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Prajna-paramita-hridaya/The Heart sutra : Bhagavati, the heart of transcendental knowledge

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The essence of the sutta that is often stated as the heart sutta or the prajna-paramita, is the wisdom related to the absolute truth or the paramartha, that is experienced in the heart. It is referred to as the foundation stone of the Mahayana Buddhist teachings but in a grander aspect of the nature, truth can neither be labeled as buddhist or hindu or islamic or christian or sikh or tao or zen or parsi or quantum or social etc. When one meditates the identifications dissolve. It would be wrong for anyone to say that she/he would be a buddhist when her/his individuality is lost in emptiness during meditation. What remains is awareness and in awareness, all grasping and feverishness is lost. This knowledge which makes one transcend into the realms of Buddhahood or completely liberated state is revered as goddess also and given a name Bhagavati. So the mother of all Buddhas or the completely liberated ones is nothing but the absolute truth that is encased in the prajna-paramita-sutta. One is raising the female aspect of nature on a higher citadel and terming it as the mother of all Buddhas. Experiencing the absolute truth in heart takes time but it is packed into a verbalized contorted form of a few words. The sutta tries to capture the un-captured absolute and gives a way to explore the deeper realms of the truth at an experiential level. Note that both the former Buddha and the bodhisattva-mahasattva enter into emptiness, experience the knowledge in their entire mind-body complex and after the experience Siddhartha raises Avalokiteshvara to a higher platform and asks him to impart the experienced knowledge in a few words. After the teaching finishes, the Buddha puts a seal on what the bodhisattva has taught by saying "Well done! This is how it should be taught." One has experienced knowledge but one needs a seal of confirmation. The relevance of this knowledge is inexplicable given the magnanimity of conflicts and clashes that happen in the mind body complex pertaining to the spiritual journey one takes. The knowledge is of immense value to those who have experienced deep conflicting issues in their hearts, that have perturbed them regarding the subtle aspects of a spiritual journey. Prajna-paramita-sutta aims to assuage the deeper issues that troubles the heart of a spiritual seeker and makes the path easy enough to reach the goal. The Heart sutra contains the Mahasattipatthan sutra. The manuscript is a part of a 3 and half hour long course on guided meditation and talk on Buddhist teachings. The course material is available at https://sites.google.com/view/shriprakashsinha/shriprakashsinha/course

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Prajna-paramita-hridaya/The Heart sutra : Bhagavati, the heart of

transcendental knowledge†

shriprakash sinha ∗,a

The essence of the sutta that is often stated as the heart sutta or the prajna-paramita, is the wisdom

related to the absolute truth or the paramartha, that is experienced in the heart. It is referred to

as the foundation stone of the Mahayana Buddhist teachings but in a grander aspect of the nature,

truth can neither be labeled as buddhist or hindu or islamic or christian or sikh or tao or zen or parsi

or quantum or social etc. When one meditates the identiﬁcations dissolve. It would be wrong for

anyone to say that she/he would be a buddhist when her/his individuality is lost in emptiness during

meditation. What remains is awareness and in awareness, all grasping and feverishness is lost. This

knowledge which makes one transcend into the realms of Buddhahood or completely liberated state is

revered as goddess also and given a name Bhagavati. So the mother of all Buddhas or the completely

liberated ones is nothing but the absolute truth that is encased in the prajna-paramita-sutta. One is

raising the female aspect of nature on a higher citadel and terming it as the mother of all Buddhas.

Experiencing the absolute truth in heart takes time but it is packed into a verbalized contorted form

of a few words. The sutta tries to capture the un-captured absolute and gives a way to explore

the deeper realms of the truth at an experiential level. Note that both the former Buddha and the

bodhisattva-mahasattva enter into emptiness, experience the knowledge in their entire mind-body

complex and after the experience Siddhartha raises Avalokiteshvara to a higher platform and asks him

to impart the experienced knowledge in a few words. After the teaching ﬁnishes, the Buddha puts a

seal on what the bodhisattva has taught by saying "Well done! This is how it should be taught." One

has experienced knowledge but one needs a seal of conﬁrmation. The relevance of this knowledge is

inexplicable given the magnanimity of conﬂicts and clashes that happen in the mind body complex

pertaining to the spiritual journey one takes. The knowledge is of immense value to those who have

experienced deep conﬂicting issues in their hearts, that have perturbed them regarding the subtle

aspects of a spiritual journey. Prajna-paramita-sutta aims to assuage the deeper issues that troubles

the heart of a spiritual seeker and makes the path easy enough to reach the goal. The Heart sutra

contains the Mahasattipatthan sutra.

Contents

1 Author’s note 2

2 Dedication 2

3 Acknowledgement 2

shriprakash sinha, Rights on exposition reserved with the author. email -

shriprakash.sinha@gmail.com

†Transliteration of the sutta in Tibetan language and its translation to English lan-

guage by Sarah Harding, lama in the Shangpa Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism

and Associate Professor and Core Faculty at Naropa University, has been used here.

The transliteration and translation were printed for Vajra Vidya Seminar 2005, Vajra

Vidya Institute, Sarnath, India.

‡This work could not have been done without the help of the Vietnamese temple or

the Vein Giac Institute at Bodh Gaya. Sincere thanks to Venerable Thich Thong Tanh

for allowing the author to record the audio ﬁle of the sutta at the temple as well as

sharing the insights of the sutta during the evening times.

4 Introduction 3

4.1 The importance of experiential knowledge . . . . 3

4.2 The three stages of acquiring knowledge . . . . . 3

4.3 How knowledge is acquired? . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

4.4 An example of whether knowledge has settled or not 4

4.5 Sutra or sutta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

4.6 The paradoxical opposites and the two kinds of truths 4

4.7 What is prajna-paramita-sutta or Bhagavati, the

heart of transcendental knowledge? . . . . . . . . 4

4.8 What is the relevance of this knowledge and ve-

racity of the spirit behind the contents of prajna-

paramita-sutta? ................... 5

5 Prajna-paramita-sutta or The Heart Sutra 5

6 A poetry to share 15

1–16 | 1

7 The highest is the simplest 16

8 Conclusion 16

9 References 16

1 Author’s note

The exposition has been written with a view to open up to those

interested in this spiritual journey. What it brings to the readers is

a way to study, explore and absorb the spirit behind any spiritual

injunction, by delving into a particular sutta in detail. Usually,

a sutta is given or open to all in general, but how to unlock the

sutta, gain insight into the spirit behind it and ﬁnally absorb the

inherent knowledge at an experiential level is missing to many.

Mere chanting of the sutta has its merits, but it does not help one

progress on the journey. What is needed is a way to grasp how

the profound knowledge that is locked or sealed in a few words

can be opened up. The fact is that the highest is the simplest and

sometimes it is so simple that even if it is front, one is unable to

experience it. Thus, here the stress is given on deep meditations

as a means of practice and then reading a sutta for theoretical

purpose. Note that the individual’s experiential knowledge needs

a stamp or a seal of conﬁrmation in the form of theoretical injunc-

tions of those who have already experienced a particular knowl-

edge and expressed it in the form of words for the help of many.

The endeavour here is to relate the deeper paradoxical opposites

which one faces in a spiritual journey into the realms of truth.

The author’s journey is long and it is hoped that this exposition

will be of help to those interested. Of particular importance is the

following. In no way, there is an effort to inﬂuence the reader

and gain a majority of followers. This is because, when the heart

is ready, then only knowledge will dawn within an individual. If

the heart is not ready, even sitting next to a fully liberated one

will not help the individual. The former Buddha (the fully liber-

ated/enlightened one) at one point explicitly states "it is not my

sangha (the community); it is the sangha of truth". In another

case, he clearly states "Do not accept words just out of reverence.

But by your own personal experience test what has been stated

and move". The whole purpose is to open up the inner potential

of a being in spiritual dimension.

The author might not have reached the stage of buddhahood,

but still out of personal interest and whatever limited knowledge

has come to awareness, the author’s intention is to open up the

reader’s heart to the spiritual knowledge by bringing into aware-

ness, the way to explore the deeper aspects of spiritual realms

and to make the reader equipped with tools to explore the spirit

behind the words of a sutta. In this effort, wherever necessary,

proper references have been given and where possible, the author

has contributed that which has come to awareness after medita-

tions.

Note that it is not buddh-ism or any other -ism that is impor-

tant. Meditations are not about religions but a way to explore

the immeasurable ﬁelds beyond the ordinary perceptions of mind

body complex. The author is not sure how any religion will match

the experiential knowledge of the heart gained through medita-

tions that brings one in harmony with the natural laws. Again,

the author does not condemn religions or any faith for that mat-

ter. If it has been perceived in that manner, then i apologize be-

fore hand. To make the point more clear, it is not expected that

this text will suit everyone, but feel free to acquire whatever is

possible and leave the rest behind.

Finally, the author encourages the readers to acquire and ex-

plore various advanced texts in the references as well as to com-

municate with different beings on this journey to expand one’s

awareness of the different existing systems in a spiritual journey.

This might take quite some time depending on intensity and in-

terest (may be 5, 10, 15, 20 years or may be a life time). But do

explore and acquire spiritual knowledge from wherever it comes.

It will deﬁnitely be of aid at some point in time.

Transliteration of the sutta in Tibetan language and its transla-

tion to English language by Sarah Harding, lama in the Shangpa

Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and Associate Professor and

Core Faculty at Naropa University, has been used here. The

transliteration and translation were printed for Vajra Vidya Sem-

inar 2005, Vajra Vidya Institute, Sarnath, India. In this text, the

transliteration is in bold, followed by the translation of lama

Sarah Harding in black. Wherever necessary the author’s expo-

sition follows in the form of notes and questions and answer ses-

sions. Finally, errors, typos or grammatical mistakes are sole re-

sponsibility of the author and later versions will be corrected at

the earliest. Important points have been underlined throughout

the text.

Complementary Audio ﬁle on Heart Sutra has been made avail-

able at - https://sites.google.com/view/shriprakashsinha/

shriprakashsinha/recordings Hope it will be of beneﬁt to the

reader. The journey is long and thus please do not be in a hurry,

for all hard work is destroyed in haste. My merits are yours too!

Love and take care!

2 Dedication

To all those who have walked the path into the realms of truth and

helped many on their journey. Masters, teachers, mentors of past,

present and future, who have imparted and who will transmit

knowledge in some way or the other for the beneﬁt of myriads of

beings entering existence. Finally, heartfelt gratitude to Samsara

and mother Nature which prepares one for nirvana and ﬁnally,

parinirvana.

