of our four classes during this Aspects of Practice program. And I just realized that we have two new denizens of the Zendo. I don't know if you've seen them up there on the altar. You should go check them out. Mel brought back two carved wooden bodhisattvas from his China trip. Samantabhadra riding an elephant on the far side, and the Bodhisattva of strong practice, and then Manjushri riding a lion on the Bodhisattva of Wisdom over here.

[01:02]

So you might want to check those out. They seem to fit the space. It's very nice. One also matter of small business that I'd like to do. like to circulate these evaluation forms. It would be really helpful if you could fill one out and put it back in my box and you can sign it or not. It doesn't matter, but it'll just help us. We can use the feedback as we're trying to evaluate how this aspect of practice period worked. So appreciate that. You can do it any time over the next couple of days. And also to say that tomorrow evening at Friday afternoon Zazen, we'll have a very small kind of closing

[02:16]

of this period. And we'll have zazen, as usual, and service. And at the end of service, I think we'll dedicate the merit of the practice that we've been doing for this last four months and bow to each other for four weeks and bow to each other and close it and then continue. with our strong practice again the next morning with Seshin. So the practice is continuous. Anyhow, what we've been doing in these classes has been to try to touch on some fundamentals and some issues and things that people might have questions and want to talk about.

[03:20]

And it's interesting, we've been working I realized the other day, we've sort of been working backwards chronologically. If you have to take a certain historical view, we started with Suzuki Roshi, and then we went to kind of teacher-student relationships, which touched some on the lineage, and then Raoul went further back in the Zen lineage last week, and now I'm going to go further back and talk about the Heart Sutra for this class. The Heart Sutra is something that we chant every day. It's chanted every day in Zen centers and temples.

[04:21]

This is just very traditional coming out of the Chinese and Japanese ways of practice. And often, well, we're encouraged just to chant it, not necessarily to think about it, but just to put your whole energy into the chant. And it's an interesting text because it functions on an intellectual level, but it also functions as an incantation. And the end of it has this mantra that we don't translate, but it's actually the whole thing. is a mantra. It's taken as one piece. Did any of you know the story of Monkey, of Xuan Song, who was a Chinese monk who went to India and then came back with just

[05:36]

hundreds of Mahayana and Theravada texts, mostly Mahayana texts. Anyway, the story, the legend of Monkey is kind of the story of the protectors of his travels. But he was actually a real historical being. And as the story goes, when he was traveling through the Gobi Desert, He chanted the Heart Sutra continuously to protect him from storms and hardships and bandits. And he didn't just chant the mantra, he chanted the whole thing. And we do it kind of on every occasion. If we have a wedding, we chant the Heart Sutra. If somebody dies, we chant the Heart Sutra. It's one of our mainstay ritual items.

[06:42]

And so I thought, talk a little about where it comes from and the content of it, and then maybe have a discussion exploring some of what it's about. Seeing what you think, what I think, and kind of open it up a bit with the idea of being able When it's opened up a bit, maybe we can put more of our heart in the Heart Sutra as we're doing it. It's not necessary just to chant it without understanding. You get no points for that. So understanding it, I think, is helpful. Anyway, in Sanskrit, the word sutra means... I'm going to say a little about the content of it and probably throw a lot of stuff at you in a short amount of time.

[07:59]

It's like throwing stuff against a wall. Some of it will stick and some of it will fall down. Don't worry about it. you know, whatever needs to stay will stay. In Sanskrit, the word sutra means string or thread. And so a sutra was a sort of a garland of sayings or words or practices that are sort of strung together. This is something It actually predates Buddhism. In the Brahmanic tradition, they also had sutras, and you find sutras in many of the Indian traditions. The sermons or the sutras of the Buddha are estimated at to be about 84,000.

