Learn Buddhism: The Heart Sutra

The Heart Sutra is one of the most well-known, studied, and chanted or recited Buddhist scriptures in all of Buddhism. Part of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism focuses on the concept of "Emptiness" and how a Bodhisattva (enlightened being) can fundamentally understand this and gain the supreme enlightenment of a Buddha.

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of Learn Buddhism.

I'm Alwin Pito.

The most popular Buddhist Sutra in the world is the Heart Sutra.

The Heart Sutra is used widely in East Asian Buddhism,

Which practices Mahayana Buddhism,

Which the Heart Sutra comes from.

So it is chanted,

Recited,

Transcribed,

Copied,

And studied every single day.

And the reason why this Sutra is so important is because it is featuring one of the most popular Bodhisattvas in Buddhism,

But also it can be seen as the heart of Buddhist teachings that can lead you to enlightenment.

So let's talk about the Heart Sutra in this episode.

First,

Let me go through the Heart Sutra with you so you can hear it.

And this is just one version of the Heart Sutra.

The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara,

Who was contemplating deeply the Prajnaparamita,

Realized the five aggregates are empty and was liberated from all suffering and hardship.

Form is not different from emptiness.

Emptiness is not different from form.

Form is emptiness.

Emptiness is form.

The same is true of feeling,

Perception,

Mental formations,

And consciousness.

No eye,

Ear,

Nose,

Tongue,

Body,

Or mind.

No form,

Sound,

Smell,

Taste,

Touch,

Or dharmas.

No eye consciousness.

So on unto mind consciousness.

No ignorance and extinction of ignorance.

Even unto no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death.

No suffering,

Cause of suffering,

Cessation,

Or path.

No wisdom and no attainment.

As there is no attainment,

Bodhisattvas who rely on the Prajnaparamita have neither worry nor obstruction.

Without worry and obstruction,

There is no fear.

Away from confusion and delusion,

They will ultimately reach nirvana.

All the Buddhas of the past,

Present,

And future rely on the Prajnaparamita to attain supreme enlightenment.

Therefore,

Know that the Prajnaparamita is the great profound mantra,

Is the illuminating mantra,

Is the most supreme of all mantras,

Is the unequaled mantra,

Able to eliminate all suffering,

Is true and not false.

So proclaim the Prajnaparamita mantra.

Proclaim the mantra that says,

Now this short sutra is actually a condensed version of the longer hard sutra,

But is the most common.

And because of its short nature,

It makes it easy to recite chant this on a daily basis.

And for the copying or transcription of the sutra,

It makes it also easier and more of a concentrated effort,

Because you don't have a very long sutra to transcribe.

But there should be a few notations here about this sutra,

So you understand some of the words being said inside there.

So Avalokiteshvara,

This is the Bodhisattva of compassion,

Whom we call Guan Yin in China,

Or you may hear as Kannon in Japan.

This is the most popular Bodhisattva in Buddhism,

Because this Bodhisattva is helping all sentient beings.

They are able to meet our needs wherever we are,

To understand the Dharma,

To understand the teachings,

To go to enlightenment.

This Bodhisattva is also one of the attendants of Amitama Buddha,

Who is the Buddha of the Western Pure Land,

Which the Pure Land traditions and practices recognize.

So you see Guan Yin as very popular in Mahayana Buddhism.

And you can even find Guan Yin even inside certain parts of Theravada Buddhism,

Because it was popular in ancient India.

So that is whom we are talking about inside this sutra.

Now Prajnaparamita can be described as the perfection of wisdom.

Prajna is basically wisdom.

It's not wisdom at an intellectual level,

But it's just deep,

Fundamental wisdom on which we can understand the true nature of things,

Not our mundane world,

But the true nature of things.

And one part of that is going to be the fundamental concept of emptiness or shunyata.

This is something that's heavily emphasized and taught in a way inside Mahayana traditions in Buddhism,

That we can understand the true nature of reality,

Which includes,

As you hear inside this sutra,

The five aggregates.

And so the five aggregates that arise and give this illusion of self is what we're talking inside here.