3 Acknowledgement

This work could not have been done without the help of the Viet-

namese temple or the Vein Giac Institute at Bodh Gaya. Sincere

thanks to Venerable Thich Thong Tanh for allowing the author to

record the audio ﬁle of the sutta at the temple as well as shar-

ing the insights of the sutta during the evening times. Special

thanks to Chon Nha Duyen and Do Thi Tuyet Houng, for bearing

with the author during the 12 days rigorous course of Prajna-

Paramita-Hridaya. Also, Pham Duc Tri for delightful engagement

during the discussions of the sutta and his many questions that

reﬁned the work. Without their presence, this work would not

have take the current form.

2 | 1–16

4 Introduction

In this section, we cover the following topics -

•The importance of experiential knowledge

•The three stages of acquiring knowledge

•How knowledge is acquired?

•An example of whether knowledge has settled or not

•Sutra or sutta

•The paradoxical opposites and the two kinds of truths

•What is prajna-paramita-sutta or Bhagavati, the heart of

transcendental knowledge?

•What is the relevance of this knowledge and veracity of the

spirit behind the contents of prajna-paramita-sutta?

4.1 The importance of experiential knowledge

Why is it important to have experiential knowledge? If experi-

ential knowledge of the heart is not there, then one will state

things in a mechanical fashion from the memory. But if the expe-

riential knowledge has settled in the heart, then knowledge will

ﬂow naturally from the heart of that being. So, before we be-

gin, an important note to all readers. The experiential knowledge

of the spirit behind the words is indispensable in progress. The

difference will persist to some extent between the frequency of

the sound and the experience. This is mainly due to the fact that

a word or a mantra (certain frequencies of sound) or a symbol

has a limitation of a boundary and tries to capture that which

cannot be captured. Nevertheless for the ease of explanation a

dialogue has been established. Note that experiential knowledge

dawning from meditations are a practical way to grasp the spirit

behind what is being stated. So the best way is to meditate and

then read any spiritual injunction and then contemplate. This

cycle needs to be repeated again and again before the knowl-

edge will open up in one’s awareness. Here knowledge is not

that which helps one to get a livelihood, but rather that which

helps acquire wisdom which leads to a deeper understanding of

life from a spiritual perspective. So (1) practice (meditation), (2)

theory (reading of spiritual knowledge) and (3) contemplation

(pondering over what has been read and why things have been

stated the way they have been) go hand in hand. All three are

connected as different legs of a table. They all have importance

and if you pull one, the other two will come along.

4.2 The three stages of acquiring knowledge

Now, why this process needs to be followed when dealing with

spiritual injunctions? The basic principle is as follows - Knowl-

edge settles in three different ways. One has heard, read, seen

or acquired knowledge though the senses. This knowledge is lim-

ited to the domain of senses and has its limitations. This is the

ﬁrst form of acquiring knowledge and is referred to as srutmayi

panjna (pronounced as shrut-mai pan-ya; panjna is knowledge or

wisdom; srut is heard. Note - panjna is also written as prajna).

The second form of acquiring knowledge is when the mind starts

to contemplate over what has been received through the senses.

This is the second stage when the mind churns over the acquired

knowledge in order to grasp the essence behind what is being

stated. This is referred to as chintanmayi panjna (pronounced as

chintan-mai pan-ya; chintan is contemplation or pondering over

the matter). The way to practice contemplation is to sit with the

sutra in the mind. Let the sutra release its ﬂavour and consume

the mind as a chewing gum releases its ﬂavour and consumes

the whole taste sensation. It is like one puts the seed in the soil

and then the earth provides nutrition to the seed to break and

make it grow into a tree. Similarly, the sutra in mind is the seed

and the mind is the earth. The essence of the sutra automatically

nourishes the mind. This is an important stage as contemplation

helps in making the mind one pointed and to a certain extent

still. Finally the last stage of the knowledge is when it settles in

one’s heart (deﬁnitely not the physical one). This happens, when

in meditation, the heart of a being opens naturally and sponta-

neously to the knowledge that comes to awareness and the heart

easily experiences the spirit behind the knowledge. The experi-

ence of the spirit behind the knowledge in words is the actual

progress that happens, but requires a lot of time. This ﬁnal stage

is called as bhavanamayi panja (pronounced as bhavana-mayi

pan-ya). Now depending on the texture of the mind and deep

impressions one carries in the ﬂow of consciousness, the time to

acquire the experiential knowledge varies. This does not mean

that one is superior or inferior or contemporary to the other. It

just indicates how much one is closer to such knowledge through

experience in the heart. Thus the cycle of meditation (i.e prac-

tice), contemplation (i.e pondering long over the what has been

stated and why it has been stated in such a manner) and read-

ing or listening or seeing or sensing the knowledge goes on till

knowledge or panjna dawns in heart.

4.3 How knowledge is acquired?

There is knowledge. The knowledge is already present in this

nature. But the way to acquire knowledge must be known. The

journey is of greater importance as it will lead one to the goal.

The goal of nirvana is there right now, but it is connected to the

journey. So it is extremely valuable to know the way to acquire

knowledge. One needs to have a solid grasp of the fundamentals

of the lower classes to progress well at higher and simpler levels.

"meditate, meditate and meditate and a way is ... sit still and

be". The seating requires the the right amount of effort but the

happenings in the mind body complex are effortless and reveal

itself naturally and spontaneously, without any force or inﬂuence.

With eyes closed and spine erect, sit still and be. An example -

the lotus ﬂower rests gently on the surface of a pond and is still.

But the happening within the petals of the ﬂower is natural and

spontaneous. It is better to sit under a tree or near a pond. There

is no want to go for, no search to go on, no journey to be taken

and no effort to be put forth. Nothing to say, nothing to do and

nothing to become. Just sit still and be. In awareness, each and

every aspect comes to awareness and passes off. Let nature unfold

itself! After meditation, open any text and read a line or two and

1–16 | 3

then contemplate or be with what one has read. This process is

cyclic in nature until the srutmayi prajna becomes chintanmayi

prajna which eventually turns into bhavanamayi prajna.

4.4 An example of whether knowledge has settled or not

For example, everyone knows that death is going to happen. But

there are two ways by which one can see that knowledge appear.

One is when one expresses the knowledge in an uneasy state of

heart and a disturbed mind - "Heh! Everyone knows that death

is going to happen!" and another is when one expresses the same

knowledge in with a calm heart and an undisturbed mind - "yes!

... death is bound to happen as with each breath every species has

walked one step closer to death!" In the second expression, one

speaks from one’s heart as one has experienced death in medita-

tion. That knowledge of death has already known experientially

through the heart. It has come to awareness that the individuality

has gone through the death through experience. Thus in the sec-

ond expression knowledge appears from the heart. Contrary to

this, in the ﬁrst case, when the knowledge has not settled prop-

erly in heart or has been lost due to deep impressions in mind

body complex, one feels perturbed in both heart and mind. The

calmness of the heart is vitiated and thus the mind remains dis-

turbed while expressing the same knowledge.

4.5 Sutra or sutta

Thus, the fundamental aspect is that meditation helps in gaining

experiential knowledge behind the spirit of the knowledge that is

packed and transmitted in these sutras or suttas. A sutra or sutta

is nothing but an expression in words (for the good of many on

the spiritual path) of an experiential knowledge that has come

to awareness and absorbed in the heart. One ﬁnds them across

different cultures and traditions. So if one reads any spiritual

knowledge, be careful of not reading it as a novel or for that mat-

ter to pass time. Meditate, read and contemplate. Let the medi-

tation clear the deeper impressions in the mind so that the bowl

like mind becomes transparent and in awareness the essence of

the spirit behind the knowledge unfolds itself. Here nature re-

veals the deeper secrets of the way to progress. Then, that which

comes spontaneously and naturally in awareness belongs to you

forever!

Any sutra or sutta will open up to a being who has acquired the

merits in her/his heart. Thus it is imperative that one protects

the merits of ones life and develops merits. The meditations and

heart felt service to others is an important aspect. Finally, it is

good to have knowledge of many sutras, but far better is to have

an experiential knowledge of one sutra which will take carry you

through to the respective goal in a spiritual journey. One can

win many debates based on the theoretical knowledge of the vast

compendium of sutras, but whether it will lead to nirvana is not

known. Your practices are of greatest value. Your heart is clean

and you have the merits, then nature will open the knowledge

of any sutra for you. It is just a matter of time. So practice is

important and be aware not to fall in the trap of collecting all the

theoretical knowledge there is while no experiential knowledge

dawns in you.

4.6 The paradoxical opposites and the two kinds of truths

Of another importance is the fact that explanations will appear to

be contradictory or paradoxically opposite to each other mainly

due to the existence of two aspects of truth - one the absolute or

the paramartha and the other the relative or the samvritti. All

explanations are basically distortions of aspects of the absolute

truth. Now it is the nature of truth that it makes one speech-

less. Truth is not in words. What one experiences in one’s heart

is truth. It might and often cannot be expressed in words but it

is there as experiential knowledge. When Siddhartha the Gautma

crossed the gate of nirvana or rather nirvana happened in him, he

remained silent for seven days and nights. It is said that the entire

cosmos was waiting to hear from him and he could not speak. Fi-

nally, a few beings appeared in front of him and requested him to

speak. They knew something beautiful had transpired within this

man and wanted to hear and all he could say was - "Those who

know, know without my saying. Those who do not know, will

never know even if i speak. Thus i am silent!" It is another story

that he was forced to speak after many requests for the beneﬁt

of those who were on the borderline of being tipped into enlight-

enment. So coming back, the exposition below will use relative

truths as a means to clear the understanding of acquiring knowl-

edge, the way to acquire knowledge and how one can experience

the essence of the spirit behind the subtle dimension of truth in

context of Bhagavati, The heart of transcendental knowledge or

the prajna-paramita-sutta. Paradoxically opposite views will be

explained in greater detail as the exposition advances.

4.7 What is prajna-paramita-sutta or Bhagavati, the heart

of transcendental knowledge?

The essence of the sutta that is often stated as the heart sutta or

the prajna-paramita, is the wisdom related to the absolute truth

or the paramartha, that is experienced in the heart. It is referred

to as the foundation stone of the Mahayana Buddhist teachings

but in a grander aspect of the nature, truth can neither be labeled

as buddhist or hindu or islamic or christian or sikh or tao or zen

or parsi or quantum or social etc. When one meditates the identi-

ﬁcations dissolve. It would be wrong for anyone to say that she/he

would be a buddhist when her/his individuality is lost in emptiness

during meditation. What remains is awareness and in awareness,

all grasping and feverishness is lost. Then how come one might

be something other than awareness itself? In Tibet’s culture, this

heart knowledge which makes one transcend into the realms of

Buddhahood or completely liberated state is revered as goddess

also and given a name Bhagavati. So the mother of all Buddhas

or the completely liberated ones is nothing but the absolute truth

that is encased in the prajna-paramita-sutta. One is raising the

female aspect of nature on a higher citadel and terming it as the

mother of all Buddhas. Experiencing the absolute truth in heart

takes time but it is packed into a verbalized contorted form of

a few words. The sutta tries to capture the un-captured abso-

lute and gives a way to explore the deeper realms of the truth

at an experiential level. Note that both the former Buddha and

the bodhisattva-mahasattva enter into emptiness, experience the

knowledge in their entire mind-body complex and after the expe-

4 | 1–16

rience Siddhartha raises Avalokiteshvara to a higher platform and

asks him to impart the experienced knowledge in a few words. Af-

ter the teaching ﬁnishes, the Buddha puts a seal on what the bod-

hisattva has taught by saying "Well done! This is how it should be

taught." One has experienced knowledge but one needs a seal of

conﬁrmation.

