Resources:
- An Arrow to the Heart: A Commentary on The Heart Sutra By Ken McLeod
- Heart Sutra Translation by Thich Nhat Hanh
- The Heart Sutra Will Change You Forever
The Heart Sutra is the third, following the Metta and Diamond, of six sutras we are studying this year. Our study method has been to listen to the chant and read the sutra frequently, at least once a week. The sutra is then used in our service for two months. On May 13, 2025 we’ll explore the significance of this Sutra in Chinese Chan and in Japanese Soto Zen.
We will use the translation in the STO Home Study Guide as our main source and the one offered in the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and the Silent Thunder Order Sanghas. Our second source is the 2022 translation of Thich Nhat Hanh.
The Heart Sutra is a mainstay of the study of emptiness and wisdom explored through the development of the Prajnaparamita sutras:
What the Heart Sutra (like all Prajnaparamita Sutras) does is to cut through, deconstruct, and demolish all our usual conceptual frameworks, all our rigid ideas, all our belief systems, all our reference points, including any with regard to our spiritual path. https://www.lionsroar.com/the-heart-sutra-will-change-you-forever/
“The Heart Sutra Leaves you nowhere to stand but right here” – Steven Batchelor
The Heart Sutra is about the perfection of wisdom — an understanding of life and being that is experiential, not conceptual or intellectual. Just as a description of the taste of cherry pie does nothing to satisfy hunger and little to enjoy, a conceptual understanding of the perfection of wisdom does little to change how we actually understand and live it. — McLeod
The Heart Sutra says forget what you know. Which, for many, is nonsensical. That is we build a body of knowledge that supports us. Which in turn sets-up the quandary of which came first the chicken or the egg. The latter pursued with logic takes the question as absolute. That is there must be an answer. How about an egg and a sperm come together in conditions that enable creation. Or we could say both are empty. Often we have neither knowledge or experience which we may call ignorance.
The Heart Sutra is a dialogue between Avalokiteshvara and Shariputra, two archetype disciples of The Buddha. One is renowned for experiencing samsara and the other for demonstrating wisdom. The Sutra opens with Avalokiteshvara in a deep experience of prajnaparamita and speaks to Sariputtra about this.
All Dharma is empty of permanence, hence change or flux, is wisdom. But this flux has potential for all forms that can or will be, form itself is emptiness, emptiness itself form. This is not something to grasp, it is experiencing wholeheartedly. McLeod sees this as a moment of being completely awake and present. It is not about explaining but eliciting the experience within you.
Line after line of the Sutra follows negation as a way of seeing how each form offered (even our attempt at giving emptiness form) is fleeting which is wisdom.
What is one to do with relative and absolute or with chicken and the egg. I suggest allowing continuation, metaphorically it is spiritual or energy-like. Experiencing cherry-pie elicits total sensory awareness. Have you seen the dragon…have you experienced, adding the word “something” is putting a hat on a hat.
Many of us have chanted The Heart Sutra hundreds of times. The rhythm is important as is the repetition of negation. McLeod suggests a different look, or rather seeing as in awake. He points out that Avalokiteshvara and Shariputra were in setting-up the sutra ties compassion (Avalokiteshvara) and wisdom (Shariputra) together. Further he speaks to emptiness as compassion. I’ll read McLeod’s version of the Sutra Tuesday night during Dharma talk and discussion.
So please review the resources provided and as we open our mind as we explore the heart of the matter…
Be sure to check our website at fszs.org for times, zoom options and any other questions about our Sangha.
Sangaku