Archive Result

;;20020525GRCTMRHS04

Saturday morning

Lets read the Heart Sutra and see what we can understand. Normally, it is very helpful to follow the outlines from the traditional teachings. But in this case, the Heart Sutra has so many outlines, perhaps more outlines than the actual body of the text. The actual outlines come from the longer version of the prajnaparamita in 12 volumes. This teaching has been given by Buddha. There are a number of different versions of the prajnaparamita. The detailed one has 12 volumes. It is huge. There are more than a thousand pages in each volume. Then there is a shorter version in three volumes and yet a shorter one in one volume. Even that is supposed to have 80 000 shalokas or four-line-verses. The very shortest version is the Heart Sutra. That also has a number of different versions. Allen Ginsberg showed me the short version he worked out with Suzuki Roshi. Normally the Tibetans don’t do that one. I took pains to find it and looked through the kangyur and there is indeed a shorter Heart Sutra version. This probably has been used more in Japan and that is how we got it. Then the absolute shortest version of prajnaparamita is the mantra gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

The outlines work mostly from the middle level prajnaparamita sutra in 80 000 verses. When you bring the outlines in here, it becomes a little difficult. Lets not do that. Instead lets follow the usual outlines:

¥ Preliminaries

¥ Actual

¥ Conclusion

In the Tibetan tradition you can always make the outlines in that way.

There are two types of preliminaries here:

¥ Common preliminaries

¥ Uncommon preliminaries

Before you read the actual Heart Sutra often you say this particular verse:

Ma sam gyü me she rap pa röl zhin

Ma gye ma gam nam kai ngo wo nyi

So so rang gye ye she chö yül chen

Dü sum gyal wai yum la chak tsal lo

I am sure there are translations available of that. I am sure Trungpa Rimpoche used that. It says,

Even if you want to say it, nothing can be said. It is beyond.

It is unborn, unstopped, like the sky.

Yet it is self-discriminating, only known to wisdom itself.

I bow to the great mother of the Three Times’ Buddhas.

That is just a paraphrasing translation.

‘Heart Sutra’ is the English term that is most used. I don’t know whether that is the correct word or not. The name in Sanskrit is prajnaparamita hridaya. In Tibetan that is pak pa she rab kyi paröl du zhin pai nying po.

Who spoke that sutra? It is spoken by Buddha. The sutras and tantras are categorized in Tibetan as ka. Literally that means ‘The words of the Lord’. Many people may not like that. But that’s what it is. The word of the Lord is unquestionable. It is like an order. Anybody other than Buddha who wrote anything is categorized as tan gyö. That means ‘good explanation’. With these, you can question, argue about it and debate. Every Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali teaching is divided into these two categories. In Tibetan, the Collected Works of the Buddha are known as ka gyur. That means: Translated Orders. Of course, the Buddhist scholars and Buddhologists prefer to call it ‘Buddhist Canon’ rather than ‘Collected Works of the Buddha’ for various reasons that I don’t want to go into now.

Any teaching given by someone other than Buddha, like the earlier Indian masters, are called tan gyur. There are 125 volumes of the ka gyur, depending on which edition, and 250 or so volumes of the tan gyur. Most scholars these days just use these terms.

So who and what is Buddha? It is nothing than the wisdom-nature mind that knows every phenomena to be known. I think we have to leave it there, rather than going into who has that mind and what it is. This would become complicated. This is what Buddha really is. I am not talking about the historical Buddha, but about ‘Buddha’. This is the nature that has been Buddha, that is Buddha and that nature of us that will be Buddha. It is the mind that knows everything to be known and it knows it simultaneously. Just thinking about that will drive us a little crazy. When you become a Buddha your capacity is tremendously increased. Even though you know everything simultaneously, it will not drive you crazy. If you think about it now, it sounds crazy, but when you get to that level, it is not. This is an extraordinary quality. It is the difference between enlightened and non-enlightened.

As non-enlightened beings we have limitations. When we have to do three, four or five things together, that really drives us crazy. On the enlightened level, everything that is to be known is known at the same time, simultaneously, all the time, whether you are awake or asleep. That is the difference between enlightened beings and non-enlightened beings.

Then you will say, ‘What about Shakyamuni Buddha, who appeared in India?’ That is the historical Buddha. The body of the historical Buddha is known as Nirmanakaya, a manifested body. Where does that come from? From the extraordinary exclusive body called Sambogakaya. In English this is often called ‘Enjoyment Body’ because of the extraordinary qualities this body enjoys. These are the physical aspects of the Buddha. Then there is the mental aspect, which is called Dharmakaya. Basically then, there are three aspects of Enlightenment, Nirmanakaya, Sambogakaya and Dharmakaya.