4.8 What is the relevance of this knowledge and veracity of

the spirit behind the contents of prajna-paramita-sutta?

The relevance of this knowledge is inexplicable given the magna-

nimity of conﬂicts and clashes that happen in the mind body com-

plex pertaining to the spiritual journey one takes. The knowledge

is of immense value to those who have experienced deep conﬂict-

ing issues in their hearts, that have perturbed them regarding the

subtle aspects of a spiritual journey. Prajna-paramita-sutta aims

to assuage the deeper issues that troubles the heart of a spiritual

seeker and makes the path easy enough to reach the goal.

The Heart sutra contains the Mahasattipatthan sutra. In short,

it contains the establishment of the ﬁrst turning (the 8 fold truth

and the path), the second turning (on emptiness or shunyata of

the dharmas). By the way, the second turning which is often

referred to as Mahayana/Vajrayana teachings (mostly practiced

in himalayan region) was transformed for a particular mindset

by many masters including Kamalashila. Also, within the Kagyu

Monlam prayers which contains thousands of lines, is buried the

foundation stone of vipassana and samatha in one line. Both the

mahayana/vajrayana (the aspects of second turning) are deeply

connected to the hinayana (the ﬁrst turning).

Note that the experience that has been expressed in words, are

from a bodhisattva who has absorbed knowledge in the heart and

speaks of the same. But this doesn’t mean that one can gain quick

results by mere reading of the sutta. The sutta is there as a reference

and spiritual practices will help in unlocking the essence behind the

sutta. The veracity of the contents of the sutta are to be tested by

experience in the heart and the basis of testing the truthfulness is

by experiencing shunyata or nothingness or emptiness. Only when

one has experienced in heart, one progresses slowly and steadily to-

wards the absolute realms of truth. This is a time taking process

and happens slowly. "The way is not in the sky, it is in the heart!"

- Siddhartha.

5 Prajna-paramita-sutta or The Heart Sutra

Abbreviations used - T. transliteration Tibetan in English; T. trans-

lation Tibetan to English; Q. question; N. note

T. Chom den de ma she, rab kyi pa rol tu chin pay nying po -

T. Noble Lady, the transcendent Conqueror, the heart of transcen-

dent knowledge -

T. chom den de ma she rab kyi pa rol tu chin pa la chak tsal

lo/

T. Homage to the heart of the transcendental knowledge, the Bha-

gavati.

T. Di ke dak gi to pa du chik na/

T. Thus have i heard at one time :

N. "Thus have i heard ..." - Who can hear? The one whose mind

is empty. If the mind is ﬁlled with all sorts of information and

impressions, then the cup is already ﬁlled up. If one pours more

water in it then what is being poured will only overﬂow. Thus the

need for emptiness is a necessary to in order to hear.

T. Chom den de gyal poy khab ja go pung poy ri la ge long gi

gen dun chen po dang/ jang chup sem pay gen dun chen po

dang tap chik tu zhuk te/

T. Once the blessed one was dwelling on vulture peak mountain

at Rajagrha, together with a great gathering of monks and a great

gathering of Bodhisattvas.

N. The context of the Heart Sutra is set in the ambience of the

Buddha, the sangha (or community) and the bodhi-sattvas.

T. Dey tse chom den de zab mo nang wa zhe ja we cho kyi

nam drang kyi, ting nge dzin la nyom par zhuk so/

T. At that time the blessed one entered the samadhi that examines

the dharmas, called "profound illumination".

N. Samadhi means equanimity/equipoise in all states. Samadhi

forms one of the three pillars of the spiritual teachings of any Bud-

dha. These three gems are sila-samadhi-prajna (good conduct-

equipose-wisdom from heart). Now the Heart Sutra begins with

the way to study it. It says that the Buddha as well as a

mahasattva-bodhisattva enter Samadhi in order to examine what

the truth is. They have entered together to experience the truth in

meditation and leave behind the different labels and titles. Both

the Buddha and then the Bodhisattva is asked to teach. Later, the

Buddha conﬁrms it.

T. Yang dey tse jang chub sem pa sem pa chen po pak pa chen

re zik, wang chuk she rab kyi pa rol tu chin pa zab moy cho

pa nyi la nam par ta zhing pung po nga po de dak la, yang

rang zhin gyi tong par nam par tao/

T. And at the same time noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva-

mahasattva, looking at the practice of profound transcendent

knowledge, saw that those ﬁve skandhas are empty by nature.

N. He looks at the practice of profound transcendent knowledge.

The practice of the way to enter Samadhi via meditation on form

(i.e using support alambana) to meditation without form (i.e

formless without support) in order to experience the truth of

emptiness, has been stressed upon. He is looking at the prac-

tice ﬁrst. The knowledge is there, but he is looking at the practice

ﬁrst. This is crucial. He is pointing to the fact that the practice is

important. Without proper practice, it is not possible to acquire

the deep knowledge. The way to acquire knowledge is absolutely

essential.

Then, through the experience of the emptiness in heart, the

bodhisattva experiences emptiness in skandhas. Experience in

heart cannot be matched with limited understanding of the mind

as they are beyond the mind.

Now, why does the sutta start with skandhas and not any other

aspect? A stupid answer is that one has to start somewhere. But

1–16 | 5

jokes apart, the spiritual journey begins with existence of con-

stituents that form an important aspect of a cycle. Here, by expe-

riential knowledge of the heart, the former Buddha acknowledges

the existence of the cycle that is crucial for existence of cycle that

is crucial for existence of samsara and later on uses the steps in

the cycle to experience nirvana. So ﬁrst there is recognition of ex-

istence of cycle through the experiential knowledge and then the

cycle is used to unlock this process of repeated births and deaths.

He does not say that the cycle is bad. If one notices, Siddhartha as

Buddha starts his ﬁnal journey as Bodhisattva some 534 life times

back (as in Jataka Tales) and uses this knowledge of Samsara (the

inherent cycle), birth after birth to enter parinirvana. Again, he

is not condemning the cycle. There is an acknowledgement in ex-

perience. If one has not experienced the fundamentals of the nature

of the cycle by which things are working in Samsara, then it is not

easy to grasp the way to unlock this cycle.

Q.What are these ﬁve skandhas?

Exposition - The ﬁve skandhas or aggregates that constitutes

the various aspects of samsara or the world i.e the form (rupa),

sensations or feelings (vedana), perceptions (samjna), mental

formations (sankhara), and consciousness (vijnana). There

is form or body (rupa) and within the form are sensations

(vedana). The perception (samjna) of these sensations exists and

repeated perceptions (samjna) of the sensations lead to impres-

sions (sankhara) in the mind body complex. And in the ﬂow of

consciousness (vijnana) the impressions (sankhara) pushes one

to take the next action in order to maintain the cycle. These are

fundamental elements which form an integral aspect of a greater

cycle of Samsara. In a deeper sense Samsara or the world is a pro-

jection either dynamic or static and neither dynamic nor static as-

pects which has the property to veil and superimpose the univer-

sal truths regarding life and not allow one to see the way things

are (i.e yatha-bhuta). There are two kinds of truths, namely -

paramartha or the absolute truth and the samvritta or the relative

truths of the world. One ﬁnds contradictions in the relative truths

but the absolute is beyond the relative. Now this doesn’t mean

that the relative truths are of no value and Samsara is bad. It is

Samsara which prepares one to transcend into the higher states of

truth and leads to nirvana. Thus Samsara is a means or a school

where one passes one step at a time to ﬁnally merge into the ab-

solute. This is a way of expressing in the relative terms but note

that the Samsara is connected to nirvana through and through.

The goal (nirvana) and the way to the goal (in Samsara) are here

and now as the river and the ocean is connected through and

through. Again, it is important to value the path that is there in

this Samsara.

Now again, there are two aspects of the journey. Mostly one

is focused on the goal, but rarely one is focused on the way to

the goal. The second is extremely rare case where the journey

is more important than the goal. Kamalasila explains in his pro-

found and deep treatise on Bhavanakrama (the steps of medita-

tion) that there are usually two kinds of mindsets in enlightened

ones. The ﬁrst is the pranidhi-chitta or the mind ﬁxed on the goal

and the second is the prasthana-chitta or the mind aware of the

journey to the goal. This second one is an extremely rare case

where a being is more focused on the journey rather than the

goal and is referred to as entering the path of anuttara-samyak-

sambodhi.

So to recapitulate, the ﬁve skandhas or aggregates, that

constitutes the various aspects of samsara or the world are

the form (rupa), sensations or feelings (vedana), perceptions

(samjna), mental formations (sankhara), and consciousness (vi-

jnana). Form (rupa) can be any image in any dimension that

contains a boundary and gives the perception (samjna) of a com-

pounded formation. Perception helps in the cognition of a form

(rupa) and repeated perceptions of a phenomena or object of per-

ception through sensations (vedana) towards the object of per-

ception, in the ﬂow of consciousness (vijnana) leads to mental

formations (sankhara). Thus a cycle is formed. A cycle which

leads one from birth to death to birth and so on!

Q. What is the procedure of seeing emptiness?

But before delving deeply into how the cycle works, it is impor-

tant to know how one sees emptiness in all these ﬁve skandhas.

Seeing is not through the ordinary eyes. It is through the heart.

When the heart experiences and absorbs a knowledge through

awareness, then the heart sees through the nature of the object

under investigation. Thus the way is simple. It is by letting empti-

ness come to awareness and dissolving the individuality com-

pletely into emptiness. This happens through meditation. Now

one does not create emptiness. Emptiness is not an object of med-

itation. It is already there but it has not been experienced in the

heart. When the essence of emptiness or shunyata is experienced

in the heart through meditation (i.e bhavanamayi-prajna), one

experiences the emptiness in form (rupa), sensations or feelings

(vedana), perceptions (samjna), mental formations (sankhara)

and consciousness (vijnana). A more detailed explanation of ex-

periencing emptiness is given in latter exposition below. That is

how one sees emptiness in the skandhas. Finally, emptiness can-

not be described in words as it is directly connected to the para-

martha or the absolute truth. Being not connected to the relative

truths or samvritti, it can only be experienced in heart. Emptiness

in heart, leads to emptiness in mind.

