The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra
I prostrate to the Arya Triple Gem.
Thus did I hear at one time.
The Bhagavan was dwelling on Mass of Vultures Mountain
in Rajagriha together with a great community of monks
and a great community of bodhisattvas.
At that time, the Bhagavan was absorbed in the concentration on the categories of phenomena called “Profound Perception.”
Also, at that time, the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara
looked upon the very practice of the profound perfection of wisdom
Here we will start the second section, actually on the Heart Sutra.
SMALL MEDITATION SESSION
In this world, according to the different level of mind, different background, different culture, different place, mostly just because we are born in different families, majority of human on this world among those human believers, they believe in that religion or that belief that their parents believe in majority of cases.
Perhaps, this goes with all their religion, for example, if your parents are Buddhist is more like very much likely that the kids grows in that involvement and eventually kids end up being Buddhist. The same goes with Islam, if your parents are Islam, it’s very much likely that you become Islam, sometimes you didn’t even know when you become Islam, you start to address that like, let’s for example if you’re born in India, you start to address that “Oh I am an Indian”, as long as you know how to say that. So being a pretty much similar ways, you start to say that or I’m believing this and that.
So honestly, we don’t get the privilege to literally choose our own religion, long back during one interview, maybe 12-13 years, it was a radio interview and I said that for some reasons, I was strongly thinking that there’s a flow of a thought and I just had chit chat and then I thought that maybe it would be nice if every kid in this world gets an opportunity to choose the religion that they want. After 18 is more like the majority of the countries, you can drive when you are 18, you can literally pretty much buy the alcohol and this and that only when you are above 18, and I’m not sure how it goes in India. So similarly it would be really nice and cool if nobody influencing kids, if it doesn’t happen.
I’m also talking in terms of Buddhism as well. It would be kind, fine and nice perhaps beneficial, then you get to choose what you believe. It’s very good that in this world we have the right to believe. It’s not something negative which I can say brainwash. It’s more like “I’ve been so much influence into that”. It can be positive, it depends on the person and then the religion is suitable for the person or whatever belief it is, whether it’s a belief that the wold exist but we never get a chance to examine,
There are monks, who live around, who are scared of world but they scare of living or staying alone. I don’t know how they’re gonna meditate in future. They do in some mountains, I really don’t know how this is gonna go. So many of the things that we strongly believe are influenced by surrounding, having this and that.
In the screen right now I can see nine, including myself, if I ask each of any you that if you’ve seen a ghost, then I don’t think, there are maybe one still see the ghosh, but the rest of them haven’t but still in their heart. In our heart is like “Oh, the ghost exists.” If you get to stay in this or in that place very dark, that things comes in your mind, although we haven’t seen, and then if ask those people who scared of ghost, this is something that I must accept so in the earlier classes, we almost won’t find anyone who has been harmed by ghost, maybe few in million, but we will find more people who are bitten by a dog and also had an accident in a car.
But people don’t scare of car, people don’t scare of dogs, but people scare of ghost who you never have seen, if ghost exists, obviously they’re gonna get angry because you are afraid of them for no reason. They did nothing to you, why were you afraid of them? What would you feel if one day, all world are afraid of you? I don’t know, this is just a thought.
Many of the things that we truly believe that exist, may not be existing, but regardless of whether they really exist or not, it is very important to have a genuine respect towards all the beliefs, whether it’s a religion or whether it’s in general. There is always a reason why our ancestors believing something, whether it’s a moon, whether it’s a sun, whether it’s a water or a tree. In India we have people who literally worship to sun, moon, water, tree, pretty much everything.
So what I’m really trying to say here is that let’s try to meditate on what we truly believe and how that exist, just think about something that you truly believe and how do you know that exist. It can be karma,
but if you truly believe in karma and think about why the karma is, how it makes sense. If you truly believe that the trees like something to be worshipped and think of why this is truly, think that Buddha has something to be worshipped and truly believe it like why is it. So that’s something that we really start as a meditation.
