You are already free. You presently have Buddha Nature. You may not have had that realization, and you may not fully believe it. However, it is true. It has always been true. It was true before you were born and it will be true after you die.
We do not need to become a Buddha, we simply have to recognize the reality of our own life. It is not that you become enlightened. How can an imagined self become enlightened? When realization occurs the whole existence is enlightened.
The Heart Sutra is one of the most important of all Buddhist texts. That why it is called the Heart Sutra; it is the very heart of the Buddha’s teaching. It illuminates the fact of your Buddhahood. It directly points out the illusory nature of the sense world and of all identifications. In doing so you are left with the transcendent and immanent truth of your Being.
This sutra deconstructs all our points of view, beliefs, ideologies, reference points and conceptual frameworks. It explodes our fundamental delusion and all we are left with is true emptiness, uncontaminated by thought and emotion. And the center and core of this emptiness is the presence of profound compassion.
For him to whom emptiness is clear,
Everything becomes clear.
For him to whom emptiness is not clear,
Nothing becomes clear.
Nagarjuna
The way to be transformed through this sutra is to open your own heart to the deep meaning and experience to which the words point. Welcome to this profound journey which takes us home to a place we never left.
A Brief Introduction
The Heart Sutra is less than a page. And it is one of the most profound teachings of all the Buddhist scriptures.
The original title of the Heart Sutra is Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra.
Maha can be defined as great, ultimate or infinite.
Prajna means knowledge. There are three kinds of knowledge. The first is borrowed knowledge, the kind you get from someone else or from reading a book.
The second is cultivated wisdom. It is the knowledge that you derive directly from your own experience.
The third is innate knowledge. It is the wisdom inherent within all living beings. It is our essential awareness, consciousness, enlightenment or freedom that does not need to be cultivated because it is already there. One only needs to see through the veil of illusion to discover what has always been present. This is the meaning of prajna the context of this sutra.
If we look at the Sanskrit meaning of the word prajna we can break it into two parts. Pra means before, and jna means to know. Prajna can be translated as the innate wisdom that comes before intellectual knowledge.
Paramita can be defined as crossing over or going to the other shore. It is crossing over from delusion to the safe shore of enlightenment, nirvana or freedom. Although this gives the impression of movement, it is actually realizing the inherent truth of our life as we penetrate the delusion that clouds our minds. Paramita also means perfection. It is the perfection of wisdom.
Hridaya Sutra: Hridaya means heart, center or essence. Sutra refers to the scriptures or the discourses of the Buddha. Hridaya Sutra refers to the essential teaching of the Buddha.
Putting all the segments together, we can say that Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra means “The Great Wisdom or Essential Teaching that leads to the Other Shore of Innate Perfection and Ultimate Truth.” A shorter translation is “The Great Heart of Perfect Wisdom.”
Translation
There are many translations of the Heart Sutra. My teacher created a synthesis from several translations. It is the short form of the sutra. There is a longer form which includes an introduction and conclusion, but it is unnecessary for our purposes.
The noble Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva,
while engaged in the deep practice of Prajnaparamita,
looked upon the five aggregates
and seeing they were empty of self-existence said,
“Here, Shariputra,
form is emptiness, emptiness is form;
emptiness is not separate from form,
form is not separate from emptiness;
whatever is form, that is emptiness,
whatever is emptiness, that is form.
The same holds true for feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness.
Here, Shariputra, all dharmas are defined by emptiness,
not by birth or destruction, purity or defilement,
completeness or deficiency.
Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness there is no form,
no feeling, no perception, no mental formation, and no consciousness;
no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body and no mind;
no forms, no sounds, no smells, no tastes, no touchables and no mental objects; no elements of perception from eye to conceptual consciousness;
no causal link, from ignorance to old age and death; no suffering, no source, no relief, no path;
no knowledge, no attainment and no non-attainment.
Therefore, Shariputra, without attainment,
bodhisattvas having taken refuge in Prajnaparamita
live without the walls of the mind.