So Prajnaparamita and Prajna,

As we're talking about,

Is very important inside Buddhism,

Because when we look at Prajna,

It is our true mind,

Not the worldly mind or the deluded mind that we have right now.

And that's not to say that's a negative thing that I'm saying,

But in Buddhism,

We have this mind right now that we don't really fundamentally truly understand the nature of things.

And because of that,

That's where things such as the three fires of greed,

Anger,

And ignorance,

And the karmic actions that result from it,

And the constant cycle of forced rebirth,

All springs from that.

Because we don't get it.

We just don't see it.

And it's not something you can read a textbook from and get an intellectual understanding about.

It has to be practiced.

You have to break through and have this Prajna mind,

Which is why it's so emphasized inside Mahayana.

Then you see Sariputra.

This was,

At the time of the Buddha,

One of the most well-respected monks that he had.

So he's being taught by the Buddha,

And this is why you see his name referenced this way.

So this sutra is not the Bodhisattva talking to Sariputra.

It is the Buddha,

Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha,

Talking to Sariputra.

And that's an important part,

Because this is a teaching of the Buddha to one of his monks about this Bodhisattva,

And how they've gained this Prajna.

That's why it's so important.

But why is the Buddha talking about a Bodhisattva in this sutra?

Well,

Bodhisattvas are the path,

The goal,

In Mahayana Buddhism.

The goal of Mahayanas is to be on the Bodhisattva path as they progress towards full,

Supreme enlightenment.

And that means to become a Buddha,

And that's what you heard referenced inside this sutra as well.

The goal is not just to become enlightened.

It's to become fully enlightened,

To become a Buddha,

And that is the Bodhisattva path.

So this sutra is talking about this Bodhisattva who has achieved this,

And how they achieved this,

And their mind,

The Prajna mind,

This wisdom,

The supreme wisdom,

That is important for us.

If you're in Mahayana,

On the Bodhisattva path,

This is what you are also ultimately trying to achieve.

So Bodhisattvas are a major part of this sutra,

And why those in East Asian,

Central Asian Buddhism,

Practicing the Mahayana path,

The path of the Bodhisattva,

This sutra is so loved,

And so well respected,

And recited,

And chanted,

Because it is helping one become a Bodhisattva.

Now,

You also hear the word Dharmas inside here.

It's not the same as Dharma with a capital D.

This is Dharmas with an S at the end and a lowercase d.

This is referring to all conditioned phenomena,

To include those of the mind,

Which is consciousness.

And this is a little bit different than you might hear maybe inside Theravada.

So when we're talking about Dharmas here,

We're talking about all of these conditioned phenomena.

And this goes a little bit beyond what we may just consider in Buddhism,

Focusing on human beings,

Sentient beings.

Here,

We're talking about all conditioned phenomena,

Because that's a really important part of the Heart Sutra,

Part of the Mahayana branch,

Is to understand that it's beyond just sentient beings.

We're talking about all conditioned phenomena.

And that's important because we need to understand the concept of emptiness inside the Mahayana branch of Buddhism,

Which the Heart Sutra tackles.

So,

Prajna inside this sutra.

It's often translated as wisdom,

As I've been talking about here,

Or just fundamental or supreme wisdom.

But it could also be looked at as essentially perfect understanding,

If you will,

Or supreme understanding.

We have a certain very mundane,

Very specific view of the world,

Reality,

Us.

And the Buddha is saying,

That's not going to get us to enlightenment.

That is clouded in delusion,

Ignorance of his teachings that teach you about the fundamental true reality.

And that kind of leads us into all of those three fires,

Three poisons,

The greed,

Anger,

And ignorance,

Because we are not understanding the concepts of things such as not-self,

Of dependent origination,

Of karma,

Of nirvana.

And we're not understanding emptiness.

And this is just fueling those three fires.

And when we have this love of self,

We're attached to it,

We're attracted to it,

And we want to protect it.

And that's where the greed and the anger come from.

And we're not talking about just yourself right now.

We're talking about this illusion of a permanent,

Unchanging,

Independent self.

That's the illusion.