Regarding the deeper aspects of the cycle due to the skand-

has, it is explained by the former Buddha in detail in the Paticca-

samuppada-sutta in the Samyutta-nikaya, XII (I), 1 -

Avijja-paccaya sankhara,

Ignorance causes impressions,

sankhara-paccaya vijnanam,

impressions causes flow in consciousness,

vijnana-paccaya nama-rupam,

the flow of consciousness causes the appearance

of name and form,

nama-rupa-paccaya salayatanam,

with name and form arise the senses and the

complex interactions,

salayatana-paccaya phasso,

due to the senses and complex interactions

6 | 1–16

arise contact,

phasa-paccaya vedana,

due to contact arises sensation,

vedana-paccaya tanaha,

with sensation arises desire

(craving and aversion),

tanaha-paccaya upadanam,

with desire arises attachment,

upadana-paccaya bhavo,

with attachment comes existence,

bhava-paccaya jati,

due to existence birth happens,

jati-paccaya jara-maranan-soka-parideva-dukkha-

domanassupayasa sambhavanti

with birth comes old age, death, grief, lamentation,

sorrow (physical,

mental and spiritual), bitterness of mind and

other tribulations

Evame-tassa kevalassa dukkhakhandhasa samudayo hoti

Thus by this arises the chunks of sorrow in life ...

Of utmost importance is the fact that Siddhartha sets on the jour-

ney, by acknowledging the existence of cycle that leads to sam-

sara, while experiencing the knowledge and puts forth in words.

The cycle begins with the words ignorance. Please remember this!

Avijja - ignorance

What is ignorance? What are the properties which makes one

recognize ignorance and what are the ingredients which consti-

tutes ignorance? The spirit behind the word ignorance is to cap-

ture the nature of compounded materials that blocks awareness

from (1) observing the way things are as well as (2) recognizing

itself as awareness. These compounded materials can be classi-

ﬁed into three divisions, namely (1) the gross materials composed

of natural elements of earth, water, ﬁre, air and space. These ma-

terials help in constituting the physical bodies of many life forms

(both sentient and non sentient beings) (2) the mental materials

that constitute various faculties by which different life forms ex-

hibit different temperaments and behaviour. These temperaments

and behaviour are often reﬂected in action through the physical

bodies. Note that there are beings without physical bodies also,

whose presence comes to awareness (in case the awareness is re-

ﬁned). (3) Finally, the third material is the spiritual matter that

constitutes aspects of life as life force in different forms of sentient

and insentient beings. Thus there exist the physical, mental and

spiritual bodies (compounded materials or ignorance) of a being,

each ﬁner than the other.

All these compounded materials work in tandem with a few

more dimensions like time, energy, will and nature. Working in

parallel with all these dimensions, ignorance has the property to

superimpose layers which do not allow awareness to observe the

way things are and also to veil or obstruct awareness from recog-

nizing itself as awareness.

Sankhara - impressions

It is these layers (superimpositions) and obstructions (veils)

that are like impressions which is referred to as sankhara. Now

awareness is universal in nature, but depending on the amount

of sankhara and the individuality reﬂected in ego, awareness gets

restricted in recognizing its own universal nature. Sankhara or

layers of impressions can be of various types and intensity. It is

due to the intensity of the sankhara that the cycle of birth and

death is maintained. The maintenance of the circulating nature

of the cycle is done by consciousness or vijnanam.

Vijnanam - consciousness

Consciousness helps in maintaining the ﬂow in nature. It has

that ability to store the impressions and propel a being into next

cycle based on those impressions and their strengths. These im-

pressions can be favourable /pleasant or unfavourable/ unpleas-

ant. Depending on the kinds of accumulated impression the for-

mation of the new identity and form is established. Some impres-

sions lead to merit ﬁlled life and others to demerit ﬁlled life. The

formation of new identity and form is referred to as naam-rupam.

Naam-rupam - name (also meaning mind) and form (also

meaning matter)

The name and form has an identity attached to it. For exam-

ple, the symbol 0, the name of 0 as zero and the meaning as its

identity attached to it. The form is the system that helps carry the

current impressions and that of the past. It is also this form and

the identity attached to it which interacts with the different stim-

uli via the different senses simultaneously. The individual identity

is a mental aspect at a particular cycle. This along with the form

interacts through the senses. This complex interaction through

the senses is referred to as salayatan.

Salayatan - Senses and its interaction

The senses and its complex interaction happens through con-

tact with the different stimuli from the external environment and

the internal working of the mind-body complex or naam-rupam.

This contact is referred to as phasso.

Phasso - contact

Contact can happen at three different realms (1) the physical

realm and the senses of physical dimensions (2) mental realm and

the faculties of mental dimension and (3) spiritual realm and the

faculties of spiritual dimension. Due to this contact arises sensa-

tion with the mind-body complex. The sensation(s) are referred

to as vedana.

Vedana - sensation

Vedana is sensation within the frame work of mind- body com-

plex or naam-rupa. Also, the sensation might arise due to many of

the inﬁnite phenomena occurring in nature. These sensations can

be labeled as favourable/pleasant or unfavourable/unpleasant

depending on one’s structure of the mind-body complex. Note

that this complex can also constitute the life forces which form

the spiritual body of a sentient/insentient being. Depending on

the quality of sensation craving or aversion arises. Example - One

sees an ice-cream and contact has been made. This contact leads

to sensations in mind and body, which either have a force of desire

1–16 | 7

for or against the object of contact. Based on repeated perception,

Sankhara of ice-cream happens in the ﬂow of consciousness. At

the end, one consumes so much ice-cream that body becomes sick

in nature.

Tanaha - desire/craving/aversion

The desire and the craving and aversion associated is referred

to as tanaha. It is this craving and aversion that keeps a be-

ing from being free. Depending on the intensity of sensation,

craving and aversion appear in equivalent intensity. With crav-

ing/aversion attachment dawns towards object of craving/ aver-

sion. This object can be of any form i.e material, mental or spiri-

tual. The composition of this object is again based on the building

blocks of material, mental and spiritual components that consti-

tutes ignorance. Thus the skandhas are an integral part of expla-

nation and appear in the beginning of the sutta.

Upadan - attachment

The attachment towards object of craving/aversion is upadan.

Attachment here means afﬁnity towards object of craving/ aver-

sion. This afﬁnity is a direct connection to the object in attention

either through the force of craving or through the force of aver-

sion. For example, "i like ice-cream" - the strength behind liking

connects one to the object ice-cream in an attractive way. On the

other hand, "i don’t like ice-cream" - the strength behind not liking

connects one to the object ice-cream in a repulsive way (Deeper

explanation will follow below). Similarly, attachment can be for

any phenomena/being in the existential world.

Bhava - existence

The existence that happens due to the attachment is called as

bhava. The attachment forces one to come into existence. This

existence happens through the formation of spiritual body, the

mental body and then the material/physical body.

Jati - birth

This formation of spiritual/mental/physical body is nothing but

birth and referred to as jati. Due to birth (jati) arises old age

(jara), death (maranan), grief (soka), lamentation (paridev), sor-

row physical, mental and spiritual (dukkha), bitter mindedness

(domanasu) all come through. It is because of this that the entire

mass of sorrow arises. Thus begins the acknowledgement of the

ﬁrst truth, i.e there is misery in life. This acknowledgement can

only happen when one realizes through ones heart and not just

via knowledge gained through senses or through intellectual cu-

riosity. Next, this misery is due to a cause which forms the second

truth. Since misery is not perennial, there is the cause which can

be eliminated; the third truth. Finally, the fourth truth is the rev-

elation that there is "a" way out. It is not "the" way out, but there

is "a" way out. There is no force here, but an acknowledgement of

an existence of a way out of this misery and the countless cycles

of birth and death.

These four truths reveal the fundamental nature of phenomena

that occurs in a life form (sentient/insentient). The solution to

the issues encountered in the four truths are revealed in the next

four truths. These truths are basically processes going through

which leads to breaking of the cycle of birth and death as well as

the miseries associated with it.

To begin with, the essence is to sit still and be. To sit not like

a rigid stone on a ground, but as a lotus ﬂower resting on the

surface of a pond. Note that the spinal cord needs to be erect

with head straight and eyes closed. Now, what happens when

one sits still and be? Whatever phenomena in the mind-body-

consciousness complex manifests with strongest intensity, comes

to awareness. Depending on the structure of one’s body, texture

of mind and the quality of consciousness, a corresponding experi-

ence comes to awareness. For example, if one sits still after having

a nice exercise, the temperature of the body comes to awareness.

The awareness experiences the intensity of the temperature of

the body rising to a peak and then passing off, as a wave rises

to a peak and then falls off. Similarly, the density of the body,

the throbbing of the heart, the ﬂux of the blood, the ﬂow of the

natural breath comes to awareness. The silent untampered expe-

riential acknowledgement or observation by the awareness of the

happening phenomena in the gross body is referred to as kayanu-

paschyana.

Longer sittings lead to reﬁnement in awareness when the sen-

sations in the body mainly in the form of currents in the nervous

system are experienced. Due to the texture of mind-body complex

at a particular moment in time, these subtle sensations might ap-

pear as extremely painful, stressful, soothing or blissful (to name

a few) in awareness. Again, the silent untampered experiential

acknowledgement or observation by the awareness of the hap-

pening phenomena is referred to as vedananupaschyana.

Deeper sittings lead to further reﬁnement in awareness when

the ﬂow of the thoughts or the texture of the mind is experience.

Anger, greed, happiness, bitterness, gratefulness, a child like na-

ture, lust to name a few, comes to awareness. The texture of

the mind comes to awareness. Silent untampered experiential

acknowledgement or observation by the awareness of the hap-

pening phenomena is referred to as chittanupaschyana.

Further, when the awareness reaches a more reﬁned state after

continued practice, the natural laws pertaining to the mind-body-

consciousness complex comes to awareness. The rise, the per-

sistence and the gradual decay of the any phenomena appearing

on the complex comes to awareness. If a peaceful nature arises,

persists and passes off on this complex, it comes to awareness.

This silent untampered experiential acknowledgement or obser-

vation by the awareness of the natural rise-persistence-decay law

is referred to as dhammanupaschyana.

Note that these might happen in any order depending on the

nature of the mind-body-consciousness complex at a particular

moment in time. Again, advanced sittings lead to a state of aware-

ness when one’s discriminative intellect, emotions and individual

ego comes to awareness. These arise, persist and gradually dis-

solve into nothingness. The individuality of the ego is of atomic

nature in comparison to the vastness of the universal awareness.

