The Heart Sutra (in English)
Here are the words of The Heart Sutra, in English, as translated by the wonderful people at the Kwan Um School of Zen. (If you have been to one of the Kwan Um Zen Centers, you will know this sutra well.)
The Heart Sutra (in English)
The Maha Prajna Paramita Hrdaya Sutra
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva
when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita
perceives that all five skandhas are empty
and is saved from all suffering and distress.
Two powerful quotes from Wanting Enlightenment is a Big Mistake
I’ve been reading the book Wanting Enlightenment is a Big Mistake, a book of teachings by Zen Master Seung Sahn (ZMSS), edited by Hyon Gak Sunim, and a few lines from the chapter on his early life really hit me just now.
In the first part, ZMSS had just gone to a Buddhist monastery. He was given a copy of the Diamond Sutra, and as he read it, he read the words:
Chapter 3 of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
This morning I took some time out to read a translation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and I’m blown away by some of the verses I read in the third chapter. (I learned about this chapter of the Yoga Sutras while reading a book titled Tree of Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar.
Form does not differ from emptiness
When I really meditate a lot, and pay attention a lot to the present moment, some funny things start to happen, and today was one of those days.
When people talk, I can hear the sound vibrations from their voices rippling across my the skin of my scalp and on my hands and arms. Also, when they talk, I often only hear sounds like they have in the Peanuts cartoons when the parents talk, something like “Wonk wonk wonk”, and I don’t hear or know the meanings of the words, I just hear the sounds, or syllables.
Reality, and the Heart Sutra
There are times, like now, where I have serious doubts about "reality". Before you laugh, or think that I'm really crazy, have you ever read (or chanted) The Heart Sutra?
If not, let's explore a few verses in rapid order. It begins like this:
