The Heart Sutra a comprehensive guide to the classic of Mahayana Buddhism

Abstract

THE HEART SUTRA is the most widely recited scripture in Mahayana Buddhism. It is a text revered by millions of people and regarded as the most succinct presentation of the dharma. In its short form, the text summarizes the selfless experience of reality in meditation, and how this transcends our usual way of thinking. Edward Conze, an Anglo-German expert on Prajna Paramita scriptures, once characterized the Heart Sutra as “one of the sublimest spiritual documents of mankind.”1 Every Mahayana Buddhist practitioner will understand Conze’s reverent words of adoration. At the same time, the widespread and everlasting reverence and enthusiasm for this text that is full of negations is, to me, an unceasing enigma. While understanding the meaning of each word and the teachings of the sutra enhances one’s meditation practice and life experience, it must also be said that chanting the sutra wholeheartedly, without cognitively thinking through its message, has been an important Buddhist practice through out the centuries wherever this sutra has been encountered. Considering all of these factors, I believe it is highly useful to examine why we are chanting it today. This book presents my own encounter with, and exploration of, the Heart Sutra — its message, its history, its significance. I hope your journey through these pages will widen and deepen your connection to this extraordinary scripture. Part One, “The Heart Sutra Here and Now,” presents a new translation of the text by Joan Halifax and myself. Our intention is to bring forth the sutra’s essential teaching of transcendence and freedom, which is often obscured by seemingly pessimistic and nihilistic expressions. We use the word “boundlessness” instead of the more common translation “emptiness” for the Sanskrit word shunyata. We use “free of the eyes, ears, nose . . .” instead of the usual rendition “no eyes, no ears, no nose . . .” Because we want to make the sutra accessible to non-Buddhists as well as Buddhists, we have replaced such traditional technical terms as bodhisattva and nirvana with more easily understandable words. I hope those of you who are used to chanting the common English versions of the sutra will find our translation helpful and thought-provoking. This first part also includes stories of my own affinity with the scripture and its potential to inspire us all. Part Two, “Story of the Sutra,” introduces ancient recountings of its use as a living text, as well as descriptions of my visits to temples in Korea and Japan, where I conducted research on the historical impact of the sutra. Parts Three and Four, “Modern Scholarship” and “Most Recent Scholarship,” discuss scholarly findings over the course of two centuries about the formation and expansion of the text. Part Five, “Globalizing the Sutra,” discusses Chinese enthusiasm for and pan-Asian responses to the text, as well as examples of how the sutra has inspired modern scientists. Part Six, “Terms and Concepts,” includes semantic, etymological, and grammatical analyses of the Sanskrit and Chinese terms in the text. Most of the words in the sutra have Sanskrit origins, so looking at these terms is extremely fruitful. A Chinese version has become the standard text in East Asia, however, and was the basis for some of the translations of the sutra in European languages. Three English translations are also included here: the version by F. Max Müller from the late nineteenth century, as well as those by D. T. Suzuki and Edward Conze from the twentieth century. I believe these three have been the most influential renditions of the sutra in the Western world. You may find this part helpful for learning the meaning and linguistic background of terms in the Heart Sutra. For your reference, I have endeavored to provide, wherever I could, the linguistic relationship between the Sanskrit terms and their English counterparts. The appendices include “Texts for Comparison,” which presents samples of the Heart Sutra in seven Asian languages (Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and Mongolian), followed by several of their English counterparts. Earlier texts in Sanskrit and Chinese that are regarded as the main sources of the Heart Sutra are also included. The texts of all versions of the sutra are each divided into as many as forty or more segments. These parallel divisions are designed to facilitate finding words and comparing them across versions. As all of the non-English texts are presented in or accompanied by romanized transliterations, it is possible to cross-reference the texts even without knowing the particular languages or ideographs. “Identical Expressions in the Chinese Texts” shows the influence of earlier translations on each version of the Heart Sutra text. What a joyous experience it has been to write a lengthy thesis on such a short scripture! What I have learned through research and contemplation turned out to be beyond my wildest fantasy. I started to see — and have continued to draw upon — the invisible connections among bits of information scattered throughout Asia and beyond. A great number of my predecessors and colleagues have guided me: First, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the scholars and dharma teachers — both Asian and Western — who have studied, clarified, and elucidated the Heart Sutra’s textual form, background, and meaning over the centuries. I have particularly benefited from the works of Dr. F. Max Müller, Dr. Bunyiu Nanjio, Dr. Hajime Nakamura, Dr. Daisetz T. Suzuki, Dr. Edward Conze, Dr. Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Dr. Shuyo Takubo, Dr. Shuyu Kanaoka, Dr. John McRae, Bernie Glassman Roshi, Dr. Vesna Wallace, Red Pine, Karl Brunnhölzl, Dr. Sally Hovey Wriggins, Dr. Abdurishid Yakup, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Thich Nhat Hanh, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The pioneering work of Dr. Jan Nattier has shaped my understanding on the origin of the sutra. Dr. Paul Harrison kindly offered me a revised and thorough reading of an archaic Sanskrit fragment of the Prajna Paramita literature that corresponds to the earliest known form of the Hridaya — the Sanskrit form of the Heart Sutra. Dr. Fumimasa-Bunga Fukui’s extensive and complete philological study of the sutra has benefited me tremendously. Rev. Dongho, Rev. Quang Huyen, and Erdenebaatar Erdene-Ochir have provided me with transliterations of the Korean, Vietnamese, and Mongolian versions, respectively. I thank Dr. Christian P. B. Haskett for his transliteration and translation of the Tibetan version for this volume and for his advice on Sanskrit. My gratitude goes to Rev. M. H. Lahey, another Sanskrit advisor, as well as to Xiao Yongming and Andy Ferguson, my Chinese romanization advisors, for their thorough advice. Thanks go also to Ellen Marie Herbert for her research on subjects regarding Korea. The Chinese Buddhist texts I have used were drawn from the website of the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association in Taiwan. Joan Halifax Roshi has been a marvelous collaborator for me in working out our new translation of the sutra. We have tried hard to create this rendering, have chanted it in a number of services, and have expounded the sutra together in our intensive meditation retreats at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe. Joan and I thank Christoph Hatlapa Roshi, Rev. Heinz-Jürgen Metzger, and Dr. Friederike Boissevain for their translations of this version of the Heart Sutra into German. We also thank our friends who have translated it into other languages: Rev. Shinzan Jose M. Palma and Daniel Terragno Roshi (Spanish), Rev. Amy Hollowell and Joa Scetbon-Didi (French), Chiara Pandolfi and Guglielmo Capelli (Italian), Prof. Alexandre Avdoulov (Russian), Tenkei Coppens Roshi (Dutch), and Rev. Luc De Winter (Flemish). It was wonderful to sit in the large cathedral in Antwerp and hear the polyphonic singing of our English version, set to music by Luc De Winter. I thank Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Dr. Laurence Dorsey, Dr. Steven Heine, Dr. Taigen Dan Leighton, Robert Aitken Roshi, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Roko Shinge Chayat Roshi, Richard Baker Roshi, Mel Weitsman Roshi, Chozen Bays Roshi, Hogen Bays Roshi, Dr. William Johnston, Dr. Richard Levine, Acharya David Schneider, Dr. Eric Greene, Abbot Gaelyn Godwin, Dr. Roger S. Keyes, and Dr. Linda Hess for their expert advice. I appreciate Dr. Hideki Yukawa, Dr. Piet Hut, Dr. Neil D. Theise, and Dr. Alfred W. Kaszniak for sharing their knowledge and thoughts on recent studies in physics, biology, and neurology. Thanks to Wouter Schopman, Pat Enkyo O’Hara Roshi, Soichi Nakamura Roshi, Lewis Richmond Roshi, Dr. Osamu Ando, Christine Haggarty, Gary Gash, Kichung Lizee, Dr. Hanns Zykan, Dr. Eva Buchinger, Taijung Kim, Hyuntaik Jung, Rev. Peter Zieme, Dr. Anne Weisbrod, Trish Ellis, Arjia Rinpoche, Alexander Williamson, Lona Rothe-Jokisch, Joy C. Brennan, Michael Slouber, Liza Matthews, Sarah Cox, David Cox, Jessie Litven, Tae Shin Lee, Mitsue Nagase, Mahiru Watanabe, Lisa Senauke, Minette Mangahas, and Tempa Dukte Lama for their generous help. Rev. Alan Senauke, Dr. Susan O’Leary, Karuna Tanahashi, Josh Bartok, Rev. Roberta Werdinger, and Peter Levitt have given me most valuable editorial advice. Every time I examine Sanskrit terms and grammar, I remember fondly my private study as a young student with the late Dr. Hidenori Kitagawa. It’s always a great pleasure to work with the staff at Shambhala Publications, including Dave O’Neal, Nikko Odiseos, Hazel Bercholz, Jonathan Green, and Ben Gleason. I thank Karen Ready for her extraordinary copyediting. My gratitude goes to Victoria Shoemaker for representing me.