The Heart Sutra – An
Elaboration
Buddhism started with a minute analysis of the
human personality (the pudgala) into the elements (dharma) of which
it is composed. These elements were divided into good and bad,
those that can be purified or defiled and also those that are
considered to be neutral. Ordinary life
was considered as a condition of degradation and misery. The
purifying elements were those moral features that led to Nirvana -
an unconditioned element. The defiling ones led one to a life of
suffering. That then was our mental life. There was no Ego, no Soul
and Personality. The so called personality was a collection of ever
changing, interrelated elements. It was the Lord Buddha’s teaching
as interpreted by the Theravadins, the “Doctrines of the
Elders”.
With
the emergence of the Mahayanist, all physical and mental elements
which were interrelated, dependent on each other were view as
unreal. The real, ultimate existence or ultimate reality is a
reality that is free of all relations and interdependence, it was
unconditioned. It was a No-Elements doctrine, a doctrine of
relativity and unreality of all elementary data into which
existence has been analyzed.
The
Sutra opens with the early Buddhist understanding of what
constitutes the individual Self; the form and the remaining four
other mental aggregates. It then when on to discuss other early
Buddhist teachings and how it is view and interpreted from the
Mahayanist perspective. The language of negation is used to
describe what ultimate reality is, as it is something beyond
concepts and can only be grasped by intellectual intuition only.
But when one have ‘arrived’ at that state of realization, there are
certain qualities that will become evident in the person which can
be described. This is expounded in the later part of the Sutra when
it dwelled on the paramitas of the Mahayanist.
There are many translation of the Heart Sutra.
This is one, as follows:
When Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara was practicing
the profound Prajna Paramita, he illuminated the Five Skandhas and
saw that they are all empty, and he crossed beyond all suffering
and difficulty.
Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness;
emptiness does not differ from form. Form itself is emptiness;
emptiness itself is form. So too are feeling, cognition, formation,
and consciousness.
Shariputra, all Dharmas are empty of
characteristics. They are not produced, not destroyed, not defiled,
not pure; and they neither increase nor diminish. Therefore, in
emptiness there is no form, feeling, cognition, formation, or
consciousness; no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no
sights, sounds, smells, tastes, objects of touch, or Dharmas; no
field of the eyes up to and including no field of mind
consciousness; and no ignorance or ending of ignorance, up to and
including no old age and death or ending of old age and death.
There is no suffering, no accumulating, no extinction, and no Way,
and no understanding and no attaining.
Because nothing is attained, the Bodhisattva
through reliance on Prajna Paramita is unimpeded in his mind.
Because there is no impediment, he is not afraid, and he leaves
distorted dream-thinking far behind. Ultimately Nirvana! All
Buddhas of the three periods of time attain
Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi through reliance on Prajna Paramita.
Therefore know that Prajna Paramita is a Great Spiritual Mantra, a
Great Bright Mantra, a Supreme Mantra, an Unequalled Mantra. It can
remove all suffering; it is genuine and not false. That is why the
Mantra of Prajna Paramita was spoken. Recite it like
this:
Gaté Gaté Paragaté Parasamgaté Bodhi
Svaha!
"When the Bodhisattva
Avalokitesvara.”
The
Mahayanists considered those who practices according to the
Doctrines of the Elders, as practices that benefit the individual
self only. On the other hand, the Mahayana practice is aimed not
just for the benefit of self but is also for others as well.
Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara was chosen to demonstrate to the
followers of the Theravada the full dimension of the Mahayana
teaching.
“was practicing the profound Prajna
Paramita."
After
the first moment of the non intelligible perception of our senses,
the intellect takes over, and starts the thought process of
constructing what was perceived by our senses into an external
object and the discriminating subject perceiving it. With the
perceived object, mental states such as our feelings and volitions
too arises, these provides the occasions for craving and clinging
to develop in the self. Craving and clinging comes about due the
present of an Ego.
The
perfection of Wisdom (Prajna) is profound, as it
required the practitioner to go beyond our thought construction,
beyond discriminating knowledge, beyond duality of mind to realized
and attain Truth itself, and the abandoning of our Ego. It is to go
beyond birth and death.
"He illuminated the Five Skandhas and saw that
they are all Empty."
