I have been reading The Ancestor"s Tale by Richard Dawkins.  It traces our evolution as humans back in time to the beginnings of reproductive life on this planet.  It is quite a monumental book though with the speed at which our knowledge of genetics is advancing it is possibly out of date at an age of 10 years.  Any way it is still a fascinating book and it has made me think about our evolution, though it has been one of the themes of my thought for many years.
          In my youth I thought I was going to become a scientist and I studied physics in college but some how my path didn't take me in that direction.  Yet I try to approach Zen and Buddhism with the openness and also skepticism of a scientist.  My impetus towards Buddhism was not to be happy or find spiritual comfort or to find something I could believe in but rather was an exploration in the spirit of science into the nature of the Universe and our place in it.  My laboratory is meditation and the results I have experienced are reproducible for other dedicated meditators.  Zen is not like other religions which present a faith in a body of reveled knowledge.  The practice of Zen is quite literally to forget everything we might think we know about anything, to give up all the underpinnings of our thought to be reborn again and see with fresh eyes.
          Richard  Dawkens is also famous for arguing against religion as irrational and for a scientific rationalism.  I don't in general disagree with this argument  Even Buddhism has problems with irrational belief yet I wonder if anybody has properly explained to him the essence of Buddhism. Also science has problems of irrational belief, or more properly narrowness of perspective.  And why shouldn't it, it is still caught in a way of thought that was molded by evolution for evolution's purpose. Not that evolution has conscious purpose but it exhibits purpose in it's mechanism and direction.
          Some where in the evolution of the many life forms long before the evolution of the human life form conscious intelligence developed.  It survived because it served the purpose of survival.  Again as conscious intelligence evolved and became more powerful self conscious intelligence developed still serving the purpose of evolution. By self conscious intelligence I mean that it looks back upon itself and forms an idea of a self, a unit that involves a body and a mind.  This unit takes upon special importance because it forms the locus for all the evolutionary pressure to survive and all our desires and  our whole way of thinking serve this purpose.   We humans think we are somehow above the mere animal but observe how everything we do serves evolution.  We are filled with desires that drive us to survive and thrive and reproduce.  We are filled with selfish desires that obviously help us survive but also our altruistic desires help us survive by creating a safe society, and a safe larger world
          Maybe in some ways we seem to transcend evolution in our love of beauty which motivates the artist and our sense of wonder which motivates the scientist.but again it is not hard to see how these impulses benefit society and have survival value.  Maybe even zen has survival value.
          For the purpose of this essay I want to return to consciousness, the idea of a self, and the foundation of our thought.  At some very early stage in our lives we consciously identify the unit we call the self.  It is the self that gets hungry, it is the self that gets cold, it is the self that desires food and warmth. nature and evolution points right to the self and being the intelligent creatures we are we identify our selves.  This identification starts a psychology of division.  There is self and other and then shortly the Universe is divided up into the 10,000 things, We develop a dualistic way of thinking about things and it all hinges on that original identification of a self.  This dualistic way of thinking seems natural and correct.  Why would we question it?  We don't even know how to think in a way that isn't dualistic. Language and mathematics are based in dualism We are all caught in the assumption of dualstic thought, the poet and the scientist.  I say we are "caught" because my experience is that there is an other way of viewing the world that is not dualistic and that not quite all of us are caught in dualism.  I know this because years of experience practicing meditation has allowed me to experience the world without dualism and allowed me to understand the mechanism which makes this possible.
          Meditation is a technology.  As a spiritual practice we may not be interested in how it works and just enjoy the results but it functions with a certain mechanism.  It allows us to go back in time, slowly ridding ourselves of the habits which have formed our thinking and emotions.  In time the meditation practitioner returns to that state of mind before the self is identified.  In some sense this is returning to not just a child's mind  but a baby's mind before the identification of a self, before the world is divided up into things, before dualistic thinking.  And yet we do this with the full intelligence and consciousness of an adult.
            That first division, that first step into dualism, is the identification of a self.  The identification of a self is the foundation upon which dualistic thought developed,and this dualistic thinking permeates the whole way we see the world, including the way the scientist sees the world, including "rational thought."   By returning to a "babies mind" fully conscious, fully intelligent we view the world without duality, without division of self and others.  And from this perspective we can understand that the self is a fiction and our whole way of experiencing and thinking about the world collapses.
          You might respond that this blog uses dualistic thinking, and my response is that of course it does.  Dualism is wonderfully practical.  It is practical not "true."  It is wonderful in delineating connections between things and creating understanding but this understanding is necessarily incomplete because it leaves a whole lot out, the rest of the Universe.
          The point of this blog is that dualism is natural, programmed into us by a process we call evolution whose driving force is the survival of individual forms, and yet something also happened as our large brain and strong intelligence developed.  It became possible to step out of our evolutionary programming and see the Universe as a single whole.  Maybe this insight into non-duality has some survival value but  it is certainly a radical departure from an evolutionary perspective.
          The thing about the non-dual perspective is that it doesn't reject dualism or evolution.  It doesn't reject anything because everything just is, as temporary manifestations within a single whole, which we can call the Universe or God or Buddha or the Absolute.  And this insight into the Non-Dual is the Non-Dual's own self awareness.  How could it not be?  There are no true individual things, only the Non-Dual.  This is why insight into the Non-Dual is called "Self realization" among other names.  This Self is not the self of the individual but the Self of the whole thing, the Non-Dual, the Universe, Buddha. 
          This brings to mind one last question in the billion or so years that the process of evolution has been functioning on this planet and the  approximately 14 billion years that the known Universe has been functioning is it not possible that the direction of this activity is actually towards the Universe's own Self awareness?  This maybe a gross presumption but it is an idea found in Buddhist mythology, and espoused by many teachers. I was having tea with Harada Roshi and several of his students when he tells one of the Buddhist myths of Universal enlightenment and then says to us it is possible to perceive this as the direction of Universal activity.  This is also a perception not unknown to many scientists who ask themselves why are they so curious about the nature of the Universe and answer, maybe through them the Universe is just curious to understand itself. 