Steady continued practice leads to loss of individuality which re-

veal the nature of universal awareness with innumerable qualities

like that of purity, benevolence, compassion, love etc.

But does one see the essence of the teachings? The former buddha

is now using the stepping stones of the great cycle which he has

already experienced and uses his own body as a foundation stone to

unlock the cycle. The kaya or body which is a form of ignorance

has now become the stepping stone for meditation. The grip of

the body comes to awareness and passes off. So on and so forth

8 | 1–16

with the other aspects of sensations and mind.

A stage comes when there are no wants to go for, no search to

go on, no journey to be taken and no effort to be put forth. There

is nothing to say, nothing to do and nothing to become. Even

the search for nirvana stops. In those moments, the inexplicable

state of nirvana manifests. Awareness tastes some nectars in si-

lence. Contentment dawns in awareness and so does abundance

as one re-enters the limited domain of nature. Now, even if nir-

vana happens once, the mind can still be impure and this is not

the fully liberated stage. This stage is called Saupadisesa-nibbana.

Depending on the individual further stages pass by in time. This

journey is long and a slow process for those who wish to walk the

slow and a natural path.

It has been heard that Siddartha begins his journey one million

life times back to the stage of bodhisattva (nirvana experienced

for the ﬁrst time). As a bodhisattva, he begins perfecting the

knowledge of unlocking the cycle of samsara, life after life. In the

last life as Siddhartha, buddhahood dawns in him. Now an impor-

tant point is this. If you want to become a Buddha you will never

become. But when the heart experiences and realizes that there is

nothing to become, then the journey into buddhahood has already

begun. He wants to enter parinirvana at the age of 36, but extends

his life for a few more years for the beneﬁt of others. Finally, liv-

ing a life of Buddha for just one life time, he enters parinirvana.

There is no desire to live many lives as a Buddha also. The journey

ends as truth absorbs him completely, erasing his entire existence.

So, nirvana has already been experienced, but previous impres-

sions force the being to again enter the school of samsara to ﬁn-

ish what needs to be ﬁnished (stage of saupadisesa-nibbana). Life

ﬂips between samsara and nirvana as the balance is maintained.

Entering parinirvana, this ﬂipping stops.

Initially, while sitting still, the four (kaya - body, vedana - sensa-

tion, chit - mind and dhamma - rise/ persistence/decay of natural

laws) truths of silent untampered experiential acknowledgement

or observation (paschyana) by the awareness are an optimistic,

rewarding and a highly scientiﬁc way to evolve out of misery.

Extremely important is the way of observation. Neither

to be averse with pleasant/unpleasant nor to crave for pleas-

ant/unpleasant phenomena that has come to awareness. In case

aversion or craving arises, then there is formation of impressions

(sankharas) in the ﬂow of consciousness. Silent untampered ex-

periential acknowledgement or observation leads to dissolution

of impressions and liberation from misery. Not in ﬁghting but in

silent experiential acknowledgement or observation of the untam-

pered passage of the phenomena in the mind- body-consciousness

complex is the way out. Thus, the words go deep -

sabbe sankhara annicha

all impressions are impermanent

yadaya pannyay paschyatti

if observation happens with wisdom

(i.e silent untampered experiential

acknowledgement or observation)

The ﬂowing thoughts of mind like "oh i have to observe" when

experienced by awareness indicates chittanupaschyana. Right ob-

servation breaks this ﬂow. External complexities of life fade away

when impurities of one’s own words, deeds and actions in life

come to awareness which are a result of the impression of mind-

body-consciousness complex.

Here ends the exposition of the eight truths. The Mahasatti-

patthan sutta will be of great help to those interested. But such

knowledge needs a certain level of maturity. And this maturity

dawns when one has experienced from one’s heart that there is

misery in life. It is only then that the journey begins, in search

for freedom from misery. Even some practice to sit still and be

might save one from the misery one ﬁnds in. An important aspect

to note is that as one sits still, automatically the different aspects

of body, sensations, mind and the laws of nature starts coming

into awareness. Observation happens naturally, without effort.

The path is long and here the processes occur naturally. One can-

not force one’s way here. As a ﬂower blossoms naturally so does

advancement towards enlightenment.

Thus the sayings of Kabir goes well -

Dhere dhere re chala re mana,

Slowly slowly o mind,

dhere sabkuch howay,

slowly everything happens in nature,

mali seeche saw ghara,

the gardener waters a hundred pots,

ritu aaye phal howay ...

when the weather is right, the fruits will arrive ...

The initial teachings begin with the description of the misery,

the cause of misery, the possibility of elimination of the cause

and the way out of it. But note that the advanced stages de-

scribed in prajna-paramita-sutta does not contradict the initial

teachings. Please keep this note in mind when the paradoxical

view is reached later on. Finally, the journey is not via negativa. It

appears to be so but in fact it is not. Samsara and its constituents

are a school that help one prepare for nirvana. The school is

not ﬁlled with misery. The school provides comfort to move into

higher and simpler dimension. "Oh! Samsara is bad." i am chant-

ing 10,000 times or meditating in silence and a dog comes out of

love in my presence and i kick it & say "may all sentient beings be

happy!" And again start chanting the mantra. "Nirvana!Nirvana!

Quick! The fastest way." Let’s have so much focus that i break

the rules of samsara. If a queue is there, i get in the middle as

i need to ﬁnish work by the power of mantra! "Samsara is bad!"

My dear! It is the same samsara which has given clothes. Why

wear them? Throw them off and walk naked. See what happens!

If the ﬂower (nirvana) is beautiful then how can mud and water

and minerals (samsara the school) nourishing the lotus is so bad?

Now i am not saying you eat mud. Experience the balance of the

paradoxical opposites as they will be revealed in the journey!

1–16 | 9

T. De ne Sangye kyi tu tse dang den pa Sha ri bu jang chub

sem pa sem pa chen po pak pa chen re zik wang chuk la di ke

che me so/ Rik kyi bu am rik kyi bu mo gang la la she rab kyi

pa rol tu chin pa zab moy cho pa che par do pa de ji tar lab

par ja/ De ke che me pa dang/

T. Then through the power of the Buddha, venerable Sharipu-

tra said to noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva-mahasattva,

â˘

AIJHow should those noble men and women learn, who wish

to follow the practice of profound transcendent knowledge?â˘

A˙

Thus he spoke.

N. How should noble men and women learn this? Already

the quality of people who would learn this knowledge has been

stated. See, this is not for everybody as qualiﬁcation has already

set. There needs to be nobility and maturity, that has been de-

veloped by merit. Without this it might not be possible grasp

this knowledge. This knowledge is highly advanced. The prac-

tice of the profound transcendent knowledge, is the way to medi-

tate where one uses the the cycle and the constituents of samsara

to experience the absolute truths and ﬁnally unlock the cycle to

get completely absorbed into parinirvana. See, there is a wish to

learn. It is not a desire but a need as the heart has already ex-

perienced something. They are looking for a way out. Also, the

Buddha raises Avalokitesvara to a higher platform by asking him

to share and teach. He does not say that "i am higher than you

and thus you can’t teach!" He is lifting the other being up to a

higher level.

T. Jang chub sem pa sem pa chen po pak pa chen re zik wang

chuk gi tse dang den pa sha ra da ti bu la di ke che me so/

Sha ri bu rik kyi bu am rik kyi bu mo gang la la she rab kyi

pa rol tu chin pa zab moy cho pa che par do pa de di tar nam

par ta war ja te/

T. And noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva-mahasattva, an-

swered the venerable Shariputra with these words: "Shariputra,

those noble men and women who wish to follow the practice of

profound transcendent knowledge should look at it like this :"

T. Pung po nga po de dak khyang rang zhin gyi tong par yang

dak par je su tao/

T. The ﬁve skandhas should be seen correctly to be empty by na-

ture.

Q. Again, how does one see the nature of emptiness in the

skandhas?

N. This has already been dealt with in the earlier exposition

above but to recapitulate, it is through meditation and letting

one’s identity dissolve in emptiness. By the process of meditation

one lets the myriads of phenomena and objects come into aware-

ness and pass off thus clearing the mind and making it transpar-

ent enough to let the emptiness shine forth. Also, when these

myriads of phenomena and objects rises to awareness and makes

its presence felt and then moves away, during that period of ex-

perience of the phenomena or object, the empty nature of the

phenomena or object manifests itself. It is because of the empty

nature of the phenomena or the object that it slowly and steadily

dissolves in awareness after making its presence felt. Thus by

merging oneself completely into emptiness, one sees the empty

nature of the skandhas.

So, if a form (rupa) appears in awareness, its intensity rises to

a peak and then dissolves. In that duration of appearance, the

empty nature of the form is experienced in the heart. Due to

the empty nature, it does not hold (that is the grip of form) for

long and dissolves in awareness. Similarly, for any kind of sensa-

tion (i.e vedana) appearing in the body complex rises to a peak in

awareness and then subsides. The related perception (samjna) of

the sensation also follows the same principle. Repeated percep-

tions of the sensations lead to mental formations (or sankharas)

which again appear in awareness as on sits to meditate after a

long gap.

Finally, in the ﬂow of consciousness (i.e vijnanam) the impres-

sions and the sensations lead to ﬂow of next action. Conscious-

ness itself is revealed in awareness. It is not possible to express

consciousness in words but its presence is experienced in aware-

ness. Now the nature of all these aggregates is revealed when

emptiness consumes the individuality and what remains is uni-

versal awareness that shines forth and shows the nature of the

aggregates.

Now, emptiness does not mean that one is devoid of anything.

Emptiness encompasses everything. Emptiness makes one loose

the individuality and in awareness the nature of the different phe-

nomena manifest. This again is experienced in the heart and mere

intellectual or mental repetition will not help. The knowledge is

to be absorbed in the heart. Why? Emptiness cannot be described

in words as it is directly connected to the paramartha or the abso-

lute truth. Being not connected to the relative truths or samvritti,

it can only be experienced in heart.

Emptiness in heart, leads to emptiness in mind. Emptiness

cleans you inside out. Emptiness is already there but there is a

layer that covers the mind and heart from experiencing empti-

ness. An important note is that awareness is needed to experi-

ence the absolute truth. If there is no awareness, then it might

not be possible to acquire the required knowledge. Awareness

is there in each and every individual but there is a casing over

it. In deep meditations, the individuality is lost and universal na-

ture of awareness shines forth. Reﬁning this life after life, the

bodhisattvas move to buddhahood thus having universal aware-

ness. Finally, entering parinirvana, one leaves the ﬁeld of univer-

sal awareness also as one is absorbed in the absolute truth.

