The last time I was here, that was last month, I realized that there are a lot of people who come during the summer and sit zazen and do service every morning and chant the Heart Sutra every morning and wonder, what is this all about? And I thought it would be good to explore with you what this Heart Sutra is actually talking about. And so that's why I said this morning, this is like a walk through the Heart Sutra. So my talk is geared to the person who knows absolutely nothing, wherever that may be. So it might be whole hat for all these people who have been around for a while, which is okay.

[01:13]

But I think it's helpful. I'm not saying that you'll understand the Heart Sutra, but I think it's very helpful to at least see what its elements are. Because the Heart Sutra is a kind of condensed version of the Prajnaparamita Sutras. And the Prajnaparamita Sutras was a body of sutras that appeared around the first century as a restatement from the Mahayana point of view of Buddha's original teachings. So it's Buddha's original teachings restated and sometimes called the second turning of the wheel.

[02:18]

Shakyamuni Buddha's original teachings were called the turning of the wheel of the Dharma, where he talked about the four noble truths and dependent origination. So those doctrines are contained within the Heart Sutra, and we state it according to the Mahayana understanding of non-duality. So in order to understand the Heart Sutra, it's important to understand basic Buddhism. So this hopefully will help you to investigate basic Buddhism if you haven't already.

[03:21]

Within, as I said, The Prajnaparamita Sutras are a large body of sutras. And there's the Prajnaparamita Sutra in 100,000 lines. And there's the Prajnaparamita Sutra in 25,000 lines, and 18,000 lines, which is in our library, called Buddhist Wisdom Books. Perfection of Whipping, actually. And then there's the one in 8,000 lines, which is also in one word. The Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra are two sutras about the same length. The Diamond Sutra may be a little longer, which are 200 and some Chinese characters. And then there are shorter versions. And then there's the version, the Sanskrit letter A. Prajnaparamita Sutra in one word, the letter A, Sanskrit letter A.

[04:35]

So this Heart Sutra seems to be a version that's meant to be chanted. It's like, I like to think of it as a bullion cue for Buddha Dharma. It's this condensed, highly packed little pellet that talks about everything in Buddhism. And you put it into water and mix it up, and it permeates the whole pot. So I'm going to open it up a little bit. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to open up this little highly packed pellet and look at what it's talking about. And I shouldn't even think about it. Oh, and here it is. So, you could say that the Heart Sutra is talking about Buddhism, Buddhadharma from the viewpoint of non-duality.

[06:25]

If you've ever read any of Dogon's writings, Dogon is always speaking from the viewpoint of non-duality, and that's why it's so difficult to understand sometimes. And if you just let, leave yourself open and listen to, to go in, you really understand it. But as soon as you start to think about it, your mind creates a duality, and then you say, I don't understand this at all. So, Heart Circle is something like this. That's why it's possible to chant it without really knowing anything about it. And when we chant it, we understand it somehow. Something in you understands it. When you start to think about it, you say, what's going on here? So we have to remember this, that whatever is said in the Heart Sutra, the opposite is also included.

[07:33]

So that's hard, which is the sutra of Mu. You know about Mu? Mu means no in Japanese, and it means Wu in Chinese. It comes from the Chinese, Wu. Master Joshu, a monk asked Joshu in China one time, does the dog have Buddha nature? And Joshu said, Mu, or Wu. But Wu, This No includes everything. This is the non-dual No, not your usual No that is the opposite of Yes. So, this Sutra is the Sutra of Moon. No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, and so forth. And as the Sutra progresses, there are more and more Moons. So it's the Sutra of Negation, which is the most positive kind of statement.

[08:42]

So the title, Great Wisdom Beyond Wisdom Heart Sutra, is a translation. It's Prajnaparamita Pradaya Sutra. Prajna is wisdom. Paramita is beyond. And Tridaya is the heart. It's the heart of the Prajna Paramita, or the heart of wisdom, Sutra. And Sutra comes from the Sanskrit, sutya, which means to sew things together. So a sutra is something that's pieced together, sewn together. So in the version that we chant, this is called the Short Heart Sutra. There's a longer version, and the longer version has a kind of prologue which describes the scene.