The
Buddha taught that an individual is a combination of five
aggregates of existence, called the Five Skandhas (aggregates).
These are: Form, Feeling, Cognition, Mental formations and
Consciousness.
The
first is our physical form.
The
second is made up of our feelings, both emotional and
physical.
The
third, cognition which is when a sense organ comes into contact
with an object, be it physical, mental, or an idea, causes thoughts
to arise follows with conceptualization and
reasoning.
The
fourth skandha, mental formations, includes habits, prejudices,
predisposition, volition, and other mental states both virtuous and
not virtuous. The causes and effects of karma are of this
aggregate.
The
fifth skandha, consciousness, is awareness of or sensitivity to an
object, but without conceptualization. Once there is awareness, the
third skandha might recognize the object and assign a concept-value
to it, and the fourth skandha might react with desire or revulsion
or some other mental formation.
The
Buddha taught that our egos, personalities and the sense that the
“self” are just illusory effects of the skandhas. Through
mindfulness contemplation, we should see these aggregates of
existence as they rise and fall and not cling on to them. Once our
clinging to the skandha diminishes, so too the notion of a separate
“self” and the Ego. It will lead us to apprehend that these
aggregates as having no intrinsic reality.
The
Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, does not allow his mind to
discriminate: Seeing is seeing, hearing is hearing, smelling is
smelling, tasting is tasting, knowing is knowing, understanding is
standing; They arises when right conditions are there, ceases when
these conditions disappear, they are relative, they are empty,
empty of all self existence.
"and He cross beyond all Suffering and
difficulty."
Ignorance (delusion) and desire are the root
causes of our suffering. Ignorance is not able to see the true nature of
things and in the believed that an independent “I” existed, which
give rise to the suffering of the cycle of birth and death. Desire
is craving for pleasure, material goods, and immortality, and can
never be satisfied. As a result, desiring them can only bring
suffering. With the
realization that the Skandhas are relative and empty of any self
existence, our ignorance and wrong views of existence is abandoned
and with it the clinging to an Ego and the notion of a separate
“I”.
The
Buddha taught there are three main kinds of Sufferings (dukkha).
These are:
Suffering or Pain - Ordinary suffering, in the form of physical,
emotional and mental pain.
Impermanence or Change -
Thing that is subject to change,
such as happiness, sadness, worries and even the state of bliss
experienced in spiritual practice, its rise and fall with passing
time.
Conditioned States - To be conditioned is to be dependent on or
affected by something else. According to the teaching of dependent
origination, all phenomena are conditioned. Everything affects
everything else. This is also suffering as it gives rise to the
clinging to the skandhas with all its accompanying ills and
difficulties.
When Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara perceived that all the five
skandhas are void, he had transcended all suffering and its
accompanying difficulty. It does not mean that suffering of pain in
the form of physical, emotional and mental are not there, it is
just that we do not cling or be overwhelmed by
it.
"Sariputra, Form Does not Differ from Emptiness,
Emptiness Does Not Differ From Form. Form itself is Emptiness and
Emptiness itself is Form; so too are Feelings, Cognition,
Formation, and Consciousness."
Sariputra was the best, the most advanced
disciple of Theravada Buddhism, renowned for his wisdom. This part
of the sutra is thus directed at the adherents of the
Theravadins.
Words
and names are indirect knowledge obtain from our memories, thought
construction and concepts. They are also dual in nature. The word
“Blue” come about after our intellect has run through all that is
consider as “not-Blue” and “other than Blue” before arriving at the
conclusion that what we saw is called “Blue”.
The
paradox nature of the above passages is difficult to explain in
words, more so when the word “Emptiness” is used to describe a
realization that is non-dual in nature.
To say
Form is empty of any self existence can be intellectually analyzed
and understood. It is another matter altogether to become “aware
and feel” that it is so as it require one to go beyond our
dualistic intellectual thought process. It is like saying, “if you
open your mouth you are already wrong, if you give rise to a single
thought you are in error." It
is the silence that follows after the sound of discussion has
ceased and when the role of thought is over. The result of this
realization will eventual leads us on to the path of letting go of
our clinging and grasping of the Self. This realization can only be
designate a term; in this case, “Emptiness” is assigned. Of course
we can also call this realization “a leave” or “a flower” if one
has not as yet designate “leave” and “flower” to some other things
already.