Not that you don't exist right now.

We're talking about that specific belief.

And that's very ingrained in us,

Because that's how everything's kind of seamlessly flowing.

It gives that illusion of a permanent,

Unchanging,

Independent self.

The Buddha said,

No.

We are constantly changing,

We are impermanent,

And we're dependent upon other things to rise and cease.

So that is a really key component.

So when prajna is fully,

Correctly developed,

That is where we have transcended this idea of that illusionary self.

And that's what all Buddhists are trying to achieve anyways.

It doesn't matter your tradition.

We are trying to break down that idea of a permanent,

Unchanging,

Independent self.

Because it is,

In many ways,

A root of many of these problems inside Buddhism.

So when we are able to break that belief,

We are no longer fueling the three fires,

Three poisons of greed,

Anger,

And ignorance.

Thus,

We're not creating the karma that traps us in a cycle of rebirth,

That forced re-becoming,

The five aggregates,

Five skandhas,

Which you hear about in this sutra.

And thus,

We are able to break that cycle.

We are able to no longer have those flames.

Thus,

Nirvana.

We are going to live as we truly should live.

That correct mental state,

Correct state of being.

That is the goal.

How we're living right now,

As much as we may think it's perfect or not perfect,

That is not our true self.

That is not our true existence.

Nirvana is where we need to be in our mental state,

In our being.

And we can achieve that when we stop fueling the fires.

So,

That is where prajna is so important.

And as lay practitioners,

And even monastics,

They are going through practices to process.

And you're going to get these glimpses of prajna throughout your lifetime and your practice.

Doesn't mean we're all going to be enlightened,

Of course.

But we're going to get these glimpses of prajna.

And that's very important inside the Buddhist path.

Because ultimately,

We would like to get to this end state.

This perfect prajna,

Right?

This supreme understanding.

And maybe it's not going to be in this lifetime.

Maybe it's going to be some future existence that benefits from it.

But regardless,

We have to make that effort.

So,

In the very first part of this sutra,

We see where the Buddha is saying that the bodhisattva identified that the five aggregates,

The five skandhas,

Are fundamentally empty.

This is going into that concept of emptiness inside Buddhism.

So,

The five aggregates are essentially what makes you you right now.

This is going to be those five elements that create you.

And of course,

One of them is going to be consciousness.

And we need that along with the sense organs and sense objects to be able to kind of have this idea of self,

This being,

Right?

And when one of those five aggregates goes away,

Then we go away.

We no longer exist in this current form.

But when we're talking about emptiness inside Buddhism,

We do ask,

Like,

Well,

What is empty?

What are we empty of?

What is this whole idea of emptiness?

And a good way to think of emptiness,

Especially in the Mahayana branch of Buddhism,

Which this sutra comes from,

Is that we are empty of a separate self.

And that's a big concept,

Right?

So,

It sounds simple.

And if we look at the teaching,

The concept of emptiness,

We go,

Okay,

I intellectually get that.

But to fundamentally get it,

It's something I'm still working on because that's what we are working on as lay practitioners.

We need to break down this idea of this permanent,

Unchanging,

Independent self.

And in the sutra,

I was saying emptiness is a big part of that.

If we can fundamentally understand that the five aggregates themselves are empty,

And we're like,

Wait,

What's going on here,

Right?

They're empty of a separate self.

And that is very interesting because,

Okay,

So the five aggregates,

They come together to form a being,

A sentient being.

But they can't exist separate of one another.

So,

For example,

When you look at your body,

Just our physical body,

Everything else right now,

All are interdependent,

Interconnected with each other.

So,

They don't have a separate self inside them.

And if you look at just another analogy,

For example,

Of emptiness,

Well,

You need things to be empty in order to exist.

And that's a very heavy topic,

A very intellectual concept to really wrap your head around.

But,

For example,

There's this example of where if you have a cup of tea,

Cup of water,

Glass of water,

Right?

Well,

It's full of water,

Right?

But it needed to be empty,

That glass,

To contain that water.

And when you empty out the water,

Is it empty now?

No,

It's just full of something else now,

It's full of air.