[09:03]

I think that's just a big number, like 108. They're collected in the Sutra basket, the Sutra Pitaka of the Tripitaka. You have the Sutra Pitaka, Sutra basket, the Vinaya, which is the monastic rules, and then this very lengthy and dense material called Abhidhamma, which is commentary. And then these were collected into volumes, and we've got actually a bunch of them in the library, and you should read them. The Yoga Sutras were assembled at the time of the first Buddhist council, which immediately followed the Buddha's death, somewhere around 480-500 BC.

[10:04]

And at that time, Ananda, was asked to come to the council and recite all the words of Buddha. He had reputedly a photographic memory and knew all of the words of the Buddha by heart. Although it's interesting, he had to be invited in because unlike all of the other 499 arhats, he was not an arhat. He had not actually attained enlightenment, but he still had this really terrific memory. He had it all in there, and so that's what they did instead of tape recorders in those days. They just brought Ananda everywhere. But be that as it may, the Heart Sutra itself is probably composed somewhere between 150 and 350 AD.

[11:15]

And it's closely related to, there's a whole literature that evolved at that time called the Prajnaparamita literature. And if you read, there's the Prajnaparamita in 8,000 lines, which some of you may have read. And then there are other more or less elaborate formulations. There's 8,000, 10,000, 18,000, all the way up to 100,000 lines. And according to Tibetan scholars, all of these Prajnaparamita Sutras were spoken simultaneously. So that's kind of interesting to imagine. And there's also the perfect wisdom in one line, which is just the syllable, ah.

[12:30]

And that has it all. It's all you need to know. But the version that we have, derives from the Chinese translation, Chinese translation of the Indian text by probably by Kumar Jiva in maybe the fifth century. And there also was a translation done by Xuanzang when he came back in the early seventh century. And then it got translated into Japanese And that's what's been handed down to us, and there are various translations that we've been using. I think the one that we use is probably pretty close to one that was done by Edward Kanzi in the 50s.

[13:38]

Is that right, Rebecca? Yes. Or David? Okay. When I first came to Berkley Zen Center in the late 60s, it was really long before I had any dedication to practice, but I had a certain calling. I remember lining up for service in the attic of Dwight Way, and we chanted these strange rhythmic syllables in Japanese. And I kind of liked the chanting, but the whole notion of what we were doing was not comfortable to me. It reminded me very much of

[14:39]

kind of Jewish liturgy that I had when I was growing up, where there was something in it that called to me, something rhythmic, something about just the sound of it, and yet the meaning was never disclosed. And it was not something I was comfortable with. I think now, actually, I have a very different feeling about it. We chant it in English, so I know what the English words are. And I love chanting it in Japanese, just feeling the syllables and the rhythm and the voices together rumbling through my body. I really, I enjoy that. To me, it has a more compelling flavor actually than the English, but I'm glad to know the English.

[15:48]

So I think that that's part of the, again, relates to the devotional side, the side of the Heart Sutra that is just this incantation. And we do it beyond our understanding. We do it beyond whether we exactly like it or not. And we do it beyond even the doubts that we may have. And I think that's the spirit with which that mail is communicated to us, with which we face the Heart Sutra. So I wanted to talk about what is in this sutra. Actually, you know what I'd like to do first is chant it.

[16:55]

You can hand out the chant books for those people who need one. Great Wisdom Beyond Wisdom Heart Sutra Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita, perceive that all five skandhas in their own being are empty,

[18:22]

Safe from all suffering, O Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness does not differ from form. Which is form is emptiness. That which is emptiness, form. Same is true of feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness. Shaliputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness. They do not appear nor disappear, not tainted nor pure, do not increase nor decrease. Therefore, in emptiness, no form, no feeling, No perceptions, no formations, no consciousness, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mine. Realm of eyes until no realm of mind, consciousness, ignorance, and also no extinction of it until old age and death.

[19:33]

So no extinction of it, no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no passing. no cognition, also no attainment, nothing to attain. The Bodhisattva depends on Sannyāpamitā, and the mind is no hindrance. Without any hindrance, no fears exist. Apart from every perverted view, one dwells in nirvana. The three worlds of Buddhas depend on Prajnaparamita and attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. For know that Prajnaparamita is the great transcendent mantra, is the great bright mantra. The utmost mantra is the supreme mantra, which is able to relieve all suffering and is true, not false.