Form
is not just empty of any inherent existence, what is percept by the
senses are momentary flash of energy only and have the character of
being instantaneous, of being spit in discrete moments, and they
disappear as soon as they appear. Matter does not exist apart from
sense-data and everything necessarily must have an end. We would
have notice by observation, that such thing as fire, changes every
moment, so do our thoughts, even our body is constantly changing.
This is the true nature of all things when it is perceive by a mind
that does not try to grasp and cling on to everyday objects which
have been constructed by our imagination and stabilized. “Form is
Emptiness”, is a realization that the nature of all things are void
of all inherent self existence.
There
is motion always going on in living reality, but what we noticed
are only some special moments which we stabilized in our
imagination. This is the function of our understanding which
differentiated these sensations into subject and object. This is
the first construction of our mind and in which further cognition
is accompanied by an Ego. Ego is always emotional, be it in very
slight degree. Objects perceived can give rise to desirable or
undesirable, pleasant or unpleasant feelings. The stronger these
emotions are, the stronger will be the present of the Self in us
and the more it will cling on to the existence of the physical body
without the individual realizing that it is the body that goes
through the cycle of birth and death and what is deathless is the
pure mind. It is in this mind that all things arise and cease.
“Emptiness is Form”, is the realization that it is in this
imperishable and
indestructible mind that all
Form takes shape. Mind itself when polluted by passions and
ignorance is phenomenal life, that very Mind when empty of it is
deliverance. There is no “Is” or not-“Is”; it is devoid of all
duality.
The
skandha of form embodies eleven dharmas (constituent
factors) consisting of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, the
five attachments or aversions of these senses plus the thoughts of
our mind. All these are "not different from Emptiness" as well,
therefore "form does not differ from Emptiness, and the Emptiness
does not differ from form."
The
remaining four skandhas are the domain of the Mind. Once the
skandha of form are found to be empty of a separate, lasting self,
the mind skandhas were also be found to be empty. Feelings,
cognition, perception and consciousness are, likewise, recognized
as void of selfhood: Emptiness is their true
essence.
"Sariputra, All Dharmas are empty of
Characteristics. They are not Produced, not Destroyed, not Defiled,
not Pure, and they neither Increase, nor
Diminish."
In the
Theravada tradition, form, feeling, cognition, formation and
consciousness are considered to be the ultimate reality. They are
the final irreducible component of existence. These are the
dharmas, the ultimate entities that existed. In combination, they
give rise to conventional reality such as persons, animals and also
give the apparent stability to objects in our daily lives. When
conditions are not there, they cease to be. In other word, there is
conditioned birth and death.
Feeling, cognition, and consciousness combined,
give rise to the fifty two mental formations of wholesome (pure)
and unwholesome (defile) factors. These mental formations will also
rise and cease with the state of consciousness we are in. At the
same time, such beautiful factors as mindfulness and love and
unwholesome factors such as greed and delusion will also increase
or diminishes dependant on the zest in our
cultivations.
To the
Mahayanist, these are all worldly dharmas, by themselves they do
not existence, their existence are due to the dependence on each
other, the characteristic that are attributed to them are not real
and do not exist and should also be abandoned as well. Rejecting
unwholesome factors, clinging to wholesome one, these are acts that
will eventually give rise to yet another attachment because of our
natural tendency toward opinions and prejudice. It is only when
discriminating thought no longer arises that liberation can be
attained. That they are not produced, not destroyed, not defiled,
not pure; that they neither increase, not diminished are also
distinguishing marks of their emptiness.
"Therefore, in Emptiness there is No Form,
Feeling, Cognition, Formation or Consciousness. No Eye, Ears, Nose,
Tongue, Body, or Mind; No Sights, Sounds, Smells, Tastes, Objects
of Touch or Dharmas; No Field of the Eyes, up to and Including No
Field of Mind Consciousness.”
Form come into existence when a
deluded mind crave for it, when the mind no longer grasp for it,
form will ceases to exist and with it, the other four mental
aggregate of feeling, cognition, formation and consciousness as
well.
