The Heart Sutra
The Heart Sutra is an understanding of the Buddha’s revelations of the Abjidharma, or Matrix of Reality, during the seventh monsoon season following his Enlightenment (ca. 432 BC). This title, Xin Jing (心 经) , in Chinese, did not appear until 649 AD when Xuanzong (602-664 AD) retitled it. A previous translation from around 250 AD had the title of Prajnaparamita Dharani. An Abhidharma can be described as the way things appear to the mind of a buddha. A matrix is like the elemental chart in chemistry, where in this case it is the dharmas that are ordered. “Dharma” is derived from the root “dhri”, meaning “to grasp”. So it is something held to be real: an object, a person, an event, a teaching, a code, a teaching.
The teaching of this sutra is known as the Prajnaparamita. The word “prajna” is Sanskrit for “wisdom”, and is a combination of “pra” meaning “before” and “jna” meaning “to know”. The word “paramita” means “perfection”. It is derived from the word “para” which means “beyond” and the word “ita” meaning “gone”. So what wisdom has “gone beyond”? Or what wisdom can lead us to the other shore? Or what wisdom is transcendent?
Buddhism identifies three levels of prajna. First level is “mundane wisdom“, which views the world where appearances that are impermanent as permanent, and where appearances that are impure as pure. It is common to most of us. Second level is “metaphysical wisdom“, views the world where appearances that are permanent as impermanent, and what appears to be pure as impure. This wisdom comes to those who cultivate meditation and philosophy. Third level of prajna is “transcendent wisdom”, which views the world as neither permanent or impermanent, as neither pure nor impure, but rather as inconceivable and inexpressible. This wisdom is based upon the insight that all things (objects, people, events, dharmas) are empty of self-independent existence.
“Wisdom and delusion basically are not different. This shore and the other shore essentially have the same source. But because someone thinks the body and mind exist, we say they are deluded and dwell on this shore. And because someone does not think the body and mind exist, we say they are wise and dwell on the other shore.”
The Sanskrit word “sutra” is usually interpreted as deriving from the root “siv”, meaning “to sew”, and in referred to a “thread” that holds things together, like the English word “suture”.
The Heart Sutra has only 35 lines. At the core of the Heart Sutra are lines six through nine.
“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form;
Emptiness is not separate from form, form is not separate from emptiness;
Whatever is form is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is form.
The same holds for sensation and perception, memory and consciousness.”
The Sanskrit word for “empty” or “emptiness” is shunyata. The Chinese word used is “kong” (空). The meaning of empty (emptiness) here is not the one commonly used. It is not “space”, but just the opposite: it is the absence of falsely conceived (mental) space between entities of the mind, or those of the material world created by separation, discrimination, analysis. Empty can also mean “hollow”, “void”, or “zero”. What is empty or void is self-independent existence. Emptiness does not mean nothingness. It means indivisibility. It is a term of negation, that is, it means the absence of the erroneous distinctions, separations, that divide one thing or entity from another thing or entity, one thought from another thought. Emptiness is not nothing, it is everything, everything at once! With emptiness there are no separations or divisions within space and within time, within perceptions and within conceptions. With this consciousness, all separations are delusions. Furthermore, every thing occupies the same indivisible space, which is emptiness, and every event occupies the same indivisible time. Both space and time are empty. This is for sure a difficult thing to grasp for most of us, as our mental programming tells us the exact opposite.
Emptiness alleviates delusion, which in turn alleviates suffering. This emptiness was one of the Buddha’s earliest and more frequent pronouncements. A famous statement in Mahayana Buddhism is: Form, or any other entity of the mind is defined by the mind and exists only because we claim it exists.
“Form is emptiness and emptiness is form”
色 即 是 空，空 即 是 色。
Se ji shi kong, kong ji shi se.
If something can be perceived, or conceived of, it is called form.
The only thing that exists, in this case, is our definition of form. Whatever we use to define form, it is dependent on something else. But emptiness is simply another name for reality–not just a part of reality, for reality has no parts, but all of reality. The essential nature of reality is that it is indivisible, or empty of anything self-existent, permanent, pure, and inherent.
The delusions of form exist, but they exist as delusions. [I like to call these delusions “mental fabrications”, which are things that are literally fabricated, or made up, by our minds in order to have language, and to create meanings through which we can understand our world. Which also means that delusions, like language, are completely arbitrary.] [Another way to look at form is by the ancient Greek word “Logos”. Specific definition of Logos is that it is the organizing force of the universe…as often manifested through language–words.] Emptiness is indivisibility. All separations are delusions. Everything occupies the same indivisible space, time, and mind. Even emptiness is empty! This last statement we will go into while examining the Diamond Sutra.
“Emptiness is not separate from form, form is not separate from emptiness”
色 不 异 空，空 不 异 涩。
Se bu yi kong, kong bu yi se.
Emptiness is not different from form, and form is not different from emptiness.
This equation works because form and emptiness are inseparable. Not only are they identical, they are not different. Therefore form is really neither permanent nor impermanent.
Jingjue (Ching-chueh) (609-702) says: “Inside emptiness there is no form. Outside form there is no emptiness…they are not separate”. [the one implies the other]
Deqing (Te-Ch’ing) (1546-1623) aka Han Shan says: …“form being not separate from emptiness means that the physical body is an empty fiction, that is, it is not different from true emptiness…The true emptiness of prajna is like a huge mirror, and every illusory form is like an image from the mirror. Once you know that images do not exist apart from the mirror, you know emptiness is not separate from form.”