Checking oneself if the one and only way to find mistakes in ourselves, there’s where kids have examination. And before examination, we check whether we could write or no things. And that’s why let’s just think or meditate on what we believe, what kind of things are there that we truly believe, and then whatever reason we stand there, to which we understand those things truly exist. Alright, so let’s meditate on that, three and two and one.
(Meditation within few minutes)
Usually when I do this sort of meditation. Next life is what? Next, the bigger sense, existing of next life is truly matters in many ways. But regardless of whether the one believing next life or not, there are many wonderful practices that we can practice even to achieve peace, harmony and within oneself calmness. There are setting in mind training through which we can achieve some happiness within ourselves without really relying on external conditions.
INTRODUCTION
Those are very important, so the reason why I went through with this meditation is this really helps, sometimes to know what they truly believe and the reasons. If you don’t have any reason, we can try to find the reason so that you can have the belief with rational approach, this is very important, and there is always a reason behind each and everything that we believe in. There is always something positive
behind and it’s very important to know those positive things and if you have been believing that thing from a very long time and the reasons behind and so try to investigate on these reasons, I think this really helps to know one’s personally purpose in life and to create this life a more meaningful. For example, as a Buddhist monk, I truly think that everyone should have the right to even choose one from religions, but at the place that I’m staying, there are many young monks who are like 3,4,5, 6,7 y.o.
Here we try to teach these younger kids with the rational approach, not like we force them to believe that, to think in this and that, but based on what they can learn with the rationale, with the reason behind. There are many things which change with the time, there are many advices which may change with the time. Some of the advices may make sense 100 years back, but now it may not make that much sense. Some of the things used to consider as a very good in like 1000 years back, but then it’s not good anymore nowadays. Some of the things are maybe very bad before like one or two years back, but it’s not bad anymore these days.
So these are changed, these are not definitely stable, but there are some facts in many of the Buddha’s teachings, you can literally classify Buddha’s teaching into two categories. There is one category that Buddha said according to the person, that is very much like a medicine according to the person, which may not be applicable for everyone. There are some advices that Buddha gave to some people just in such a way that can inspire that person, not everyone, and then you cannot apply those sort of teachings for everyone.
There are some mantras which Buddha might be said like “Oh if you see this mantra 1000 times, you gonna get that thing, you’re gonna get this thing, for particular person. Yeah, but nowadays sometimes it is being misunderstood in a way. Now if you say this mantra, you’re going to achieve this, achieve that which is not really true, it doesn’t go with everyone. If people think that they would go along with me and act based on that, then it may not go along with you. So these are more like an advice given personally for an individual that is not applicable and teachings are not definite.
But there are some set of teachings which are definite, Buddha said like these kind of teachings don’t have a second meaning behind, for these you can take literal meaning, this is second category of teaching. So these sort of teachings definite which holds that definite meaning and this one is indefinite. This category of the teaching is something that cannot be changed, that will never ever change, so this kind of teaching you can literally have it. It’s finalized and it is being 2000, no 2600 years. So these kind of teachings are still exactly as the way it is. On other side, these are just like general teachings based on some individual. This is why not to mix up these two things. Buddha said like “You must analyze my teachings because not every teachings is for you”.
There are some teachings which are, for example, if we compare Buddha’s teachings with science, there are many people who think that Buddhist teachings are science, Buddhism is psychology, Buddhism is science of mind, Buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion bla, bla, bla… Yes, Buddhism don’t believe in Creator God, so everything is Karma. For me, it is helpful to think in this way, of course, it differs from person to person, for me it really makes sense and it has a one potential to bring peace and harmony in this world in this manner.