So,

This concept of emptiness is saying we are not independent of anything else.

We must,

There's always this component here,

But we need to have this element of emptiness in order to exist.

So,

When the Bodhisattva looked at those five aggregates,

Five skandhas,

And that's form,

Feeling,

Perception,

Mental formations,

And consciousness,

The Bodhisattva identified that none of them are independent of each other.

They can't just be by themselves,

Be alone.

They are interdependent,

Interconnected with each other that forms this self.

So,

All of these aggregates are empty of a separate independent self.

They are interdependent,

Interconnected with others.

And,

You know,

We can understand that to a degree.

Okay,

Well,

Everything's connected,

We got it,

That's all these aggregates,

Skandhas working together,

You know,

Got it.

But it's important to understand that this concept of emptiness is showing that emptiness,

Or empty,

Is not a bad thing.

It's important for things to arise and to be connected and independent with each other.

It's just really our mundane view of what emptiness means.

We go,

Oh,

What's devoid,

It's absent of something.

Yes,

That's true in one sense,

But it also means it's open to other things,

For other things to exist.

So,

Emptiness is actually a very good thing inside Buddhism,

For without it,

Nothing would arise.

You could have a very dense,

Completely dense physical cube,

Or whatever,

Right,

Object,

And,

Well,

That would mean nothing could ever arise from that.

It's just always permanent.

This is saying that,

No,

That doesn't exist.

We don't have anything like that.

So,

Emptiness is the reason we are here right now.

And that is a very positive thing.

But it also expands what we understand about ourselves,

Which is key inside Buddhism.

The Sutra goes on to say that after the Bodhisattva deeply,

Fundamentally understood this concept,

Deeply understood the Prajnaparamita,

They realized that these five aggregates are empty,

They became liberated from all suffering and hardship.

Enlightenment,

Right?

So they were able to fundamentally,

Deeply understand this,

They had that Prajna,

And were able to become liberated.

That is what we want inside Buddhism.

But the Bodhisattva only achieved this after deep penetration of the five aggregates.

It wasn't just superficial.

This took concentrated effort.

It took time.

It took understanding.

And they were able to understand it.

Then the Buddha goes into the teaching.

So he's telling Sariputra,

Form is not different from emptiness.

Emptiness is not different from form.

Form is emptiness.

Emptiness is form.

The same is true of feeling,

Perception,

Mental formations,

And consciousness.

Five aggregates,

Right?

So when we are looking at the very first part of the Sutra,

It's actually really beautiful.

Because what the Buddha is saying is that the Bodhisattva,

Through this deep penetration of the Prajnaparamita,

Was able to identify that one is not separate from the other.

And another analogy for this is,

If you look at the ocean,

And you see a wave form,

Right?

Is the wave different than the ocean,

Than the water?

Or are they the same?

Is the wave just a conditioned portion of the ocean,

Of the water,

Right?

So when the Buddha is talking here,

He's saying one is not different from the other.

And the other is not different from the former,

Right?

So they're saying they're the same.

They're just conditioned,

Right?

And this is key,

I think,

Inside a lot of Buddhism.

Because we do,

Just especially in our lives right now,

In our current understanding of the world,

We see things as separate.

We see things as different.

But the Buddha is saying here that they're not different.

One is just conditioned.

And they are interdependent upon the other.

So the wave can't exist without the water.

And the water is also the wave,

Right?

So this is where emptiness comes into being as well.

So the wave is not independent of the water,

Right?

But it needed emptiness in order to form.

But when the wave goes away,

Then it's just going to go back into the water,

Into the ocean,

Right?

And we can look at that little scenario right there as our lives as well.

We are the wave.

Our existence right now is this conditioned form.

Thanks to emptiness is how we were arisen right now.

There had to be a void.

There had to be this emptiness,

If you will,

For us to arise.

We can't exist if something is already there,

Right?

So we need this emptiness to create this conditioned existence.

But when we quote-upon-quote die,

It doesn't mean we just go into oblivion or void or something like that.

We are not independent of anything else.

So we are still there because the water is still existing.