Without the walls of the mind and thus without fears,
they see through delusions and realize nirvana.
All Buddhas past, present and future
also take refuge in Prajnaparamita
and realize unexcelled, perfect enlightenment.
You should therefore know the great mantra of Prajnaparamita,
the mantra of great magic,
the unexcelled mantra,
the mantra equal to the unequalled,
which heals all suffering and is true, not false,
the mantra in Prajnaparamita is said as follows:
‘Gate gate, paragate, parasangate, bodhi svaha.’”
(This last line can be translated as “gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, at last!” We will be discussing this line in depth as we work towards the end of our commentary)
The commentary below on the Heart Sutra, as with the above translation, will be a synthesis of Chinese, Japanese, and American perspectives and particularly my teacher’s own realizations regarding this profound teaching.
The first way to embody the Heart Sutra was by study. We simply read the material until we are familiar with it.
The second way is to contemplate and reflect upon it. What do we think the words mean? Is it really possible to understand the sutra with our rational mind or does it require letting go and just allowing the truth to emerge in our minds?
The third way of working with the sutra is through meditation. We need to calm the mind and allow an open presence so that the deeper meaning of the sutra has the space in which to arise.
A fourth way to embody the sutra is through chanting. Reciting the Heart Sutra everyday enables the sutra to settle within us on a very deep level. This is a traditional daily practice at many Mahayana monasteries.
The fifth way to work with the sutra in order to deepen its impact on our mind and life is to work with a teacher who can help interpret some of the more obscure sections. There are many paradoxes in the sutra that can only be intuitively grasped by someone who has had the direct experiences to which those paradoxes point. The teacher can explain those sections in a way that the student, given his or her present level of development, can understand.
The sixth way of embodying the sutra is by teaching it. In order to teach others we typically need to delve even deeper into the material we are about to teach. We need to understand and fully live the teachings we are going to communicate so that it will be grasped by our students. We can only truly transmit what we ourselves have fully experienced.
The seventh and final way to unfold the deepest meaning of this sutra is through living it. We need to become one with the teaching. That is, to realize the emptiness of self, other and all phenomena that appear in the world. A Zen master once said, “Go to the root! I have no help for those who search for twigs.”
Emptiness
The most pervasive and fundamental theme of the Heart Sutra is emptiness, which points to the groundlessness of our experience. There is nothing that we can hold on to – not even the idea that there is nothing to hold on to!
How does your mind feel when it is not grasping at anything? When you have that feeling, let go of that as well! We need to let go of whatever we believe emptiness to be. This is the “emptiness of emptiness.” Only then are we are beginning to approach true emptiness.
Emptiness is being in the present moment, allowing the infinite display of mind, without grasping at any of it. We just rest in the nowness of life without doing anything, without manipulating anything, and just letting the mind be as it is.
Emptiness or enlightened presence is closer than you think. It has to be since it has nothing to do with thought! (Please read the last two lines again and again!)
It feels like there must be a technique or practice that will take us there. Although meditation practices are skillful, they cannot take you to where you already are.
The Sanskrit word for emptiness is sunyata. It can mean empty or zero. However, zero has a different meaning in this context than the word “nothing”. Here it means fullness, completeness or wholeness. Emptiness, refers to fullness in the sense of having full potential, since anything can happen within emptiness.
Emptiness is not “nothing.” However, it is also not “something.” Emptiness is beyond the cognitive notion of nothing versus something. Emptiness points to the most radical transformation of our lives. It is not the end of our world as we know it, but it is the realization that this world has never really existed in the first place.
As the Buddhist poet Asvaghosa once said:
We use words to become free of words
Until we reach the pure wordless essence.
Sutra and Commentary
The noble Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva,
while engaged in the deep practice of Prajnaparamita,
looked upon the five aggregates
and seeing they were empty of self-existence said,
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva can be translated as “The Bodhisattva of Great Compassion.” Avalokiteshvara literally means “Lord who gazes down at the world.” The Tibetan name for Avalokiteshvara is Chenrezig, which means, “The one who always looks upon all beings with the eye of compassion. In Chinese this Bodhisattva is known as Kuan Yin.