The
teaching on Emptiness is also connected with the eighteen worldly
dharmas, where the objects of the world, the senses and the senses’
consciousness combined to give us the deluded views of permanence
and the independence of individual existence.
The supra-mundane Emptiness of True
Existence is possessed by all and we are endowed with the same
truth and would come to know it, that is, once we relinquished our
discriminating mind. Anyone can become
a buddha spontaneously by deeply comprehending that "all existences
are Emptiness."
"and No Ignorance or Ending of Ignorance, Up to
and Including No Old Age and Death and Ending of Old Age and
Death."
This
part of the Sutra is made in reference to the Doctrine of Dependent
Origination of the Twelve Causal Links of existence of the
Theravada teaching. It falls under the sphere of the five skhandhas
which was discussed above. Since these
skhandas were found to be empty, the twelve links are also empty of
any ultimate reality.
The
wheel of Twelve Causal Links represents the whole of phenomenal
life itself. The series is conditioned by the central element of
Ignorance. (1) Due to our Ignorance, we cling on to a self, (2) Our
pass karma then, provide the conditioning factors for the next
life, (3) Consciousness arises, which again carries the sense of
self, (4) It give rise to name and form, the individual mental and
physical constituents, (5) Follow by our six senses, (6) Accompany
by our sensations, (7) And the Feeling of pleasant, unpleasant and
neutral states, (8) Which give rise to our Desires, (9) Allowing
free actions of clinging, grasping, (10) Which brought about future
becoming again, (11) New birth in the six realms, (12) Follow by
old age and death. The whole series of process is only interrupted,
when the element of Ignorance is extinct. This is the Theravada
special law of moral causation.
To
free oneself from confusion or ignorance is a requisite for right
or correct practice. When ignorance is eliminated, all delusory
activity ceases. Without grasping there can be no becoming, which
means that all future rebirths are extinguished. Without birth
there is no aging and death and that is the end of pain, grief,
lamentation and anguish.
Those
who practice the dharma of the Twelve Causal Links would be
liberated from birth and death, but will not have reached the realm
of buddhahood without the realization that they are in themselves
empty and are not ultimate reality.
To
understand the essential Emptiness of all existence is to
understand the True Mind. To see one's Self Nature enables the
attainment of buddhahood, because when the ignorance of the
existence of a permanent self is dispelled and recognized as empty
of any such self existence, there is nothing left to cling on.
Therefore the sutra says "also there is no ending of ignorance", as
originally, there is no such thing as old age and death and ending
of old age and death. They are just the product of our conceptual
mind.
"There is No Suffering, No Accumulating, No
Extinction, and No Way.”
This
sentence deals with Emptiness as the ground of the Four Noble
Truths. The Truths are stated as; there is Suffering, Causes of
Suffering, Cessation of Suffering and the Way to the Cessation of
Suffering. The teaching transcends the mundane and provides access
to sainthood. A saint from the Theravada tradition attains the path
and the fruit on the basis of one’s practice of The Four Noble
Truths. The Mahayana attainment is in the realm of the
supra-mundane. The suffering spoken of is the suffering in this
world. Its causes are, likewise, of this world, the path is
operative in this world and Nirvana or cessation of suffering is
our exit from this world. The path, which is the Noble Eightfold
Path provides for the practice aimed toward
enlightenment.
The
first of the Noble Truths is presented in three aspects:
Suffering or Pain - Ordinary suffering, in the form of physical,
emotional and mental pain.
Impermanence or Change -
Thing that is subject to change,
such as happiness, sadness, worries and even the state of bliss
experienced in spiritual practice, its rise and fall with passing
time.
Conditioned States - To be conditioned is to be dependent on or
affected by something else. According to the teaching of dependent
origination, all phenomena are conditioned. Everything affects
everything else. This is also suffering as it gives rise to the
clinging to the skandhas with all its accompanying ills and
difficulties.
The
second of the Noble Truths posits the cause of suffering as craving
which produces becoming, accompanied by passionate clinging.
Numerous causes come together, and we know that our present
suffering is the effect of previous causes. Likewise, our present
behavior is the foundation for future effects. The cause of
suffering is a cluster of six root defilements: Greed, hatred,
ignorance, pride, doubt and heterodox views and together with the
lesser defilements cause all the suffering in the
world.
