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My Heart Sutra: A World in 260 Characters

Frederik L. Schodt

4.67 · Rating details · 9 ratings · 5 reviews

Author Frederik L. Schodt has had a mysterious, half-century-long fascination with the simple mantra that is chanted at the end of the Buddhist “Heart Sutra.” On a normally routine flight that unexpectedly developed mechanical difficulties, he resolved to memorize the sutra and to finally seriously study it.

The Heart Sutra, beloved by millions in East Asia for over 1,400 y ...more

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Paperback, 248 pages

Published December 8th 2020 by Stone Bridge Press

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Oct 10, 2020 Books on Asia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: buddhism, japan

All over Asia the Heart Sutra soothes minds and eases the burdens people encounter in their every day lives. In Japan, one might catch its rising timbre across a graveyard as a Buddhist Priest chants to the departed in a memorial ceremony honoring the family’s ancestors. A tourist might stumble upon followers at a temple standing and reciting from pocket accordion books, their steady synchronic chant punctuated with the ding of a bell. Grieving spouses go to the local temple to practice writing All over Asia the Heart Sutra soothes minds and eases the burdens people encounter in their every day lives. In Japan, one might catch its rising timbre across a graveyard as a Buddhist Priest chants to the departed in a memorial ceremony honoring the family’s ancestors. A tourist might stumble upon followers at a temple standing and reciting from pocket accordion books, their steady synchronic chant punctuated with the ding of a bell. Grieving spouses go to the local temple to practice writing the 260 characters of the sutra, a practice said to help their loved one’s gain smooth entry into the afterlife. Others trace the letters to accrue merit for their own afterlife. This sutra copying is called shakyo. And yes, American author Frederik L. Schodt tells us, there’s an app for that.

In My Heart Sutra: The World in 260 Characters, Schodt introduces the well-known Buddhist text by tracing his own fascinations with it, starting with his first remembrance of a recitation by Alan Ginsberg in Los Angeles May, 1974.

Later, working from a scroll copy of the Heart Sutra he picked up during his travels, we learn about its origins, history, interpretations, translations and controversies. Over the course of the book, Schodt’s calligraphic existentialist Heart Sutra transforms itself from a mere pretty wall hanging to a parchment imbued with magic, meaning and intrigue.

"It was written in brush and ink on ordinary washi paper, and I later had it mounted as a scroll on Japanese silk fabric backing. When the wind blows through the open window of my room, the wooden rod, or weight, at the bottom of the four-foot-long scroll often rattles gently against the wall. Because of this, over the years the scroll has developed a few creases and a tiny tear, but it is still remarkably unfaded, and its defects add what in Japan might be called a wabi-sabi aesthetic, which values imperfections and transience."

The sutra was originally brought from India to China by Xuanzang (Genjō in Japanese) and is universally recognized across Asia, permeating most sects of Buddhism. It embodies “perfect wisdom” and “enlightenment.” It is 1,400 years old.

Some Asians can produce the sutra from rote, and most can chant at least parts of it from memory. English speakers may recognize oft-translated sections such as “Form is no other than emptiness, Emptiness no other than form. Form is only emptiness, Emptiness only form.” Yet few people claim to understand the profound meaning of the Heart Sutra. And in fact, some believe it is impossible to do so. There is even a belief that understanding the sutra would detract from its dynamism. Rather than focus on its meaning, the author encourages us to instead concentrate on the significance of its sounds, healing powers, and its many esoteric conveyances.

The very personal nature of My Heart Sutra is what gives this book its readability, especially to the uninitiated. Schodt describes how the sutra was introduced to the West via poets, writers and Buddhist Priests: Gary Snyder, Alan Ginsburg, D.T. Suzuki, and Shunryū Suzuki (who arrived in the U.S. in 1959 and became the first head of the San Francisco Zen Center). The author, a translator himself, touches on translations of the sutra into English by Samuel Beal (1863), F. Max Muller (1881, who used an ancient extant copy written on palm leaf), D. T. Suzuki (1935), Edward Conze (1958), the 14th Dalai Lama (2005) and Thich That Hanh (2014).

The author takes us on a wild chase down the Silk Road as we follow the Heart Sutra from it’s Sanskrit origins in India to Cave 17 in the Mogao Grottos of China, then across the seas to the British Museum, and the sutra’s appearance in the Clash’s CD: Combat Rock. The author ruminates on the Chinese version vs. the Sanskrit, ponders whether it is more a sutra, an incantation, or a spell and weighs in on one scholar’s suggestion—deemed scandalous by some—that the sutra may be a back translation from Chinese to Sanskrit. Schodt, known for his books on manga, anime and robots, is quick to clue in readers to the sutra’s modern mellifluous renditions such as those by the musician-priest Kanho Yakushiji that the Buddhist priest posts to his popular YouTube Channel.

Its always a plus when a book’s content is true to its title, and although there is one rather long scholarly section, the book is nonetheless a highly personal and entertaining read. Schodt even appeals to the inner tourist in us by telling where we can find the largest Heart Sutra (hint: Somewhere in Hamamatsu), “see” Genjo’s skull (hint: Somewhere in Saitama) and interact with the Heart Sutra robot (hint: Somewhere in Kyoto).

Schodt asks the reader to think of the Heart Sutra as a “magic spell” meant to be felt rather than understood, that it be hailed for it’s lyricism and ability to compel deep thought through the vehicle of sound. Schodt suggests that the mantra has meaning because it has power and it has power because it has meaning. And that this power is derived from the Buddha and the verity of the sutra’s influence over 1,400 years. ...more

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Nov 16, 2020 A. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: japan

This book is a memoir about the author’s relationship with the most frequently read and recited texts, the Buddhist Heart Sutra. Author Frederik L. Schodt explores its history, popularity and place in the modern world. He explains how “sutra” is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning thread or rule, but today we might think of it as a mnemonic device that helps us remember a text. Here, the heart or core of the text helps us remember the Buddha’s teachings. This book concentrates mainly on China and J This book is a memoir about the author’s relationship with the most frequently read and recited texts, the Buddhist Heart Sutra. Author Frederik L. Schodt explores its history, popularity and place in the modern world. He explains how “sutra” is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning thread or rule, but today we might think of it as a mnemonic device that helps us remember a text. Here, the heart or core of the text helps us remember the Buddha’s teachings. This book concentrates mainly on China and Japan, despite the sutras popularity in other Asian countries. The justification is that the author has considerable language skills in Chinese and Japanese and that it is the Heart Sutra translation by the Chinese monk Xuanzang that is typically the source material for others, including those in English.

He examines the calming, cleansing effects chanting the Heart Sutra has for those who have taken the trouble to memorise it. Memorising it and comprehending the meaning has layers of difficulties, depending on what translation you are using. Comparisons of texts and rhymes may come close to what was originally written in India in Sanskrit, but today nobody can be certain of how the original text was pronounced. Despite these challenges, the Heart Sutra “remains a sonic bridge among diverse languages and cultures, one that has survived nearly intact for 1,400 years.” Those who study language or work in translation today will appreciate the struggle between attempting to capture the original sound while also maintaining the sutra’s profound meaning. Futurists might enjoy how these aims have found new life in Japan’s robotics industry.

As an expert Japanese translator with extensive experience living in Japan, he describes how the sutra is woven into local daily life. Travellers to China or Japan would benefit from being able to recognise the sutra, as he points out how all manner of Heart Sutra merchandise is often available and how often one might hear it. Drawing on his knowledge of pop culture, he brings this ancient mantra into the present by describing how many anime series have been inspired by the sutra, the life of the translator Xuanzang and the epic classic Journey to the West. The book also includes many photos of calligraphy, sculptures and locations in the United States, China and Japan. I especially enjoyed the photo of the printed Japanese tea towel which helps you memorise the sutra through a series of images of daily objects.