T. Zuk tong pao/ Tong pa nyi zuk so/ Zuk le kyang tong pa

nyi zhen ma yin/ Tong pa nyi le kyang zuk zhen ma yin no/

T. Form (rupa) is emptiness, emptiness itself is form; emptiness is

no other than form, form is no other than emptiness.

N. It is easy to know that form (rupa) is emptiness in medita-

tion. But how does one acquire the knowledge that emptiness is

form itself? In the previous paragraph it is expressed that empti-

ness encompasses everything. There are stages in deep medita-

tion when emptiness is experienced in complete totality and it is

in those moments that emptiness is experienced as basis of all

forms. In turn, by experience one concludes that emptiness is

form itself as it is the basis of all phenomena and objects of per-

10 | 1–16

ception. In slightly more paradoxical term it is the formless form!

(through experience)

T. De zhin du tsor wa dang/ Du she dang/ Du je dang/ Nam

par she pa nam tong pao/

T. In the same way feeling, perception, formation and conscious-

ness are empty.

N. Again, how to observe the emptiness in all these has al-

ready covered in the foregoing paragraphs. But note that ex-

periencing emptiness in subtle phenomena as perception and

consciousness requires many years of deep meditative seatings.

Mere words will not help. So consider this as a precautionary

measure and remember that the procedure to see the emptiness

in the various aspects remains the same. Also, some experien-

tial knowledge can only be transferred in silence. Thus, feel-

ing/perception/consciousness is emptiness. Similarly, emptiness

is feeling/perception/consciousness.

T. Sharibu de ta we na cho tam che tong pa nyi de/ Tsen nyi

me pa/

T. Thus, Shariputra, all dharmas are emptiness and have no char-

acteristics.

N. Now before we begin to comprehend this, note that this is

a highly paradoxical statement. In the beginning of the journey

in into the realms of enlightenment, one takes on vows and pre-

cepts which are an integral part of the dharmas (they also mean

the disciple that one takes on oneself in order to progress on the

path and live in accordance with the universal laws of nature in

a harmonious manner). But here it is stated that all dharmas

are emptiness and have no characteristic in themselves. "Look!

Dharma has no characteristics. Why meditate? Why discipline?

Throw everything off! Let’s eat 5 times a day and see what hap-

pens!"

The ﬁrst thing to understand is that the statement is given by a

being who has already crossed certain stage in spiritual realm and

is expressing the essence of the teachings of the heart sutra after

the experience has already transpired and insight has dawned in

the heart. If a person has not crossed certain realms and consid-

ers and applies the knowledge that is presented here in day to

day life, it will lead to troubles in life. So one needs to carefully

understand and absorb the fact that appreciating the knowledge

here is through the experience in the heart and not just blind ap-

plication of what is being stated in the sutta. Now the main issue

of emptiness in the dharmas. What happens when one meditates

and delves oneself in the realms of the emptiness? Slowly and

steadily the dharmas which have protected one on the path to

enlightenment fade away as one crosses the bridge of enlighten-

ment. In that sense, after crossing the bridge of enlightenment,

as emptiness dawns within oneself, one sees the emptiness in the

dharmas. But by no means does it say that it is condemning the

dharmas or for that matter any object or phenomena that comes

to awareness. Here one investigates completely yet honouring all

that has come to awareness. In day to day life, one honours all

that comes to awareness, but in meditation, one ﬁnds the empti-

ness in each an every one. This paradoxical experience can be a

bit shocking to people who are new to such knowledge or they

might miss it completely if the spirit behind the words has not

been grasped properly, thus making fun of the words in the sutta.

So be careful while reading these suttas. Finally, there is another

aspect to view the essence of these teachings. Initially, one takes

an object or support (i,e alambana) for the process of medita-

tion. But as one delves into the emptiness, in awareness, the

identity and the characteristics of the support (alambana) simply

dissolves. Again, this doesn’t mean that the alambana should be

treated with disrespect and should be thrown away. They are a

means of progress in one’s spiritual journey. One is sitting still

and the ﬁelds of ignorance in the form of body (kaya), sensations

(vedana), mind and ﬂow of mind (chitta), the dharmas come into

awareness and makes its presence felt and slowly dissolve into

emptiness (in meditation). So one is using the constituents of

ignorance as a support in samsara to unlock the cycle and en-

ter the formless state of meditation. One uses the four ways of

anupaschyanas life after life to enter truth by erasing layers of

sankhara!

The dharmas are emptiness and have no characteristics, holds

true, when emptiness is experienced. The experiential knowledge

never leaves a being, but the heard or contemplated knowledge

might.

T. Ma kye pa/ Ma gak pa/ Dri ma me pa/ Dri ma dang dral wa

me pa/ Dri wa me pa/ Gang wa me pa’o/

T. They are unborn and unceasing, neither stained nor free from

stain, they neither decrease nor increase.

N. They are unborn - There is a circle on a paper. There is

no beginning point of a circle. Thus the unborn nature is there.

Whichever point one starts with, one goes round and round. It is

an unceasing loop. Now, one can say that when one is drawing

the circle, there is a starting point and a birth. But then when the

end point connects with the starting point, there is no existence

of the starting point. Furthermore, by not abiding in dharma (the

cycle of dharma life after life) the dharma is stained. But the

cycle (circle) of dharma by itself is unstained. There is neither an

increase in the circle nor there is a decrease in circle. An example

of staining/non-staining would be - there is a paper and there is

a print on the paper. The print is the stain and it covers the paper

but it does not mean that the nature of the paper is lost. Thus the

paper is unstained. But the paper carries the print and thus is not

free from stain.

In relative terms we say that the dharma is stained or un-

stained, but while in meditation, the characteristics of the dhar-

mas loose their essence. This is due to emptiness.

T. Sharibu de ta we na tong pa nyi la zuk me/ Tsor wa me/

Du she me/ Du je nam me/ Nam par she pa me/ Mik me/ Na

wa me/ Na me/ Che me/ Lu me/ Yi me/ Zuk me/ Dra me/ Dri

me/ Ro me/ Rek ja me/ Cho me do/ Mik gi kham me pa ne/

Yi kyi kham me yi kyi nam par she pay kham kyi bar du yang

me do/

T. Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness there is no form, no feel-

ing, no perception, no formation, no consciousness, no eye, no

1–16 | 11

ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no form, no sound, no

smell, no taste, no sensation, no dharmas; there is no element of

sight, and so on until no element of thought and no element of

mind consciousness.

N. Now this is profound, in emptiness, there is no such phe-

nomena or form, no instruments of perception (eyes, ear, nose,

tongue, body) and no objects (form, sound, smell, taste, sensa-

tion) of perception, nor the mode and the medium (dharmas) by

which the process of knowing about certain things happens. At

a more subtle realm, even formation, feeling, consciousness, per-

ception and thoughts and the elements (mind) that help one to

acquire knowledge is also not there.

Now this stage is an extremely advanced stage when the disso-

lution of the mind has also happened. It is only through medita-

tion and unaccountable high quality numbers of practice that one

reaches this stage. In awareness what dawns it that the crystal

clear mind also is an object and once its dissolution happens, the

awareness grasps its true potential. It does not require a support

or alambana to shine forth. It is just there. The mind conscious-

ness has also lost its grip on the awareness. This basically means

that the covering of the mind on the universal awareness is lost.

The limited grip of instruments of perception, perception, objects

of perception and other aggregates lose their characteristics while

experiencing emptiness.

If one views these words casually, it appears like a joke. There is

no eye, no ear, no tongue etc and yet everything exists. But from

the perspective of awareness, as the limited grip of individuality is

lost in meditation, and slowly and steadily the unlimited expanse

of the emptiness comes to awareness, one experiences the non

existence of the various aspects that have been talked about. And

all this is through experience only and not through words.

T. Ma rik pa me/ Ma rik pa ze pa me pa ne/ Ga shi me/ Ga

shi ze pay bar du yang me do/ De zhin du duk ngal wa dang/

Kun jung wa dang/ Gok pa dang/ Lam me/ Yeshe me/ Tob pa

me/ Ma tob pa yang me do/

T. There is no ignorance and no wearing out of ignorance, and

so on until no old age and death nor their wearing out. In the

same way there is no suffering, no cause of suffering, no ending

of suffering and no path; no wisdom, no attainment and no non-

attainment.

N. This part is dangerous, if not experienced properly. The ex-

planation further dives into deeper realms stating that there is no

ignorance and no wearing out of ignorance. After nirvana, the

former Buddha points to the cycle of misery and states that igno-

rance is one of the causes of suffering in Paticcasamuppada-sutta

(explained before). So how do these paradoxical aspects recon-

cile each other? The key to this resolution is that when one be-

gins on the journey, the fundamentals are set forth for any novice.

The ignorance and the properties of ignorance are stated and how

meditation helps one clear the different aspects is stated in detail.

Note that samsara and nirvana are connected! Ignorance is a part

of samsara but it is used as a means to experience nirvana via

experiencing emptiness in constituents of ignorance. But when

one crosses the bridge of enlightenment, it dawns in awareness

that ignorance never existed in the ﬁrst place and thus there is no

wearing out of ignorance. What is being stated is that in empti-

ness the strength of ignorance is lost as it is virtual/relative and

it never existed to begin with. Similarly the idea of old age and

death is tackled with. Awareness being universal in nature and

when one looses one’s individuality as well as association with the

mind body complex, experiences that what is doing to die and age

is just the aggregates that constitute the compounded materials,

however complex they might appear to be. The moment the uni-

versal awareness shines forth, the ideas of ignorance, suffering,

old age, death etc is erased. On reaching that stage, on declares

that there is no suffering, no cause of suffering and no ending

of suffering. "No suffering! No cause of suffering!" We started

with the ﬁrst truth that there is misery in life and then there is a

cause of suffering and the cause can be eliminated and there is

a way out (a path)! Now they say it is nothing. Let’s throw all

this and enjoy! What for all this? "No! No!" The sutta shows the

balance that exists between samsara and nirvana. One side of the

sword is samsara and the other is nirvana. And the blade of the

sword is emptiness. The edge is the balance. It is paradoxical that

there is no suffering and there is no ending of suffering. The end-

ing does not happen as long as one is established via experiential

knowledge about the emptiness and it ends when there is com-

plete experiential knowledge of the emptiness. Thus, no cause of

suffering also exists.