[09:53]

See, so what's happening here is there's a little play going on, and the play involves, this is for our benefit, the play involves Buddha, Pavalokiteshvara, and Shariputra. And they're all sitting around on the vulture peak, which was one of Buddha's favorite sermon places. And Shariputra was one of his disciples. Buddha had a group of disciples called the 16 Arhats, the 16 enlightened disciples. There were many more, but there would be 16 representative of his disciples, and each one had a certain peculiar talent. And Shariputra was noted for his erudition in intelligence.

[11:00]

And he's asking Shakyamuni, how does one course in the Prajnaparamita, how does one course in the perfection of wisdom? And Avalokiteshvara happens to be there. And Avalokiteshvara is the embodiment of compassion. That's interesting. Avalokiteshvara is also a kind of mythical celestial bodhisattva, you know, who is a representative of compassion, understanding, and action. And actually, his name means something like hearing the cries of the world. And so why is it that Avalokiteshvara is in this instead of Monjushri?

[12:07]

Because Monjushri is the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. I feel that it's Avalokiteshvara because Avalokiteshvara is Wisdom, or compassion is the activity of Wisdom. You know, we say prajna is the basis, basic wisdom, and compassion is its activity, or its expression. So it could have been unjushri, or it could be avanapita-dhvara. In this case, it's avanapita-dhvara. And Shakyamuni says, well, why don't you ask Avalokiteshvara? He'll tell you all about it.

[13:09]

So then the sutra opens up. And Avalokiteshvara, the great Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply, coursing through the perfection of wisdom, the Prajnaparamita, perceived that all five skandhas in their own being are empty, and was saved from all suffering. That's how the sutra opens up. And then it says, O Shariputra. So this is Avalokiteshvara talking to Shariputra. He says, O Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. So he's telling him how it is. And emptiness does not differ from form. That which is form is emptiness. That which is emptiness, form. The same is true of feelings. The same is true of perceptions. Mental formations and consciousness.

[14:11]

Formations here means thoughts. Mental creations of a certain kind. Karmic formations, specifically. So, I want to go back to the beginning. So, avalokiteśvara, bodhisattva. Bodhisattva, of course, means an enlightenment being who is studying enlightenment or practicing the way of enlightenment. Practicing deeply the prajnaparamita. So, how do you practice the prajnaparamita? Prajnaparamita is like non-dualistic wisdom.

[15:16]

The non-duality between conditioned existence and emptiness. But we'll get to this later. So when he's practicing in this way, this practicing the nonduality of absolute existence, absolute being and relative existence, He saw that all the five skandhas in their own being were empty. So I want to explain a little bit about what skandhas are. Skandhas, a Sanskrit word that some people think means heaps, but actually means, it probably does mean that, but that's a little bit off the track.

[16:28]

better to say five aggregates, I think. Five parts of one thing. And the five skandhas are the form skandha, which means anything created out of fire, water, earth, and yin. Those are the elements. Those are the old style elements. So this body is a form body. And the chairs and tables and all of the things around us are form bodies, elements of form. And then there are feelings, the standa of feelings. Feelings can be either mental feelings or physical feelings.

[17:32]

You say, oh, I feel tired today, or I feel angry, or I feel this way or that way. Or you say, I feel something in my body. So it can be either one of those, or anything that's sensory. And then there's the skanda of perceptions, anything that's perceived through the senses. There's a sensory perception. We see, we hear, we touch, we taste, smell, and so forth. And then there are the mental formations, of which there are 52 karmic formations, which I won't go into. But these are our thoughts, which create volitional thoughts, which create karma. Karma being a volitional action.

[18:34]

And then the fifth skanda is the skanda of consciousness or awareness through the senses and also extrasensory cognition. In Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, we talk about eight levels of consciousness. The five senses, the five sense consciousnesses are one level. And then mind consciousness, which distinguishes or discriminates between the levels, between the senses. and thinks. And then there is the seventh level of consciousness, which is the link between the first six and the eighth, which is the storehouse consciousness, called alaya vijnana.

[19:51]

And the seventh consciousness, being a link, thinks that it's the boss, And this is called ego consciousness. It doesn't understand itself. And so it takes the five skandhas as a real thing, as a real person. It mistakes the five skandhas as a real person and acts accordingly. And it's called ego or self-centeredness consciousness. So these are simply stated, the five skandhas. And when Avalokiteshvara was coursing through the Prajnaparamita, he perceived that these five skandhas in their own being are empty.

