The Heart Sutra

by Red Pine

Thus, attachments are viewed as burdens to be abandoned, as obstructions to be transcended, or here, in the language of the Sarvastivadins, as defilements to be purified. This was the usual view of such things by early Buddhists. The problem with this for later Buddhists, especially those inclined toward the Mahayana, was the practice of repulsion inherent in this teaching. Reflecting on this, many concluded that such a negative attitude was just as likely to result in further attachment as in liberation.

This is also Avalokiteshvara’s point. Since the defining characteristic of all dharmas is their emptiness, they cannot be purified, nor can they be defiled. Thus, the reason the doctrine of suffering no longer applies is that there is nothing that suffers. Or, as Hui-neng might have said, “Where do you get this suffering?”

Pao-t’ung says, “Let the Four Elements and Five Skandhas be born and die in vain. They have no effect on our dharma body. Like bamboo shadows on the steps, they can’t be swept away. Like the moon moving across the water, it doesn’t leave a trace. Our dharma body is pure. It has no blemish, stain or smudge. It can’t be damaged or burned. Like a lotus, it doesn’t touch the water. Nor does this body whose heart is pure and empty become greater for a sage or lesser for a fool. It is simply so and changeless.”

But, as with the skandhas, in a world where nothing exists by itself, where every division of one thing from another is a misperception—or misconception—of the way things really are, there are no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind. We cannot, for example, draw a line around the eyes that is not necessarily arbitrary. There is no point at which the eyes begin or end, either in time or in space or conceptually. The eye bone is connected to the face bone, and the face bone is connected to the head bone, and the head bone is connected to the neck bone, and so it goes down to the toe bone, the floor bone, the earth bone, the worm bone, the dreaming butterfly bone. Thus, what we call our eyes are so many bubbles in a sea of foam. This is not only true of our eyes but of our other powers of sensation as well, including the mind.

When Hui-k’o asked Bodhidharma to help him make his mind stop, the First Patriarch of Zen said, “Show me this mind of yours, and I’ll make it stop.” Hui-k’o answered, “But I’ve looked everywhere, and I can’t find the mind.” Bodhidharma said, “There. I’ve stopped it for you.” Thus, in the light of emptiness, we say that the eyes and the other powers do not exist, which does not mean that we have no eyes, only that the eyes are not ultimately real, just a convenient fiction to which we give a name.

Normally, we would look for our self in the abode of the mind or in the abode of thought. Surely this is where we can find our self. But what we find in our mind and our thought is the same as what we find in our ear and in sound: an ocean in constant flux.

This three-part scheme of powers, domains, and consciousness was developed to allow practitioners the opportunity to investigate the nature of their experience and ascertain for themselves the absence or presence of a self. To call certain elements “subjective” reintroduces the self in sheep’s clothing. The best approach is to give each element equal weight. The same problem arises from distinguishing certain skandhas or ayatanas as internal or external. These are judgments, which can be useful up to a point, but which easily mislead us into sneaking a “self ” through the back door, and which should not be considered as anything more than convenient labels.

To put an end to life and death, if you can just see through one sense, you will immediately be at peace and resume being the person you were before the last empty kalpa began.”

Hui-ching says, “If our self is in the eyes, then it cannot be in the ears. And if there is a self present in each element, then a person would be a combination of eighteen selves. And if none of the elements has a self, then there would not be a self in their combination. And because there is none, we know the self is not a real entity.

ignorance includes not only the absence of knowledge but also the presence of delusion.

Later Buddhist commentators, such as Buddhaghosha, interpreted the first two links of ignorance and memory as representing causes from a past existence, the last two links of birth and old age and death as representing effects for a future existence, and the intervening eight links as representing effects experienced in the present (consciousness through sensation) or causes produced in the present (desire, attachment, and existence). While such a formulation is useful in clarifying the relationship among these links, in the hands of some commentators it has reintroduced the concept of a “soul” through the back door of rebirth. Hence, readers will want to consider such a conception in the light of its usefulness in their own practice before employing it.

We know that whatever link we might identify with at any moment has been produced by the previous link and will in turn give rise to the succeeding link without help from a self of any kind. If we can break but one link in this chain, it comes to an end. But if the links of this chain do not include a self, then it is already broken. Thus, how can there be suffering, if there is no one who suffers? By meditating upon this, we can liberate ourselves from our selves and put an end to this chain of causation once and for all, which is what the Buddha did. This is also what Avalokiteshvara now does, as he shines the light of Prajnaparamita on these links and finds that they do not exist in the first place. Thus, there is no need to put an end to what does not exist.

Chain of Dependent Origination, which goes as follows: After reflecting on the truth of Dependent Origination, Shakyamuni realized that suffering would cease if old age and death would cease, and old age and death would cease if birth would cease, and birth would cease if existence would cease, and existence would cease if attachment would cease, and attachment would cease if thirst would cease, and thirst would cease if sensation would cease, and sensation would cease if contact would cease, and contact would cease if the abodes would cease, and the abodes would cease if name and form would cease, and name and form would cease if consciousness would cease, and consciousness would cease if memory would cease, and memory would cease if ignorance would cease. And realizing that in this chain of endless transient events there is no self, Shakyamuni broke its links forever and realized Enlightenment.

the doctrine of universal impermanence: The eyes, shape, visual consciousness, and visual contact are all impermanent.

Because all objects and states are subject to change, our thirst and its consequent attachment result in suffering.

Thus, the Buddha’s First Truth was the truth of suffering (duhkha), and the Second Truth was the origination (samudaya) of suffering. After announcing these two truths, the Buddha then proclaimed the Third Truth, which was the cessation (nirodha) of suffering. If thirst results in attachment and attachment results in suffering, then putting an end to thirst and attachment must result in an end of suffering. The Fourth Truth was the path (marga) that led to the end of suffering.

Whether we consider our experience in psychological or physical terms, whether as nama or as rupa, whether as skandhas, abodes of sensation, elements of perception, or a chain of causation, every experience of which we are aware is transient and fraught with suffering. And every experience is fraught with suffering because we do not see things as they really are, as no things. All we see are what we love and hate and have deceived ourselves into believing exists or does not exist. In response to this, the Buddha asks us to see things as they really are. He does not ask us to cling to optimistic views of eternity or pessimistic views of annihilation but simply to examine our experience.

“Suffering and its source are fundamentally empty. Like tortoise fur, they do not exist. Relief and the path aren’t real. Like rabbit horns, they, too, do not exist.

Our fear begins with our separation from emptiness. And it ends with our reunion.

“The delusions people cling to are like the image of water in a fire, flowers in the sky, like fur on a tortoise or horns on a rabbit or like the child of a barren woman. Worldly desires, wealth, fame, and position are all like this. Fools think they are real. Those who are wise understand they are dreamlike conceptions and empty illusions and that their original nature is not apparent. Whatever is apparent is the result of delusion.”

“Once you catch a fish, you can forget the trap. Once you catch a rabbit, you can forget the snare. Once you catch the meaning, you can forget the words.

‘Subduing demons is the place of enlightenment.’