Just as Avalokiteshvara represents compassion, the bodhisattva Manjushri represents wisdom. The idea of the presence of both bodhisattvas is to balance and reinforce each other’s intention in the conditioned world.
Bodhisattva is a being who seeks enlightenment not for himself, but for the sake of all sentient beings. His or her goal of practice is to deliver all beings from suffering to complete liberation.
There are many images of the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion. Sometimes he holds a lotus flower, at other times a jar of water symbolizing quenching the desires of living beings and at other times a wish fulfilling gem.
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva also represents the compassionate aspect of our “original mind.” When we dedicate our lives to helping others to escape suffering by realizing their inherent freedom, we too are Bodhisattvas of Great Compassion.
Sutra and Commentary Continued
The noble Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva,
while engaged in the deep practice of Prajnaparamita,
looked upon the five aggregates
and seeing they were empty of self-existence said,
In the prologue to the longer version of this sutra, the Buddha has entered into a deep samadhi. It is out of that profound meditation that the Heart Sutra unfolds. The story is that Avalokiteshvara was able to tune into what the Buddha was experiencing. He introduces the deep teaching of Prajnaparamita, the Perfection of Wisdom, to the Buddha’s wisest disciple, Shariputra. By his doing so, we ourselves learn to unlock this sutras enormous power to help us realize enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
…while engaged in the deep practice of Prajnaparamita,
looked upon the five aggregates…
Avalokiteshvara’s “looking” illuminates the nature of the five aggregates in the same way that by blowing into a campfire makes the blaze brighter.
The five aggregates are the body, feelings, perception, mental formations and consciousness. The noble Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva looked into these aggregates to discover their true nature.
…and seeing they were empty of self-existence said,
In other words, he saw that the five aggregates were devoid of self, that they are “empty of inherent existence or self-abiding nature.” The aggregates are dependently arising, they depend on other events to create their arising. As a result, they do not exist in the absolute sense. There is no self as part of, behind, within or in control of the aggregates.
The aggregates arise under certain conditions and disappear when those conditions are no longer present. Every moment they (and whatever we believe our “self” to be) arise, decay and die. They arise from emptiness and return to that emptiness. Self is nothing but a mental construct.
On a more subtle level we can also say that the aggregates neither arise nor cease! They never come into existence in the first place or go out of existence at a later time. The appearance of the aggregates is just like seeing a movie where we watch “characters” on the screen. The characters appear to do certain things and to stop doing them at a certain point. However, the characters are actually moving light dots on a screen. It is all just an illusion which takes place in the mind. This is similar to Avalokiteshvara’s vision of the five aggregates.
Bodhisattvas see the five aggregates as empty of any inherent self, but at the same time they are aware that most sentient beings cling to those aggregates as if they were self. As a consequence, those individuals suffer. Bodhisattva’s lives are dedicated to helping to eliminate that suffering.
There is a truism: Once someone truly and fully realizes the empty and selfless nature of the aggregates, suffering disappears.
A Zen Master once reported that at the moment of enlightenment it felt like the bottom of a jar suddenly disappeared and all his suffering immediately flowed out. Without realizing the selfless nature of the aggregates our happiness or freedom is tentative, fragile and incomplete.
Sutra and Commentary Continued
“Here, Shariputra,
form is emptiness, emptiness is form;
emptiness is not separate from form,
form is not separate from emptiness;
whatever is form, that is emptiness,
whatever is emptiness, that is form.
The same holds true for feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness.
The word “Here” is quite significant. It is a call for Shariputra and the rest of us to let go of all thoughts regarding the past and future and to come to the present moment. We are asked to stop our discursive thinking and come back to the reality of the here and now.
“Here” can also refer to Avalokiteshvara’s perspective. He is saying, I will share a deep truth with you which comes from the vision of life that I am holding. It is the truth beyond any words or concepts.