Here is part V and the end of my Heart Sutra Comentary.



In the Three Worlds all Buddhas depend on Prajna Paramita and 
attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect Enlightenment. 
Therefore know: the Prajna Paramita 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 proclaim the Prajna Paramita mantra, proclaim the 
mantra that says: 

 Gyate, gyate, paragyate, parasamgyate, bodhi svaha! 


          Now we come to the mantra, but before I discuss the mantra I have a few things to say about the first line of this section.  The Three Worlds are the World of Form, the World of the formless, and the World of desire.  These three worlds represent the three ways that most of us humans relate to the world around us.  The World of Forms is the world of things.  Being enamored with things is to live in the World of Forms.  This can manifest in various ways from the person who likes to travel who likes to see things to the wealthy person who  accumulates lots of things.  I like tools and to build things, in this way I live in the world of Form.  There are many ways to live in the world of Form as there are many ways to live in all three worlds.  The World of  the Formless is the world of the intellect, the world of ideas.  The philosopher and the scientist live in the world of the formless.  Of course writing this I live in the world of the formless.  Lastly is the World of Desire.  This is the world of sensual pleasures and our visceral desires for sensual pleasures.  This is also the world of the hedonist.  None of us live in just one or two of these worlds.  We live in all three aspects of the triple world though individual personality and experience draws the individual into one of these worlds more then the others.
          These three broad categories are different aspects of what we Buddhists call Samsara the world of delusion, attachments, and suffering, the world that most of us live in.  It is interesting that the author of the Heart Sutra placed the Buddha in Samsara and the Bodhisattva in Nirvana.  Bodhisattvas are supposedly not as advanced as Buddhas.  One becomes a Buddha upon attaining "complete perfect enlightenment."  The Bodhisattva though enlightened is still on the path and can still fall temporarily from the the grace of enlightenment and may even choose to do so in their path of compassion.
          I think the author of the Heart Sutra is trying to emphasize that Buddhas live in the same world that we all do.  That they are just humans but also in their complete dependence on Prajna Paramita have transformed the Three Worlds into something different, Nirvana.  The third vow of the four Bodhisattva vows states; "Dharmas are inexhaustible, I vow to master them."  We might think that the Dharmas are teachings of Buddhism but in this case Dharmas also refer to our moment to moment situations in life.  Each moment is a challenge, will our minds cloud over with delusions and attachments or will they remain clear with the wisdom of Prajna?  Even for the enlightened this is a work in progress.  If there is truly something called "complete perfect enlightenment", this is when through years of practice Prajna manifests for the individual in every situation.
            The Sixth Patriarch of Zen, Hui Neng, was noted for teaching "sudden enlightenment" and what he called the Buddha Path.  This is nothing more then an emphasis on the enlightenment experience that Shakyamuni experienced and each of us has the potential to also experience, the experience of Avalokiteshvara presented in the Heart Sutra.  Yes, this enlightenment experience is sudden but it is just a single step in a path that will take a life time.  Even Shakyamuni continued to practice his whole life.  Maybe it was wise that Sakyamuni did not emphasize his experience but rather the day to day work of the Eight Fold Path.  The idea that there is  something special to achieve becomes a barrier, on the other hand thinking there is nothing to achieve can also be a barrier, a difficult problem.  The ideal of "complete perfect enlightenment" is just that, an ideal to spend a lifetime working towards.
          Lastly, if we view what I have just written from the wisdom of non-duality there is only complete perfect enlightenment functioning moment to moment.  It is the Universe's own complete perfect enlightenment.  We humans in our ignorant striving and suffering are just the functioning of Universal wisdom, Prajna.
          Now we really come to the mantra; Gyate gyate paragyate parasamgyate bodhi svaha.  
          This is a very special mantra as the sutra lets you know.  Mantras have a special power, not a magical power but special.  They work in two ways.  I wrote about one of the ways mantras work in an earlier blog.  The conscious and mindful repetition of a mantra will cut and de-energize the normal habits of our thoughts and emotions, and eventually the practitioner will enter a state of non-discrimination.  
          The second power of the mantra lies in it's meaning.  Here in the West, with most mantras coming from Asia as well as our teachers of these arts, we often don't know the meaning on the individual words of the mantras and are told it doesn't really matter.  It doesn't matter for that first way a mantra functions.  
         Sometimes our teachers tell us that it is better that we don't know a mantra's simple translated meaning but that is not correct.  It is correct that the meaning of a mantra should not be allowed to disturb our practice but rather quietly sit in the back of our mind.  The simple translated meaning of a mantra does not usually give a insight into the deep meaning of the mantra.  That happens with practice.
          When I was in my early 20's I decided to take my practice off the cushion and recite a mantra as I hiked around.  I decided to use the Tibetan mantra Om Mani Padme Hum. The simple meaning of this mantra is: Om-the universal sound and beginning of most Tibetan mantras, Mani- jewel or diamond, Padme- in the lotus, Hum- the closing sound of most Tibetan mantras.  I repeated this mantra as I hiked in the woods and I hiked in the city.  The recitation of the mantra did not easily become a habit.  My mind was always talking.  The recitation of the mantra was a strain because I liked talking to myself.  Eventually the recitation of the mantra became more natural.  It would quickly quiet my mind and bring me into a meditative state, but I still didn't have any special insight into the meaning of this mantra I was repeating, even many years latter after I had some deep experiences meditating.  
          I was at a meditation retreat (sesshin) reciting the mantra when I was not in seated meditation and then the moment of insight came.  A deeper meaning to the mantra became totally clear.  I was experiencing the meaning of the mantra in the practice of meditation but also because I became conscious of this through the meaning of the mantra my meditation immeasurably deepened through the rest of the sesshin.
          In Zen we talk about "turning words," words that bring about special insight.  This insight only happens when the practitioner is ready and is activated by some words he/she hears.  The words may be spoken by anybody or can even be some words that are sitting  in the the back of an individual's consciousness .  A mantra contains it's own turning words that is it's special power.  Koans those paradoxical questions and stories asked by Zen teachers also work on the same principle as turning words.  Koans can not be properly answered by "figuring them out" with our normal way of thinking, but that doesn't mean they don't make sense.  They make sense when we see the world in a completely different way which the koan itself can prompt us to see.  And of course turning words only work when our minds have properly ripened through practice.

