Talk Notes:
We actually don't know when the Heart Sutra was written. Like most of the Mahayana Sutras the sutra itself has to say it's exactly the words of the Buddha, or in this case directly inspired by the Buddha, and there's an obvious push-pull there between what I think of as the devotional truth of our teachings and historical truth. The devotional is appreciating that this is absolutely the Buddha's work, and the historical that, nope, the Buddha as a living person was 500 to 700 years gone by the time this sutra appeared. In the West we tend to toss out the devotional and lean into the historical or scientific but I think for us as practitioners we need them both. And I hope that in this series of talks I don't just get lost in the cool stories and teachings or the scholarship about it all but help us look towards, "how do I practice with this?"
Sometime around the dawn of the common era a new movement of Buddhist thought arose called itself the teachings of Prajna Paramita. Of deep insight into the true nature of reality. If you've been here on Sunday lately you've heard of this. Prajna Paramita - the "insight and wisdom that goes beyond" is a good translation is also the last item on a list of six paramitas were exploring there. The other five being generosity, ethical living, patience, energy, and meditation.
And these guys could really write. Long long texts written in Sanskrit verse. There's one that's 100,000 lines long. It's all about Bodhisattvas and how they should understand the true nature of reality so they can function freely to save all beings. This was 700 years before Chris's pal Shantideva lived too by the way and he definitely studied this literature and was inspired by it in writing his great teachings on how to be a bodhisattva.
Anyway scholars think that after churning out these vast complex treatises on Prajna Paramita they monk-scholars into this stuff realized that everyone needs a shorter version. So the Diamond Sutra arrived - only 300 lines - and then the Heart Sutra - 25 lines or 35 depending how to write it out. They also boiled it all down to a single letter at one point: the Sanskrit letter "AH".
The central idea that's brought forward to help us become wise, compassionate, and free as bodhisattvas was in what we just chanted. This weird sounding teaching of "emptiness."
So every week of this series maybe I'll try to bring up another way to ponder emptiness. It's not something our conceptual minds can grasp so it's hard to talk about and hard to learn, or maybe can't be learned in the usual way we think about learning. But it's a real thing - you can learn to appreciate it, feel it, you can start to see the liberating aspects of appreciated emptiness little by little. Through meditation, study, and a lot of curiosity.
So a thing our minds do - and you can track how it happens in children in stages - is generate a complex set of concepts and language to describe ourselves and the world. The problem with this is then the mind believes those concepts and language to be the world. The teachings on emptiness suggest that the world is radically more fluid, more mysteries, and less knowable in that way than we can imagine.
They used the word emptiness as a kind of technical term. It's actually short for empty of a quality they called "own-being" - svabhava in Sanskrit - which is their attempt to describe this problem with our congition. That we see things as separate and even if we can acknowledge their impermanence - we know the car will break and the person will die - we still believe that a car is a very clear and particular kind of thing - boy this is hard to say clearly. And a that I am exactly just this separate being called Nomon Tim and you are this separate being called whatever you call yourself.
As I say that probably all of our minds are like, yeah...so? A car is a car. I am me. You are you. What's all this about?
The car isn't a bad example as there's a famous sutra that talks about this with the example of a cart. What makes a cart a cart? Well it has wheels, and handled, and a body, and all kinds of other parts. At what point does it become a cart exactly? When you start taking away parts at what point is it not a cart anymore? And the more you think about it are you sure you even know what a cart is after all? So use that anology with yourself. What makes you, you exactly? Is it your body? I guess so but what if you lost an arm you'd still think you were you. It is your history? Maybe, if someone can't remember any of their story we say they aren't really themselves anymore. And yet when we look at that person we still call them by their name. It gets really squirrelly fast.
And is this just philosophy? What's the true nature of the universe? Didn't the Buddha refuse to answer such questions and always say, "all I teach is suffering and the end of suffering."
Well the idea here is that appreciating emptiness more deeply does relief suffering. It relieves your own suffering and also creates space for you to act in such a way that relieves the suffering of others.
I have an example and before I share it I want to say that I really don't know if what I'm about to describe is inspired by my own practice and studies of the emptiness teachings. I suspect it is but the by the very nature of these teachings we can't really know exactly how and when and why they "work" - as "working" is in this conventional everyday realm of separate entities.
