Thu, 29 Apr 2010
Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond
So now we come to the end of the Heart Sutra, the Prajnaparamita mantra:
Recite it like this: Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha!
The mantra recapitulates the path. Gate (Gone) means to follow the path, Paragate (Gone beyond) means to reach awakening, and Bodhi (enlightenment) means to achieve the full enlightenment of a buddha. Yet, as any student of emptiness knows, coming or going are dependent phenomena and thus empty. So there is an implied paradox, a restatement of the attainment through non-attainment that was mentioned earlier in thus sutra. So the mantra boils down the already short sutra to its very essence.
So that is all I have to say about the Heart Sutra. Some parts of my explanation are pretty shakey, but I hope it has some value and helps people appreciate the sutra a little more.
Wed, 28 Apr 2010
Maha Mantra
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.
So the Heart Sutra has described the ground, path, and fruition. The Heart Sutra has decribed the sutrayana path, which attains enlightenment by the accumulation of merit and wisdom. It now gives the mantra of Prajnaparamita, in order to show that the mantrayana is also a path to enlightenment. The mantra is described with the attributes of a buddha, because in mantrayana mantra is the speech aspect of the buddha and thus has the enlightened qualities of the buddha. Prajnaparamita is personified as the mother of all the buddhas. She is the mother and not the father because in tantra wisdom is personified as the feminine half of the male-female duality. The male half is skill in means.
Mon, 19 Apr 2010
All Buddhas Agree
We're over the hump in the Heart Sutra and it's all downhill from here. The next line goes:
All Buddhas of the three periods of time attain Anuttara samyak sambodhi through reliance on Prajna Paramita
Some Sankrit words are left untranslated here. This is from a tradition started by the Chines translator Hsuan Tsang, who did not translate Sanskrit words that he regarded as especially holy. "Anuttara samyak sambodhi" is translated as highest, complete, and perfect enlightenment. It signifies the enlightenment of a fully enlightened buddha. "Samyak" is the same word used in each of the steps of the eightfold path. And "prajna paramita" is the perfection of wisdom. One only achieves the ful enlightenment of a buddha through the wisdom that realizes emptiness. So the study and practice of emptiness is the key point in Mahayana Buddhism. So the Heart Sutra has now described the ground (the emptiness of all dharmas) the path (meditation which rests in the positive experience of emptiness) and now fruition (perfect buddhahood.)
Fri, 16 Apr 2010
No Fear
Sorry for the long absence. I've been busy on Twitter promoting World Homeopathy Awareness Week. Today is the last day and I've tweeted my last tweet on it, so it's back to the Heart Sutra. The next line says:
Because there is no impediment, he is not afraid, and he leaves distorted dream-thinking far behind. Ultimately Nirvana!
This verse covers a lot of ground on the Buddhist path. As explained before, when we come to a positive understanding of emptiness, we overcome the impediments, the emotional and intellectual fixations that obscure our true nature. This positive experience usually get called "enlightenment," but the term is more properly reserved for something much further along on the path. In any case, "enlightenment" is not the end of the path, it is the start. Having the positive understanding of emptiness, one cuts through what are called the "perversions," translated here as "distorted dream-thinking." What are the perversions? Taking what causes suffering as pleasant, what is impermanent as permanent, and what is empty as real. As life situations come up, we continually cut through these perversions with the sword of emptiness. The last barrier to cut through is the subtle sense of a watcher or an experiencer of this practice, a voice that comments "this is happening now." When one is about to cut through this last barrier, a strong sense of fear arises, fear of annihilation. But with strong wisdom, one overcomes this fear and makes a leap onto the path of the bodhisattvas, leaving the perversions far behind. Because when the sense of me and mine is totally overcome, so are the coarse forms of the perversions. Only a subtle habitual tendency remains. This is gradually overcome on the bodhisattva path until ultimately we attain enlightenment.
Sun, 04 Apr 2010
Non-Attainment Attained
Here's a quote from the Ratnakuta Sutra that I stumbled upon Friday that I thought was relevant to this part of the Heart Sutra. It's taken from "A Garland of Jewels," translated by Yeshe Gyamtso.