Both Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, after meeting one of the Buddha’s students and hearing an instruction that came from the Buddha, decided to become the Buddha’s disciples. According to one of the sutras, as both men approached him, the Buddha said that these two would become his chief disciples. Maudgalyayana was soon ranked first among the Buddha’s disciples in terms of spiritual powers, and Shariputra was ranked first in terms of wisdom. Shariputra was a perfect being to receive this profound teaching and in doing so he has passed it down to us.
…form is emptiness, emptiness is form;
emptiness is not separate from form,
Form and emptiness appear to be at polar opposites. How can they be the same thing? Here is where logic, which is based upon dualistic thinking, fails us.
We know that all phenomena lack any inherent self. Everything that appears to arise does so in dependence on something else. This lack of self is the essential feature of all form. That is why we say that form is inherently emptiness. Of course this does not preclude the appearance of form as being something substantial and real.
Emptiness does not exist as something apart from form. Emptiness cannot be seen or experienced apart from being the nature of all form. Emptiness can only be known conceptually, since it is only the nature of form and nothing in and of itself.
Emptiness is the fundamental reason that anything can appear because emptiness is the space within which appearance, movement and change is possible. As Nagarjuna says, “Because of emptiness all things are possible.”
form is not separate from emptiness;
whatever is form, that is emptiness,
whatever is emptiness, that is form.
What this passage is talking about is the unity of the two realities. Form represents the apparent relative reality, and emptiness points to ultimate reality. Form is emptiness since it has no self-nature; no inherent reality. Emptiness is form since it is nothing but emptiness appearing as form. As Nagarjuna says, “Form illuminates emptiness. Without form there is no emptiness. And emptiness illuminates form. Without emptiness there is no form. Emptiness and form share the same nature.”
If there is a rock, for example, the emptiness of that rock is also present. If there is no rock, then there is no emptiness of that rock either. If nothing appears, we cannot talk about its true or empty nature.
At the same time, and here it is where it gets tricky, the emptiness of the rock is not the rock itself. If it was, we would see emptiness when we saw the rock. We are not denying the appearance of form.
Form being completely empty of any inherent reality may tempt us to say that nothing exists. But we cannot say that forms, as appearances of something permanent, substantial and independent do not exist. They do exist, but merely as illusions.
Ultimately, however, there is only emptiness, or ultimate reality, so we cannot say form and emptiness are the same or different. There are no two things to compare in the first place! Reality has no parts. (But neither can we say that reality is whole since that places us back into dualistic thinking) Only from a relative perspective can we speak of form being emptiness and emptiness being form.
The statement “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form” also dislodges the mind from clinging to either form or emptiness. It represents the “middle” or “transcendent” way beyond the two extremes which is one of the axioms of the Buddha’s teaching.
The same holds true for feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness.
The five aggregates encompass all phenomena. They are constantly manifesting and disappearing from moment to moment due to various causes and conditions. As we have discussed, these conditions themselves have no self-nature. They are all constructions and are empty of any inherent reality.
Emptiness implies that not only are all apparent phenomena empty of self-nature, but they are devoid of any true characteristics. If we get attached to characteristics of phenomena (e.g., beauty, shape, color, etc.), then we have not truly realized emptiness.
Can you truly see that?
Attachment to the characteristics of any phenomena (people, objects, experiences, etc.), acts as an impediment to realizing their true nature.
The Buddha once told Shariputra in a different sutra, Form is simply a name. Likewise, sensation, perception, memory, and consciousness are simply names. Shariputra, the self is simply a name. There is no self that can ever be found. And it cannot be found because it is empty.
Sutra and Commentary Continued
Here, Shariputra, all dharmas are defined by emptiness,
not by birth or destruction, purity or defilement,
completeness or deficiency.
Here, Shariputra, all dharmas are defined by emptiness,
As you know, there are many meanings for the word “dharma.”
