A Commentary on Heart Sūtra Part 5
By Wong Weng Hon
In the previous articles of Deer Park from part 2 though part 4, the negation of all phenomena including the fundamental doctrines of Śākyamuni Buddha is intensively examined. The negation or deconstruction is aimed at revealing the eternal Truth of Emptiness of inherent existence. Emptiness refers to emptiness of illusive self-nature. The self-natures of all phenomena constitute the multiplicity. Ultimately, the multiplicity is cosmic illusion and unreal. The repeated negation or deconstruction is to emphasize that multiplicity of the world is illusory. All illusory phenomena are like magics, dreams, echoes, mirages, reflected moons, hairs of a tortoise or children of a barren woman. The cosmic illusion is unveiled in order to abandon grasping upon the five aggregates as This is I; This is Mine; This belongs to me. Relinquishing grasping, the discerning one is instantaneously liberated and morally perfected. Whoever intuitively perceives the Emptiness of inherent existence develops the Perfection of Wisdom of Equanimity. Equanimity liberates the perceiver of Truth – the Emptiness of the human personality and that of the world. The development of the Perfection of Wisdom is considered to be the summit of human spiritual achievement. This supreme Wisdom is the highest point of penetrating knowledge of ultimate Truth (paramārtha Satya) of Unity or Non-duality. This eternal Truth, sought by all esoteric religions in many dissimilar ways, obliterates ignorance, perversion and suffering. This Part 5 is the conclusion of my exegesis of the Heart Sūtra.
- 故知般若波羅蜜多, 是大神咒; 是大明咒; 是無上咒; 是無等等咒.
Therefore, it should be known that the Perfection of Wisdom is the great mantra; the mantra of great knowledge; the unsurpassed mantra; the unequalled mantra.
Commentary:
The ordinary worldlings believe that when a mantra(咒) is recited in times of troubles or adversities, the evil forces (māras) will be driven away or exorcized. In actual fact, a mantra encapsulates or contains the essence of a guru’s teaching. Its regular repetition or one-pointed recitation will appease, concentrate and purify the mind. Purity of mental consciousness consummates the unity or communion with Buddha in terms of mental frequency and wavelength. In short, the ungrasping, one-pointed, mindful recitation of the mantra will lead to self-actualization of Nirvāṇ̣a(涅槃). Nirvāṇa is the absolute purity of mental consciousness due to the abandonment of all forms of grasping. It is the complete appeasement of the chatter of the ordinary ‘monkey’ mind.
The mantra is not grasped upon because its meaning is usually not given by the master to cut off conceptualization immediately in meditation. The non-grasping recitation of mantra instantaneously cuts off false grasping upon the body and mind. It also obliterates mental obsessions. Without mental obsessions, the mind is purified. A completely pure mind, devoid of self or ego, is a Buddha-mind – the mind of enlightenment (bodhi).
The Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā 般若波羅蜜多) is compared to the great mantra. Firstly, the great mantra may exorcize all evil forces on account of the two reasons. Firstly, the mantra is devised and uttered by a highly spiritually cultivated person or saint, such as a Bodhisattva. Evil beings, such as demons, devils or evil forces (māras) are frightened and dispelled by the repeated recitation of a mantra. Mantra is the divine or holy utterance of a great Divine Being, such as a Bodhisattva or high monk or nun. If this mantra is recited one-pointedly by a lay person assailed by evil forces, it is believed to have the power to dispel them.
Secondly, one-pointed or concentrated recitation of a mantra without grasping purifies the human mind instantaneously. The mental consciousness is absolutely pure because self or ego has been obliterated by non-grasping upon the five aggregates. No evil force can enter a pure mind which is perfectly divine and unperturbable. Selfless mind is the Buddha-mind of deliverance called the Nirvāṇic mind. No māra can infiltrate into a Nirvāṇic mind. Such a mind is infinite like an empty space. It is absolutely invincible. Not even a nuclear device can devastate it.
The Perfection of Wisdom is also compared to the mantra of great knowledge because it dispels the darkness of Ignorance(Avijjā無明). It also produces pure, infinite mind like the invincible empty space unperturbed or untouched by any evil force in the world. It is called the mantra of great knowledge because the Perfection of Knowledge is the mother of all Buddhas of the past, present and future. It is the perfect knowledge of the ultimate Truth of Emptiness, Unity or Non-duality.
The Perfection of Wisdom is also likened to the unsurpassed mantra because there is no other device of mantra which excels the supreme purity of the human mind developed by the Perfection of Wisdom. The mind of Perfection of Wisdom is like the power of the Buddha-mind (like that of the all-mighty God) which can not be assailed by any evil force. No power or knowledge of the mundane world can surpass this supramundane Wisdom of Perfection.