If you believe in, let’s say, Brahma, one Indian Creator God, as long as one believe in a Creator God, one has to be that, you die one day, and then you’re gonna wait for Karma with more like judgmental or something like that, there will be one day then the God will judge whether you go to heaven or hell based on your positive or negative karma. If you have like more than 51% of virtue, good things that you have done in your life, you’re going to go to heaven, even if you have 49 % of bad things that you’ve done in your life, it’s OK, you still going to go to the heaven, so it doesn’t matter whether you do like 99% of the good things or 51% of the good things, because there is only two ways that you can get to choose, this is the heaven or the hell, of course you’re gonna go to heaven. Doesn’t matter whether you did like 99% of the positive things or 51% of positive things, as long as you have done more points with the things you wanna go to heaven, On the other hand, if you do something negative, if you do more than 50% let’s say 51% of negative thing in your life, you’re gonna go to the hell.
So it doesn’t really matter whether it’s 51 or 41 or 31 or 11, it doesn’t matter. So of course these teachings help millions of people from refraining to engage in negativities.This teaching really help, because all these teachings also believe that why you have to try to do at least 51% of the positive action and that why there are many ways to practice positivities.
Compassion is something that all the teachings, all the religions talk, love, forgiveness, generosity, these are the teachings and these are the lovely patience, so these are the lovely teachings that you’re going to find. And basically all the religions as in common, all the religions are very helpful, for respective, for certain people. For me, I personally believe in karma because that helps me more and I also think that may help many other people as well, because even if I do like 80% of positive things in my life, I still find it not alright to engage in 20% of the negative, because I believe in karma. So even if I engage in 80% of positive, if I engage in 20% of negative I will get a negative result. So based on that, this also avoids me to engage in that remaining 20% of the negativities.
Why it is possible, it’s not a fault of some religions, but it is possible that some people misuse this sort of belief, for example, if a person saved 80 lives, suppose a person is a doctor, he saves 80 lives. And then for some reasons, whatever the reasons, he may not hesitate to kill one person, anyway he’s going to go to the heaven because he saved 80 people and then killing that one person may literally make him billionaire, millionaire or whatever he wishes in his life. And also that person who has done all negativities in his life, and he’s very dying soon, so he’s thinking that “All my life, I’ve done all the wrong things and there is no way that I can go to heaven, because I’ve done too many negativities until now”. So he may not hesitate to engage in, for example, killing 9000 people, and then he may not hesitate to kill 1000 more. Because even if he saved 1000, it’s not going to take him to the heaven, so he may not hesitate to kill one more 1000 people to give some happiness to his family or friends or whatever it is.
This is really my individual perspective, from very rational objective approach to my mind. The believing karma, regardless of whether you believe in Buddhism or not, is helpful individually for me, it’s more like I’m having a stomach pain and the stomach medicine is more helpful to me. Believing that way may be
helpful to millions of people on this world and I truly appreciate all those have respect to all the teachings who talk about love, generosity, compassion, understanding and patience, but what I’m really trying to say here is: the Heart Sutra is one of the teachings which elaborates, which explains about one universal fact that doesn’t change with the time, and so far I have to understand, I must admit, but at the same time I must say that if one understand this, one can literally achieve, one literally is more like you literally upgrade your mind. Many of things that literally make you suffers, don’t approach you, don’t be able to harm you at that level or at that stage. For example, there are many layers of fact and these are the teachings, Buddha clearly say that the teaching of emptiness, the teachings of like, for example, impermanence, is always there. It’s not Buddha who invented something, Buddha realized things that already exist, so these teachings were something in fact existing in this world, it is not Buddha made a rule like from now on you do this and that and that.
So not in that manner, but these things really exist as a nature of phenomena. One of the teaching is all the compounded phenomena are impermanent. So this is something that this is even before Buddha became a Buddha, he understood that and practice them. Based on that, he was able to eliminate some of his negative emotions. When we are not able to see impermanence as a nature of phenomena, it gives lot of pain to us. We cannot accept change, somebody sick who disturb you, somebody passed away disturb us, something go wrong disturb us.