[20:38]

Proclaim the Prajna Paramita mantra. Proclaim the mantra that says, We invoke this hymn to emptiness in the middle of all the things that are going on in this world. The sirens, the emergencies, the sorrows and joys.

[21:45]

And I actually just realized as we were chanting it, it ends on ah, bodhisvaha. And with that awe, we just let everything go. So I think of this text as kind of, it's like a crash course in Mahayana Buddhism. And I'll just tell you about some of what's in here and really stop me if you have questions. If I'm going too fast or what I'm saying doesn't make sense. So we call it Great Wisdom Beyond Wisdom Heart Sutra or Mahaprajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra. which maybe a little more accurately translates as the great wisdom gone beyond, Paramita gone beyond, Heart Sutra.

[23:03]

And that gone beyond also echoes the the gate gate at the end. And so the title echoes that mantra to some extent. And it begins invoking Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. Avalokiteshvara is One who sees the suffering of the world, in Japanese and Chinese is Kannon or Kuan Yin, and one who hears the suffering of the world, the world embedded in the name. I think shvara is perceives, and loka is the word for world. It's the Sanskrit word for world. And I always think about, I was talking with Lori, I think about that image of Avalokiteshvara

[24:09]

who perceives the world and looks around so attentively and so passionately that her head splits into 11. Is that right? And so there are these images of Avalokitesvara with heads in each faces, in each direction, so that she can be completely attentive. It's also, it's interesting that in the whole Prajnaparamita literature, there's a couple things that makes this Prajnaparamita text really special. And the first thing is that in the whole Prajnaparamita literature, this is the only appearance of Avalokitesvara. which is, you know, it's unusual. She's invoked for a reason here.

[25:12]

And the Prajnaparamita literature is very far out, but it also tends to be very intellectual. And here, even though there's an intellectual framework, it's not essentially what this text is about. So, Avalokiteshvara, when practicing deeply, the Prajna Paramita, so that's the Paramita of understanding, of wisdom. The Paramita that, Paramita, we generally translate as perfection, but it's just sort of the going beyond. And so it's the, It's the going beyond, it's the understanding that goes beyond our ordinary understanding. It goes to the heart of things, it sees things as they are. We practice in

[26:16]

We talk about their six paramitas, of which prajna is kind of the final one. The paramita of generosity or dana, of morality, shila, of patience, kshanti, effort, virya, meditation, jhana, and then prajna, which is the summation of all of them. So Avalokiteshvara practices deeply the Prajnaparamita and perceives that all five skandhas in their own being are empty. So the skandhas are the kind of aggregates or heaps out of which we fashion being. and their form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness, which are invoked later in this text.

[27:23]

And all of our lives are made up of just these skandhas, which themselves are fluid and changing. So Avalokiteshvara perceives that all five skandhas in their own being are empty and were saved from all suffering. Empty is obviously the key word of this whole text and this is what I want to come back and talk about. But the word for empty that we translate as empty is shunyata. Emptiness or empty is maybe, you know, it's just a kind of provisional translation. It's not a real good one. And because in English, when we think of empty, we think of just kind of zero, you know, lack of something.

[28:31]

But that's not what's implied here. In fact, what's interesting is that the root of this word shunyata, actually, it's connected in some way to the notion of something being swollen or swelling. I thought about it as almost pregnant. So it's not just devoid of Well, it's not devoid of form, as we'll get to, but it's more pointing towards something else. So to think of it as swollen or as pregnant, to think of it as related to becoming, to this constant unfolding, rather than to some

[29:43]

nihilistic proposition, which is what people sometimes, it's the way they sometimes try to characterize Buddhism from the outside as nihilistic. And one can sort of understand that from, you know, as we go on in text, because this text involves a tremendous number of negations. So anyway, perceived that all five skandhas in their own being are empty and were saved from all suffering. O Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. Now, Shariputra is one of the arhats and is usually described as the arhat who was unsurpassed in wisdom, you know, just the perfect student of abhidharma, of interpretation.

