Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Zen Center. My name is Wendy Lewis, and this morning I am going to be talking about emptiness as it is presented in the Heart Sutra. I gave a talk a few months ago about emptiness as it's presented in the Diamond Sutra, so now I wanted to talk about the Heart Sutra. So, the Great Wisdom Beyond Wisdom Heart Sutra, or the Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom, or the Maha Prajnaparamita Sutra, is one of the primary teachings of Mahayana Buddhism. You'll hear it in temples everywhere. The sutra is associated with one of the most interesting characters for me in Buddhist history, Kumara Jiva. He was a Tokarian and lived in the 4th century. And he translated many sutras and teachings and texts into Chinese.

[01:10]

So this was another one that he was associated with. But this one's a little more complex. This contemporary scholar, Jan Natye, did some research on the Heart Sutra. And what it looks like is somebody took little bits and pieces from the large Prajnaparamita teachings and compiled the Heart Sutra. and then translated it into Sanskrit. And then it got retranslated into Chinese. So here's this sutra that actually ended up being, sort of being dated to 350, this era, this CE. And so it's 700, 800 years after the Buddha. And here it comes, and it's our central teaching. So I just think it's very interesting to sort of look at where are these teachings, these texts, how they develop, why they develop.

[02:13]

The Heart Sutra and a lot of these, that period, the sutras were coming into China, but they'd already been through all kinds, the teachings had been through all kinds of changes, and the sort of the time when the actual shift was occurring that then became translated or interpreted into Mahayana Buddhism was from about 100 BCE to 100 CE. So what was going on? Well, they were kind of arguing about a lot of these things and getting very analytical about, you know, what do the five skandhas mean? And this is one of the teachings that's mentioned in the Heart Sutra. What does this mean, you know, form, feelings, perceptions? And they got down to these very minute analyses. And so it started to be like you can't really transmit that easily.

[03:15]

So this shift started to happen and became Moo Sung, whose book on the Heart Sutra, The Heart of the Universe, is the text I read. I'm using for a class I'm teaching on the Heart Sutra, says that things became more philosophical, and we might even think metaphysical. And then, along with that, the culture in which Buddhism began was changing, and then it was shifting into these other cultures, and so all of these things are happening. So what do we do when we know that about a sutra, when we know that about a teaching? How do we take it in and then realize we're interpreting it too? And it's being interpreted into this culture. So I think this is kind of a wonderful teaching about emptiness, really. You're sort of this shift, this change, and then do we really understand this teaching?

[04:20]

Or are we as individuals sort of imposing an interpretation on it as well? So I think it's just very interesting to remember that this is what we're studying, what we're chanting, what we're taking seriously. And we chant the Heart Sutra every day, either in Japanese or English, and sometimes twice a day, twice a day at Tassajara. And I think also at Green Gulch, sometimes they do a different chant. at noon, so I don't know what they're doing right now. But, so here's, and so this is our, we chanted it this morning, and I was listening to it, and I was thinking, yeah, we chant it every day, and we repeat it every day, and the impact of it starts to kind of fade. You know, you sort of, like, you know, you think, well, what does that mean? What does that mean?

[05:21]

And then you just chant it, you know, chant, chant, chant. And so, but I think that on there are pieces, parts of it that kind of keep re-arising for us, like the Four Noble Truths often stand out for me, and there may be other teachings that stand out for others as they chant it. But there's also something subtle going on, because the heart suture is saying no. It says no form, no feeling, no perception, no. So as we chant it, we're sort of saying non-attachment. And this is how I understand emptiness as non-attachment. So the teaching of emptiness in the Diamond Sutra is, and I'm going to say this slowly, because it's the integrated perception, okay, of the interactivity of relative reality, which I think of as horizontal,

[06:29]

And that's our individual consciousness. It's our getting up in the morning and how we go through our day and so on. And it's based on time. And so it's the interactivity of this relative reality or individual consciousness and absolute reality. Visionary cosmos, Musang calls it. And I think of it as eternity. So it's this continuous intersection. of time and eternity. And I think of it also as having a kind of a spiraling quality to it. So there's what we think we know and what we do know going along this way. And there's all the myriad things we don't know that are affecting us and not affecting us, but affecting other people around us, all the different ways that people are seeing the world and interpreting it. So in... When I was in my previous lecture talking about that, the Diamond Sutra teaching of emptiness on the experiential level, I talked about it as the integration also of what is the via negativa, which is the negative path of deconstruction, and it's associated with wisdom, and the via positiva,