Maybe the smallest thing goes against our mind, disturbs us because our mind image is very much heavy treated towards prominent seeing everything that I should be tomorrow, it should be tomorrow and we always think that “ah next I’m going to do this”, so that thought never ends, even a person who will die after 3-4 hours, still think that “ Oh next year I will do this”. So that mind is what make you disappoint “Or tomorrow I’m gonna go to the market”, so tomorrow you get disappointed because you have this expectation that you’re going to go to the market tomorrow. “Tomorrow I’ll do this, tomorrow I’m gonna run”, so who knows.
Sometimes we suffer just because of the way we think like “oh tomorrow I’m gonna run”, so tomorrow you don’t feel like running, it gave you’re not happy. Things doesn’t goes along with your mind, or you said somebody that tomorrow will run together so tomorrow you are not able to run, you don’t wanna run, again, it gives you unhappiness.
THE IMPERMANENCE
So the door which gives us unhappiness is pretty much unlimited and all those are just created by mind. I would say just something that being projected by one, but there are things that exist in the nature of itself. In the nature of phenomena, for example impermanence, nobody has to do that, nobody, but nothing changes that, impermanence is always there. So believing in impermanence really makes sense, because so far there’s no reasons, nothing which can stand there against the law of impermanence, everything changes . Today is good day, tomorrow is bad day. Today is nice time, tomorrow it’s difficult time. The tree is not always a tree and the city is not always the city. Exactly the same way, a nice feeling won’t be there forever, the difficult time won’t be there forever.
One of the first teachings of Buddha was the Four Noble Truth, when he explained the Four Noble Truth, one of the first expections is impermanence, impermanence of life. The very existence, each and everything that we are attached to is impermanent. Everything that you think that will give you happiness is impermanent. Each and every small phenomena that you act to which you expect happiness, each and every small phenomena that you’re looking forward, you’re relying to achieve some peace of mind or happiness, whether it is a piano, whether is the nice garden, that is a nice coffee, that is a nice car, that is a nice whatever it is which are all impermanent.
If you are acting in your mind that everything changed, then just by thinking that everything is changed, they won’t be there anymore all the time. Just by having that thought, it literally reduce that expectation towards that phenomena. The more you will be able to reduce that expectation, you’re literally opening a door to have more happiness, you’re literally closing a door to suffer.
From where the suffering comes? From that angle, it is not the book, the car, the mobile phone, the computer, the television, whatever, it is not the thing that literally makes you suffer, but it is your expectation that literally make you suffer. If you think that “I might get sick tomorrow”, like if you’re mentally prepared in advance, if you’re mentally preparing the exam even if that happened tomorrow, it doesn’t give you any pain.
If you think that “Oh I have a wonderful relation with this woman, man”, whatever it is, at the same time, you’re so attached to it, and then you make like 1000 millions of time planned like “OK, this is there, we go there, we do this, we do that, a lot of plans”. The more plans you have, the more expectation that you have from somebody else. The more disappointed would be if something happens between. Well, if you see, if you just enjoy the present moment without expecting too much, you can enjoy the same thing without making so many things which you may suffer. It’s more like you literally try to glue, there are stone balls thrown which sting you, you plug lots of stones on your roof, these are exactly like the expectation, if you literally stuck too many stones on your roof, sooner or later it will fall, then it fully connect with pain, so what the point of glueing too many stones on the roof.
When you can just sleep comfortably on your back without sticking too many thorns from your robe. Even with one’s health, it’s exactly the same, I might get this sickness, I might get that, I might get this. It is interesting that in advance, it’s not like you are a superman, superman may also get sick, even the storms is burned down, the iron is still also broke down. So we are just pretty much nothing, trees are stronger than us, this also ends.
So the impermanence, the nature of change is very important to reflect again and again, we must not expect too much because things may change. When you are a kid, you might think that “Ah I’m gonna store like 1,000,000 chocolate so that I can eat whole life”. Yeah, you might eat one year, two years, three years, four years when you’re around 25 or 30, you might have a diabetes and then the same expectation will start to be cleaned, the same thing that you expect, all the happiness into will start to give you all the problems.