He dives in deep into academic feuds over whether the Heart Sutra really came from a Sanskrit original or if the Chinese version is the original. Many translators would refer on the Chinese translation by Xuanzang, but add a dash of ‘authenticity’ by referring to the Sanskrit version. The debate over whether Xuanzang’s version had been translated from a Sanskrit original in India and the backlash scholar Jan Nattier experienced for suggesting this might not be the case was fascinating. The controversy in Japan also revolved around Western researchers from putting “too much emphasis on the study of Central Asian languages” and a belief that Chinese sources are superior. Many of these academic squabbles also occurred due to mistranslations between Japanese and English contemporary academic articles. It’s interesting as that many academics / practitioners strongly desire the Heart Sutra to have a ‘authentic South Asian pedigree’ while at the same time they seem to deride a deep study of Sanskrit. As one source explained “there are far more important and accurate documents in Chinese.’ Do the practitioners want some India, but not too much India?

This book, like the Heart Sutra itself, offers solace to the reader. Completed during the start of the 2020 global pandemic, he describes how familiarity with the sutra cleanses his brain and serves as a north star during troubled times. As the author points out, an entire forest of trees has likely been lost to printing guides to the Heart Sutra. This book offers the perspective of an individual who does not identify as ‘religious’ or as an academic and therefore brings an original and relatable voice to the field. The reader may find solace and stability in learning about the sonic bridge that has connected so many hearts.

This book was provided for a review by Stone Bridge Press. ...more

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Nov 29, 2020 Karen Axnick rated it really liked it

This is an amazing treatise on an ancient, esoteric Buddhist teaching, the Heart Sutra (also known as the “Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra”). The author takes us on a dual journey – the first one of his personal relationship and experience with it and the second of his extensive research into its origin and use over thousands of years in multiple cultures. It has been said by many teachers and scholars that it is best not to try to understand the Sutra, but rather to chant it, copy it, o ...more

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Dec 26, 2020 Leanne rated it it was amazing

From my review at Kyoto Journal:

In addition to Alex Kerr’s book this year, writer and translator Frederik L. Schodt has written a memoir titled, My Heart Sutra: A World in 260 Characters. A well-known figure among translators of Japanese, especially in the world of manga, Schodt was awarded in 2009 the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, by the Japanese Government for his contribution “to the introduction and promotion of Japanese contemporary popular culture in the Unit From my review at Kyoto Journal:

In addition to Alex Kerr’s book this year, writer and translator Frederik L. Schodt has written a memoir titled, My Heart Sutra: A World in 260 Characters. A well-known figure among translators of Japanese, especially in the world of manga, Schodt was awarded in 2009 the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, by the Japanese Government for his contribution “to the introduction and promotion of Japanese contemporary popular culture in the United States of America.” He was recognized both for his translations and his scholarly work—both talents which are on full display in his new book—which is WONDERFUL!!!

From his first encounters with the sutra in the 1970s continuing down to the present day, we follow along on Schodt’s path of ever-deepening understanding of the sutra and its place in his life.

The Heart Sutra is one of the most recited Buddhist texts of the Mahayana tradition. There are two versions. The long version became incorporated into the Tibetan canon; while the short version, which is our concern here, was translated in 635CE by the Chinese monk Xuanzang and is recited in many of the East Asian Schools of Buddhism. In Chinese, it is a mere 260 characters, while the English translation scarcely fills up page. The Heart Sutra is best known for the way it pulls the epistemological rug out from beneath our feet. The sutra defies summarization. But its core message is that the outer world is illusory. Nothing is real. Even now, over a thousand years after Xuanzang made his translation, people grapple with its core message that:
FORM IS EMPTINESS, EMPTINESS IS
FORM 色不異空。空不異色.

Schodt first came to Japan in his adolescence. The son of diplomats, at the end of his parents’ tour of duty in the country, he decided to stay on to finish high school. Interestingly, he has no memory of ever encountering the Heart Sutra in his school days, nor even later when he returned to Japan to study as a college student. His initiation in the Heart Sutra happened not in Japan at all, but in California where he came to know the work of poets Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg. The 1970s were a unique time to be living on the West Coast, where alternative lifestyles and anti-war, anti capitalist resistance movements had found a home alongside various philosophies and religions from Asia.