[07:58]

or the affirmative practice of compassion. So wisdom practice, this will all make sense, wisdom practice addresses our habits of mind through meditation, reflection, study, and compassion addresses our state mind through our habits of mind, I'm sorry, through relationship, humility, and service. So these two things need to be in some sort of integration. And that's another thing that, like the Diamond Sutra, the main character, you might call it, is Subuti, who is associated with loving kindness. And it's a wisdom sutra. Wisdom, love, and kindness. Avalokiteshvara expounds the Heart Sutra, this Wisdom Sutra, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, is the one who expounds it.

[09:03]

So these teachings are saying something subtle at the same time that they are sort of giving us this doctrine and these analyses and these interpretations. So the Heart Sutra... is teaching emptiness as an antidote to attachment. And this is particularly attachment to our perception of ourself, and that's based in the five skandhas, or in feeling, perceptions, formations, and consciousness. And then also to our understanding of the practices of Buddhism and our attachment to our interpretations of them. And if you think about it, this isn't really different from the teaching of emptiness and the Diamond Sutra because they're trying to convey this interactivity of our point of view mixed in with everybody else's point of view.

[10:11]

And as I said, all these things we can't know and that we don't know or that we don't examine in terms of like... where this is all coming from, all the arguments that it's coming out of. And this is also true, as I've said before, in the history of Christianity. We see something as it is now, but it's all been interpreted into this particular form that it's taking, and it's also in myriad forms, just like Buddhism is. There are different schools and practices and emphases. So the kind of problem with emptiness is that, as a perspective, it's very uncomfortable experientially. And I think it can only be negotiated through a form of what I call healthy doubt.

[11:14]

Mu Sung writes in his book on the Heart Sutra, to accept that the universe is random is or that uncertainty is its prime operating principle, requires a huge emotional adjustment. The Heart Sutra offers us insight into the nature of an ultimate reality through intuitive wisdom. So the root of the word intuition is actually to contemplate, observe, to consider. And usually we think of it as kind of like this spontaneous or, you know, impulsive insight. But if you deconstruct it a little bit, it's got lots of history to it. And what actually we're trying to do in our Buddhist practice is to establish a kind of a basis for intuition to mature.

[12:20]

So we're... we're cultivating this foundation of being able to contemplate, to observe, and consider. And this is our real intuition. So I think that this is... kind of exemplified in the many Zen stories or koans, where they say, and then the person, you know, experiences this sudden enlightenment or this spontaneous enlightenment, but it's always after, you know, many years of practice. Or, the story says, and after that, he studied with his teacher for many years. Or, the fifth ancestor, Hui Nang, who we call Daikan Eino, as we chant the ancestors, after he was confirmed as the sixth ancestor, he went and lived in the forest for 15 years and then thought, you know, it's time for me to go out and teach.

[13:30]

So that's where I think that kind of spontaneous intuition has this foundation, and then it needs a time of integration. For some people, that might be shorter or longer, but it's endless, really. It's that what we call enlightenment can actually be seen as a beginning. It's a sort of a perspective, but with a foundation. Mel Weitzman, who's the abbot of Berkeley Zen Center and used to be the abbot here, described enlightenment as knowing your limitations. And I thought about that a lot. And there's one of the teachings of Dogen. I thought that is what he might mean by when Dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing.

[14:35]

So one of the aspects, I think, of insight or enlightenment, which can be or it's usually a series of things that happen, is that it's the basis for the next insight. So it's a kind of indication that you can go deeper. And I think that that can be very inspiring and sometimes discouraging, but usually very inspiring. So as I said, it's a process of maturing and of never being... So I read somewhere that enlightenment through compassion is quicker, but enlightenment through wisdom is slower and deeper.

[15:37]

What I think actually happens is it kind of evens out. So, I think that intuitive wisdom, which is what Musung calls the quality of understanding or being comfortable or accepting the context of emptiness, is the integration of compassion and wisdom rather than a preference for one. or one type of practice or another. In my experience, I grew up during the Vietnam era, and there were all these peace marches, and on these peace marches, everybody was screaming and yelling and throwing things at policemen. I wasn't judgmental about it, but it scared me.