[30:55]

But here, he's kind of a foil. He's kind of like, he's an arhat, which is very nice and we respect him, but he doesn't quite get it. That's why Avalokiteshvara has to kind of set him straight. His understanding is very good, but it only goes so far. So this is part of this kind of Mahayana, Hinayana dialectic or tension that you often see particularly in these early Mahayana texts. You don't see it so much in the Hinayana texts, they don't bother with that. But here, Shariputra is

[31:59]

You know, he's the person who's getting his understanding straightened out. And, O Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. And emptiness does not differ from form. That which is form is emptiness. That which is emptiness, form. And we'll come back to that. It's saying, It's saying some important things about the nature of reality, and it's very slippery. It's hard for us to get our minds around it conceptually, but the whole form of this text is advising us, urging us not to get our minds, not to try to get our minds around it conceptually, it can't be done, but just to do this.

[33:01]

you know, just to chant this, just to practice it and realize it directly. So that which is emptiness, that which is form is emptiness, that which is emptiness form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness. So that means emptiness is feelings, emptiness is perceptions, emptiness is formations, emptiness is consciousness. So there, forms, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness, you have the five skandhas kind of spelled out. O Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness. They do not appear nor disappear, are not tainted nor pure, do not increase nor decrease. Here we have the beginning of this whole series of negations.

[34:05]

And in this case, Avalokiteshvara is talking about sort of the conventional Abhidharmic view of the dharmas. If any of you have studied Abhidharma, you know, Abhidharma is just kind of, it goes categorically through the dharmas, which are sort of the constituents of being, of consciousness. They're the elements. It's kind of like a really very thoroughgoing early psychological system. And there are wholesome dharmas and unwholesome dharmas and neutral dharmas. There are dharmas of mind, dharmas of form. They're categorized in all of these ways and interrelate in complex ways.

[35:09]

And the way they're talked about, you know, once you really get into this, you know, they're talked about, you begin to think, oh, these are real. You know, you recognize them, actually. You can begin to recognize them as states of mind, as states of body. You recognize them in yourself. And there's a certain feeling that they are real, because you recognize them. And because the way they're put, they're sort of construed as as elements, you know, as like atoms of some primal material. And what he's saying here by saying they're marked with emptiness, is that they're actually interdependent, that these atoms are composed of interacting subatomic particles.

[36:21]

And these subatomic particles and these atoms themselves are interacting with each other. And in that sense, that's some of the sense of what emptiness means. So our dharmas are marked with emptiness. They do not appear nor disappear. are not tainted nor pure, do not increase nor decrease. Therefore, in emptiness, no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no formations, no consciousness. So that's no skandhas. And then he goes on, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. no color, so those are the senses, the six senses, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, touch, and mind as consciousness.

[37:22]

And then no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind, so those are the Those are the objects of the senses. So you have the senses, the organs of senses, and the objects of those senses, and then you have no realm of eyes until no realm of mind consciousness, which are the consciousnesses that relate to all those senses. So this is very standard Abhidharma. You have the the twelve ayatanas, which are the six senses and the six objects, and then you have the eighteen dhatus or realms, which are the sense fields plus the six consciousnesses.

[38:35]

So, all of them are negated here in a sense. But it's not that they don't exist. It's that they don't exist of their own, in their own being. All five skandhas in their own being are empty, which doesn't mean that all five skandhas don't exist. It means that they have no independent existence, that I have no independent existence, you have no independent existence. We are all the interdependent action of so many countless things, including each other. So I think that's part of what's at the heart of these negations. Then he goes on, no ignorance and also no extinction of it until no old age and death, and also no extinction of it.

