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Heart Sutra
Heart Sutra
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Harada Sekkei Roshi
The
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Heart of Wisdom Sutra (the Heart Sutra)
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http://tiny.cc/BuddhistCards It is a sutra in which Avalokiteshvara (Jap. Kanjizai)
Bodhisattva, in place of Shakyamuni Buddha, clearly
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expounds Emptiness to his disciple Shariputra. In
terms of compassion, Kanzeon is the Japanese name
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http://tiny.cc/BuddhistCDs The name Kanjizai (Seeing Freely) is derived from
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http://tiny.cc/BuddhistEvents same way. Shariputra was the leader of a group of Harada Roshi is the Head Priest
**** more than one hundred people, and after Shakyamuni of Hosshinji in Japan, is the
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Buddha. Shariputra was one of the ten main disciples was General Director of the Soto
of the Buddha and because he was reputed to have Zen sect’s European Office for
If you are not reading this online
the deepest wisdom was known as Shariputra Sonja. Administration and Teaching in Italy.
you can go to the web pages by
copying the above links into your Emptiness is not something where things that ex This article is taken from the
web browser. ist disappear by means of practice. There is the ex Fall 2003 issue of Hosshinji
* Free to use. Other items are for pression ‘turning delusion around and awakening to Newsletter and reprinted with
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satori’, yet we are always living within Emptiness. It their kind permission.
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is because we create a separation from the life within
website helps to fund Buddhist Emptiness and think ‘Is that really so?!’ that delusion
Publishing Group. Thanks! arises. One person recently came to me lamenting,
‘My greatest suffering is to see things empty.’ The five skandhas are aggre
separately.’ This is what is said to be gates of form, sensations, perceptions,
hell. This all arises, however, from the formations, and consciousness. Form is
function of the ego (the viewpoint of the the physical body and the other four are
ego). In terms of our Zen practice and the mind and things that cannot be seen.
everyday life, the Heart Sutra in which These five skandhas mutually merge
the essence of Emptiness (being one together. Many people say ‘I think’ or ‘I
with things) is expounded, is the most practise,’ but this ‘I’ does not exist any
important instruction. where. As it doesn’t exist, it isn’t possible
The paramita [perfection] of wisdom for only the eye to be deluded or only
is the greatest Wisdom. There is the the ear. Even if all sorts of conditions
Sutra of Great Wisdom, but as it is ex were to swarm in at once, everything
tremely long, we abbreviate reading it is always entrusted to conditions. Even
by simply turning the pages. When the without using consciousness to entrust
pages are turned, we chant the words, yourself to conditions, there is never a
‘All things arise because of conditions. mistake made between a dog’s bark and
Because everything arises from con the sound of a bird. It can only be said
ditions, there is no coming or going. that this is something truly mysterious,
Because there is no coming or going, something that cannot be grasped by
there is no stopping. Because there is thought.
no stopping, essentially everything is In the Heart Sutra, the word ‘not’ as
Empty. This is called the paramita [per in ‘not born, not dying’ and so on isn’t
fection] of Wisdom.’ However, wisdom simply a negation. If there is difference,
is not the same as knowledge. Regard there is sameness. If there is sameness,
less of whether we practise or do not there is difference. Certainly, these are
practise, whether we know or do not two sides of the same thing, front and
know, ‘this thing’ (yourself) is perfect. back, and they are always kept in har
To realise that this is so is Wisdom and mony. This is expressed in the word ‘not’.
to attain true Wisdom is called Enlight To see this phenomenally is the world of
enment (Bodhi). matter. Then, in order to have you feel
In the Heart Sutra, there is the phrase: intuitively that there is no Emptiness
‘The five skandhas are completely apart from matter, the words ‘not
different from’ are used. Consequently, ber his or her own birth, nor is it pos
‘form is emptiness, emptiness is form’ is sible to be aware of our own death. It is
a way of emphasising by repeating that because we were not born that we will
form is no different from Emptiness. All never die. This condition where if some
dharmas or all things are born of the thing is born, it is born as-it-is, and if it
five skandhas. dies, it dies as-it-is is expressed in the
‘Shariputra, all dharmas are marked by Heart Sutra with ‘not’ or ‘does not differ
Emptiness. They neither arise nor cease, from’.
are neither defiled nor pure, neither ‘Impurity’ is the deluding passions.
increase nor decrease.’ Shakyamuni ‘Neither increase nor decrease’ means
Buddha was the first human being to that even if there is enlightenment,
realise the nature of causality (that there is no gain, and even if a per
there is no substance to things) and as son is a common mortal, there is no
a result became completely free. This loss. This is the same, finally, as in the
is referred to as the Dharma. And the well-known koan of Joshu’s in which he
Dharma (teaching) expounded by him sometimes replied, ‘No’ and sometimes
was called the Buddha-dharma. This is ‘Yes.’ In this way, everything is without
to say that the Dharma doesn’t belong form and everything is resolved as-it-is,
to any one person. Rather, it belongs to this is Buddhism. Consequently, in Bud
anyone who grasps it. dhism there are no sacred scriptures.
What is the source of delusion and This is because people who have awak
anxiety? We must become delusion and ened to themselves stretch out their
anxiety. There is no other way to dis hands to show others how to awaken.
solve them. Anxiety has no substance. If you see into yourself by awakening, it
But because we are confused by the is then no longer possible to compare.
idea of trying to be free of anxiety, So, there are no longer two things—self
not only does anxiety not disappear, and other. This condition where there
it only grows larger and larger. At one is no self and no other we call ‘Empti
moment we cry and in the next mo ness.’ The forty-nine years of Shakya
ment we laugh. This constant change muni Buddha’s teaching were all for the
is expressed in the Heart Sutra as ‘not purpose of getting others to understand
born, not dying’. No one can remem that the self is completely empty.