In which we listen to music and search for our true teacher

Hello and many thanks for the kind responses to our recent series on the 8-fold path. I’m so glad we can contemplate these profound teachings together. If you missed the series, no worries! It will rerun at some point.

In the meantime, I’m just back from teaching a retreat on the Heart Sutra in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. (The text we used is here.) As I was trained, the meaning of this profound text can be expressed in three ways. It is contained in the words themselves; the sound of the words; and the environment that is created (or discovered) when they are recited. 

What I want to focus on here is not the Heart Sutra (although I’m writing a small book about it, stay tuned!) but the layered way in which meaning is transmitted.

In Buddhist thought, these layers are called outer, inner, and secret. In this video, I try to explain what is meant—and then play a piece of music for you as a much better way of understanding it all. I chose “You Don’t Know What Love Is” as rendered by the great Chet Baker. In this video, I suggest you listen to it three times; once to hear the words, then to hear the sound of the words, and finally to note how or if the felt-sense of your environment shifts. 

The reason I’m going all out on this topic is because this is how we learn the dharma altogether—via outer, inner, and secret teachers. On the outer level, we hear or read someone’s words. On an inner level, our own wisdom is awakened. And on the secret (shhh!) level, our world somehow begins to change. 

How does this all sit with you? I’d love to hear.

Love,
Susan

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