So this impermanence is quite easier, Buddha said (1)all the compounded phenomena are impermanent, (2)everything that they grows out of cause and effect is the nature of suffering, (3)each and every phenomena is empty, just an illusion, doesn’t exist the way it exists, the way it appears to us. Three points then the fourth point is (4)free from all negative emotions is the real peace. So these four things, these four lines, you can check literally.
I’m gonna repeat, I’m not sure that I’m gonna repeat the same thing, my translation is terrible, all the compounded phenomena are impermanent, everything that grows are negative emotions and karma is a natural suffering that includes our body. Each and every phenomena is just an illusion doesn’t exist the way it appears to us. It’s free from having existence, absence of all the negative emotions is the real peace.
So among these four points, the book that we are talking right now explained the third one. Each and every phenomena, just an illusion, to our mind, our mind is mistaken, we are not able to see that thing as it exists, there would be a lot of doubts from various angles.
And then we say each and everything is just an illusion, it doesn’t mean that thing doesn’t exist. Thing exists but not the way we see it. It might be a cow, but if we think that this is a donkey, then the cow exist but there way we see doesn’t exist, it’s pretty much like magicians, they say that they literally do some magic then even the thing appears as a cow. I don’t know how. I don’t know that exists these days, but I’ve seen some pigeons from a piece of handkerchief, there literally some pigeons disappear and some pigeons appear from some flowers, this in that. Those is an illusion.
Thing doesn’t exist the way it express to the eyes. Exactly the same way, it’s not just those pigeons, but everything, whatever appear to our eyes or whatever we hear, taste, feel. Each and every phenomena in this world exactly like that, I don’t mean that each and every phenomena is like pigeon, but theoretically, what we see is not equal to the way the thing exists. Like the thing exist by its own inherence without depending on anything, we can go deeper into that.
THE HEART SUTRA
So along with that as a foundation, I should also say that Buddha’s teaching, so this Heart Sutra is mostly a discussion between Shariputra, one of the close disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni, is known to bethe one of the two main disciples of Buddha Shariputra and Moggallāna. This two disciples you might find on the two sides of Buddha if you have visited any Buddhist, you’re going to find two disciples. So Shariputra is the one which is on the right side, but he is known as the smartest of the students in wisdom, the most intelligent among the students.
So in the Heart Sutra, it is pretty much a conversation between Shariputra disciple and Avalokitesvara, in many Asian countries Avalokitesvara is known as a female, Buddha of compassion and also another name Chenezig in Tibetan or Ladakhi, it’s a boddhisatva, boddhisattava is not Buddha yet, but on the way to achieve Buddhahood. So for now you can just take it later on I’ll explain, but according to the Tibetan Buddhism, Avalokitesvara is Buddha but then reincarnate as a boddhisattva, boddhisattva is stage before Buddha. So before you become Buddha you become a bodhisattva and then there are four stages and then it becomes Buddha.
So this is a conversation between these two, but even there, conversation is known as a sutra, a teaching of Buddha, it’s more like the teachings of Buddha, sometimes Buddha literally gives a teaching, not verbally, I don’t know whether it is like more of a telepathically. It’s more like a person doesn’t know the language, for example, sometimes is possible that the person doesn’t even know, like I cannot speak Arabic or Japanese, let’s say, but through the power of the meditation, through the power of the mind, is more like Buddha bless them, and they don’t have to write, over the speech, the questions and answers automatically comes out of their mouth, not with their intention, but it’s more like Buddha influences them to say this, let them discuss.
