The Diamond Sutra is one of the most important holy books of the Buddhist. In certain monasteries, it is chanted daily. The sutra is especially valued because in it Buddha declares that no matter how much good you do, it is still better if you transmit a single line from this sutra. Your merits will be greater than if you gave a lot of gold to the poor or did other good deeds. Because of this, the Diamond Sutra was often copied by medieval monks across the monasteries in China.

This particular version of the Diamond Sutra was translated from Sanskrit by Kumarajiva (434-413) and is regarded as perhaps the best Chinese translation.

The Diamond Sutra says: "Subhuti, this is how the Boddhisattva should think in his heart. All sentient beings of whichever kind, those born from the egg, those born from the womb, those born from moisture, those born by means of transformation, whether they have a physical form or not, whether they possess a capacity to think or not, whether they exempt from possessing a thinking capacity or not, I will help all these beings to enter Infinite Nirvana and will liberate them. Yet when I liberate these immesurable, incalculable, boundless numbers of sentient beings, in reality no sentient being attains liberation. Why is this, Subhuti? Because if the Bodhisattva cherishes the idea of Ego, the idea of Man, the idea of sentient being, or the idea of life, he is not a Boddhisattva anymore."