Finally, the Perfection of Wisdom is likened to the unequalled mantra because there is no other power of mantra in the mundane world which can match the supreme power of the human mind of transcendence. The transcendental mind, which is beyond the world, can not touched by an evil force in the mundane world. The most powerful mind in the world is the Buddha-mind engendered by the Perfection of Wisdom. As it is a Nirvāṇic mind which is unmade, unconditioned, undestroyed and unconditioned, it is synonymous with the Islamic Sufi’s concept of God. God encompasses every creation or ALL including the evil forces as a portion of contigent beings.However, the infinite Essence of God can not be unassailed or struck by any contigent being. From the Sufi’ s theosophy, Buddha is synonymous with the concept of God (Vedānta or Upanisāds also admit such an equality in term of pantheism). There is one and only Truth of eternal Unity or Non-dulaity. Buddha or God is the eternal Truth of Unity or Non-duality. The Buddha or God is just akin to the metaphor of borderless Ocean and all contigent beings, including the evil beings, are like the drops of water of the borderless Ocean. How could the few drops of black water disturb or contaminate the infinite, borderless Ocean ?
The Buddha-mind is pure, infinite, unlimited, most luminious and eternal. Being eternal and unconditioned, it can not be destroyed by any force in the world. The Buddha-mind is an infinite energy without any material essence. The Perfection of Wisdom produces this infinite energy called the Dharmabody of a Buddha. Dharmabody cannot be devastated by the greatest force in the world – even the nuclear bomb. Even the physical body of a living Tathāgata is obliterated totally by a nuclear device, the eternal dharmabody or its spiritual force or energy remains untouched or unobliterated. Buddha-mind is like the infinite space which cannot be devastated by any enormous physical force. There is no self in the Buddha-mind which can be destroyed.
The Perfection of Wisdom manifests this innate supremacy of Man called Buddha-nature. This supremacy of Man, ensuing from by the Perfection of Wisdom, exists intrinsically in all sentient beings. It is the veil of ignorance and multiplicity which obscures the Buddha-nature. It is hidden from the mundane perception of the ordinary wordlings.
In order to discern this Buddha-nature, the ultimate Truth of Unity or Non-duality must first be intuitively apprehended. The ultimate Truth is enveloped by the conventional truth (saṃvṛ̣iti satya) of multiplicity. The ultimate Truth is to be discerned thus: The many (multiplicity) is unreal and only the One (Buddha or absolute Truth ) is real. Whoever penetrates insightfully into Absolute Truth of ‘Many in One; One in many’ develops the supreme power of the Perfection of Wisdom.
All esoteric religions guide mankind to perceive this eternal Truth of Unity: ‘Many in One; One in many’. With this right paradigm, the saved believer or practioner thus obliterates the illusive or superimposed self or ego. Self or ego does not exist premodially. It is superimposed by ignorance. It is mentally fabricated by the ordinary worldlings.
As the Perfection of Wisdom terminates suffering eternally, the Heart Sūtra appropriately describes it as the great mantra, the mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra and the unmatched mantra. The Perfection of Wisdom guides and leads all sentient beings to salvation.
The sentient beings are just like drops of water, which originate from the borderless Ocean. They will eventually return and merge with borderless Ocean forever. The supreme power of the Perfection of Wisdom is the power of self-redemption - a return journey to the Greatest Perfection of life. The Greatest Perfection is our original nature existing in each and everyone of us. This original nature is the most powerful shelter or refuge which protects all sentient beings from suffering.
In Theravāda tradition, this original treasure of all sentient beings – our original peaceful home – is expounded by Gotama Buddha in his early discourses as the Insubstantiality (Anattā) of the five aggregates. In the Mahāyāna tradition, it is expounded as the Emptiness of the five aggregates. The five aggregates encompass the entire empirical world – the borderless cosmos. Both the Pāli Nikāyas (Theravāda tradition) and Chinese Āgamas (Mahāyāna) expound that the whole world is ultimately empty and illusive. The Upaniṣads too promulgate that the world is empty and delusive. There is only one eternal Truth expounded exoterically by different names of apparently diverge esoteric religions. That eternal Truth is Unity, Insubstantiality, Non-duality, Emptiness, Dependent Co-arising, Tao or Tawḥīd.
Yes, the Heart Sūtra is a Canon like Tao Te Ching, Upaniṣads, Bible and Koran expounding religious Theosophy and Pantheism. The Theosophy or Pantheism guides Man to return esoterically or inwardly towards the centre of the heart. All serious religious sekeers seek the common eternal Truth of deliverance designated dissimilarly as Buddha, Brahman or God. Seeing the God. Brahman or God is living the Truth according to the Word of one’s beloved Lord. The name of the Lord does not save. It is the Truth which saves. The esoteric Truth is common for all. We are all brothers and sisters from the perspective of Theosophy or Pantheism. All spiritual Masters preach one common message of eternal Truth – things as they really are.
(To be continued )
Editor’s Note:
The final part of the exegesis on the Heart Sūtra will appear in the next edition of Deer Park. The Heart Sūtra is considered the most condensed form of the Mahāyāna Sūtra which encapsulates the central theme of the Word of the Buddha. Heart Sūtra, like Upaniṣ̣ads or Vedānta, Tao Te Ching, Great Learning, Philokalia and Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, which are equally abstruse, is theosophy or pantheism. They are expounded for all mankind. Having studied and apprehended these religious classics, you would abandon all discriminations including creeds, colours and races. This is the most profound discernment of religion. I wish you all the best. May all beings be well and happy always. |