[20:54]

In other words, none of these skandhas have any inherent existence. Inherent existence means independent. And they are often described as the five rivers, or five streams, which are continually coursing together, and influencing each other, and co-dependent on each other. So, the form body, and there's the form body, which is form. And then the other four are more psychological, or feelings, or consciousness-related. They belong to the mind. And all together, working together, they form what we call our self, the person.

[21:57]

And we think of these five streams, which are simply five streams flowing together as a real entity. It's not that they are not a real entity. They are a real entity. But the word real means not substantial. So we have a kind of perverted understanding of the word real. We think that real means substantial. Think about that. just that we happen to say that's real. So, own being means that a thing has a substantial inherent existence. So, to see all the five skandhas as empty is to see their true nature.

[23:00]

And to realize that there is no no core or permanent entity which corresponds to our idea about what it is. So in Buddhism, one of the most fundamental understandings of Buddhism is that there is no soul. People have no soul, no individual soul. Soul means singular, right? A person has no singularity, and this is the fundamental understanding. But we feel, each one of us feels that we have this singular existence. We feel our soul exists. We eat soul food. And we really feel our individuality, and we try to express that individuality.

[24:13]

Not all cultures are based on expressing individuality, but ours seems to be one. We call that freedom. We're kind of overboard in our idea of freedom. We think freedom means to be able to do it as we want. But in a culture where you understand the interconnectedness of everything, and how not only do these five streams influence each other, and lead to existent harmony with each other, but all the beings that consist of the five streams have to be able to relate to each other in the same way in order to create a harmonious society. People forget this.

[25:15]

The point here is that when we understand who we really are and the interconnectedness and interdependence of everything, then we're relieved from our suffering. And the rest of the sutra kind of talks about what it is that emptiness is about and what suffering is about. and how to let go of the causes of suffering. So this is called middle way.

[26:19]

We feel like an individual and yet we know that this individual is only only exists dependent on everything else. There's no independent existence. Nothing has an independent existence. Nowhere is there an independent existence. sometimes it's described as everything, each thing that seems independent, it exists because of all the things that are not it. If you listen to Thich Nhat Hanh sometimes he'll say, this table, he'll describe a table,

[27:25]

If you look at the table, you can see the sunshine in the table, you can see the rain, you can see the earth, you can see the passing of the seasons, and you can see the woodcutter, and you can see all the elements in the whole universe, which don't seem to be right there, are actually what this table consists of. And actually, it's not even a table. James Jeans, one of the famous scientists, said, all of us are composed of stardust, from the original stardust encountered billions of years ago. So everything actually is a product of its opposite.

[28:35]

If we say peace, then peace brings up war. If we say war, war brings up peace. If we say my friend, friend brings up enemy. Enemy brings up friend. Whatever you say brings up its opposite. This is the dualistic world that you live in. Everything is dependent on everything else. If you want to get rid of your enemy, you lose some part of your existence. So if we say exist, then exist brings up non-existence.

[29:45]

Existence brings up the concept of non-existence, and non-existence brings up the idea of existence. So in our dualistic way of thinking, we think about existence and non-existence, which translates as birth and death. If we talk about birth, then we talk about death. So, in Buddhism, we talk about no birth and no death. No birth and no death is the non-dualistic way of understanding our existence, because we think something is born and something dies. That's natural. And I just did a funeral last weekend, right? So something does die. We think. That's our concept. But another way of understanding is that life itself is continuous.

[30:53]

Life is continuous. And sometimes it's called death. And sometimes it's called Sometimes it's called Mary, sometimes it's called a tree, sometimes it's called a snake. So this constant transformation is always taking place as life itself. So what we tend to do is identify with our present form. And it's more difficult to identify with life itself than it is to identify with our present form, because we tend to feel that our present form is the only life there is. Because that's what we seem to experience.

[31:57]

But, so we're very protective of ourselves. We're very protective of our ideas. And we don't know what will happen to us when this form becomes some other form. So it takes a great deal of trust, or understanding, actually, to let go of ourself. And what the sutra is talking about is actually giving us the gift of no fear. You know, fear is important. I'm not saying that I have no fear. I'm not saying you should. But the sutra is giving us a way of dealing with no fear. To actually help you, help us to understand

[33:06]

But there's really nothing to fear, ultimately. So we say, I am alive. Well, that's true, sort of. But it's coming from the point of view of I am. It's a certain idea about being alive that we have. It's from the point of view of, I am something. But actually, from another point of view, life is me. I am being lifed. This person is being lived. We say, I am breathing. I am breathing. But that's not true. You are being breathed. Right? You really don't have anything to do with it.