This also connects to Chris's explorations about the collective karma underlying authoritarianism that we're seeing made real in real time in our country right now.
Like all of us I've been horrified by the videos and stories about what the agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement are doing. We've been chanting the names of the two people who were killed by agents in that agency every morning. And I've been to protests and seen and heard others. And at those protests I've also been disturbed by the undertone - or overtone - of fighting back. I don't like to say this here but I think the phrase Fuck ICE sums up that approach. It makes sense that people would feel that way, but maybe you heard Chris's clear teachings about the actual effects of that kind of anger.
So the other day I had again chosen to read the news and I was sitting in my study and what suddenly came was a huge wave of compassion for those agents. I remembered that they are people. That each one of them loves someone; is loved by someone. That they are not in any fundamental way different from me.
And then various ideas about how they got that way: the training and messages they're receiving from their bosses and top leaders all the way to the top, and I felt maybe a little understanding in that way but that's back into the world of concepts and explanations. What I want to share is the feeling of connection. And even of love for them. And note because of this reason or that reason but because the so-called differences between us are absolutely empty of anything.
One of the many translations of this tricky term "emptiness" that's much beloved is Thich Nhat Hanh's term "interbeing" everything inter-exists. Because of so many many factors each moment arises. When we appreciate emptiness we see there are not good people and bad people. And not just as a good idea we're trying to remind ourselves of but as we look into the eyes of our love or the guy with the military hardware and the mask who's pushing someone down.
With the appreciation of emptiness there is, somehow, more love, more kindness, more understanding and also more wisdom and even more skill as we're acting on a different basis than we believe so hard in separation and that our categories for things are real.
Anyway let's dive into the text. We just chanted it and you have it there in the chant book so you can have that page open. And I also have an in depth handout with multiple different translations for us to unpack. You can put your name on it if you want and I suggest leaving it here - we can pile them on the hall table as we leave the zendo later. Unless you're really sure you'd like to take it home and bring it back next time you come. You might not feel a need to make notes on it or you might - fine either way.
You can also bring the handout up on your phone or tablet by scanning the QR code there. Slick eh? It's not editable but if you could copy paste the contents into something else you could add notes to if you want to. You can also do tricky fun stuff like pasting the Chinese or the Sanskrit into an online dictionary. Or asking AI what it means.
The sutra we chant is actually the short version. It comes from the Chinese translated by a famous Chinese monk who spent 16 years travelling India learning about Buddhism named Xuanzang. It's pretty short too: just 260 characters. His version became the standard and only Heart Sutra studies in Japan and probably Korea and Vietnam.
There's also a longer version that has more of a story to it. That version is usually written in Sanskrit, or translated into Tibetan. A kind of frame story that Xuanzang left out for some reason. It's also possible that the frame story was written later to make it make more sense. It's also also seen as possible that Xaunzang himself actually wrote it as his summary of the Prajna Paramita teachings and then it was back translated to Sanskrit. Who knows.
Anyway the longer version has a prologue.
First half of the prologue of the longer version is total boilerplate. Where did this teaching happen and who was there? Every Sutra has this.
Thus have I heard at one time. The Lord was dwelling at Rajagriha, on the Vulture Peak, together with a great community of monks and a great community of Bodhisattvas.
Vulture Peak is an actual place in India. Michael was there with a group of monks just a few months ago. It's also not very big - I've seen pictures - maybe 20 or 30 people fit? And in these enthusiastic sutras there is often a very large crowd there so immediately we can feel conventional reality being both evoked and kind of blurred.
So this is standard setting the scene. How almost all of the early Sutras started.
However, there is some controversy for the Mahayana scholars around how to square the Prajnaparamita Sutras with the early Buddhist history. While most of the concepts are present in early Buddhist Sutras recorded in Pali, and Ghandaran Some felt the Buddha gave these teachings in secret right after his awakening, some that he was quietly giving them through his career, others that he was inspired to share them right before his death.
But the "thus have I heard" is a problem as that usually means Ananda is speaking - the Buddha's cousin and attendant throughout his teaching career - but Ananda and the other early disciples, these later Mahayana sages - perhaps with a little arrogance but their intentions were good I think - that the early disciples wouldn't have understood the depth of Prajnaparamita.
