The Heart Sutra Discussion
Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom, the Lovely, the Holy! Avalokita, The Holy Lord and Bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which had gone beyond. He looked down from on high, He beheld but five heaps, and he saw that in their own-being they were empty.
Here, O Sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form, the same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.
Here, O Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness; they are not produced or stopped, nor defiled or immaculate, not deficient or complete.
Therefore, O Sariputra, in emptiness there is no form, nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness; No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables or objects of mind; No sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to: No mind-consciousness element; and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction, no stopping, no path. There is no cognition, no attainment and no nonattainment.
Therefore, O Sariputra, it is because of his nonattainmnetness that a Bodhisattva, trhough having relied on the perfection of wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble, he has overcome what can upset, and in the end he attains Nirvana.
All those who appear as Buddhas in the three periods of time fully awake to the utmost, right, and perfect enlightenment because they have relied on the perfection of wisdom.
Therefore one should know the prajnaparamita as the great spell, the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell, allayer of all suffering, in truth-for what could go wrong? By the prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered. It runs like this: Gone, gone, gone, beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all hail!-This completes the Heart of perfect wisdom.
It is interesting "Lovely" could also be translated into "Lady" in reference to the first part of the Sutra. Then in the discussion of the Sutra, Conze writes that it is "she who has gone" beyond, she=wisdom. Also, Wisdom is described as the Buddha’s "mother." In the Judeo-Christian tradition, wisdom is often personified as a woman in Proverbs, along with other books in the Bible. In mystic Jewish texts, the female aspect of God is named Sophia, which is wisdom personified.
Wisdom personified as a woman makes sense at a time when the majority of religious thinkers and philosophers were (are) men. Men often desire, covet and seek after women, giving wisdom the same connotations.
The whole idea of wisdom as female also made me wonder why, in Theravadan Buddhism, only men can reach enlightenment. There are many contradictions in world religions like that of wisdom being female but women not being able to reach enlightenment. For example, women are not aloud to become priest in the Catholic church even though women were the original preachers of Jesus' resurrection (the disciples didn't stay at the cross nor did they go to Jesus' tomb so they had to hear the news from the women who heard it from an angel and Jesus).
Second, I was very, very confused that a Bodhisattva was someone who had "postponed his entrance into Nirvana... for the purpose of helping suffering creatures" while at the same time, a Bodhisattva "cares for nothing but enlightenment." This could not possibly be true, since intruding on nothing is the concern (a feeling and therefore an aggregate) for other people (who are really nothing, but rather entities that believe they are something).
From the Venerable Huei-Hsuen I understood that Nirvana could not be reached unless there is compassion. If there is compassion, then there is a concern about other entity's suffering. Also, he said Nirvana needs to occur collectively in order for it to be completely achieved. So any Nirvana reached thus far would be a less than complete Nirvana. Which seemed to contradict how some arhat's decide to go beyond the bodhisattva to Nirvana.
Nirvana can be lost (88)
Lastly, I didn't really understand how Dharma, if it is emptiness, could cause things to happen, or could be the underlying principle of the world. If the principle is cause and effect, how can nothing cause anything?
Paul here. Could this be an instance of Nagarjuna 24:7?
I don’t know where 24:7 is.
If it is verse 24:
“If the path had an essence,
Cultivation would not be appropriate.
If this path is indeed cultivated,
It cannot have an essence.”
Speaking of comparisons between Christianity and Buddhism, the main thing I don't understand about Buddhism is its concept of salvation. In Christianity, the difference between salvation and earthly existence is clear. In Buddhism, what is the difference between salvation and suffering if everything is empty? If all is an illusion, what is experiencing that illusion? Why strive for Nirvana?
People who contributed to this site: Paul Kjellberg, Danielle Orner, Gooch, Christine Hill
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