Sunlight on the Path to Freedom: A Commentary to the Diamond Cutter Sutra

The Diamond Cutter Sutra is one of the most famous Buddhist books of all time; it was taught by the Buddha 25 centuries ago, and then spread throughout India, China, Tibet, Japan, and many other countries. The Chinese edition seen here is the oldest printed book in the world with a date inside.

The sutra focuses on the concept of emptiness, which is a key to success and happiness in the modern world, if we get a good explanation of how to apply it at work and at home.

Emptiness has been widely misunderstood though, throughout history--and there are very few clear explanations of the Diamond Cutter. Perhaps the best ever written is Sunlight on the Path to Freedom, by Choney Lama Drakpa Shedrup, a Tibetan sage who lived 1675-1748.

Our first complete woodblock manuscript for this masterpiece was discovered in the Oriental Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences by staff of the Asian Classics Input Project. The translation has been completed by Elizabeth van der Pas and Geshe Michael Roach, who is an honors graduate of Princeton University and the first westerner in the 600-year history of Sera Mey Tibetan Monastery to be awarded the title of Geshe, or "Master of Buddhism."

This is the first translation of this crucial explanation ever undertaken into English; it includes a wonderful summary on the idea of emptiness, and how this can be used in real life. The work was the basis for Geshe Michael's modern business bestseller, The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business & Your Life.

Choney Lama, Drakpa Shedrup is a Buddhist sage who was born in east Tibet in 1675: just after the time of Shakespeare in our Western world.

Choney Lama became a monk at the age of 9, and after 20 years of study stood for the geshe (Master of Buddhism) degree in the capital city of Lhasa, defending his ideas before a massive gathering of 20,000 learned monks. He was then accepted into Gyutu Tantric College, one of the two monasteries of Tibet devoted to the study of the deep, secret teachings of Buddhism.

After completing this training, Choney Lama spent the next 35 years building Choney Monastery in East Tibet, directing the training of thousands of monks. He wrote over 250 extraordinary books covering every one of the many magical fields of Buddhist thought. He spent years in deep retreat and had a rich inner life--full of mystical dreams and visions.

In one of his earliest dreams, as a young boy, he meets the greatest Buddhist thinker of all time--Nagarjuna, who lived almost 2,000 years ago. Nagarjuna foretells that in future centuries Choney Lama's writings will come to the Western world.

In his own words, our Lama tells the story: "In a third dream I see Nagarjuna, the realized one--the one who saw emptiness directly and wrote the greatest words on how to accomplish this feat. His body is made of pure gold, shining like the sun, and he also is traveling through the sky, headed West. He too pauses, and comes, and melts into me--and I awaken with pure joy."

The Diamond Cutter Classics Series, produced by the Mixed Nuts Translation Team at the Sedona College of International Management, is creating the first widely available, and highly accurate and readable, translations into English of Choney Lama's works.

Geshe Michael Roach is an honors graduate of Princeton University and has received the Presidential Scholar Medallion from the President of the United States at the White House. He is also a recipient of the McConnell Scholarship Prize of Princeton's renowned Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs.

Michael is the first westerner in the 600-year history of Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University to be awarded the degree of Geshe, or "Master of Philosophy." He has also received an honorary doctorate for lifetime achievement in the Congress of Mexico, in 2015.

Michael is the founder of the Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP), which has digitally preserved thousands of ancient Asian books by training and equipping poor people in many countries to do input work during the past 33 years. More than 10,000 searchable manuscripts representing 25 centuries of ancient Asian philosophy are now available free, online, at ACIP's website. ACIP was founded during Michael's time at Princeton, with the help of the Hewlett Packard Foundation.

To contribute towards the expense of this work, Michael helped found Andin International Diamond Corporation of New York, which reached US$250 million in sales and was sold to super-investor Warren Buffett in 2009.

In 2000, Michael wrote The Diamond Cutter, The Buddha on Managing Your Business & Your Life, which has become an international business bestseller, and tells the story of how he used ancient Asian principles for success. He is the author of over 30 other volumes, including the best-selling How Yoga Works.

In 2010, he founded the Diamond Cutter Management Training Institute (DCI), which provides management and personal success training to about 35,000 people each year, in more than 20 countries of the world. This was followed in 2016 by the founding of the Sedona College of International Management (SCIM), which trains DCI teachers for about 25 different countries. The college also houses the Mixed Nuts Translation Group, which annually produces about 1,000 pages of original translations of the ancient classics of Asian literature.

Michael is active in other causes. In 1993 he founded the Asian Classics Institute (ACI), which offers a 36-course program of study totaling 6,800 pages of translations for the traditional course material of a master of Tibetan Buddhism (Geshe). In 2003, after completing a 3-year silent retreat, he helped found Diamond Mountain Retreat Center, one of the largest centers of this kind in the world. In recent years he has helped found the Seeds for Peace program, which provides vocational training for refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East.

Elizabeth van der Pas received her BA in art from the University of California, Davis, and her MA in comparative east-west psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She received her ordination as a novice Buddhist nun in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 1991; and then her full nun's ordination in 1994. She has completed more than three years of silent, solitary meditation retreat; and is a graduate of the foundation and advanced courses of study of the Asian Classics Institute (ACI), which offers programs around the world for the study and practice of Buddhism.

Elizabeth worked for over ten years as a digital electronics expert for the United States Post Office, and is currently president of the board for ACI. She has also served as a board member of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, and is a current board member for the Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP) and Diamond Mountain Retreat Center (DMRC).

She is one of the founding members of DMRC, which is one of the largest retreat centers in the world. For ACIP, she is a primary scholar in the production of the first definitive English catalog of the 4,600 ancient books of the traditional Tibetan religious canon. She is also a popular teacher of Buddhist philosophy throughout the world, and has helped author a number of translations of important ancient Asian manuscripts.

Elizabeth has served as a personal assistant to author Geshe Michael Roach for 25 years, and for over ten years as a digital archivist for programs of the Yoga Studies Institute; Diamond Mountain Retreat Center; the Asian Classics Institute; and other organizations. She is co-director of the Diamond Cutter Press, which publishes popular texts on yoga, Buddhism, and personal success. She is also a founder of Standing On The Sky Press, which focuses on books relating to personal spiritual retreat.