[34:13]

Stop it. So we are being lived and it's all we can do to control it. It's like we're put into this race car. and trying to drive it, you know, put it in gear, high gear, low gear, steer it, but it's going. And then one, two, three, four, five, you know, 70, 75, 80. It's just going. Life is doing itself. what we call myself, is a kind of wonderful perception of it. So there is individuality and a person, but the individual and the person is not an inherent person, it's a computed person, in the sense that, yes, it's real, or it's here.

[35:36]

It's the reality of the moment. But the reality of the moment is only the reality of that moment. It's only the perception of that moment. So, am I the same person that had the same name 60 years ago? 66 years ago? I was 66. So, yes and no. No, that was a little baby. It's not a little baby. But yet, that is me. So, yes and no. There's something that, there's some influence of that little baby that has an effect in this person. But it's not the same person. It's not the same bones.

[36:38]

Every seven years, all the cells are new, right? It's not the same person. And yet, it is the same person. So, there's a continuity of life based on what precedes this moment, which is continuous and endless. So to say that my life began on July 9th, 1929, is just a way of speaking. Because continuous life has always been producing this result, long before July 9th, 1929. So, in a sense, you can say everything is already here. It's not just appearing now.

[37:42]

It's just already here. But there are various forms. Forms are always appearing in a new way. But the essence is always here. So when we talk about time, we say time flows by. That's just when we're talking about time. Actually, everything is completely still. And you can say it's all happening But what's happening is that there's continuous change and continuous transformation at the one time. But it looks like time is moving. Time isn't really moving anymore. No, it's not. It's just an idea. transformation is taking place. And so, what makes that transformation look like something is what we call time.

[38:47]

And so, from our point of view, it looks like everything outside is moving, or it looks like time is moving. And when we get out of our, when we can step back from our self-centered way of looking at things, we have a different picture. If you get way out in outer space and look at the Earth, nothing's moving. And so there's this line between existence and non-existence. So you say, yes, it's existence, and at the same time, no, it's not. Do I exist? Yes. At the same time? No. Am I alive? Yes. At the same time? No. Because the life of this person on this moment is that life.

[39:52]

The life of this person on the next moment is a little different, and a little different life. So birth and death are not... Yes, they are. contained within this period of time, but also happening at this moment. Birth and death are happening at this moment. Growing up in the moment. Cause and effect are continually working their charm. And this moment's life is not this moment's life. So when you sit in zazen, We're just expressing this moment's life. That's what we're doing, completely and totally, without any idea about it, without discriminating.

[40:56]

This is what's our job. To be immersed in the activity of non-duality. So middle way, you know, means there are two middle ways. One middle way means the middle way between extremes. You know, don't do too much of this or don't do too little of this, you know. That's normal kind of dualistic middle way. But middle way of Mahayana is Neither dead nor alive. Completely. Middle way between existence and non-existence. That's where our life is. Actually, in the crack. In the space between yes and no.

[42:00]

And so, our birth contains our life and our life contains our death. and they're both in the same moment. Because this moment of life is also this moment of death. Every moment you're a little older, and every moment you come to life. So life itself is continuous, and birth is just... You can see life and death as a diagram, or you can see it as two phases of the moon. Darwin says, when one side is revealed, the other side is dark. But, it's like the moon. You can't see the other side of the moon. This doesn't mean that the other side doesn't exist. Yeah, so that's good for this time, for this part.

[43:23]

But I'll go just a little bit more. Then comes this, the next section, which is, O Sariputra. I will teach this verse, explaining it to him now. O Sariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness does not differ from form. That which is formed is emptiness, and that which is emptiness is form. The same is true of feelings, which is a skanda, perceptions, which is a skanda, formations, mental formations, and consciousness. So the same is true of all the five skandas, which I mentioned earlier. So this is the heart of the sutra. They are called the four profundities.

[44:24]

And I will talk about that next time. And then I will give you the secret. It's difficult. But I cannot fix it now. I can't do it now. So maybe one or two more times. And probably tomorrow, we'll have it at 3.30 in the afternoon instead of at night. Because tomorrow night is Buddha's sacrament, right?

[45:14]

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