Gyate, gyate, paragyate, parasamgyate, bodhi svaha! 


          What is the meaning of these turning words?  We might translate them this way: Gone, gone,  completely gone,  more completely gone, wisdom awake.  D T Suzuki translated them, "Gone . Gone, Gone to the other shore, landed at the other shore, gone for good."  Eather translation works though Suzuki's using the Buddhist metaphor of the "other shore" though less exact hints at the deeper meaning of the mantra.  The Buddhist path is likened to traveling across a river to an other shore,  The river is called the "river of life."  On one side we have our normal dualistic world view of a world broken up into individuals and things,  We are born and we die and we suffer, Samsara.  On the other side is the perspective of non-duality, with no individual things, no birth and no death, and no suffering, Nirvana.  How do we get from one side to the other?  What exactly is the Buddhist path?
          The Prajna Paramita mantra is both a description of the Buddhist path and an instrument for its passage.  "To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.  To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things."  this is the Zen master Dogen's description of the Buddhist path and it differs little from the path as discribed by the mantra.  To be "gone" is just to forget the self.  In meditation we forget the self with each breath or each recitation of the mantra.  Embracing the activities of everyday life we forget the self.  We forget the self through the practices of mindfulness and concentration.  We forget the self in compassion, love and generosity.  Of course it is not that easy but this is what we work towards.  And even if we have had a moment of completely forgetting the self and have an enlightenment experience we continue our practice of forgetting the self again and again and again.
          Our whole dualistic way of thinking, our suffering, our attachments, Samsara hinges on our attachment to our idea of self.   Nirvana, the other shore, is that place where all attachment to an idea of an individual self is dropped. And through that dropping of an idea of an individual self a whole new non-dualistic perspective opens.  The vehicle that takes us from one shore to the other is forgetting the self.
          So ends my blog on the Heart Sutra.  Good Practice.

Heart Sutra part IV

The Bodhisattvas depend on Prajna Paramita and their minds are no hindrance.  Without any hindrance no fears exist.  Far apart from any deluded view they dwell in Nirvana.