“Whatever is form is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is form”
是 色 彼 空，是 空 彼 色
Shi se bi kong, shi kong bi se
Form is comparable and complementary to emptiness, and emptiness is comparable and complementary to form.
Form exists as a category of analysis. But every analysis involves the use of terms that are essentially the same. Form is not destroyed by emptiness. Since emptiness is form, one cannot use emptiness to grasp emptiness. If one takes form as illusory, it cannot obstruct emptiness. And if you take emptiness as true emptiness, it cannot harm illusory form. For if form obstructed emptiness, it would be real form, not illusory form.
Zhenke (Chen-k’o) (1543-1603), close friend of Deqing, says: “Ordinary people see form, but they do not see emptiness. It is just like the water of the Ganges. Fishes and dragons see it as a cavernous home. Humans see it as a flowing current. Hungry ghosts see it as a strong blaze. What they all see is nothing but their emotions”.
“In emptiness there is no form, no sensation or perception, no memory or consciousness”.
空 中 无 色， 无 受 想 行 识
Kong zhong wu se, wu shou xiang xing zhi
Emptiness is without form, vulnerability, desires, reflection, a set path, or memory
The Buddhists analyzed our experiential world into the Five Skandas. They included “form”. The early Buddhists listed form as the first of the five because they and we had (and have) become so trapped by our materialistic delusions, we used the existence of our “body” as a defense against lines six and nine. We think our bodies actually exist. It is difficult to overcome the indivisibility of “our” bodies with all forms (the entire external world). The understanding of emptiness can move beyond its relationship with form. So the Five Skandas are empty both individually and as a whole. No matter how many skandas or aspects we analyze our experiences into, they are all delusions. They do not exist other than as delusions. Thus there is no limit to the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.
Deqing says: “If we know that form and emptiness are equal and of one “Suchness”, thought after thought we save others without seeing any others to save, and thought after thought we go in search of Buddhahood without seeing any Buddhahood to find. Thus we say the perfect mind has no knowledge of attainment. Such a person reaches the other shore of Buddha hood”.
“No suffering, no source, no belief, no path”.
无 苦 集 罣 道
Wu ku ji gua dao
No suffering, no assembling, no concerns, no doctrine
After the Buddha experienced his Awakening, his Enlightenment, sought out his first people to share it with. He started with his inner circle of close family members at Deer Park, outside Varanasi. These revelations have been called “The Four Noble Truths”. It is also called the “First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma”.
The first was the truth of suffering. We all experience life as involving disease, suffering and pain. The second was the truth of the origination of suffering. Our sufferings have sources. The third was the truth of the cessation of suffering. How does one relieve our suffering? The fourth truth was the path, or process, that leads to the end of suffering.
In ancient India this followed the medical model: determine the disease, determine it’s source, determine the remedy, and then apply this remedy(s) for a cure.
When emptiness is applied to the Four Noble Truths we realize that there is no person who is suffering, for all things and people are empty. If there is no person, there also is no suffering, there is no belief, and there is no path.
“And live without walls of the mind”
故 心 无 灭 碍
Gu xing wu mie ai
To have a heart and mind without obstructions of hindrances.
The refuge of the Prajnaparamita (Heart Sutra) is a refuge without walls or boundaries. The Buddha determined the three barriers to spiritual growth: walls of karma, walls of passion, and walls of knowledge. All of these barriers are self-imposed. These are the barriers that emptiness dissolves.
The text goes on by saying that without these walls of the mind, fear and fears can dissipate. One could also include here hatred, bigotry, and prejudice. Pain and suffering can be treated and minimized. The Buddha was and is often referred to as a physician.
Conze says: “It may either be described as an object without a subject, or a subject without an object…when viewed as an object without a subject, it is called “Suchness”. “It” here refers to people, things, and entities.
For another way of understanding, of another way of using different words to mean essentially the same things from a different language, from a different culture and part of the world, see the discussion of the “Dao De Jing” by Laozi on this website. Here Laozi uses the Chinese word “you” (有) as “form”. Form being “existence-within-form“, and the Chinese word “wu” (无) for “emptiness”, which “expresses existence-without-form”.
One can find many sources on Buddhism in general, and the Heart Sutra in particular nowadays. The internet can be a good source.
Recognition goes out to the works of Red Pine, who has authored books on the subject of eastern philosophies, and of course including the Heart Sutra.
The mantra used in connection with the Heart Sutra:
Gate gate, paragate, parasangate, bodhi svha.
“Gate” ( pronounced gah-tay) is sometimes written as “gata”, as in tatha-gata, which would mean “gone” or “understood”. When translated using “gate” the word could mean: “when gone” or “into the gone” as well as “understood” and “understanding”.
“Para” means “beyond”, so para-gate means “into the gone beyond”, and
“Para-san-gate” as “into the gone completely beyond” or “into the understanding completely beyond”.
The mantra concludes with “bodhi svatva”, which means “enlightenment at last”, or “enlightenment amen…hallelujah”.
Fa-tsang said that “gate” can also means “to ferry across”, where “gate gate” is “ferry oneself and also ferry across others”. “Paragate” means “to the other shore”, while adding the word “san” is “together” would increase the meaning to “everyone ferried across together”. So all together we would have: “To ferry oneself and others together beyond to the other shore, enlightenment at last”.