[39:41]

In other texts, it's translated as no ignorance, and no extinction of it, and so on until no old age and death. So this is the negation of the 12-fold chain of causation, which goes around from ignorance to old age and death and back to birth, and the action of clinging is our clinging to our sense of self brings the suffering that drives us around this wheel again and again. So again, it's like negating that. And then while we're at it, let's negate the Four Noble Truths. So no suffering, no origination of suffering, no stopping of suffering, and no path to the end of suffering.

[40:46]

Let's be very thorough. And then, while we're talking about the path, we may as well negate, and there's no cognition or insight, and there's no attainment, with nothing to attain. A bodhisattva depends on prajnaparamita, and depending on prajnaparamita, The mind is no hindrance. Without any hindrance, no fears exist. So this is another key point. What Avalokiteshvara is really giving is not just this notion of emptiness, but the gift of non-fear, which is something that we all really need.

[41:49]

So the hindrances are, Mel has lectured about them, I think a number of us have lectured about them. Bodhisattva depends on Prajnaparamita and the mind is no hindrance. And then without any hindrance, no fears exist. So that means that you're freed. If you dwell in Prajnaparamita, if you see into the true nature of things, then you're free from these hindrances or thought coverings, sensuous desire, ill will, sloth or torpor. restlessness and worry, skeptical doubt, and you're also free from fear. And those fears, of course, they belong to, there's another list of them, traditionally, fear of death, fear of pain, fear of the loss of your reputation, fear of loss of livelihood,

[43:00]

And the last one, which is pretty interesting, is fear of speaking in public. It's true. So you're free from all these fears. I guess you can go out and speak in public. Far apart from every perverted view, one dwells in nirvana. So these perverted views are Viewing as permanent what is not. Viewing as desirous or as easeful in what is bound up with suffering. Viewing as selfhood in what has no self. And finally, delight in what is repulsive, which I think probably means your body. So in the three worlds, all Buddhas depend on Prajnaparamita.

[44:09]

And those worlds are the worlds of desire, the worlds of form, and the formless world. It's also translated as the three times, which would just be past, present, and future. So in the three worlds, all Buddhas depend on Prajnaparamita and attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment. That's the goal. Freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom to be completely oneself. Therefore, know the Prajnaparamita is the great transcendent mantra. is the great bright mantra, is the utmost mantra, is the supreme mantra, which is able to relieve all suffering, and is true, not false. So it's saying, in this language, is that the Prajnaparamita itself is the mantra. And mantra is a sound.

[45:15]

It's a liberating sound. But it's that seeing into reality is this sound that frees us all. I think it brings to mind the prophets in the early biblical era. The prophets heard God speak directly. And in that sound, we're free. In this case, there's not a deity involved, although Prajnaparamita is also that being on the altar, the mother of the Buddhists. So she gives birth to awakening.

[46:20]

And I think what I like about this is what gives birth is this sound, the sound of this mantra, the sound of Prajnaparamita. So proclaim the Prajnaparamita mantra, proclaim the mantra that says, which translates as, in a couple of ways, as gone, gone, gone beyond, completely gone, perfect enlightenment, or crossing oneself, which is the Hinayana view, crossing for others, which is the Mahayana view, crossing to nirvana, the other shore, which is just transcending, all together, completely transcending everything, expressing its enlightened nature.

[47:35]

Actually, my favorite translation of this, I've been trying to get the exact wording, I just, I remember it in part, and I remember the end. My favorite translation was from the, from Phil Whelan, the poet, and he didn't do the, he didn't translate the whole sutra, but he translated the gatha, and it's something like, gone, really gone, beyond gone, totally gone, oh mama. That gets us something else entirely. So that's some of what's in here in a really quick way. Yeah, Tassajara also. Yes.

[48:45]

Right. Well, I think there's been a motion generally to do more of a chanting in English, in a language where people understand it. And some of us like that, some of us don't like it. We have some factions here, but I'm not going to share my view. and yet here we don't use any kind of music instrument. We used to do that. When I first came here, we used the Mikugyo and we chanted like, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva when practicing deeply the Ajnaparamita and so on and so forth, just like it was Japanese. And at a certain point Mel said, you know, He just didn't like it, you know. And so then we did it without the Makugyo, and we were still in... And he said, well, why don't we try to do it in...

[49:59]

you know, in phrases, in clauses, and take our breaths where the natural punctuation breaks are. And so that's, you know, that's how it sort of evolved here. But it seems like the rest of that rhythm really carries the string as well, though. Well, it does, but I think it seemed to him, and I kind of agree that it does in Japanese, But in English, if we're going to chant it in English, we may as well understand it. English has its own rhythms. Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the prajna paramita perceived at all five skandhas. So it has, you know, it's actually, this is terrible, it's actually like what Frank Sinatra did with popular music, which was, instead of putting it into metrical units, to having the breaths fall with the meaning.

[51:14]

And so, I think that's what Mel's idea was, to take the breaths where the logical breathing places are in the line. He did it his way. Right. He did it his way. Earlier on, you spoke about the Heart Sutra as sound, as an incantation or mantra. Well, I wonder if you could say more about that. about the mysterious sound that's sort of beyond me. Well, that's the other unusual thing about this sutra. I mean, the two things that are so unique in the Prajnaparamita literature is, one, that Avalokiteshvara appears here, and two, that there's a mantra at all.

[52:18]

Because there are not mantras in the Prajnaparamita literature. And this is one thing, this really wonderful article in one of his books by D.T. Suzuki about this, where he says, this is what's really unique about this as a liturgical piece. And I think that the sound is really That's why I wanted to hear what people said. I find the sound, there's all kinds of emotion that arises on the sound and to do it wholeheartedly for that moment or the moment after feels really freeing. I felt really good when we were chanting it earlier this evening. The chanting was really strong and it was very hard to speak after that.

[53:25]

It was like, it felt like when we chanted, OK, we can go home now. But we have to speak. We have to go on with what we do. But I think this is the power of chanting, and that these some of these texts have a power, I really believe they, and this is part of the devotional side as well, that's why some people like this stuff and some people don't. And some of us have a mixed relationship to the devotional tradition, but it's allowing ourselves, it's just giving ourselves up to something that is outside of and larger than ourselves, and it's something that we do together also, which is one of the unique, wonderful things about the Zen tradition is that we practice in this room, we practice together, we can practice at home, and we can practice by ourselves, but our habit, the usual thing is to come here and do this all together, and the same thing is true with the chanting, and in that chant,

[54:44]

It's like together, we are allowing an opening to something larger and outside ourselves. Can I ask another question? One more question, yeah. How about the other side? In other words, so we chant together and there's an awareness of connection, interconnection. Thich Nhat Hanh's language explains emptiness from the side of interconnection, Indra's net, and so on. It's a wonderful explanation as far as it goes. it's not a other side, maybe the other sides reflect not warm and fuzzy feelings about being together, but being completely alone.

[56:00]

And the mystery of that, in fact, the awesomeness of that, and how does So how does the Heart Sutra point to or manifest that side, the slightly chilly, less popular side of emptiness? I think it does that in the negations, you know, because it's taking away every prop that we have, every easy, every concept every way that we have of habitually plugging into something, plugging into a system of thought, plugging into a practice, and it's saying, you know, we do this together, but actually each person is also doing this completely independently. But that independence is, we're never completely alone, you know, because we're always made up of these non-self

[57:12]

We're made up of non-self elements and yet we have to use our effort to bring this sound forth. No one can speak through our voice and no one can attain realization for you. This work has to be done by you. by one, but it's something that one does also, even if one is in a cave, that one is doing in relationship to the universe. And the universe is helping you by giving you a body, by providing substances that feed us. And you, yourself, have to give that back. And that's the Bodhisattva's effort, is to give that back. Does that speak to it a bit?

[58:13]

Yes. Good. Well, it's time to end. Thank you very much. We'll see you tomorrow evening, if you can make it.

[58:21]

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