          When I read this first line in my head I always connect it to the last phrase of the previous section.  With nothing to attain the  Bodhisattvas depend on Prajna Paramita and there minds are no hinderance.  This makes sense to me because I see the persistant drive to attain something, that nawing in our heads that I must have or be this or that, as fundimental to our normal way of thinking and manifests as a kind of suffering is the antithisis of of how a Bodhisattva sees and thinks about the world.  Of course Avalokitesvara is not the only Bodhisattva.  The world is filled with Bodhisattva's.  We might say that when anyone acts without regard for self with compassion and kindness they are Bodhisattvas, and when anyone acts with regard to an idea of an individual self and attainment they are just human.  We might also say that this dropping the self and the consiquent drive for attainment is Prajna Paramita.  And the practice of Prajna Paramita is the practice of dropping the self and attainment and not just the recitation of a mantra.  This is not a conventional point of view but it is not wrong.  
          How do we drop our whole way of thinking about things based on the idea of individuality? That comes from the type of deep experience of non-discrimination I wrote about in the previous blogs.  That deep experience manifests a multitude of consequences.  The experience manifests itself in many qualities.  We can say that one of it's qualities is non-discrimination, but it also manifests as an experience of non-duality.  It is also an experience of the mind being quiet, but maybe not completely quiet, yet clear and fully awake.  It is also without attachments and desires.  It is without our normal inner dialogue and emotions that constantly reinforces our sense of an individual self.  It can have the quality of being sensually panoramic because it does not filter our sensations when relaxed yet if concentrated attention is applied it is deep and one pointed.  It can also manifest feelings of deeply emotional connection.  Lastly it is undeniable in giving a truer understanding of the world then our normal self centered dualistic understanding.  
          It is the undeniability of the non-dualistic vision that has the transformative power.  It changes the whole way we think.  It does not diminish our discriminative powers but now we are no longer attached to any version of right and wrong because in our non-dualistic understanding everything could not be but what it is.  We may see the delusions that people suffer from but now we also see them as enlightened.  Because we have stopped believing in an individual self we find ourselves not attached to our individual desires, and emotions.  No longer are we driven by individual attainment but we do find ourselves motivated by selfless emotions of love and compassion.  These are just some of the consequences of non-dualistic understanding.
          Traditionally one becomes a Bodhisattva by taking the four Bodhisattva vows, to liberate all sentient beings, to eliminate all desires, to master all dharmas, and to become the Buddha way.  This intention is just a first step on the Bodhisattva path and not as yet does this Bodhisattva know how to depend on Prajna Paramita.  It is only with this experience of non-discrimination that I have been writing about does one become a Bodhisattva as understood in the Heart Sutra.  This Bodhisattva depends on Prajna Paramita in two ways.  The first way is that He/she depends directly on the experience of non-discrimination, an experience which through practice can be repeated over and over again and eventually can integrate into everyday life.  One eventually finds they can  function in the midst if this experience.   This state of non-discrimination becomes both a refuge and the source of a deepening non-dual wisdom 
         A Bodhisattva does not live full time in the midst of non-discrimination.  He/she returns to the world of multiplicity and dualistic thinking but now this world has been transformed by the understanding of non-duality.  Dualism exists within non-duality not in distinction to it.  The Bodhisattva sees a world of multiplicity with individual people and individual things knowing they are just temporary manifestations within the non-dual whole.  And yet also the Bodhisattva also feels a deep intimacy with all other beings knowing there is nothing that really separates him/her self from other beings  This is the second way a Bodhisattva depends on Prajna Paramita.
          The Bodhisattva feels a deep harmony with the world around him/her and is not bothered by all those feelings and thoughts that most people suffer with.  Most importantly he/she is not bothered by fear of death.  Why?  The Bodhisattva does not think of him/her self as actually being alive as an individual.  Or if he/she does he/she knows better.  The Bodhisattva thinks of his/her life as the life of the whole Universe which is without birth and death.  This whole way of experiencing and understanding which begins with the experience of  non-discrimination is nothing other then dwelling in Nirvana.
          As I write this a tragic accident has touched my family.  My wife, daughter, and granddaughter are very upset.  I see a fear in my wife caused by the sharp reminder of death.  The fear of death both for one's self and others we are extremely close to such as family is natural, something deeper then verbal thought.  We suffer with these deep emotions and yet we might ask why would we want to stop them?  Are these emotions not what make us human?  Why would we want to become detached from the suffering of family, friends and the rest of humanity?  My experience is, yes a Bodhisattva does carry around an element of detachment but is not by any means emotionally dead.  He/she does not fear death for him/her self and others but does experience a intimacy and identification with others which transforms emotions with which we normally suffer into emotions of love and compassion.  I write this as an authorized teacher of Zen who has had the experiences I am writing about and am not basing my arguments and descriptions from a purely intellectual understanding, yet I do not know how I will respond to the imminence of my own death or the death of those I am closest to.  I cannot know.  But still this is my experience  to this point in time.

          This is part three of the Heart Sutra blog.

O Shariputra all Dharmas are marked with emptiness.  They are without birth or death, are not tainted nor pure, do not increase nor decrease.  Therefore in emptiness no forn, no feeling, no perception, no impulse, no consciousness, no eyes no ears, no nose, no tong, no body, no mind, no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind, no world of eyes, through to no world of mind consciousness.  No ignorance and also no extinction of it through to no old age and death and also no extinction of it.  No suffering , no origination, no stopping, no path, no cognition, and also no attainment with nothing to attain.    


          This  section of the Sutra is demarcated as the third section in our translation, and again there is a perspective shift.  In the first two sections Avalokiteshvara is describing an insight coming out of deep meditation in the present moment.  But now he/she steps back from direct experience in meditation and delivers a polemic based in the perspective gained from the meditative insight into emptiness.  In Red Pine's book on the Hear Sutra we read that this exhaustive list of categories represents the many categories that earlier Buddhist philosophers argued over, whether this category or that category is real.  But lets step back and make sure we understand  what the word "Dharmas" mean.  In this sutra dharma is not defined as a teaching nor as one's role in life as a modern Hindu might use the word.  Dharma simply means sense object   Whatever it is that we can discriminate is a dharma.  Each of the categories listed in this paragraph represents a category of Dharmas.  And again the list focuses on qualities of being a living being.
          At first we read that all Dharmas are marked by emptiness.  The qualitieless quality of emptiness means that the Dharmas are without birth or death, are not tainted nor pure nor do they increase or decrease in other words in meditation without discrimination we don't add any ideas to sensation.  Sensations are just what they are and we don't turn them into any concept of a thing., we don't divide sensations into categories of this and that, and without dividing sensation into categories then the categories cease to exist.
         One might think that this state of non-discrimination is just a psychological trick, propagated by skill in meditation.  We all know that eyes ears noses and tongs exist, as do our bodies and minds.  How else could I write this and how else could you read this?  Are we to become like amoeba without any understanding and just function?  No not at all.   A truly deep experience of non-discrimination can show us a completely different view of the world.   
          I am not a scholar but I know the Sanskrit word, "sunyata" which we translate as "emptiness" has other possible translations.  The Buddhist community in recent years has settled upon "emptiness" as the word to be used in translation.  It acceptably describes one aspect of the experience of non-discrimination which is what the Heat Sutra is about.  It describes that quality-less quality of non-discrimination but that is an incomplete description of the experience.  It is incomplete because as the word non-discrimination implies there is no differentiation between this and that and so in the experience of emptiness there is also no separation, and in this no separation all is experienced as a single whole.  The experience of emptiness is also an experience of non-duality.

          Early morning, setting water on the stove 
          Not a thought of self
          Does the Universe properly brew tea?

          For a billion or more years life has been evolving on this planet  This whole amazing show we call life is based on the motivation of individual life forms to survive and reproduce,  thereby fueling the process of evolution.  In the simplest life forms this "motivation" is just an energetic activity rooted in the structure of the form.  It has no consciousness.  Scientists have speculated that this whole process we call life only needed a single self replicating molecule  to randomly form in the soup of the early oceans or atmosphere to start the whole process.  In time life became much more complex and something like a sense of self, desire to live, and a fear of death became an important advantage in the competition to reproduce.  Now with more then a billion years of evolution humans, with a strong idea of an individual self, desire to live, and a fear of death have evolved.  But with this evolution of a strong sense of self has also evolved a consciousness, and a strong intelligence  both emotional and conceptual.  For untold generations the development of intelligence has server the causes of survival and reproduction but now with the evolution of humans,  intelligence has grown both powerful and flexible enough that it is possible, though very difficult, for humans to see beyond our evolutionary programming for survival and reproduction.  
          In Buddhism we say that humans suffer because they are caught in delusion.  We also say that humans suffer because of karma which is a simple way of saying that there are causes in our past that make us suffer in the present.  Yes there are causes in our past that make us suffer, a billion years of evolution.  And those billion years of evolution have developed a delusive way of thinking based on the illusion of an individual self.  Yet through  effort in meditation culminating in this experience described in the Heart Sutra we can set aside our delusive thinking and karma, experience and understand the non-dual nature of what is.  Some times I think that humans are close but not quite to the cusp of an evolutionary turning point where consciousness and intelligence have become so powerful that it will be natural in some future being to experience and understand non-duality.
          In non-duality we don't separate things from the larger Universe.  In this not separating there is no birth and death  nor good and bad, nor change and motion.  In this not separating not a thing exists.  And in particular as the Heart Sutra points out in this not separating not a single characteristic by which we define ourselves as individual human beings exists.  This is emphasized in the sutra because the root of our delusion is the attachment to the concept of our selves as individuals.  Once we deeply experience our own personal emptiness then we are open to an ever deepening experience and understanding of non-duality, and delusive thinking and attachments fall away.
          Other schools of Buddhism approach insight into selflessness and non-duality in different ways.  There are philosophic schools which talk a lot about causation and interdependent origination.  There are schools which specifically examine the individual body, sensations, thought, emotions, and consciousness while in meditation in order to understand the emptiness of each of the five skandas.  In Zen  through meditation and mindfulness we clear our minds of delusive thoughts until we awaken to the absolutely clear mind of non-discrimination.  In this clear mind non-duality becomes apparent and we recognize the delusion of the individual self as delusion.  This experience has a depth that goes beyond just an intellectual understanding and truly has the power to transform.

 Heart Sutra blog II

           Hi every one or should I write my very very few readers.  I just got back from a seven day sesshin and even after all these years  (40+) I believe meditation is deepening  and changing for me.  Here is part 2 on my Heart Sutra blogs.

O Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness does not differ from form.  That which is form is emptiness. that which is emptiness, form.  The same is true of feelings,perceptions, impulses and consciousness.
 
            All of a sudden Avalokiteshvara comes out of meditation and addresses Shariputra.  Unlike Avalokiteshvara we know Shariputra to be a real member of the Shakyamuni Buddha's community.  Shariputra was famed for his scholarship and wisdom.  It is interesting that Avalo addresses Shariputra and not the Buddha or the whole group sitting that day.  This points to an unusual interpretation that this whole sutra might be about not Avalo's enlightenment but about Shariputra's enlightenment and that this is all happening inside the mind of Shariputra.   I say this because Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva is a Universal Bodhisattva representing the wisdom of non-discrimination.  We might say that Avalo manifests every time the wisdom of non-discrimination manifests.  In this case this wisdom is manifesting for Shariputra.  Any individual who is experiencing the wisdom of non-discrimination is meeting Avalokitesvara and experiencing the heart of the Prajna Paramita. Whether you accept this unusual interpretation it doesn't matter, this Sutra is about the experience and wisdom thereby gained from non-discrimination. 
          To at all understand the Heart Sutra we have to have some idea of what is the experience of non-discrimination. Maybe we can have some inkling of understanding if we understand how meditation with a mantra works.  In meditation with a mantra we recite the mantra to ourselves attending to the sound of the mantra with concentrated awareness with our inner ear, usually synchronizing the repetition with our breath.  This is a practice in mindfulness and concentration.  We use the mantra to crowd out and cut off our inner dialogue and imagination  This simple practice if maintained continuously over long periods of time, not just hours but weeks and years, will so reduce the energy and habits of our constant inner dialogue and imagination that we will find ourselves without inner dialogue and imagination. not permanently but for periods of time.  One might think that this practice will put one in a sort of a dull hypnotic state but this is not true.  Actually if a person can take the practice that far he/she will find their mind clear, alert, and energized.  This is not very different from the state of mind of the artist or artisan who has spent endless hours practicing, mastering their craft.  Now imagine that after a long period of mantra practice we have entered a state of mind where there is nothing happening in the mind but that mantra repetition   All self consciousness is gone.  We have lost awareness of our body.  All extraneous thoughts are stopped.  Now we open our eyes and look out at the world.  We see forms but all the normal habits of thinking about these forms are gone.  We don't categorize the form as this thing or that thing.  We don't recognize the form as being "out there" or "here in the mind.  We don't add any emotion or thought to what is seen.  We don't  even divide the forms into this and that.  This is the state of complete non-discrimination.  And if upon returning to discursive thought we try to describe this experience of non-discrimination then the word empty might seem like an excellent description.  The normally constant process of conscious and unconscious discrimination that gives the forms observed a sense of reality and solidity is not present.  Now when we observe form we can only ascribe a quality of emptiness to form which is to say no quality.  And this no quality is so intimately fused with observed form that we have to say; "That which is form is emptiness, that which is emptiness form."
          There is another translation of the Heart Sutra by the Zen Studies Society of New York City which replaces "emptiness" with "Mu" a common Zen mantra which translates as "no" in Chinese.  Shodo Harada Roshi is constantly telling his students to see things as "just phenomena."  The Heart Sutra is not talking about some subtle and difficult to understand intellectual concept of emptiness but the experience of emptiness which is non-discrimination.
          
The same is true of feelings perceptions, impulses,and consciousness.                       

