"Buddhism Is Based on Undermining Itself."
The Heart Sutra may be the most commonly chanted Buddhist text. In English, it is less than 300 words long.Halfway through is the astonishing claim that there is “no truth of suffering, of the cause of suffering, of the cessation of suffering nor of the path” — in effect denying the Four Noble Truths that the Buddha himself taught.
So here is a Buddhist text that seems to undermine the very foundation of Buddhism. I know of no parallel text in any other religion.
But Buddhism, at least in theory, is based on undermining itself. It is an ancient post-modernism, calling into question any description of reality, including its own, because humans crave descriptions of reality more than reality itself.
I had never thought of that passage of the Heart Sutra that way, but ... yes. What do you think?
The Heart Sutra is from the Mahayana canon and is said to be the distilled, perfect expression of enlightenment. It is part of the daily chanting liturgy in many Mahayana schools, including Zen. Those of you who are unfamiliar with the Heart Sutra can find countless translations on the Web. Here is one Heart Sutra translation. If you have never been exposed to it before, I caution you not to form opinions about what it means. It's better to just live with the sutra and let it explain itself to you over time.
Comments
The original Heart Sutra lacks “Thus have I heard” and a proper location. Second, it lacks a conclusion and third, being most important, the Buddha makes no appearance in this Sutra. It should also be pointed out that Avalokiteshvara, who is the main speaker, is not mentioned in the original canon of Buddhism (Source: Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Vol. 15 No. 2, 15).
Hi Barbara,
Seems to me that the first verse of the Daode Jing holds a resonance quite similar to the Heart Sutra:
The Tao which can be expressed in words is not the eternal Tao; the name which can be uttered is not the eternal name.
(Lionel Giles translation)
Mujaku, first, the Heart is considered to be a distillation of the larger Prajnaparamita Sutra, boiled down to its essence, so your objection about “thus have I heard” is irrelevant. Second, it is a Mahayana Sutra, so Theravada doesn’t consider it to be legitimate, anyway. It probably was written in the first or second century CE. The author is unknown, although it could have been Nagarjuna.
That said, it has been my teacher for many years, and in some Mahayana traditions it is thought genuinely to be what its title says — the heart of the perfection of great wisdom. That’s how I take it.
Although Elizabeth is quite correct about the similarity with the first verse of the Daode Jing (Tao Te Ching), there are three lines in the verse:
The Tao that can be told is not the Eternal Tao;
The name that can be named is not the Eternal Name;
The Nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth.
As for Avolokiteshavara, the world has always been filled with the torment of those who suffer and nonetheless continue to cling to that suffering, but occasionally there is someone who is so gentle and caring that they’re moved by all of the suffering of mankind.
The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (also known as Sahasrabhuja Lokeshvara), probably a composite of several historical persons as seen in the case of Bodhidharma, was one of these and even though he walked in the same stained world of Samsara, he did not form a part of this living hell of delusion and suffering, but having seen all the suffering within the world and moved by this, he vowed to give up his own final illumination until all sentient creatures were free from torment.
Sorry for the misspelling above, fingers moving across the keyboard too quick (LOL).
Also, if anyone is interested in reading some of the earliest Paramita commentaries from China, there’s a collection of them on my blog, including other matierial related to the Paramitayana:
http://engagedbuddhists.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=h81q9gvd6dj8
This sutra relates to a situation where Dhamma will take you at the end i.e. nirvana: At the point of attaining nirvana, Bodhisatna felt as becoming microscopic (smaller than a “quark” subatomic particle) and when observing from such a position the entire skandhas are indeed empty (like the vast space of universe which is all empty to a human being). At that microscopic level emptiness (voidness) in all matter prevails. At that level there is no suffering, no sensation, no perception, no consciousness. this is the permanent situation unlike skandhas which are conditioned and impermenant. With this explanation you can now read the transation of Heart Sutra below. Then it will make scientific sense.I hope the writer for the Kansas City Star, Vern Barnet can now go deeper than a superficial scan of the sutra
“When the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
was coursing in the deep Prajnaparamita,
he perceived that all five skandhas are empty,
thereby transcending all sufferings.
Sariputra, form is not other than emptiness
and emptiness not other than form.
Form is precisely emptiness and emptiness precisely form.
So also are sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness.
Sariputra, this voidness of all dharmas
is not born, not destroyed,
not impure, not pure, does not increase or decrease.