How come that the physical manifestation of the Buddha is giving teachings? What makes that happen? This needs to be collectively established. Just because Buddha is there doesn’t mean that he gives teachings. Just because there are followers of the Buddha also doesn’t mean that he gives teachings. What makes the Nirmanakaya and Sambogakaya work? From Buddha’s point of view, he or she needs the purity part, the perfection of dedication and the perfection of prayer. From the receiver’s angle, pure karma is needed. When pure karma and perfection of dedication are combined together, at that moment that Buddha gives teachings.

If these don’t meet together, teachings don’t happen. Otherwise, even today the physical form of the Buddha should appear and give teachings. But that is not the case. What is lacking? It is the pure karma from our side to be able to perceive and receive that. From the Buddha’s side the pure dedication, the pure willingness, is there. From our side the karmic condition to be able to receive it is not there. That I s why for us the teachings are in form of a message and the teachers are the messengers. Otherwise Buddha could give the message himself, he wouldn’t have to send it.

Next, when, where and how did Buddha say that sutra and who was there to hear it? These are the questions our normal rational mind will raise. Especially in this case we will ask, because unlike in most sutras it is not Buddha who does the most talking but Avalokitesvara and Sariputra. It is mainly a dialogue between those two and Buddha is not participating in the discussion. Yet it is counted as Buddha’s word. This is not because Buddha is more well-known and therefore all the credit is going to him.

The Collected Works of the Buddha themselves are divided into three categories:

¥ Words coming from Buddha’s own mouth

¥ Words inspired and blessed by Buddha

¥ Words spoken by means other than Buddha’s mouth (ushnisha or drum, etc)

This Heart Sutra is part of the second category. It is credited as Buddha’s word because the discussion between Avalokitesvara and Sariputra was inspired by him. That does not just mean being influenced and initiated. Here it is almost like Buddha took over, not necessarily speaking from his own mouth, but somehow his mind took over the minds of those two. We don’t say it, but you have to understand in that way. It is almost as though Buddha comes into trance with these two and talking about the subject. I said ‘As though’, because it doesn’t exactly happen that way. Buddha does not come into trance.

There are a number of people who claim that Buddha comes into trance. None of the enlightened beings do. If you go to South East Asia, from Thailand to Indonesia, at every little corner there will be some guy shaking his head and saying, ‘Laughing Buddha is here’ or this or that Buddha is there. They are doing their little service by talking and it is fine whatever they are doing. Leave them alone. They are not Buddha. Buddhas don’t come into trance.

So in order for a text to be categorized as Buddha’s words he doesn’t necessarily have to move his own mouth like we do. Buddha also doesn’t produce blah blah like we do. Also a blessed speech by the Buddha doesn’t require him to move his mouth.

There is one work of the Buddha, which is sutra and tantra combined. It is about a deity called White Umbrella. The whole White Umbrella Tantra has been spoken by Buddha’s ushnisha, his crown protrusion. You know why? Buddha had an attendant called Ananda. Ananda had made a rule with Buddha, saying to him, ‘You cannot speak when I am not there.’ Buddha agreed. When the time came to speak the White Umbrella Tantra, however, Ananda could not be found. So Buddha said, ‘It does not matter, I will speak from the ushnisha.’ So when you read that sutra it will say in the beginning, ‘This is the sutra that came from the Buddha’s ushnisha’.

There is also another sutra that came through a drum. It must be the beating of the drum producing the sound of the teaching. That was 2500 year ago and this sutra is called ‘the Great Gods’ Drum Beat Sutra’ or something.

Now comes the question where Buddha spoke these words. There is no argument about that. Everybody agrees. It happened on Vulture’s Peak. But as to when he spoke a particular sutra, everybody will differ. I did not have any time to research into the Heart Sutra myself, but I wanted to refer back about it to the early Indian commentaries, the works of the tan gyur. So I asked somebody in Tibet House in New Dehli to dig into the tan gyur to find out. I paid somebody to do that research for me. I was able to look into some of that last night. There are nine commentaries in the tan gyur alone on the Heart Sutra. Every one of them differs about the time when Buddha had spoken it. One says it was one year after Buddha’s enlightenment. Another one says it was a year before Buddha died. That means a 40-year gap. The later Tibetan commentaries avoid the issue by saying, ‘Buddha spoke this when he was together with this and that great assembly’. They probably did that because the early Indian commentaries had mentioned so many different times. Some people try to explain the time differences by going into the astrological systems. Just look at Buddha’s Passing Away Day, which we know as Vesak Day. That is not even universally established. Some say that it was the day that Buddha became enlightened, was born and died – all on the same day, of course in different years. I don’t know what proof they have for that. In reality it is probably just the day Buddha passed away. Many of the Sanskrit commentaries call it the mahaparanirvana day. That is the day Buddha passed away. On the other hand everyone agrees that Buddha got enlightened on a full moon day. But nobody is sure whether it is the fourth month of the lunar calendar. Buddha’s passing away also happened on a full moon day. I am not aware of anybody giving an account of Buddha being also born on a full moon day. But anyway, 2500 years later it really doesn’t matter.