          This next line seems to be a shift in perspective from looking outward to looking back upon one's self.  Form, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness are the five skandas (trans: aggregates)  which form the classical Buddhist idea of what constitutes a human being.  At a sesshin (7 day meditation retreat) I  always encounter a lot of pain during the long hours of meditation.  Some times the pain seems almost unbearable  I have thoughts that I am doing permanent damage to my body and I need to move.  But then if meditation is deep with few thoughts I observe the same sensation with little trouble.  The sensation is no longer painful it is simply sensation, phenomena.  The sensation has become empty of the usual attending thoughts that make the sensation painful.  In deep meditation  each of the skandas has that same quality of emptiness as form.  Even consciousness becomes empty when in very deep meditation we enter a mirror like state where sensations reflect on the mirror of consciousness but there is no self conscious awareness.  Each skanda is just phenomena.
          If each of the five skandas is just phenomena then we humans are just phenomena, then  I am just phenomena.  Not my form, not my feelings, not my perceptions, not my impulses, not my consciousness has any special quality that I can attach to as "I".  This is just a reformulation of the non-atman doctrine of Shakyamuni.  This is such an unsettling idea that to our normal way of thinking it is scary, and fear is often experienced by meditators as they approach this insight.  It takes a deep experience of personal emptiness for it to truly be accepted.  But once accepted there will be profound changes in the individual. 
          One might think that the acceptance of our own individual emptiness would lead one into feelings of nihilism and despair but just the opposite happens.  We read that this insight saved Avalokiteshvara from all suffering.  Why?  This insight of emptiness cuts the roots of the illusion of an individual self  and though we seem to loose what is most dear, our selves, we gain the Universe.  Or maybe I should say we become the Universe.  Our personal boundaries are gone and we experience an amazing connection to everything.   Zen teachers often tell their students to become  "one" with something, the mountains, the sound of a stream, the pain in the knees, etc.  They are simply asking the students to experience that same amazing connection that happens when there are no personal boundaries.     
           I am not sure this completely explains why this insight saves us from suffering it doesn't actually end the pain in the knees during sesshin.  And it certainly doesn't end  emotions of empathy for the suffering of others.  These emotions are just intensified by a deepening connections to others.  Nor does it actually end any other emotion though I would hope it lessens greed, anger, and fear.  .But, what it does do is end our attachment to our emotions and any idea of how things should be, and it is that attachment which is the actual suffering.  
           I heard a wonderful interview with an astrophysicist the other day.  The astrophysicist talked about how some people upon learning about the huge immensity of the cosmos will feel insignificant and depressed, but that they have a deluded view of their self importance.  He on the other hand feels aw and joy that he gets to take part in this amazing Universe.  He called it a cosmic perspective This is very much like the perspective of the Heart Sutra, by understanding our own emptiness and the emptiness of all sensations there is a complete change in perspective.  It doesn't change us from being human but it does give us a sort of cosmic perspective in which we also find aw and joy as well as love and compassion                                            

Part I Heart Sutra Blog 

     The Heart Sutra Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra 

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita, perceived that all five skandhas in their own being are empty and was saved from all  suffering. 

O Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form. That which is form is emptiness, that which is emptiness, form. The same is true of 
feelings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness.


 O Shariputra, all Dharmas are marked with emptiness. 
They are without birth or death, are not 
tainted, nor pure; do not increase, nor decrease. Therefore, in 
emptiness no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no impulses, 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 
mind, no world of eyes, through to no world of mind consciousness. 
No ignorance and also no extinction of it, through to no old 
age and death and also no extinction of it. No suffering, no 
origination, no stopping, no path, no cognition, also no attainment, 
with nothing to attain. 

The Bodhisattvas depend on Prajna Paramita and their minds 
are no hindrance. Without any hindrance, no fears exist. Far apart 
from every deluded view they dwell in Nirvana. 


In the Three Worlds all Buddhas depend on Prajna Paramita and 
attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect Enlightenment. 
Therefore know: the Prajna Paramita 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 proclaim the Prajna Paramita mantra, proclaim the 
mantra that says: 


Gyate, gyate, paragyate, parasamgyate, bodhi svaha!  


          Hi everybody out there in Zen blog land.  I thought I might start a series of blogs on the Heart Sutra.  We Zen students read it all the time.  Here in the Moonwater Dojo we read it three times a month which doesn't seem  much but during sesshins here in Port Townsend and on Whidbey we read it several times a day.  Yet if you ask most Zen students to explain it's meaning they would have a difficult time.  I guess some how it is suppose to filter into our consciousness and transform us.  Anyway I am going to expound on it. I am going to use the translation used by the One Drop Sangha  for the most part. Here goes

Avalokiteshvara Boddhisattva while practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita, perceived that all five skandhas in their own being are empty and was saved from all suffering.


