thunderbolt was probably composed between the 2nd and 4th centuries, the first mention of it is in the 4th century by Asanga and Vasubandhu. The first translation of it that we know of was by Kumārajīva in 401. 

It's a unique books that I'd refer you to the videos below if you want to learn more about it. 

In our current age, you can just listen to the teachings online. So today I picked the Venerable Guan Cheng is the abbot of the International Buddhist Temple in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. The land was donated by Hong Kong businessmen, not sure if Guan Cheng is from Hong Kong. There's not a lot of info on him except he started in Richmond at 1999. 

Here is his article in Lion's Roar.

I'm watching his 38 videos on the Diamond Sutra.

In side notes, there's a good list of Kukai Books.