What really matters is that if we want to pay tribute to Buddha today, the best way to do that is by following the Buddha’s teachings, rather than trying to figure out the day he was born or when exactly he died. For those who like to keep data bases it may be very important. But for the practitioners it is not. For us, what is most important is what has an effect on us.

So the question of when Buddha said something is easily answered by saying, ‘When they got together’. That is what the Tibetan commentaries say. They found a good solution.

The next question is: Why is the place where this sutra was taught called ‘Vulture’s Peak?’ Let’s read that from the root text. This actually begins with the title:

Bhagavati prajnaparamita hridaya

chom den de ma she rab gyi pa röl du zhin pai nying po

Chom den de means Bhagavan in Sanskrit. When you add the female ending ma, it becomes the Bhagavati in Sanskrit. Prajna or she rap means wisdom. Pa röl du zhin pa means ‘gone beyond’. It is the wisdom that has gone beyond ignorance. ‘Gone beyond’has a number of different applications. Wisdom has gone beyond ignorance. Arhats have gone beyond samsara. Enlightenment has gone beyond non-enlightenment. That is gone, gone, gone beyond or paramita or pa röl du chin pa (short form: par chin ). It means gone from this side to that side.

Milarepa was once challenged by a scholar to debate with him. The par chin is one of the most important subjects the monks study. It is one the five most important texts they have to master. Milarepa was a famous meditator. There was this geshe who always gave him trouble. One day he asked Milarepa, ‘Do you know anything about par chin?’ Milarepa replied,

I don’t know anything about coming beyond or going beyond. But if you actually have gone from here you have really gone beyond.

‘Gone from here’ means gone from samsara. So when you have gone from samsara, you really have the paramita. This is really true. In debate there is sometimes a lot of bla bla, but Milarepa has given the essence of going beyond. It means going beyond samsara, beyond the ignorance, the non-enlightened level.

Hridaya, in Tibetan nying po, means essence. It can mean essence but also heart. That is why it can be translated as the ‘Heart of all Sutras’. I guess the name Heart Sutra in English has come from there. I don’t know who first translated this into English, perhaps the earlier Zen teachers. Actually it really means ‘essence’. But you can say ‘heart’. According to the eastern traditions the heart is the most important thing. It is not the brain. The most important principal consciousness is supposed to be in the heart. Every part of your body is connected with the heart and is the getting the message from there. It is the command post or bridge of the star ship. Everything functions from there.

So the sutra is actually the Heart of Wisdom then. That is better than ‘Heart Sutra’. Why heart? Because it contains the essence of the long, the medium and the short prajnaparamita sutras. I don’t particularly like the word ‘essence’. It reminds me of chicken essence, but what else can you say? What is wisdom here? It is the mind that understands emptiness. It is the mind that sees true reality. It is going beyond mystery. Normally, you hear that wisdom goes beyond ignorance. But ignorance mostly means stupidity, not knowing. So you have to explain that this also includes wrong knowing. But why do we have so much difficulty in life? Where are all our sufferings coming from? It is because we don’t know how to solve the mystery of life. Going beyond that mystery is seeing reality. That is emptiness. Truly going beyond samsara into nirvana is done only through wisdom. That is why there is the title “Heart of Wisdom’. To call it ‘Heart Sutra’ doesn’t really do justice to what it is. I am not suggesting to change the name. That will do no good. People like to change names all the time. I myself also have lots of names. I am Rimpoche Gehlek or Gehlek Rimpoche or Rimpoche Ngawang Gelek, sometimes Gelek with or without ‘h’. These are newly created problems for me. Traditionally I already have names like Ngawang Gelek Trinley Namgyal Gya ten Gelek Namgyal Nyare Khentrul. I have plenty of names. If I kept on using all those names I would be detained by Security everywhere. So if people call this text ‘Heart Sutra’, let it be. But when we talk about its meaning we have to know. We have to know. Maybe if you say it is the heart of all those prajnaparamita sutras it is justified to call it Heart Sutra.

