A Heartfelt Understanding of the Heart Sutra

During the inner search there comes a point where all the wisdom teachings, and the profound texts, and scriptures, and poetry, they all suddenly seem quite clear. They all start pointing to the very same truth. The truth of Non-duality. Not two-ness. This is not the experience of oneness, in which there seems to be an underlying essence that is common to everything, but it goes beyond that, to the realization that there are no two things to have an underlying essence.

Not two. Non-duality. You find that some teachings describe this this mind-boggling conclusion with an amazing clarity and precision and brevity. One of those teachings is the Heart Sutra. So, let's explore this sutra together today.

This won't be a scholarly exposition because I am not a Buddhist, nor do I have any formal Buddhist training. But I do know how to speak from my heart. So, if you see any value in it, then we can continue. We will use the translation of the Heart Sutra made by Thich Nhat Hanh.

A beautiful man who passed away in the last few years. And before that he finished this slightly modified translation of the Heart Sutra; the English translation. And the slight changes he made, make it much more clearer for the modern era. So, let's begin with the first passage and let me read it out first.

The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore.

"Avalokiteshvara while practicing deeply with the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore, suddenly discovered that all of the five Skhandas are equally empty, and with this realization he overcame all Ill-being."

This is the introduction to the insights that follow. Let's continue.

"Listen Sariputra, this Body itself is Emptiness and Emptiness itself is this Body.

This Body is not other than Emptiness and Emptiness is not other than this Body.

The same is true of Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations, and Consciousness."

You may not have heard of the Heart Sutra before, but you probably have heard this line before: Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form.

Thich Nhat Hanh translated the word "form", he replaced the word "form", with "body". And this helps focus the inquiry and the understanding. So, let's set a working definition of Emptiness for the sake of this contemplation. As I read this again, consider Emptiness as what was there before this universe.

What was there before the Big Bang, before the beginning of time. What was there before Consciousness emerged; before there was any experience. That is Emptiness. The Ultimate Reality.

So,

"Listen Sariputra, this Body itself is Emptiness and Emptiness itself is this Body.

This Body is not other than Emptiness and Emptiness is not other than this Body."

You've probably heard the phrase that this body is made of stardust. Well where did the stardust come from? And can it be really different from the Source?

It's just a variance of that Source. It is only because the mind draws this stark boundary between something and nothing that this is all so mind-boggling. But that Emptiness, that Absolute Nothing before the beginning of time, that is not nothing. That is where everything emerges.

And what can that everything be other than the Emptiness? From the stardust there emerges a planet. And on the planet there emerge these complex molecules, these organic structures. They become life forms, which continue to replicate.

And at some point there's an egg. And it grows and grows and turns into a body. And the body starts to function, and that functioning is known. There comes experience.

Perceptions, sensations, mental formations, consciousness. Can you separate all this from the Source? Has there ever been any separation form the Source? It cannot be, if everything arises dependent on that Emptiness; that Absolute Nothing.

Ever since that first moment of emergence; the Big Bang, all that has happened is transformation. Nothing has really been created after that point. Has anything ever been born? Can anything truly die?

Let's continue with the next passage in the Heart Sutra. This passage in fact provides the proof, the evidence, to support the claim that has been made; the declaration of the nature of Reality.

"Listen Sariputra, all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness; all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness; their true nature is the nature of no Birth no Death, no Being no Non-being, no Defilement no Purity, no Increasing no Decreasing.

That is why in Emptiness, Body, Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations and Consciousness are not separate self entities."

So, let's consider what has been laid out here. All phenomena originate in Emptiness and subside in it, and are not other than Emptiness itself. And the proof of this is presented, is called, the "mark of Emptiness". It means you can take any particular phenomena and examine it, and you find that this is true.

That there is no birth or death. No being or non-being. So let's pick one. We already discussed the body and how you can't really say at what point it was created.

It is the product of a continuous process of transformation that began with the birth of the universe. And when the body ceases to function, the matter that it is composed of remains in the universe. So you can't say the body was created and was destroyed. There was no birth and no death in terms of the body.