In voidness there is no form,
and no sensation, perception, volition or consciousness;
no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
no sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, thought;
there is no realm of the eye
all the way up to no realm of mental cognition.
There is no ignorance and there is no ending of ignorance
through to no aging and death and no ending of aging and death.
There is no suffering, no cause of suffering,
no cessation of suffering, and no path.
There is no wisdom or any attainment.
With nothing to attain, Bodhisattvas relying on Prajnaparamita
have no obstructions in their minds.
Having no obstructions, there is no fear
and departing far from confusion and imaginings,
they reach Ultimate Nirvana.
All past, present and future Buddhas,
relying on Prajnaparamita, attain Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi.
Therefore, know that Prajnaparamita
is the great mantra of power,
the great mantra of wisdom, the supreme mantra,
the unequalled mantra,
which is able to remove all sufferings.
It is real and not false.
Therefore recite the mantra of Prajnaparamita:
Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha.”
Wilfred — way too limited and literal. Don’t think so much.
Things are impernanent…that makes them empty…yes/no
I have taken lately to chanting the Heart Sutra before I meditate at home, let alone at my zendo. I read an English translation, then try to chant through the Sino-Japanese version without stumbling, just for the sound of it. As Barbara indicates, there is something about this text that grows within you and has nothing to do with analysis. However, the seeming negation of the Four Truths makes sense to me–Avalokiteshvara is simply saying that an enlightened state is beyond all thoughts or considerations, all study and striving. On a literary level it is a great rhetorical device.
I don’t know if chanting a sutra in itds ancient tongue is any more beneficial than recitation in one’s own language, especially when it comes to the Bodhisattva ideal in practical application — it’s about enaging the Bodhisattva spirit in the present moment.
An excerpt from “An Affirnmation of the Bodhisattva Way of Life”:
The principle that there is no distinction between doctrine and practice constitutes the basis of all Buddhist thought, no matter how much it may be lost in sectarian Buddhist ideas.
The Buddhist spiritual experience will reveal itself neither to the scholar nor to the conversationalist, but only to the man or woman who makes the central conceptions of Buddhist thought the basis of their mental activity, the subject of their deepest meditation, and the foundation of all their actions.
Every scriptural point is valid only to the extent that we engage it, embody it in our own learning and experience, upon the road to awakening.
Neither the nature nor the reality of the Bodhisattva Sangha, the grand fraternity which devotes its entire effort with one mind, one will and one over-riding thought, to the welfare and liberation of all beings, can be grasped by other means except by attunement to one’s inner nature and nurture by a full joy and natural awe before the idea that there is no human aim higher than to understand the truth.
any and all composite phenomenon, or shall we say thoughts, actions, entities or things etc.,can only exist after multiple variables, or let’s just say causes, condition their existence. In other words, for anything to exist many other things had to happen or exist. If we try to break down the existence of anything, we find more than one cause to everything. This precludes nothing. In this way all things are equal and can be said to lack intrinsic existence. Again, in other words, no one thing can be found to exist independently of other things. While things do exist, that fact that they have no intrinsic nature, or single cause, qualifies them as empty. This emptiness or lack of intrinsic existence is true even of the four Nobel truths. That is not to say that the meaning of the four Nobel truths is not profound and effective. It is to say that the existence of those truths is the consequence or effect of many causes, each of which is equally necessary for the four Nobel truths to have come into being.
Before you can discuss the subject you need to understand yet another Sutra, The Identity of Relative and Absolute Sutra, then you can begin to develope an understanding of “Emptyness”. If you have a resonable teacher (Master) to guide and instruct you and from time to time test your understanding you may begin to talk about the Heart Sutra. The Heart Sutra is talking about a world before words and ideas and which is related to to the absolute nature of reality. Its understanding is beyond just reading it and guessing what it means. The Heart Sutra is the basis of Chan’n Buddhism which became Zen Buddhism when Dogen Zenji took it to Japan in the 1220’s.
It’s all about the deluded relative world of duality and the absolute word of the true nature of the Dharma. It requires you to develope an intim relation with the true nature of reality.
Sengetsu: Would it not be more appropriate to say that Heart Sutra is talking about a world before and after, that it not only transcends words and ideas, but also encompasses them?
In Mahayana, “before” and “after” are delusions and separations.
If anyone’s interested, I started a thread on this same subject in the Buddhism forum, where there are some different takes on it.
Barabara: Correct, but it requires a distinction where there is no distinction… this was what I was referring to, that it isn’t before or after, but encompasses the written word.