At that time Buddha was at the Vulture Peak Mountain, it was one mountain is wrote here, Buddha was just sitting there. I will go to the literally meaning, Buddha was just meditating on the emptiness and depending origination on the variety of phenomena, so that is when Buddha was meditating, he blessed these two Shariputra and Avalokitesvara which was sitting right beside him. So then the Shariputra asked any questions, it’s not like Shariputra literally asked his question by himself, but through the power of Buddha, the question literally comes out of his mouth, it’s more like that and the Avalokitesvara answered the questions by attaching to the 5 parts, I will explain in the coming classes, so when he explained the five, then he answered the caution raised by Shariputra, then Buddha at the end there are only few words, which says that yes, this is it. So this we’re gonna find then Buddha like is very small, what Buddha really said from his mouth is just few words. Majority of them are also considered as Buddha’s teaching, even if Buddha didn’t say it verbally. So with this point you might wonder like how this comes because and then the Buddha’s teachings are of kind of three times, let’s say the one (1)which Budhha bless somebody and through some other, Buddha let them see it through the blessings of the Buddha. And the second one is (2)that those teachings which Buddha said verbally.
The third one is (3)like Buddha said to disciples to write, for example, when disciples write down the teachings of Buddha, Buddha said, “Oh, you also include the name of the place to whom this teaching one is given, the subject of the teaching. These are something that Buddha asked or told disciples to add on the sutra, so these are also Buddha may not have said it directly, like each and every place like if he is giving a teaching in New York, Buddha might not have said New York but Buddha said that you also write that the teaching has been given to this person, at New York, this is a subject, Buddha was sitting site here in there or whatever it is. So that’s something that Buddha already said to add on each and every teachings, which is why later on when they put on writing they add these things, so this is also known as Buddha’s teachings.
THE HEART OF THE PERFECTION OF WISDOM SUTRA (con’t)
Now we go to Heart Sutra again.
I prostrate to the Arya Triple Gem.
Thus did I hear at one time.
The Bhagavan was dwelling on Mass of Vultures Mountain
in Rajagriha together with a great community of monks
and a great community of bodhisattvas.
At that time, the Bhagavan was absorbed in the concentration on the categories of phenomena called “Profound Perception.”
Also, at that time, the bodhisattva mahasattva arya Avalokiteshvara
looked upon the very practice of the profound perfection of wisdom
“I prostrate to the Arya Triple Gem” as I told last time, it is also a sort of a tradition that they prostrate to some holy subjects at the beginning, and then they translate the text from Sanskrit to Tibetan. They say that “I pay homage” to this and that, particular their own deities, their own protectors, Buddha or whatever it is, so that their works goes smoothly.
“I prostrate to Arya Triple Gem”, so this is not a sutra, this is not the start,
“Thus I heard at one time”. So this is what it is, “thus I heard at one time”, as I said, this shows the subject. Because directly it says that I hear at one time, here the meaning is emptiness, is the real thing that there’s been heard. So here it shows the subject of the teaching.
“The Bhagavan”is what? The Bhagavan, it shows the person who gave the teaching, Bhagavan is Buddha
“was dwelling in the mass of Vulture Peak Mountain”. So this shows the place where Buddha was giving the teaching,
“in Rajagriha”, it is a location, sort of a state.
“together with a great community of monks and a great community of Boddhisattva” so that when he was giving a teaching, there was a great community of monks like Mahayana practitioners, like monks practitioners and also a great community of Bodhisattva, not just ordinary Boddhisattva but Boddhisattva of high realization. So that’s what it means, so what a time when this all comes together, when Buddha was there at the Vulture Peak Mountain, giving a teaching of this and that.
“At that time, the Bhagavan was absorbed in the concentration on the categories of phenomena called “Profound Perception”.”
So when the monks and boddhisattva were there at that time the Bhagavan, “Bhagavan” again is Buddha, was absorbed in a concentration. So they all
gathered over there for Buddha’s teaching, and Buddha went to the meditation, it’s more like Buddha taught everything without speaking a word, it’s more like when everyone is there then everyone was expecting for a Buddha’s teaching. Buddha quietly sits over there in the meditation, concentration meditation. He’s absorbed like he just looks inwards and starts to concentrate on a meditation.