[16:44]

So I often didn't go on those things. And so I've thought a lot about, well, you know, this urge of compassion actually has as its basis a kind of anger about the way things should be or should not be. And I think that's pretty appropriate. And for wisdom, I think wisdom types, it's more a search for meaning. And so the underlying characteristic of that is despair. So this, for the compassion person, needs wisdom to address their anger, and the wisdom type needs compassion to address their despair. I've found this... I think I tend to be more towards the wisdom type... It doesn't mean I'm wise. It just means the way I see things. And I realized at one point in my practice life that I needed to do something about that.

[17:54]

And that was actually when I decided to take a course in chaplaincy. And so I worked as a chaplain for a year. And it changed me. And I'm still a wisdom type. So I remind myself a lot. about when I get into that sort of despair place about meaning and, you know, like looking at the structure of Zen Center and where we're going and visioning, and I'm just like, sometimes I get this despair. But I also think, well, but at the same time, you know, just like someone was saying goodbye and feeling teary about leaving... Zen center this morning. There's this container here of a kind of love and acceptance as well as all of our other stuff, you know. So always trying to remember to find that balance. So one of the, I would say, I'll call it a difficulty of being a wisdom type, is that American culture is pretty anti-intellectual.

[19:19]

And I didn't make this up. There's somebody who wrote a book about it. I've heard it elsewhere. But I did find that confusing as I was growing up because I was so curious about everything. And even when I was in college, it seemed that there was a lot of You're supposed to kind of spontaneously figure stuff out. And that was, at the time I was in college anyway, that was a tendency that way. But it turns out that Zen is also anti-intellectual. There's sort of a pride in that. But, of course, you have to know this doctrine and these texts and this history and everything in order to be anti. So it has a tendency to come back around to study and inquiry. And I think that we often look at the basic teachings of Buddhism as for beginners.

[20:21]

Oh, beginners study that, you know, the life of the Buddha and the Four Noble Truths and all that stuff is for beginners. But maybe we forget, you know, that that was the first teaching of the Buddha. after his enlightenment, and after, you know, years of meditation and ascetic life. And then we say, oh, that's for beginners. Well, I mean, I understand, and yet there's something, I think, that these things become different as after years of practice. And you have to keep looking at them. That's why we keep chanting the Heart Sutra. Remember this, remember this. In saying no, it's actually also affirming all those things and saying, do you know what this is so that you can say no? Have you looked at this so that you can see you're interpreting it and so you can say no to your interpretation, no to your attachment?

[21:22]

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about this, but this is to me how... the teachings move from the past through the present of both the Buddha's life and our lives and into the future. We make this effort to understand them in our circumstances, keeping in mind where they're coming from and in hopes for the future. And that's what the future is. This is where our hope goes. So I encourage anyone who... has interest to study these very basic teachings and do it repeatedly over your practice life because they will change for you. And I also know this sort of, even as I was preparing this talk, this sort of daunting sensation of study.

[22:29]

It seems like... I had a stack of books and I had some articles I was looking at, partly because I'm teaching a class, but partly because I wanted to find some way to make emptiness as non-attachment interesting and hopeful and positive. So I'm looking and studying and everything. But then as I was doing it, this energy and this enthusiasm kept coming up and I would say... Oh, yeah, I can think about that. Oh, I can tell them that. And I think that's my experience now of study is it's like that. When you first sort of look at that stag of books and all the things you might not know and that you might say something uninformed to people who are relying on you to know these things. And yet when you... when I actually start to get into it and start looking up articles on the internet and all that, this energy and enthusiasm comes, and I think for me it helps deepen my, I'll call it my practice, but also my intentions and my hope.

[23:44]

I think that inquiry or study is a discipline and Discipline and disciple come from the same word. So as a disciple, that humility of study is part of our intention or our way of choosing to address our ignorance and delusion and complacency because that's another thing. Attachment is very close to complacency. We say, this is my interpretation, this is what everyone should think, and then that becomes a sort of complacency. And as we study, we get to look at that complacency and maybe develop some wider view or more inclusive way of seeing things. And I think that's what the Heart Sutra is encouraging us to do, is to question.

[25:09]

Always question our complacency. And the Heart Sutra, because it says no, no, no, can actually be interpreted as a negation of the doctrine. So it's not so surprising that that's what it would seem to be doing. But as I said, it's actually addressing our attachment to these teachings and to our interpretations of them. And according to Buddhism, our attachment to the five skandhas, form, feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness, is the basic source of suffering. And attachment in any form is actually a source of suffering. Because what happens is we cling to these things as being the most important thing in the world. And then that expands into how the world should be and should not be so that these five skandhas are safe and happy and all those kinds of things.