          This is the first line of the Sutra as used by the Zen schools.  There is a slightly longer version used by the Tibetan schools which sets up the event which becomes the Heart Sutra.  In this longer version the setting for the Sutra is a gathering of monks and Bodhisattvas each practicing their  individual meditation practice.  The Buddha is practicing a Buddha's samadhi called  "Profound Perception".  We don't know exactly how the Buddha practiced meditation though a deeply experienced practitioner might have a good idea of what is the samadhi of Profound Perception.  More importantly we should understand that Avalokiteshvara's practice is different from the Buddha's, maybe not as deep and he is using   a mantra in meditation which will be given at the end of the Sutra.  He is practicing the Prajna Paramita which we gather from the Sutra is the repetition of a special mantra.  And what we read here is that something happened to Avalokiteshvara while meditating, this perception that all five Skandas are empty and that this was his/ her's enlightenment.  
          Who is Avalokiteshvara?  Normally we should not think of Avalokiteshvara as being a real person who existed during Shakyamuni's time.  Avalokiteshvara is one of those class of Bodhisattvas which in the Mahayana school of Buddhism represents certain important universal qualities.  Normally Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of Compassion.  As the Bodhisattva of Compassion he/she manifests in various different forms.  The Tibetan's believe that the Dali Lama is a incarnation of Avalokiteshvara.  The Chinese have transformed Avalo into the female deity of mercy and compassion Kwan Yin.  My friend and local Buddhist scholar Bill Porter tells me that Avalo was probably a pre-Buddhist Western Asian deity incorporated into Buddhism.  But, here in the Heart Sutra, Avalo represents something other then compassion.  And though we should realize that though the Sutra does not tell the story of a literal event we should think of it as though it is a literal event.  And as such it tells the story of an Enlightenment which tells us about the essence of Enlightenment.
        Avalo while representing compassion is the star of this Sutra because he/she also represents the wisdom of non-discrimination.  This is not a wisdom to be gained from intellectual discourse nor the normal experiences of life.  This wisdom is to only be found in the experience of non-discrimination which can be experienced in meditation.  It is also the foundation wisdom where all other of the Buddhist versions of wisdom begin.
          Prajna Paramita translates as "perfection of wisdom", prajna meaning wisdom and paramita meaning perfection.  Prajna Paramita as a practice has the sense of a process.  Avalo is in the process of perfecting his wisdom unlike a Buddha who's wisdom is complete, though of course this is just an ideal.  
          The Heart Sutra is one of a group of sutras called the Prajna Paramita Sutras all of which focus on the concept of "emptiness." Right away we learn that Avalo perceives that the five skandhas are empty and that this perception is the essence of enlightenment.  I like the use of the word perception in this translation because it points not to emptiness as a fully intellectual concept but as an actual quality of Avalo's experience of the world and in particular the five skandhas which are the components of his own being.  The emphasis here is that this is a meditative experience.  Avalo was not trying to figure anything out as he sat repeating a mantra over and over with his full concentration until his perception was transformed and he clearly saw everything including himself as empty.
          Here we see the essence of the Mahayana as being different from Theravada Buddhism.  In Theravada Buddhism the emphasis is on a gradual process of purification in which the individual rids him/her self of passions, desires, delusions and attachments and thereby attains enlightenment when the process is complete.  Here in the Heart Sutra Avalo attains enlightenment with a single insight jumping over some of the process of purification or maybe we should say jumps beyond the process of purification.
          We read that Avalokiteshvara was saved from all suffering.  This is how we know that this is  enlightenment but being saved from suffering is different from ending all suffering.  There is a story that the Buddha after his experience of enlightenment was walking to Vasili to meet his friends when he ran across a fellow sannyasin and tried to explain  his experience and insight to this sannyasin.  The sannyasin was not properly impressed and the Buddha had to rethink his presentation.  The teachings we know as the Buddha's focus on ending suffering through  the process of purification which Theravada Buddhism teaches.  The ending of suffering is a very attractive teaching.  But Theravada Buddhism in Asia is a monk's discipline, and one of the first steps in the practice is to be a home leaver, to drop all cares, attachments and responsibilities of the normal individual, and then work on purifying the individual mind.  But then how is the normal individual with the responsibilities of life to practice and find release from suffering. This is a problem here in the West where Theravada Buddhism has become mostly a laymen's practice.  Yes we can deal with individual cases of suffering through the practice of non-attachment and certainly mindfulness helps in identifying our patterns of attachment and delusive thinking.  But, does this get to the root of our suffering?  Is this not like trimming a tree of attachments with new branches constantly growing.  Some how we need to identify and focus our cutting on the roots of our suffering.
           There are other teachings in Buddhism besides meditation, mindfulness and non-attachment.  One of these teachings is the Non-Atman doctrine.. This is the idea that we have no soul no self, nothing that is permanent indestructible and divine that is the core of our being as a human.  I find this is the most difficult teaching in Buddhism to absorb.  It deeply challenges us.  If we have no-soul then what is this I which is filled with desires, passions, likes, and dislikes.  And if there is no I then what is free will?  Without free will what is karma?  And then what happens when we die?  How can we be reborn or go to heaven without a soul?  I imagine that this might have been what the Buddha tried to explain to that sennyasin he met along the road.
          In the Heart Sutra  the concept of emptiness is the Mahayana version of non-atman, and it is insight into this which is the core of the enlightenment experience.