The
third of the Noble Truths follows logically from the first two. If
craving is removed or transcended, there will be no more suffering.
Cessation means calmness and extinction, or Nirvana, yearning for
Nirvana, will made one resolve to practice and attain the path and
the fruit, i.e., Nirvana.
The
fourth Noble Truth makes the teaching a complete whole. Those who
focus their desire on attaining the supra-mundane Nirvana can break
off the causes of suffering and practice toward enlightenment. The
practice of discipline removes the obstacle of greed, meditation
reduces delusion and the two combined foster wisdom.
The
practitioner of the teaching of the Four Noble Truths should reach
understanding of the cause of suffering and direct one’s efforts
toward the dissolution of the cause of suffering and resolve to
attain Nirvana.
At the
time the Buddha set the wheel in motion by teaching the Four Noble
Truths, the followers of the Theravada tradition attained
sainthood. In the later teaching, the Buddha taught the Dharma of
Emptiness to promote the understanding of the supra-mundane
Emptiness of True Existence. We have seen the emptiness of the five
skandhas, the Dharma of the Four Noble Truths is also empty as
well. There is no suffering, no cause of suffering, no cessation of
suffering and no path. They are just like the reflection on a
mirror. The reflection is not separate from that which reflects it;
the reflective surface and the reflection are one. To understand
this means to be close to enlightenment.
"There is No Understanding, and No
Attaining."
This
part of the sutra concerns the teaching of the six paramitas
(perfections), the bodhisattva practice of Giving, Discipline,
Patience, Effort, Concentration and Wisdom which can take one
across the Sea of Suffering, enter Nirvana and attain
enlightenment. Allowing one's actions to be guided by the
paramitas, one will surely attain the path and the fruit. Each of
the six paramitas is an antidote for each of the six fundamental
defilements
Giving
eliminates greed, Discipline cures laziness, Patience overcomes
hatred, Effort overcomes laxity, Concentration cools the mind
making it receptive to Wisdom and Wisdom dispels ignorance. The
Mahayana doctrine of action and principle differs from the
Theravada as to its intention. Besides cultivating the paramitas,
one should endeavor to liberate all sentient beings by leading them
toward an upward path while seeking one’s own
enlightenment.
According to the Buddha, "there is no
understanding and there is no attainment". It means that the
paramitas and the bodhisattva action are not entities to be
grasped, conceptualized, and manipulated. The six paramitas and the
bodhisattva action are like the reflection in the mirror, since
they are all amenable to change and therefore empty of self. The
true nature of a mirror is its capacity to receive and relinquish
all that goes on in front of it without holding on to any part of
it. If the paramitas are practiced with the understanding that they
are rooted in Emptiness, the great enlightenment can be attained.
Non-wisdom is the true wisdom, non-attainment is the true
attainment.
"Because nothing is attained, the Bodhisattva
through reliance on Prajna Paramita is unimpeded in his
Mind.”
"Nothing is attained" is the all-important theme
of the Sutra. The impediment refers here to the working of the:
The impediment of deeds done in the past, the
impediment of retribution and the impediment of earthly
desire.
Since
the bodhisattva cannot seek outside help when dealing with these
impediments, he has to rely on insights provided by his own radiant
wisdom for his attainment of freedom. The first of the impediment
to break off is the impediment of retribution.
Since the infinite past, we have accumulated much heavy karma in
our past existences. Unless we embrace the True Law, we will be
obliged to carry such a karmic debt and to suffer karmic
retribution in this present life and perhaps in future lifetimes as
well. Therefore, when we encounter various hardships in the course
of Buddhist practice, we can consider them as the retribution of
slanderous deeds in the past, effects that would otherwise have had
to be experienced to a greater degree and over a much longer period
of time. A bodhisattva would have already discarded this
obstruction, and anxiety would also vanish from his
mind.
"Because there is no Impediment, He is not
afraid,"
This
is the removal of the impediment to action, cause
by bad karma created by
committing any of the five cardinal sins or ten evils. The five sins are the killing of one’s own parents, an arhat,
injuring a Buddha and causing disunity in the Buddhist
Order, the ten evils are the precepts of not killing,
stealing, sexual
misconduct,
five kinds of wrong speeches,
covetousness and wrong views.