Reaching such a stage, one declares that there is no path and

neither there is wisdom. There is no wisdom! But the sutta is

packed with wisdom! This is madness! Is it possible to see the

paradox? The title of the sutta is the heart of transcendent knowl-

edge which is profound, but here it says that there is no path and

no wisdom. Be careful about this! One walks the path of the

four noble truths explained in the kayanupaschyana,vedananu-

paschyana,chittanupaschyana and dhammanupaschyana and af-

ter through these reaches the ultimate stage of nirvana. So when

one sits still, one is not moving but different ﬁelds of body, sen-

sations, mind and laws come to awareness and passes off. One

is using tools of samsara to erase the layers that cover univer-

sal awareness to experience nirvana and emptiness. In emptiness

the great balance of samsara and nirvana exists as both are con-

nected to each other. Passing through nirvana, one states there is

no path and there is no wisdom. But if one has not experienced

nirvana and says there is no path and no wisdom, it is going to

bring troubles in life. The river merges in ocean and its iden-

tity is lost, but as long as it is ﬂowing in the mainland, it is a

river. The path is there and it merges into nirvana. There, in

nirvana, there is no path. Nor there is any attainment and non

attainment. Neither there is anything to attain as all grasping is

over and nor there is non-attainment as emptiness does not make

one devoid of anything because it encompasses everything in it.

Emptiness is already there so there is no attainment but reaching

the balance and experiencing emptiness, there is attainment (no

non-attainment).

Development of insight into the paradoxes is the key to unfold-

ing the essence that the sutta carries. Repeated meditations and

study will help in unlocking the potential that the sutta carries

with it.

12 | 1–16

T. Sharibu de ta we na jang chub sem pa nam tob pa me pay

chir/ She rab kyi pa rol tu chin pa la ten ching ne te/ Sem la

drib pa me ching trak pa me de/ Chin chi lok le shin tu de ne/

Nya ngel le de pay tar chin to/

T. Therefore, Shariputra, since Bodhisattvas (a state before attain-

ing buddhahood) have nothing to attain, they abide in reliance on

transcendent knowledge; and since there is no obscurity of mind

they have no fear, they completely transcend falsity and reach

ultimate nirvana.

N. Remember the words - "nothing to attain". There are two

implications over here. Often one speaks in a disgruntled or dis-

gusted way or with a disturbed state of mind that "there is nothing

to attain!" But when when one experiences emptiness in aware-

ness the knowledge has settled in ones’s heart then the entire

implication of the words change. One knows by experience that

one needs to attain the experiential knowledge of "nothingness"

or "nothing". The consequence is that when this experience hap-

pens, one states the same words "there is nothing to attain" with

stability in heart and peace in mind. Thus the bodhisattvas abide

in reliance on the transcendent knowledge. Thus contentment

dawns in heart. This contentment in heart doesn’t mean that one

becomes ineffective in day to day life. Rather the contentment

leads to a new found stability in life by which one faces the dif-

ferent issues of life from a completely different perspective. The

experience leads to removal of obscurities in the mind and thus

fearlessness arises. Such a one transcends falsity and ultimately

reaches nirvana. The transcendent knowledge here is the empti-

ness that is to be experienced in heart and the meditations usually

lead to experience of shunyata in all phenomena in all ages and

dimensions, beyond all ﬁelds of existences.

T. Du sum nam par zhuk pey sang gye tam che kyang/ She

rab kyi pa rol tu chin pa di la ten ne/ La na me pa yang dak

par dzok pey jang chub tu ngon par dzok par sang gye so/

T. All the buddhas dwelling in the three times fully and clearly

awaken to unsurpassed, true, complete enlightenment by relying

on this transcendent knowledge.

T. De ta we na she rab kyi pa rol tu chin pay ngak/ Rik pa

chen poy ngak/ La na me pey ngak/ Mi nyam pa dang nyam

pay ngak/ Duk ngal tam che rab du zhi war je pey ngak/ Mi

dzun pe na den par she par ja te/

T. Therefore the mantra of transcendent knowledge, the mantra

of deep insight, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra equal to the

unequalled, the mantra that totally calms all suffering, should be

known as truth, for there is no deception.

N. Now how to make this profound knowledge accessible? It is

not easy for everyone to meditate and reach to that stage where

one experiences emptiness totally and completely. Thus the ex-

periential knowledge has been packed in words in the form of

amantra. A mantra is nothing but the experience dawned in

awareness that is verbalized in a few words. The mantra helps

in binding the wandering and distracted mind due to the myriads

of disturbances and helps in cleansing the mind. Truth when en-

cased in words is not mere words anymore as the mantra carries

the weight of the truth to some extent along with it. The second

issue that one faces is how to practice the mantra? Is it just a

mere mechanical repetition of words, with an aim to reach the

goal? No! the way to practice the mantra is to chant or repeat it

with full awareness of what one is chanting. One’s heart should

be soaked in the words of the mantra as one chants the mantra.

The devotion (bhavana) from the heart is crucial in chanting any

mantra. Then the essence behind the mantra gets absorbed in

the heart slowly and steadily. The mantra protects the one who

chants it, in the spiritual realm. Thus, it is better to chant for say

ﬁve minutes with deep devotion such that one looses awareness

of oneself as well as the surrounding rather than chanting for a

hour and looking here and there like a monkey! Depth is more

important than duration. Quality is more admirable than quan-

tity. Besides, know well that no buddha is sitting up there and

taking note of your repetitions.

Your devotion will lead you to truth. Of course, the buddhas

and the enlightened ones will always help in this journey but your

right effort is of utmost importance and indispensable in this jour-

ney.

T. She rab kyi pa rol tu chin pey ngak me pa/ Ta ya ta om gate

gate paragate parasamgate bodhi soha/

T. The mantra of transcendent knowledge is proclaimed : Ta ya

ta om gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi soha.

N. Usually one can chant gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi

soha. It means the following -

gate gate - going going

paragate - going beyond

parasamgate - transcending all fields

bodhi soha - one merges into the fully

liberated state of enlightenment

How does one go about? Where does one go? Does one keep

running around the planet from country to country, or from one

planet to the other? One goes in meditation and travels through

the myriads of phenomena in meditation. The travel is the jour-

ney of the individual to the loss the individuality. One goes be-

yond the realms of the measurable and the certain and passes

that also, transcending all ﬁelds of existences that has to be tran-

scended, to ﬁnally merge into the fully liberated state of enlight-

enment where universal awareness and the truths are all ab-

sorbed completely. The individuality is lost completely and truth

takes over.

Such is the potency that the mantra carries with it if absorbed

properly in time. An extremely important aspect of this sutta

is the following - The Hinayana path which often takes into ac-

count the teachings of the Mahasattipatthana sutta takes the body

(kaya), sensations (vedana), mind and its ﬂow (chitta) and the

natural laws (dhamma) as objects/tools of meditation to help

move one from ﬁeld to another (body, to sensation, to mind, to

dhamma) and transcending these ﬁelds one after another and go-

ing beyond all these, one enters the bodhi enlightened state which

is established in emptiness (shunayata). Now note that one is us-

ing the tools that constitute the samsara (that is which changing,

1–16 | 13

measurable and relative) to dive into nirvana. It is not that sam-

sara is separate from nirvana; they are connected. Samsara is

the school that prepares you for nirvana. From the use of med-

itation based on forms/objects/tools to meditation without form

or formless meditation where emptiness is the essence of all, one

merges into bodhi state. Now the Mahayana path which talks

about emptiness is extremely important as it connects to the Hi-

nayana very well. So stating that Hinayana and Mahayana are

different is not correct, as both are connected deeply. There is no

division, yet there is no unity in meaning!

The deepest secret of the sutta is one does not go anywhere but

sits still with a content heart. Myriads of ﬁelds passes in awareness.

When samsara is erased, nirvana is experienced. In nirvana, the

individual identity is lost. The experiential knowledge of ﬁelds of

kaya, vedana, chitta, dharma, rising and dissolving in awareness

in meditation is the chanting of the sutta without expressing it in

words. If one looks at the time when nrivana happens in the Sid-

dharta, he is sitting still under a tree. It is important to note that

he sits still. There is no one (human contact) with him in the

forest and he sits still. He is not running around, he not chanting

mantra or doing this worship or that worship. He sits still. Every

aspect appears in awareness and passes of and ﬁnally the grip of

all phenomenas moves away and nirvana happens in him. The

body, the sensations, the ﬂow of mind and the rise and fall of the

dharmas come to awareness and pass off. See that he is not run-

ning anywhere. He sits still and the various ﬁelds pass away in his

awareness. The grip of the ﬁelds loosens its affect and one nears

to the higher or the simpler dimensions of the truth. He is not

search for it. The is no journey to take as he sits still. It is crucial.

There is no search for power, there is no search for spiritual great-

ness. He has already acquired it in previous life times and then

he leaves everything. There is contentment in the heart as he has

ﬁnished every thing that he had started. He sits still. There is no

want to go for, no search to go on, no journey to be taken and no

effort to be put forth. Nothing to say, nothing to do and nothing

to become. He just sits still and nirvana happens in him. Yet the

mind body complex is still there in Samsara. The deep paradox

reﬂects itself. The mind body complex is there in Samara and yet

the other side of the blade that is Nirvana is happening in empti-

ness. The deep balance is already there. But it has taken him so

many lifetimes of hard work in Samsara. Life after life he toils

through and acquires merits after merits. He gets defeated but he

does not gives up. See the devotion and see the hard work. The

journey is so important, and he knows the value of the journey.

But we only see the ﬁnal life. To him the journey was important.

T. Sha ri bu/ Jang chub sem pa sem pa chen po de tar she rab

kyi pa rol tu chin pa zab mo la lab par jao/

T. Shariputra, this is how a bodhisattva-mahasattva should learn

profound transcendent knowledge.

T. De ne chom den de ting nge dzin de le zheng te/ Jang chub

sem pa sem pa chen po pak pa chen re zik wang chuk la lek

so zhe ja wa jin ne/ Lek so lek so/ Rik kyi bu de de zhin no/

De de zhin te/ Ji tar khyo kyi ten pa de zhin du she rab kyi pa

rol tu chin pa zab mo la che par ja te/ De zhin shek pa nam

kyang je su yi rang ngo/

T. Then the Blessed One arose from that samadhi and praised

the noble bodhisattva-mahasattva Avalokiteshvara, saying "well

done". "Well done, well done. Noble son, it is so. It is just so.

Profound transcendent knowledge should be practiced just as you

have taught, and all the tathagatas will rejoice."

N. Tathagatas - means those who have walked the way of

tathata (or the things as they are i.e yatha bhoota)

T. Chom den de kyi de ke che ka tsal ne/ Tse dang den pa sha

ri bu dang/ Jang chub sem pa sem pa chen po pak pa chen

re zik wang chuk dang/ Tam che dang den pay khor de dak

dang/ Lha dang/ Mi dang/ La ma yin dang/ Dri zar che pay

jik ten yi rang te/

T. After the Blessed One spoke these words, the venerable

Shariputra and the noble bodhi sattva-mahasattva Avalokitesh-

vara, that whole gathering and the world world with its gods, hu-

mans, asuras (demons) and gandharvas (class of beings usually

involved in arts, music, dance), rejoiced and praised the words of

the Blessed one.