Wisdom is the method that takes you beyond samsara. Who is going beyond? We, the sentient beings. How can we do that? By making our mind perfect, by clearing the obstacles in our mind. All the Buddhas’ works are nothing but clearing the dirt and obstacles that we possess in our minds. Every effort the Buddhas put in, including just breathing, is meant to make people’s minds perfect, taking them beyond samsara. Sometimes it all says ‘Essence of Tathagathas’. That is Essence of the Buddhas.

This is the wisdom that gives birth to all enlightened beings, whether it is the ordinary enlightenment of the arhats, or the extraordinary enlightenment of the fully enlightened Buddhas. That is why it is called ‘Mother’, or Bhagavati or Chom den de ma. When ordinary people go beyond we become extraordinary people. In Sanskrit that is called Arya. Gone beyond effort is effortlessness. Wisdom makes you become effortless.

Then the root text says

Di ke dak gi tö pa dü chi na – thus I heard once.

Who is that ‘I’? Some commentaries refer to Manjushri, some to Vajrapani, some to Sariputra, some say that Sariputra could not have been there, some say Ananda can’t be it, because he would be incapable of recollecting this. Let it be Manjushri, because he is the manifestation of wisdom. He would have been there for sure. Although the discussion is between Avalokitesvara and Sariputra, Manjushri is the one who heard about it [and is relating it].

Where did this event take place? In gyal poi kap or Rajgriha in Sanskrit. Some say that this is simply the name of the particular kingdom in the area. I read about 30 or 40 years ago that during that period in that little kingdom every other house burnt down. The blame was put on some kind of ghost. Ghost or not ghost, in those days they had thatched roofs of straw. These burn down very easily. Luckily they didn’t have kerosene oil to use, but straw houses burn down very easily anyway. When they tried to rebuild their houses, however, they burnt down again. So the king made a rule to say that whoever’s house burnt down, they had to get out of the city and rebuild their home at the foot of a nearby hill. This was implying that they had not been careful.

After making the rule, the first place that burnt down was his own palace! So in keeping with his own rule, the king had to rebuild the palace also at the foot of that hill. This is the gyal poi kap or Rajagrhiha. That literally means ‘King’s Place’. Some people will naturally interpret that to be the capital of the country. They then think that it has to be a huge city. However, gyal po means king and kap means needle. So it is the needle-like place of the king. Probably when his palace burnt down he had to rebuild quickly and it was just a small place. There is one explanation that says that the king’s city was so huge that the hill was in the middle of the town. But that is not true. You can go over there and look. There is not an old town at all. It is very interesting what happens to translations of texts over 2000 years. I guess the reality is that the king’s palace got burnt and he had to move quickly and just built a little place.

Buddha was always invited by royal families and Buddhism got publicized always through royal proclamation. So he was probably invited by that king. That hill now was called Vulture’s Peak. There are lots of different explanations for that name. Some say that it looks like a vulture’s head, some say that a lot of vultures used to come there. Whatever it may be, it was the place where Buddha spent a lot of time, because he was supported by the king there. The king’s house was near the hill. Incidentally, that was also the place where His Holiness the Dalai Lama went this winter and got sick with stomach trouble.

Let’s read the actual text now:

Thus did I hear at one time. The Transcendent Victor (Bhagavan) was residing at Vulture’s Peak in Rajagrha with a great assembly of monks and a great assembly of Bodhisattvas.

Bhagavan is chom den de in Tibetan. Chom means to destroy. Buddha has been able to destroy and defeat all delusions and imprints of delusions. Den means something different in sutra and in tantra. In tantra it refers to bliss-void inseparable. From the sutrayana point of view it means the constant, continuous joy that has never known suffering. De means gone beyond all ordinary states.

This is how the Tibetan language works. It is like Sanskrit. It has the advantage of combining syllables. Each of them has meaning and collected together they become another noun.

So now we have established who is there – chom den de. Where is he sitting? On Vulture’s Peak. Why are both, Rajrha and Vulture’s Peak mentioned? The commentaries give the reason that at Buddha’s teaching not only the monks and nuns where there but also the lay-people. The monks and nuns were on Vulture’s Peak. So probably they were staying on the mountainside while the lay people stayed in the town nearby. So the message is not to try and locate where the mountain is but who attended Buddha’s teaching.