There is no term in Buddhist terminology more inclusive than the word dharma. It includes not only the conditioned things and states, but also the unconditioned; the Absolute. There is nothing in the universe, conditioned or unconditioned, relative or absolute, which is not included in this term.
Walpola Rahula
In the context of the sutra passage, dharmas mean the basic constituents of all phenomena. This moves us from a discussion of the aggregates to all aspects of existence. And all dharmas are defined by emptiness.
Here, Shariputra, all dharmas are defined by emptiness,
not by birth or destruction, purity or defilement,
completeness or deficiency.
One of the main tenets of the Buddha’s teaching is the three characteristics of experience: impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness. Avalokiteshvara is saying that since all dharmas is empty of self-existence, impermanence, birth, destruction, unsatisfactoriness and selflessness do not really apply.
Since everything is interdependent, things only exist in relationship to something else. And their very “thingness” is merely a conceptual label covering their true nature which is emptiness.
Since, the defining characteristic of all dharmas is emptiness, they can neither be purified nor defiled. Hence the oft quoted line from one of the Zen patriarchs, “There’s never been a single thing so where’s defiling dust to cling!”
For something to be complete or deficient it must be static and have self-existence. Only then can we compare it to a “perfect” model. Since all dharmas are empty of self-existence, they cannot be said to be complete or deficient in any way.
The ideas of birth, destruction, purity, defilement, completeness and deficiency are all examples of dualistic thinking. Emptiness transcends all these concepts and thus dualistic thinking. Of course we need to remember that the idea of emptiness, if not directly realized, can trap us in that same dualistic mindset.
From “The Song of Enlightenment”
Do not seek the truth, do not despise the false, realize that both are empty;
They have no characteristics.
Without characteristics, there is emptiness and no emptiness.
This is the Tathagata’s genuine form.
Sutra and Commentary Continued
Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness there is no form,
no feeling, no perception, no mental formation, and no consciousness;
no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body and no mind;
no forms, no sounds, no smells, no tastes, no touchables and no mental objects; no elements of perception from eye to conceptual consciousness;
This part of the commentary goes further in outlining and describing the emptiness of all phenomena or dharmas:
1. The five aggregates are empty.
2. The sense bases (i.e., eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind) that are dependent upon the aggregates are empty.
3. The objects that are experienced through the sense bases (i.e., visual forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables and mental objects are empty.
4. Sense consciousness (i.e., seeing consciousness, hearing consciousness, smelling consciousness, tasting consciousness, touching consciousness and mind consciousness) that is present when a sense organ comes into contact with a sense object is empty.
5. The perceptions (e.g., visual perceptions, mental perceptions, etc.) that arise based upon sense consciousness are empty.
They are all empty of any inherent reality. The arising of any of these dharmas is dependent upon the arising of other dharmas. None can exist in and of themselves. So in an absolute sense they do not inherently exist.
The Heart Sutra is breaking down the experiences we attribute to having or being a self into finer distinctions. That enables us to perceive emptiness in a deeper and more profound way.
Wholeness is simply the perception of the non-existence of any parts.
Wu Hsin
When individuals recite the Heart Sutra the idea is not to merely repeat the words but to examine, in the present moment, the truth to which the Sutra points. In other words, when they say, “in emptiness there is no form,” the student relates that sentence to the form that they are presently experiencing as being empty of any inherent reality. When they say, “in emptiness there is no feeling,” the student relates that to the feeling that they are presently experiencing as being empty of any inherent reality.
For the next four days (or beyond if you so choose), at various times during each day, please recite the following. While reciting these words, based upon your present moment experience, realize the truth of these words:
Form is empty of any inherent reality,
feeling is empty of any inherent reality,
perception is empty of any inherent reality,
mental formation is empty of any inherent reality,
consciousness is empty of any inherent reality
seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking is empty of any inherent reality,
all sense perception is empty of any inherent reality.
Sutra and Commentary Continued
…no causal link, from ignorance to old age and death; no suffering, no source, no relief, no path;
no knowledge, no attainment and no non-attainment.
This is a significant part of the Heart Sutra. The framework of the Buddha’s entire teaching is the Four Noble Truths.
The Second Noble Truth describes the cause of suffering, which is the reification of a self that believes that it is control of our lives. What we believe to be a self is no more than a conditioned physical and mental process to which we cling. This conditioned process is known as Dependent Origination.
This part of the sutra says that the Dependent Origination process itself is also empty of any inherent reality!
…no causal link, from ignorance to old age and death; no suffering, no source, no relief, no path;
This passage is saying that the twelve links of this chain of events are also empty. That is, in the absolute sense, they do not exist.
Since each link is dependently arisen, they are empty of true existence. They are all incessantly arising and ceasing, and do not have their own independent self-nature.
Following that same trend of thought, the Four Noble Truths are also empty
of true existence. When the sense of “I” or self disappears, not only does suffering disappear, but the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path leading to the end of suffering simultaneously disappear.
…no knowledge, no attainment and no non-attainment.
Enlightenment is the realization that there is no self to eradicate. Our sense of self is merely a mental construct. Since we all inherently have Buddha Nature and lack nothing, there is no ignorance to extinguish or “knowledge” (wisdom) to attain.
Any effort to attain wisdom or to extinguish ignorance is therefore meaningless. However, to help us avoid falling into the dualistic trap, we are reminded that there is also no non-attainment!
“The attainment of enlightenment” are just words that point us in the direction of truth. Once truth is realized, both the ideas of delusion and enlightenment are transcended. As one Zen Master has said, “The truth is that there is neither coming nor going, neither wisdom nor ignorance. One has to say something in order to teach, just as to save a drowning person one has to enter the water and get wet.”
There is a delightful comment from Chuang Tzu I this regard:
The bait is the means to get the fish where you want it; catch the fish and you forget the bait. The snare is the means to get the rabbit where you want it; catch the rabbit and forget the snare. Words are the means to get the idea where you want it; catch on to the idea and you forget about the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten all words? Please take me to him; I would like to have a word with him.
And from Bodhidharma:
A special transmission outside the scriptures
Without depending on words and letters
Pointing directly to one’s own mind
Seeing into one’s true nature and realizing Buddhahood.
Sutra and Commentary Continued
Therefore, Shariputra, without attainment,
bodhisattvas having taken refuge in Prajnaparamita
live without the walls of the mind.
These lines deal with the final stages of the bodhisattva path. At this point, having realized the profound meaning of emptiness, we live without reference points. The mind is totally at peace since we are no longer trying to attain anything. All practice and effort has fallen away.
We are not trying to realize emptiness – we are emptiness. We now fully embody our Buddha nature.
Without the walls of the mind and thus without fears,
they see through delusions and realize nirvana.
There are three walls of the mind; the wall of karma (the effects from previous actions), the wall of passion (which includes anger and desire), and the wall of delusion.
Fear arises along with delusion when we identify with mental constructions and self-perceptions. There are said to be five fears for someone beginning on the bodhisattva path:
1. The fear of survival (that we will not be able to survive if we fully and truly practice generosity).
2. The fear of criticism (that we will not be able to endure the criticism when we associate with disreputable people while trying to liberate all beings).
3. The fear of death (that we will not be able to forfeit our life if that is required to bring all beings to freedom).
4. The fear of an unfortunate birth (that we will be born at a time when the Dharma is not being taught).
5. The fear of speaking before an assembly (that we will embarrass ourselves or fail to teach effectively).
Fear, by its very nature, seeks out things to cling to for solace and support, and each clinging brings more delusion that obstructs the truth of who we really are.
Rooted in the wisdom of emptiness, there are no such fears or delusions. There is no longer a mistaking the unreal for the real, the conditioned for the unconditioned, or the relative for the absolute. Without these “walls of the mind,” dualistic appearances may still arise, but they are instantly realized to be illusions and we no longer get caught up in them.