And that object of meditation of that time was on the categories of phenomena like there are many kinds of phenomena, there have many classifications of phenomena in the Buddhist texts, especially in those Buddhist metaphysics. There are lot of categories or phenomena, those categories of phenomena is like basis, if you think about impermanence of a cow, then cow becomes the basis in which you think of impermanence, which you take as a basis to think about impermanence. If you think about all the weather is so changed, the weather changes quite often is impermanent. So the weather is a basis, impermanence is the future. Similarly the category of phenomena is a basis.
And the future, what Buddha was thinking on category phenomena is a profound perception, some people explain it as a one profound perfection emptiness, and this is not OK, it is emptiness, profound ultimate nature, here, the profound is none other than emptiness. The perception, in some books, this is being translated as more as an appearance.
So now here the perception or appearance is the interdependence. The interdependence of phenomena which is sort of another side of the same coin when one side is emptiness, so this emptiness and dependent origination, interdependence is exactly the same coin but two different sides.
Whatever is in the dependence is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is also interdependent. So when you explain emptiness, you can pretty much explain the interdependence. Because when we are not able to see the emptiness, what we see is inherently existing by all without dependent on anything else. So that is what Buddha was thinking or meditating, there is a subject on which Buddha was absorbed into the meditation, concentration meditation, there’s what Buddha was meditating on.
And at the same time, that is the time when Buddha was meditating
“Also at that time, bodhisattva, mahasattva, arya Avalokitesvara looked upon the very practice of profound perfection of wisdom”.
So at the same time, when Buddha was meditating on the profound precepts, boddhisatva literally is those practitioners who have bodhicitta. Boddhichitta, Boddhi is Buddha, Citta means mind, so literal meaning is more like the mind of enlightenment. And now here it doesn’t mean that the mind which is in the enlightened beings, this means that the mind which desire to achieve enlightenment.
So when you have that mind, the person who have that mind in them is called Bodhisattva. Mahasattva, Maha is like huge or high, so the one who has the high form of the mind of Bodhicitta, Arya is more like extraordinary, like not ordinary persons, these are arya or extraordinary persons. So our Avalokitevara, this is just the future of all Avalokitesvara. Avalokitesvara again is Kwan Jin, this is one of the great practitioners, Mahayana practitioner and are very well known figure in many of the Mahayana sutras.
CLASS CONCLUSION
Alright, maybe let’s leave it over here for the next day, because of the time. One of the reason why I set few more things at the beginning is to layout a bit of foundation, at the same time so that you also have something light to carry from this class, otherwise you might feel “Ah today was all about emptiness and it was so profound and then also, not something that I can take away easily and apply in our day-to-day life”. And then you might think that “Oh, classes are so difficult”. So that’s why I thought like maybe we can go through some general foundation points which act in basis at the same time, and you will have something to hold on.
For emptiness, it might take a little bit of time for you to literally have good inside, to which you can bring a lot of changes in your life, it may take a little bit of time, you gotta have some patience and also add some more spices so that you can feel the taste even if not for emptiness from something else. Because I believe that you might not enjoy the taste of emptiness yet, just because it’s so profound and also because you are not in front of Buddha. I just an ordinary monk which sometimes has no idea about your level of mind, the way you think.
And then also I have to teach but without looking at any face, when I was talking all I see is letters, so it’s even more difficult anyways. I feel very happy, fortunate because this work. In Himalayan region people read this, they may understand nothing. For example in Ladakhi, in Tibetan, they understand, they understand Buddha or maybe some, they don’t even know this clearly, but they read this, so even if they get to read or sometimes even opening a book they considered it as really so high, they think like “Oh, such a blessing!”, they even invite some monks to just open the page.
So that the point that I’m saying here is I feel very fortunate, maybe little bit of that influence. And of course yeah, it’s very profound, it’s such a text that has a potential to literally convert somebody life into blissful happiness. Right, so with this note, I would like to conclude today’s class.
The Note Down from the Dharma Talk on The Heart of The Perfection of The Wisdom Sutra by Lama Nawang Kunphel on 13 June 2021, organized by “On The Road of Yoga”