And what about the universe itself? Was it truly born? It just emerged within this Emptiness. Can it be something other than the Emptiness if prior to the the universe all there was, was Emptiness? It is just an expression of that Emptiness.

Now let's consider Consciousness, because that is closest to your heart. Without Consciousness all of this is a moot point. Might as well be nothing. Does Consciousness get born and does it die? Maybe first we should define what we mean by Consciousness here.

It means what gives life to this body. Without which this body is a corpse. It is what allows experience. Sensations, and perceptions, and so on. That is Consciousness.

No one remembers their own birth. Your first memory is a few years after that supposed event. The event that you've taken to be true because of witness testimony. But those witnesses, they have not looked at the true scale of the universe correctly when they say you were born.

They see the body emerge from another body; that is called "birth". So, let's consider the direct experience. Does Consciousness get born in your own experience? When Consciousness emerges, the first you know of it is through knowledge; through the knowing.

Through the sense that "I Am". Through the feelings, or perceptions, or sensations, whatever comes up next. There's a stream of experience that appears. And it appears out of the blue!

Out of that Emptiness, that Absolute Nothing. So, there is no birth. Again. And when experience peters away, the stream of experience runs dry, that's not death. That's like what you do when you go to sleep.

So, much the same as the body, Consciousness too bears the mark of Emptiness. No birth, no death. And in this way you can examine whatever it is that that bothers you, which presents a hurdle to this Understanding. To this Insight that brings us to the other shore.

You might consider what does it mean that there is no being or non-being? This one is about whether something exists or does not exist. And this can be looked at in a few different ways. Again, you could consider this experience.

At the moment this most obviously exists, but what about now in this moment. Where's that previous experience gone? Does it not exist anymore? Did it never exist?

The being and non-being division again crumbles under scrutiny. Everything is emerging in the moment, spontaneously, subsiding back into that Emptiness. Is not other than the Emptiness. It's all a modulation of that Emptiness.

The Silence is singing.

The Stillness is dancing.

Now, after presenting this proof, by inviting you to look at the proof; this mark of Emptiness, the Heart Sutra presents its final conclusion.

"That is why in Emptiness, Body, Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations and Consciousness, are not separate self-entities."

Are not separate self-entities. The Heart Sutra then goes into these next few passages, which lists out all the kind of distinctions and categories that have been discussed in Buddhism, and declares them as not separate self-entities. And then it concludes:

"Whoever can see this no longer needs anything to attain. Bodhisattvas who practice the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore see no more obstacles in their mind, and because there are no more obstacles in their mind, they can overcome all fear, destroy all wrong perceptions and realize Perfect Nirvana.

All Buddhas in the past, present and future by practicing the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore are all capable of attaining Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment."

So, the crucial and final insight here which is repeated several times in this Heart Sutra, and which Thich Nhat Hanh has highlighted by slightly modifying the translation, is that there are no separate self entities. Whatever distinction you make, if you think in terms of the body, or Consciousness, or an individual mind, a person, a self; it all falls apart under scrutiny. It is all inseparable from the Emptiness in which it emerges and subsides and which it really is in truth.

There is no me, or we, or us. There are no separate self entities in the entirety of the universe. This is the Insight that brings us to the other shore. And what does it mean to say the other shore here?

This is where I might take some artistic license and deviate from how the Heart Sutra has said it. There is no other shore. At the conclusion of this inquiry, you are not sitting on another shore looking at the same river. The view is the same, the river is the same.

But you are not to be found on any shore.

The River flows in You.

You are the Riverbed.

You are, and have ever been, that Emptiness in which all forms emerge and are known.

The Emptiness is cognizing. There are no other self-entities to experience this moment or any other moment. When this body form arises, when it begins to function, that functioning is known. From what standpoint is it known?

It is the Emptiness that knows this body, because this body is the Emptiness. Thus the Heart Sutra resolves the question, "What am I?" What is cognizing this voice, these words, is the Emptiness. There's no second candidate. There are no self-entities.

If there is a you, then Thou art That.