Deva, a student of Nagarjuna, says of delusions,
The delusions people cling to are like the image of water in a fire, flowers in the sky, like fur on a tortoise or horns on a rabbit or like the child of a barren woman. Worldly desires, wealth, fame, and position are all like this. Fools think they are real. Those who are wise understand they are dreamlike conceptions and empty illusions and that their original nature is not apparent. Whatever is apparent is the result of delusion.
Without the walls of the mind and thus without fears,
they see through delusions and realize nirvana.
In another sutra, Shariputra says of nirvana, “It is the permanent cessation of anger, the permanent cessation of ignorance, the permanent cessation of all passions.”
Although the realization of nirvana is the end of all suffering, it is not a state where we disappear into some transcendent bliss. We still maintain connection with everyday life and express compassion in order to relieve the suffering of all living beings.
All Buddhas past, present and future
also take refuge in Prajnaparamita
and realize unexcelled, perfect enlightenment.
Taking refuge in Prajnaparamita is letting go of wanting, striving, and goal seeking. It is engaging in activities for the welfare of others without any self-concern. As a consequence, unexcelled and perfect enlightenment happens naturally. It is unexcelled because it is not limited by dualistic concepts, it is perfect because it is more complete than the understanding that comes through mere reasoning, and it is enlightenment because it dispels the darkness of ignorance and delusion.
Sutra and Commentary Continued
You should therefore know the great mantra of Prajnaparamita,
the mantra of great magic,
the unexcelled mantra,
the mantra equal to the unequalled,
which heals all suffering and is true, not false,
the mantra in Prajnaparamita is said as follows:
‘Gate gate, paragate, parasangate, bodhi svaha.’”
The literal meaning of the word mantra is “mind protection.” This mantra protects the mind from dualistic projections and deluded points of view. It protects our Buddha Nature from obscurations that prevent the realization of our inherent freedom.
Another interpretation of mantra is that man stands for prajna or wisdom, and tra stands for compassion. Therefore, this mantra is the inseparability of wisdom and compassion.
It is “great” because it eradicates hindrances, and the “magic” is that it overcomes the delusion of thinking that things have a self-essence.
It is unequaled for two reasons. First, it points to non-duality and therefore cannot be compared with (or be equal to) anything else. Second, it brings beings to Buddhahood, which is beyond everything in “existence.”
“It heals all suffering” because it eliminates the causes and conditions that lead to suffering. Emptiness is the teaching that eradicates all the delusions that support the arising of suffering.
It is the “true” teaching because it only leads to one result – liberation from all delusion and the realization of nirvana for the sake of all sentient beings. It has no other purpose.
‘Gate gate, paragate, parasangate, bodhi svaha.’”
Gate gate means “gone, gone.” All reference points or points of view are gone from the mind’s continuum, when emptiness is realized.
Paragate means “gone beyond” or “gone to the other shore,” beyond the influence of samsara or mental delusions. The “beyond” or the “other shore” is emptiness or enlightenment.
Parasangate means to go “beyond beyond.” We need to drop the ideas of freedom, enlightenment or liberation. There are no words that can describe emptiness and there is no one to have that experience.
Bodhi means “perfect realization.” There is nothing greater than this. Svaha means “may it be so.” It has a similar meaning to Amen. Bodhi svaha, therefore, means “May there be enlightenment!” May we take the quantum leap to the place of freedom, which is right here and right now, from which there is no return to delusion.
From Thich Nhat Hanh,
When we listen to the mantra, we should bring ourselves into that state of attention, of concentration, so that we can receive the strength emanated from Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. We do not recite the Heart Sutra like singing a song or with our intellect alone. If you practice the meditation on emptiness, if you penetrate the nature of interbeing with all your heart, your body and your mind, you will realize a state that is quite concentrated. If you say the mantra then, with all your being, the mantra will have power, and you will be able to have real communication, real communion with Avalokiteshvara, and you will be able to transform yourself into the direction of enlightenment. So this text is not just for chanting, or to be put on the alter for worship. It is given to us as a tool to work for our liberation; for the liberation of all beings.