[26:33]

and to questions about the meaning of our life and the lives of everyone. So one of the early teachings about an attachment to the self, that it's another one of those things that echoes through my years of practice, is this is the Buddha speaking. You should train yourself thus, In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only the cognized. That is how you should train yourself. When for you, there will be only the seen, in reference to the seen, only the heard in reference to the heard, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then there is no you in connection with that.

[27:51]

When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, there is neither here nor yonder nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of stress. So a consultant, somebody was telling me, attended some meetings at Zen Center several years ago. And one of his observations was that there was a tendency for people to pull the purity card. And this was a way of ending conversations or, you know, just saying, well, you know, this is how it is or just maybe a way of kind of self-justification.

[28:53]

You know, I'm in charge here or something like that. And I've done this. I'm sure... All of us have done it in some context, whether it's, you know, Zen Sender or whatever. But it's... I think that what this sort of said to me when I heard this person say that and when I felt sort of embarrassed about the times I've done that was I thought, really, you know, discernment is a form of listening. to ourselves and to others, and placing, you know, these dearly held beliefs and ideas and assumptions into that context of emptiness, you know. There's Abed Abora, a Japanese teacher,

[29:54]

writes in an essay on the Heart Sutra, the important thing is to see right through to the reality of the illusory self. This is why our body and mind are to be discarded and forgotten. To look through to the real form is to penetrate one's reality, free from self-deception. This is the true renunciation, not trying to throw away and yet throwing away all the same. When we have penetrated to the bottom of this illusory self, not without negating and yet not negating, there is the power of the knowledge of ultimate emptiness and the self is thrown aside. So how do we see this as a promise of freedom from suffering? You know, it's obvious from... the proliferation of teachings and interpretations, all the talks we give here and all the discussions about these things, that it is not easy.

[31:02]

It's very, very difficult to be free of stress, as that one sutra calls it. And I think that anyone who does manage to get even a glimpse of it, you probably aren't going to really notice that. You know, we're all kind of sort of self-absorbed, and we all kind of, you know, one of the good things about practicing in community is you're always in trouble. If you try to say you understand something, well, everybody, you know, oh, I don't agree with you, or people just, you know, so you're always being checked as well as sort of checking yourself. So even though there might be some understanding of that and some, you know, lack of stress, it's not, you know, when Buddhas are truly Buddhas, they do not necessarily notice that they are Buddhas, you know, it's that sort of thing.

[32:07]

And I'm not sure, you know, like our idealization of our teachers, whether we think they're enlightened or whether we're just sort of dependent on somebody, you know, to kind of tell us what to do and that sort of thing. I'm not criticizing it, but that isn't actually what I think our teachers are exemplifying for us. It's not enlightenment, but somehow some hope or something. And when we do idealize teachers, there's often a lot of problems happen, as you all have heard. And we have a particular tendency to be attracted to people who tell us what's true. or tell us what's right, or tell us, oh, well, this is the truth, but you don't really have to do it. Or this is sort of the guidelines, but, you know, there's lots of this. So there's this real sort of need, or if you're interested, to pay attention to getting out of it or interpreting it.

[33:21]

in particular ways that go back to the attachment to ourself and our big ideas about how the world should be. So what I think that the... continuing repetition and chanting of the Heart Sutra helps by repeating this sort of negation is that it becomes the basis of a continuous reconciliation of our effort with our mistakes and of our self-justification with our self-knowledge. In Musang's commentary on a section of the Heart Sutra that he translates says, the bodhisattva depends on prajnaparamita, and the mind is no hindrance, no fears exist.

[34:29]

Far apart from every perverted view one dwells in nirvana, he says, fear and confusion seek out things to cling to, and each clinging brings about its own particular perverted view to further cloud the vision. Rooted firmly in the wisdom of emptiness, the bodhisattva has no such hindrance. She does not mistake the unreal for the real, the conditioned for the unconditioned, the relative for the absolute. So I think this is very hopeful, and I think that may be the most difficult thing for us, to be hopeful that without our attachments or our clinging, we can continue to live ordinary lives that are also illuminated by freedom and trust and continuously reconciling what should be with what is. So thank you very much.

[35:41]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.86