The way they usually explained the fact that none of these teachings came to light until 500 or 600 years after the Buddha's passing is that they were hidden away only to be found by those capable of understanding all of this later. A common story is the great Nāgārjuna, who lived about 150-250 CE went under the sea to the palace of the great Nagas - wise sea dragons - who's kept them for safe keeping.
And it's interesting that plenty of modern Buddhists, both Asian and Western, do believe this literally to be true. Otherwise it's a bit of a problem because it does seem historically obvious that the original Buddha couldn't have given these teachings - at least in the ways we understand linear time and the conceivable reality we think we live in.
I had a surprising moment with a student in Bellingham Shambhala once. Perfectly sane and intelligent guy there saying, "wasn't the Diamond Sutra hidden by the Nagas for all of those years?"
I often share my idea of 3 approaches to traditional texts: the historical, the devotional, and the practical.
- the intellectual / historical / scientific - do the best of our knowledge where did these teachings come from? What was happening in the cultures in which they arose? And there's often not a lot we really know for sure.
- the devotional - let's play with taking these teachings, including their frame stories, literally and seriously and most especially heartfully. My friend from Shambhala was living deeply in this realm but I myself am not happy to kick out the historical to get there. I love letting them both co-exist. This teaching was written 600 years after the Buddha's day AND it was definitely given the Buddha, or in this case inspired by the Buddha's luminous presence.
- the practical - how we do we practice with this? What's helpful here? And that can include the more obvious daily practice ideas, but also being challenged to consider concepts that are confusing or hard to mesh with our usual way of experiencing the world. The practical includes a kind of mental yoga traditional teachings can evoke if we give them space and patience. Stretching our minds in new ways.
Second half of the prologue to this sutra is unusual.
At that time the Lord was immersed in the concentration of the dharma-lineage called 'Perception of the Profound.' At that same time the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the Mahasattva, was moving in the deep course of the perfection of wisdom, and he saw that the five aggregates were empty of inherent existence." "Then, through the Buddha’s might, the venerable Shariputra said to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara: 'How should a son of good family train, who wishes to practice the course of the deep perfection of wisdom?'"
This is unusual because usually the Buddha gives the Dharma talk. Here he enters a deep meditation state.
I don't want to go down too many scholarly rabbit holes but it's interesting what the ancient commentators saw in what looks like ordinary narrative language to us.
The first part of this section, "At the time," for instance according some on such commentator named Vimalamitra (8th Century). He says that "at that time" refers to the moment when the roots of virtue of the members of the audience had ripened such that they were ready to hear the teaching.
It's nice maybe to be reminded just how deeply important every moment in these old sutra stories was to the devoted Buddhists of the past. Perhaps we can take inspiration in that. Pausing in each scene to ponder it deeply.
But more important here is this particular concentration state - the concentration, or samadhi "Perception of the Profound." The commentators agree that it's about perceiving emptiness itself which we'll talk about in a minute. One of them says it's like how it's not difficult to perceive the reflection of the sun or moon on the surface of a lake, but it is difficult to perceive their reflections in space. A little like seeing the stars during the day I guess - they are there, but our conventional eyes can't see them. So we can't shouldn't limit our reality to just what our senses can perceive and our minds can't interpret.
And at the same time it's probably not a coincidence that the great bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokitesvara, is at that same moment having her own deep meditative insight. She's exploring the teachings of wisdom beyond wisdom - which is the insight into the true nature of things - and she realizes that the five skandhas are empty.
The Buddha's in this deep meditation and what he does is empower others with his Buddha powers. He empowers Shariputra to ask the question and he empowers Avalokitesvara to answer that question. And the whole of the Heart Sutra that we chant is Avalokitesvara's answer.
So that's a start! Let me share the books I'm referring to. I have another half dozen on my shelf but these popped up this time. If you want to get a book to read as we look at the Heart Sutra this month, the one I recommend as the first book to get is The Heart of Understanding by Thich Nhat Hanh. Be aware that just before his health took a turn late in his life he wrote a later book where he revises his approach to the sutra. This is also interesting, it's called The Other Shore but I would start with The Heart of Understanding. The books are listed on the back of the handout.