The wave just goes back into the water,

Right?

But that wave,

As we saw,

Is that conditioned form,

Right?

So if you look at yourself right now,

Your thoughts,

Your beliefs,

How you look,

And all these different things,

You're the wave.

You're conditioned in this way right now from those same elements.

But when that conditioned phenomena goes away,

You just go back into the wave.

But it's not like a soul or a self.

This life that you see right now,

These beliefs and ideas and how you act and all these different things is the conditioned part of those five aggregates.

So emptiness is really important in that because there needs to be something for something else to arise.

But it just doesn't mean you go into oblivion afterwards or annihilation.

Remember,

It's just like the wave and the ocean,

The water.

Nothing goes away and nothing is created out of nothing either.

Then the Buddha is going into about phenomena,

Dharmas,

Right?

He's saying they're all empty.

They don't arise or cease.

They're not defiled or pure.

He's talking about the five aggregates,

Five sense objects,

Five sense organs.

He's going into all these different explanations,

Right?

And this is important.

And the reason it's important is the Buddha is essentially saying that all these elements have emptiness as its own true nature.

And that is also a very interesting concept.

So he's saying that everything is marked with emptiness,

If you will.

And this is something that you find,

Of course,

Heavily emphasized inside the Mahayana branch of Buddhism because now it's opening our mind to,

Hey,

Just not us,

But all conditioned phenomena,

All these elements.

And when we understand that emptiness is the reason for being,

Is the reason for all these different things,

It really sheds this light on our existence because we are fearful of,

For example,

Getting sick and dying and all these other things where he's saying that,

You know what?

Emptiness is telling us something really deep and fundamental that nothing is really quote-upon-quote born and nothing really quote-upon-quote dies.

Wow.

Imagine that concept,

Right?

Because we have a very clear understanding in our eyes of what happens.

You're born and then you die,

Right?

Very hard black and white concepts.

And the Buddha and Bodhisattva are saying,

Nope,

That's not true.

It goes much deeper than this very mundane,

You know,

Worldly idea we have about things.

A way to think about this is that nothing is really born or created and nothing is really destroyed or died.

Now,

The condition existence of them,

Yes,

That will no longer remain in that form,

For example,

Right?

So as I die,

You die.

This current creation,

Iteration is no longer in existence,

But the elements don't just go into oblivion.

They still exist,

Right?

You can't just completely destroy something.

That's not going to exist.

The elements will arise in some other form in the future,

And emptiness is a big part of that.

So this is really telling us there's really nothing to fear fundamentally,

You know,

Completely in the Buddhist religion because we are just conditioned phenomena right now made up of all these different elements.

And then when we cease in its current form,

It doesn't mean we go into oblivion completely destroyed.

Just like that wave,

The wave is going back into the water,

Right?

Will it arise in that same wave like it did before?

No.

You know,

That was that creation at that time,

But the elements of it went back into the greater ocean,

Right?

And so like all the molecules and those exact,

You know,

Pieces of water,

Elements of water are not going to be all together again,

But it doesn't mean that everything just goes away.

And emptiness and this concept is very important to help us understand that.

That's why the Bodhisattva didn't have any fear anymore.

One of the reasons.

You can also look at,

For example,

The clouds.

You can go out right now and look at a cloud,

Right?

And we've all seen clouds in our life,

And they'll look beautiful or maybe scary like a thunderstorm coming,

Right?

But you'll see that they are always changing.

But when we look at some clouds,

You know,

Depending upon the weather conditions,

They look very permanent,

Right?

We don't really see the changes from our distance from them and the way they look.

So it looks okay.

That's pretty,

You know,

Looks the same.

I look down for a couple of seconds,

Look back up.

It looks exactly the same,

Right?

We don't see that there's actually changes going on right there.

That's sort of like our life,

Too,

As sentient beings,

As humans,

Right?

We think we're exactly the same from birth to death,

Right?

We know all we're going to grow up and get old and different things and maybe some things will change.

But we feel there's something permanent inside there.

But just like that cloud,

There's no permanent element,

If you will,

That exists in that cloud.