When
the body and mind is not impeded by our past actions and deeds, we
are free of worry and fear. There are five kinds of fear, and those
who have not break off delusion yet, who are in the early stages of
the bodhisattva career, are particularly
susceptible:
(1)
Fear of being left without sustenance after giving away all
possessions; (2) Fear of being insignificant after giving up one's
reputation; (3) Fear of dying in situations that call for
self-sacrifice; (4) Fear of falling into evil circumstances; (5)
Fear of addressing an assembly, especially in the presence of
important people.
These
five fears obstruct Dharma practice and without them there is no
impediment to action.
"and He leaves distorted dream-thinking far
behind.”
This
statement is related to the obstacle or impediment of
desire. That obstruction has its root in the defilement of
ignorance arising from the
three poisons of greed, anger, and foolishness, manifested as mistaking the impermanent for
permanent, the ugly for beautiful, and suffering for happiness. It
is the way of people of mundane interests. The bodhisattva whose
perception has been clarified through Prajna has been liberated to
a great extent from this impediment.
"Ultimate Nirvana!"
When
there is no more mental pain or grief, Nirvana becomes perceptible,
comprehensible, inviting and attractive. It is the complete and
final cessation of greed or craving, hatred and ignorance, and
therefore the cessation of rebirth and of the continuity of life.
Prajna, and consequently freedom, manifest themselves to their
fullest. Nirvana cannot be expressed through words; it has to be
experienced.
"All Buddhas of the Three Periods
of Time Attain Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi through reliance on Prajna
Paramita. Therefore know that Prajna Paramita is a Great Spiritual
Mantra, a Great Bright Mantra, a Supreme Mantra, an Unequalled
Mantra. It can remove all Suffering; It is Genuine and not False.”
Prajna
is proclaimed to be the perfect, ultimate Dharma of supreme
relevance not only to bodhisattvas but also to all the past,
present and future Buddhas as well.
The
perfected Wisdom (Prajna) here is then equated with the qualities
of a Mantra. Mantra is a “tool for thinking”, a “thing which
creates a mental picture”. With its sound it calls forth its
content into a state of immediate reality. Mantra is power. It is
not mere speech which the mind can contradict. The words are deeds,
acting immediately. The power and the effect of a mantra depend on
the spiritual attitude, the knowledge and the responsiveness of the
individual. The sound of a mantra is not a physical sound but a
spiritual one. It should be heard by the heart and uttered by the
mind. Mantra has power and meaning only to one who has gone through
a particular kind of experience connected with the mantra and gives
power only to those who are conscious of its inner meaning.
Its power and its strength are
operative in realms not amenable to manipulation. Its effect can
manifest itself instantaneously, transcending the worldly,
attaining holiness. When Prajna is here link with a Mantra, it also
suggests that the theme and the essence of the Heart Sutra
transcends concept.
"That is why the Mantra of Prajna Parmita was
spoken. Recite it like this:
Gate, Gate, Paragate,
Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!"
Mantras are esoteric teaching by means of which
we are reminded of the subtlety and complexity of the inconceivable
Dharma. The teaching of the Heart Sutra includes some exoteric
parts, such as the sutras, and some esoteric ones, such as the
mantras. Exoteric Teachings are accessible to rational
understanding and can be explained, but the meanings of the
esoteric or mystic forms of prayer such as mantras are not within
the reach of the intellect. During recitation, mantras enable the
one reciting them to control both the sound and the timing, but any
recognizable words and meanings which would normally hold in one’s
mind captive are not there. One has then an opportunity to
experience the expanse or space of one’s mind, it being one of
mind's very special characteristics.
To
recite this mantra by itself, omitting the text of the sutra is a
true Mahayana practice of the non-discriminating mind. The
inconceivable nature of the teaching is apprehended and the
teaching seen as a whole. Thorough study of the sutra and a
complete understanding is equal to the meaning implied in the
mantra.
The
elaboration of the Teachings is here completed. Blessed indeed is
one who is acquainted with this Sutra.