The elder Subhuti asked those bhikshus, "Venerable ones, what have you attained and realized that you now adorn the youthful Manjushri with your shawls?"
They replied, "Noble Subhuti, we have attained and realized nothing. That is why we adorn Manjushri with our shawls. Noble Subhuti, when we had the idea of attainment we arose and left this assembly. When we no longer had the idea of attainment, we returned. Attainment is deception and vanity. Attainment and realization do not exist."
Subhuti asked them, "Who tamed you?"
They replied, "We were tamed by the absence of attainment, origination, distraction, and even placement."
To use an analogy I've used before, a science fiction story has a detective looking for the dealer who is selling a dangerous new drug. Users who take the drug develop a split personality. The detective finds the dealer and it's himself! Similarly, the enlightened mind we are searching for is nothing but our ordinary mind, we merely do not recognize it for what it is.
Fri, 02 Apr 2010
No Obscuration
The first part of the Heart Sutra explains how things are, the ground. Now the Heart Sutra explains the path.
Because nothing is attained, the Bodhisattva through reliance on Prajna Paramita is unimpeded in his mind.
I started talking about the path in my previous post, which talked about the unity of madhyamika and mahamudra. All phenomena are empty, but we do not see their emptiness. This is not only a result of not understanding emptiness intellectually. Even after we understand it intellectually, we do not see it. That lack of seeing is called the impediment of mind, or "citta avarana" in Sanskrit. The bodhisattva sees that nothing truly exists in either samsara or nirvana, and so has overcome this obstacle. Paradoxically , the way to overcome the obstacle is to see that it was never there. In the meditation on emptiness there is nothing to do and nothing to overcome. One simply rests the mind, looks, and eventually it becomes clear that our usual understanding of how things are is mistaken. Our misunderstanding is not replaced by some new understanding. Rather, it is replaced by a not-knowing, the understanding that there is nothing to know. This is the same as Bodhidharma's response to the emperor:
"Who are you, standing in front of me?" asked the emperor.
"I do not know," said Bodhidharma.
Thu, 01 Apr 2010
When Teachers Go Wrong
I'm taking a break from the Heart Sutra to set down what I've been thinking recently on how spiritual teachers go wrong. so I can get the thoughts out of my head. First, I want to make clear that I respect all traditions, and teachers in no tradition and it's not my intent to exalt one tradition over another. But teachers can make mistakes, just as students can, and here are a few of them.
The first mistake is confusing conceptual understanding with realization. This comes in two forms. In scholarly traditions with abstruse philosophies one can confuse undertanding with realization because of the effort needed to master them. "Now I finally understand Nagarjuna (or Shankaracharya.)" Maybe so, but that isn't realization. The other case is traditions emphasizing no path and no method. Here, whatever one understands is taken as sufficient, because to think otherwise is to fall into the error of thinking there is a path. So one is left with a conceptual undertanding, because it is rare that something more profound spontaneously arises on hearing the truth.
The second mistake is teachers who have realized the truth, but don't teach a method to their students to do the same. No matter how clear or insightful a teacher's explanation of the truth may be, explanations are not sufficient, because all explanations are conceptual and it is our conceptual thought which blinds us to the truth. Explanations are a starting point, but more is required, usually a meditation practice to calm our unruly minds and reduce the conceptual thinking which blinds us to the truth. Related to this is "enlightenment porn," teachers who talk at length about the freedom and joy that comes with realization. A little of this might motivate the student, but mostly this is unhelpful, just as a description of a good meal won't satisfy hunger.
The third mistake is teachers who teach before they have stabilized their realization. Realization is not a once and for all thing. Not only does it need to be deepened, but the teacher can be carried away by a strong emotion, any realization is temporarily lost, and the teacher is no different than any ordinary person. If the teacher has cast aside the rules of morality, thinking that they have no need for them becuase they are realized, terrible things can happen. And anyone who has followed the history of Eastern religions in the West over the past generation knows this. Rather than rush into teaching, someone who has realization should know that the converse of the statement "when the student is ready, the teacher appears" is also true. "When the teacher is ready, the students appear." There is no need to advertise or seek out students. Students will be drawn to a teacher with deep realization, even if they live in a cave in the wilderness.