That cloud may go into rain,

It may go into other clouds,

But it's constantly changing,

Right?

And when the cloud goes away completely,

Does that mean that the elements of that cloud go away?

No.

You know,

They will maybe reconstitute into another cloud,

Maybe in the future,

Maybe right now.

But we're seeing that there is an emptiness there that allowed the cloud to be created.

But it also is saying that it depends upon other things and that it just doesn't go away to nothing.

It looks like it goes away into nothing,

But it doesn't.

That gives relief to the bodhisattva because the elements just go into new incarnations,

Into new existences,

New created condition phenomena.

And that is saying that,

Yes,

Emptiness allows that to happen.

We see the interdependent,

Interconnected nature of all things,

And the elements of it don't just get destroyed.

They go into another existence.

For example,

They could,

If it's rainfall,

It can go into the creation of life.

It can go into maybe plants that are going to grow from that.

There's a seed down there,

Right?

So nothing just goes away.

It's all connected,

If you will,

To that big ocean.

Then we see the Buddha saying that in emptiness,

There's no forms,

Feelings,

Perceptions,

Mental formations,

Or consciousness.

There are a lot of no statements,

Such as,

For example,

The five aggregates.

And what he's basically talking about here is that emptiness is part of everything else,

Right?

We're understanding that,

Okay,

The five aggregates are all empty.

Empty of what?

Of a separate,

Independent,

Unchanging self.

He's saying that's just not true.

So it's just reinforcing what we've understood.

And then we're just going into how everything is interconnected,

Interdependent.

We're seeing that nothing has a separate existence.

It's just being reinforced,

Basically,

In the next part.

Then,

As we near the end of the sutra,

We get to liberation,

To freedom.

This is where the Buddha is saying that as there's no attainment,

Bodhisattvas who rely on the Prajnaparamita have neither worry nor obstruction.

Without worry and obstruction,

There is no fear.

Away from confusion and delusion,

They will ultimately reach nirvana.

All the Buddhas of the past,

Present,

And future rely on the Prajnaparamita to attain that full enlightenment,

Buddhahood.

So what he's basically saying here is that when you've removed these obstructions,

These ideas,

These beliefs,

You are able to gain full enlightenment,

To become a Buddha.

For example,

Let's say that the wave now realizes it's no different from the ocean,

The water,

That it came from.

Or the cloud that knows when it goes away.

It's not really going away.

It's just gone from that current form.

So understanding at this very deep,

Profound,

Fundamental level this teaching,

This concept,

The fear goes away.

And the perfect state of nirvana then becomes a reality.

This is where we have transcended these ideas of birth and death and everything else that's really been causing all this fear.

Because now we're enlightened.

We realize nirvana.

We've transcended that.

That's where we see at the end of this sutra,

The Buddha is saying that the bodhisattva who had fundamentally understood the Prajnaparamita,

Had fundamentally understand this concept of the five aggregates and how they have emptiness inside them,

The conditioned phenomena things,

How everything is interdependent upon each other,

Don't have separate selves.

They had become liberated.

They had achieved nirvana.

And this was important because that's what we're trying to achieve in Buddhism as well.

We're trying to break down that belief,

That false belief,

Illusionary belief in a permanent,

Unchanging,

Independent self.

This bodhisattva has done that.

They no longer have any fear because they realize that concepts such as birth and death are just the illusion.

That's not true fundamental reality.

Yes,

The conditioned existence no longer exists.

But does it mean everything just goes away?

And they also realize with emptiness that all things need that to arise into different existences,

Different forms.

So this is where we're seeing at the end here.

They're saying that we should understand that this perfect understanding of prajnaparamita,

This is the highest mantra,

The great profound mantra,

The illuminating mantra,

Most supreme of all mantras,

The unequaled mantra,

Because it is able to eliminate all suffering and is true and not false.

Now mantras are really important in Buddhism because it's something we just don't say.

It's part of our entire being,

Our body and speech and mind and everything when we recite these mantras,

When we chant,

When we say these mantras because we are basically bringing them into existence.

We are saying this is true and we want our mind and body to understand that and to gain that power from what we are reciting,

What we are saying.