T. Chom den de kyi sung pa la ngon par to do/ Chom den de

ma she rab kyi pa rol tu chin pay nying po zhe ja wa tek pa

chen poy do dzok so/

T. Thus ends the mahayana sutra called The Bhagavati, Heart of

Transcendent Knowledge.

N. There are main three systems - the Hinayana, the Ma-

hayana and the Vajrayana. The Hinayana is the paths chosen by

the arhants (those who have defeated the enemies of their own

minds). They usually do not help directly. If one has fallen in

spiritual endeavour, they will just stand and watch without help-

ing. The subtle idea is that if one has fallen one has to get up by

one’s own effort and they will just be a neutral observer. This idea

of not helping or giving a lending hand might seem cruel but the

deeper essence is to strengthen the individual from inside out.

Thus without helping they help the individual in indirect ways.

One usually ﬁnds the Hinayana systems to be followed in South

East Asian countries where more stress is given to the samatha

(to develop equanimity) and vipassana (to develop insight into

the way things are, i.e yatha-bhoota or as it is) meditations, fun-

damental of which are found in the Mahasattipatthan sutta. The

Mahayana system and the encased Vajrayana within it encom-

pass the bodhisattvas. They take into account the fact that it is

important to help many on the path to acquire the merit to en-

lightenment. Thus helping others is an important aspect of gen-

erating compassion for uplifting and helping those on the path.

The system usually considers recitation of mantra and tantric sys-

tems, including worshiping of deity or a superior god or goddess,

or bodhisattva as well as a buddha in the journey to enlighten-

ment. One usually ﬁnds these kinds of systems in the norther n

14 | 1–16

parts of Asia (i.e Tibet, China, Korea, etc). Vajrayana takes into

account the image of a diety or a buddha or considers the guru

as a buddha and the student has to worship this kind of system

as well as meditate on the chosen image to acquire the advanced

state of experiences. This is dangerous and development is ex-

tremely fast, but not natural. Note that the fundamentals and the

mechanism of the way to meditate remain the same across all the

different traditions and the systems. A nice introduction to these

issues can be found in Mahamudra : The Quintessence of Mind

and Meditation. The title - Tibet’s greatest yogi Jetsun Milarepa,

covers deeper instructions on the way of meditation in the form

of poetry by Milarepa himself, after he acquires the stage of bud-

dhahood (See the chapter on Nirvana). Similar teaching might be

found for women aspirant in the Sky dancer : The Secret Life and

Songs of Lady Yeshe Tsogyel, were women are placed in a very

high position in spiritual evolution and instructions are given to

women aspirants. It is requested that the readers acquire funda-

mental texts and explore the texts as they meditate and read the

texts again and again. It takes time to get established in the way

to meditate and conduct adequate research work before one ﬁnds

a suitable way that suits one’s frequency. So take it slow and do

your research work.

T. Namo/ La ma la chak tsal lo/ Sang gye la chak tsal lo/ Cho

la chak tsal lo/ Ge dun la chak tsal lo/ Yum chen mo she rab

yi pa rol tu chin pa la chak tsal lo/ Dak gi den pay tsik nam

drub par gyur chik/

T. Namo! Homage to the Guru, homage to the Buddha, homage

to the Dharma, homage to the Sangha. Homage to the great

mother, transcendent knowledge. May all my true words be ac-

complished.

T. Ji tar ngon lhay wang po gya jin ge she rab kyi pa rol tu

chin pay don zab mo yi la sam shing/ Tsik kha ton du je pey

tu dang nu pa la ten ne du dik chen la sok pa mi tun pey chok

tam che chir dok pa de zhin du/ Dak gi kyang she rab ki pa

rol tu chin pey don zab mo yi la sam shing/ Tsik kha ton du je

pay tu dang nu pa la ten ne du dik chen la sok pa mi tun pey

chok tam che chir dok par gyur chik/

T. Just as formerly Indra, lord of the gods, contemplating the pro-

found meaning of transcendent knowledge, recited these words

and by that averted all evil and other disagreeable elements, may i

too, by the force and power of contemplating the profound mean-

ing of transcendent knowledge and reciting the words, avert all

evil and other disagreeable elements.

T. Me par gyur chik/ Zhi war gyur chik/ Rab tu zhi war gyur

chik/ Gang gi ten ching drel war jung/ Gak pa me pa kye me

pa/ Che pa me pa tak me pa/ Ong wa me pa dro me pa/ Ta

de don min don chik min/ Tro pa nyer zhi zhi ten pa/

T. May they be eliminated. May they be calmed. May they be

totally calmed. Whatever is inter-dependent, arising from con-

nection, is without cessation and without birth, without end and

without permanence, without coming and without going, with-

out division and without unity of meaning; all elaboration fully

paciﬁed; teaching peace.

N. Whatever is inter-dependent, arising from connection, is with-

out cessation and without birth, without end and without perma-

nence, without coming and without going, without division and

without unity of meaning; all elaboration fully paciﬁed; teaching

peace!

Without cessation i.e neither there is process of death and with-

out birth i.e neither there is germination (more importantly, nei-

ther one dies nor there is birth, as one is universal awareness itself

and emptiness is one’s nature) + without end i.e neither there

is an end and without permanence i.e nor there is permanence

(there is no ending to it and yet it is cannot be permanent) +

without division i.e there is not compartments or categorizations

and without unity of meaning i.e but one cannot say it as uni-

ﬁed into oneness (i.e duality and multiplicity cannot exist but it

doesn’t mean that oneness exists in emptiness). Thus all elabora-

tions, expositions and manifestations are fully paciﬁed, teaching

peace!

T. Dzok pey sang gye ma nam kyi/ Dam pa de la chak tsal lo/

Gek rik tong grak gye chu zhi wa dang/ Mi tun no pay kyen

dang drel wa dang/ Tun par drup ching pun sum tsok pa yi/

Ta shi de kyang deng dir de lek shok/

T. i bow to the sacred words of the Perfect Buddha. May the

80,000 kinds of obstructers be paciﬁed, and disagreeable, harm-

ful conditions removed and, becoming harmonious, may this ex-

cellent auspiciousness bring happiness and well-being, here and

now.

T. Mangalam

T. May there be good fortune!

6 A poetry to share

Like the ocean’s silence,

filled with an ancient nectar,

called Nirvana,

the heart is content \&

the mind still ...

No thoughts of birth,

neither that of death,

no want to go for,

no search to go on,

no journey to be taken,

and no effort to be put forth ...

Nothing to say, nothing to do,

and nothing to become,

just to sit still,

and be ...

Thus by grace have i found a way,

were the heart is content,

and the mind still,

that if death comes now,

1–16 | 15

i am ready to go ...

May those above,

live with a content heart,

may those below,

live with a heart content,

may all around,

find contentment in their hearts,

wherever i walk,

as long as life remains ...

just sit still and be

7 The highest is the simplest

The highest is the simplest. Truth searches for simplicity in one’s

heart and is least interested in what one has acquired. So main-

tain the simplicity of heart as much as possible. Also, from mo-

ment to moment, nurture the contentment in heart and stability

will dawn within you. Your experiential knowledge matters more

than anything else in your journey of life.

love and take care! - shriprakash sinha

8 Conclusion

The heart sutra raises the female aspect to a higher level, by

terming emptiness (a.k.a shunyata) as the mother of all Buddhas.

It is not that emptiness has a gender, however, in existence, the fe-

male aspect is raised higher. On a deeper level, there are 5 stages

into the realms of truth - Aniccha (impermanence), Dukkha (sor-

row due to not grasping impermanence), Annatta (non-self or an

existent individual identity), Shunyata (emptiness) and Tathagata

(observing the way as it is or what nature wants to show). This

4th stage of Shunyata is the mother of all Buddhas. Emptiness

or Shunyata is also referred to as Goddess Bhagvati or the tran-

scendental knowledge behind all phenomenas. Gate gate paragate

parasamgate bodhi soha meaning "going going, going beyond,

transcending all ﬁelds, one merges into the fully liberated stage

of enlightenment". Where does one go? As the lotus ﬂower rests

gently on the surface of the pond, while the happenings within

the petals of the ﬂower, like the ﬂow of nutrition etc, occurs nat-

urally and spontaneously, so also the when the human body sits

still, the ﬁelds of body (kaya), sensations (vedana), mind (chitta)

and the laws of nature (dhamma), come to awareness and passes

off. Kayanupaschyana (observation of body), Vedananupaschyana

(observation of sensations within the body), Chittanupaschyana

(observation of the ﬂow of mind) and Dhammanupaschyana (ob-

servation of the law of rise, persistance and fall of myriads of

phenomena) or the stages of Vipassana meditation, all happen

naturally and spontaneously as the human body sits still like a

resting lotus ﬂower! However the journey is over many life times.

The Prajna-paramita-hridaya assauges multiple conﬂicts that one

faces in one’s journey into the realms of truth. The exposition

sheds light on aspects that have come to awareness and have been

put in a few words. However, words cannot completely capture

the essence in this journey and one’s experiential knowledge is

of greatest value. Going going, going beyond, transcending all

ﬁelds, one merges into the fully liberated stage.

9 References

1. Bhavanakrama of Kamalsila - Translated by Parmananda

Sharma forward by the 14th Dalai Lama

2. Paticca-samuppada-sutta, Samyutta-nikaya, XII (I), 1

3. Mahasattipatthan sutta - The Establishment Of Alertness (As

made available by Vipassana Research Institute) - Hindi To

English Translations - translated by shriprakash sinha. Work

not done in afﬁliation with Vipassana Research Institute.

4. Mahamudra : The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation by

Dakpo Tashi Namgyal & translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa

5. Tibet’s Great Yogi Milarepa by Ewans Wentz

6. Sky dancer : The Secret Life and Songs of Lady Yeshe Tsogyel

by Keith Dowman

7. The Sutta-Nipata - translated by H. Saddhatissa

8. Abhidharmakosha-Bhasya of Vasubandhu [Vol 1 to

4] - translated by Gelong Lodro Sangpo & Bhikkhu

K.L.Dhammajoti

9. Anapanasati, Mindfulness with breathing - Buddhadasa

Bhikkhu

16 | 1–16

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.

The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation by Dakpo Tashi Namgyal & translated by Lobsang P

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Great Yogi Milarepa by Ewans Wentz 6. Sky dancer : The Secret Life and Songs of Lady Yeshe Tsogyel by Keith Dowman

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