In the early pages of the book, Schodt tells a wonderful story about Allen Ginsberg traveling in India with Gary Snyder and his then-wife Joan Kyger. Entering one of the cave-temples at Ellora, Snyder plopped down on the ground and began chanting the Heart Sutra in Japanese. Needless to say, the sonorous chanting which reverberated off the rock-cut walls made a profound impression on Ginsberg, and this in turn deeply affected Schodt’s own life. It wouldn’t be until much later, when he became deeply unsettled on a plane undergoing mechanical difficulties, that he committed himself to memorizing and chanting the sutra.

As with Kerr’s book, Schodt keeps his attention focused on the short version of
the Heart Sutra Neither provide textual analyses of the text based on religious studies, nor are they self-help books providing insights that people in the West can use in their self-improvement projects. Rather, both books are deep dives into the living practices revolving around the Heart Sutra in East Asia. From China and Japan to Taiwan and Hong Kong, Schodt takes us on a lively tour of the temples, major works of art, music, architecture, sutra-copying practices, and even the sutra-chanting robots which form the wondrous universe of the Heart Sutra in today’s Asia. Being an expert on the Japanese robot industry, not to mention Japanese popular culture, Schodt is comfortable placing high technology alongside the more ancient practices of sutra-copying and recitation. Surprisingly, since he is such a renowned translator, Schodt decides not to offer his own English translation, and instead delves deeply into existing translations, analyzing Sanskrit vocabulary and Chinese characters, so that we can perhaps choose wisely among them, or maybe even cobble together a translation of our own. I am not sure I have read another book in which the author is as sensitive as Schodt to the quality of the spoken or chanted version of the text, particularly the last line which can be said to function as an incantation or spell: gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha Most translators, follow the legendary Xuanzang and leave the last line as a mantra in Sanskrit.

But Schodt reminds us that Allen Ginsburg rendered the last line: “All gone, all gone, all over gone, all gone sky high now old mind soul, ah….”

I loved this book so much! ...more

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Nov 08, 2020 Rolando José Rodríguez De León rated it really liked it

This book goes far away from the Schodt book I have read. Said that, is a good book, love the historic part and how the author levels it to a layman's level.
Is a book that I'm glad I have read, cuz it's way out from my confort —reading— zone, and probably wouldn't have pick it otherwise. I learned a lot from it in a field away from my normal investigative self and for that I'm glad.
Also did a spanish review here:

https://pananime.com/LeAn/Entries/202... ...more

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About Frederik L. Schodt

Frederik L. Schodt

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Frederik L. Schodt is an American translator, interpreter and writer.

Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 when Schodt was fifteen. They left in 1967 but Schodt remained to graduate from Tokyo's American School in Japan, in 1968. After entering the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1970 Schodt Frederik L. Schodt is an American translator, interpreter and writer.

Schodt's father was in the US foreign service, and he grew up in Norway, Australia, and Japan. The family first went to Japan in 1965 when Schodt was fifteen. They left in 1967 but Schodt remained to graduate from Tokyo's American School in Japan, in 1968. After entering the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1970 Schodt returned to Japan, and studied Japanese intensively at International Christian University (I.C.U.) for a year and half. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1972, and after a brief bohemian stint at a variety of jobs and traveling became a tour guide in Los Angeles for Japanese tourists, also escorting them to Canada and Mexico. After trying to interpret for a group once at Sunkist, he realized that he could become an interpreter, but needed further training. In 1975, he was awarded a scholarship from Japan's Ministry of Education, to return to I.C.U. and study translation and interpreting. After finishing his studies at I.C.U. in 1977, he began working in the translation department of Simul International, in Tokyo. In mid-1978 he returned to the United States, and since then has worked in San Francisco as a free-lance writer, translator, and interpreter.

While working in Tokyo in 1977, he joined with several university friends in contacting Tezuka Productions. They sought permission to translate the Phoenix comic into English. Schodt is notable in manga and anime fandom for his translations of works such as Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix, Tezuka’s Astro Boy, Riyoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles, Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen, and others.

His best known book is Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, published in 1983 and reprinted several times, with an introduction by Tezuka. Manga! Manga! won a prize at the Manga Oscar Awards in 1983. Furthermore, in 2000 Schodt was awarded the Asahi Shimbun’s Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize "Special Prize" for his outstanding contribution to the appreciation of manga worldwide. ...more