So what's great about this sutra is we have a mantra baked into it so we can say the mantra.

And you may be familiar with mantras from maybe the Western mindset.

We've always heard that one,

OM MANI PADME HUM.

That is a mantra,

Right?

But we're seeing the one here that's recited as part of this sutra by Buddhists around the world almost every day is going to be this prajnaparamita mantra because this is what we really want to achieve,

Right?

And this is important because it says And what does that mean,

Right?

So gate means gone,

So gone,

Gone.

Then we see paragate means to the other shore.

So the other shore in Buddhism,

Which you're going to find in all traditions and branches of Buddhism,

The other shore is nirvana.

So you have,

Just imagine you're on one shore and there's like this river or stream that separates you from that other shore.

So we're on this shore right now,

This very mundane existence and understanding of the world.

And that's why we're kind of trapped in samsara,

The cycle of birth and death,

Right?

And you see,

When we look at the Theravada tradition,

You've got different types of attainment,

Different types of enlightenment.

And one is like a stream enterer,

Right?

That's that stream right there.

You're not on the other shore yet,

But you're making that progress over there.

So what we're saying here is gone,

Gone to the other shore,

To the shore of enlightenment,

Right?

So we're there,

We're over there.

Then it goes paragate.

So this means everyone.

We're not just talking about just yourself over there.

Everyone is going to this other shore,

The shore of enlightenment.

Because the Bodhisattva path and the Buddhas is to help people,

Other sentient beings get to that other shore.

It's very baked in to that path,

To that Bodhisattva mindset.

Then we see Bodhi.

So Bodhi is enlightenment.

So this is that awakening,

That enlightenment.

That's why you see that first part of Bodhisattva.

So Bodhi is enlightened or awakened.

And Sattva is a being.

So like an enlightened,

Awakened being.

And this is that Bodhi,

Right?

So what we're saying here is this is awakening,

Enlightenment.

Because you need that to get to that other shore.

And then we see Sattva.

And so this can mean,

It's just like a joyful,

Just from within your being,

Excitement and happiness,

Gratitude.

It's like hooray or hurrah,

Right?

It's saying to the other shore,

To nirvana.

You have this pure joy,

Excitement,

If you will,

Based upon that.

So the Bodhisattva in this story,

In this sutra said that.

They're going,

That gong on to the other shore.

Nirvana,

Enlightenment,

Everyone.

Yes,

Hooray.

And that is so profound.

You're left at the end of this sutra from the beginning,

Where the Buddha is giving this teaching.

You're understanding about emptiness.

You're understanding about the concept of not-self also inside here.

But you're seeing as it progresses forward that the Bodhisattva is able,

When they fundamentally understand this,

When they completely understand it,

They are no longer fearful.

They have this deep understanding.

And then they are just so happy,

Excited by this,

That they have this mantra,

Which we also recite.

And that is a beautiful part of this entire sutra,

Because you're left with that encouragement,

With that excitement.

We're not there yet,

But when we're reciting this sutra,

We're there with that Bodhisattva.

We're there with the Buddha telling the story as well.

We are there as we recite this,

Chant this,

Because we're bringing the Bodhisattva into us.

We're creating the conditions so we can get there as well,

To the other shore.

Now,

This entire sutra often recited,

Chanted,

In a native language,

For example.

In my tradition,

It's chanted in Chinese.

And so that is very traditional.

Now,

Is there English versions of this?

Yes,

You can do that as well.

But I encourage you to,

Whatever tradition you're following,

To chant it in the language of your tradition.

It's not only sometimes a very quicker way to do it,

But it also seems to flow a lot better than if you just tried to do this in the English way of chanting.

But regardless,

We are reading so we understand the sutra,

But as we chant it,

That's we are bringing this into reality,

To existence right now and embodying that Bodhisattva as the Buddha talked about it.

If you have any questions,

Please let me know.

You can talk to me via my website or on social media,

And I'll see you in our next episode.

Thank you.

Reviews

Thanks Alan. That was a very helpful and detailed explanation of the heart sutra.