Buddha's Mother: Perfect Wisdom (Heart Sutra)

(Buddha's Wisdom) Who is PRAJNA PARAMITA? The mother behind the Heart Sutra

• The Buddha's [Six] Mothers' Day (Prajnaparamita as 7th)

Perfection of Insight, Prajnaparamita (LACMA)

All hail the Goddess (Devi) Prajna Paramita (of Java), the Mother of the Perfection of Wisdom, the most tremendous, the most excellent of the TEN Perfections the historical Buddha cultivated as the Bodhisattva (the Bodhisatta).

The Heart Sutra is the world's most popular Buddhist sutra. And it is sad that from a young age, I recognized something in its magical wording (Edward Conze translation) that the Berkeley Zen Center could not explain. It was just chanted, rote, mindlessly, thoughtlessly, with no investigation that it could actually mean something sensible.

But a Theravada investigation revealed exactly what it was all about. And the final crowning explanation came, inadvertently, from Alan Watts for some of the strange phrasing, which might trip one up for years.

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  A bodhisattva helping living beings

  The secret is realizing that Śūnyatā ("emptiness," void) is synonymous with the Pali suññatā ("impersonal" = anatta). Then everything else falls into place because what the Heart Sutra (Prajñā-pāramitā-hṛdaya Discourse) is talking about are the Five Aggregates clung to as self, pointing out that every "heap" -- each one of the Five Aggregates -- is devoid of self, is impersonal, is in that sense "empty." It has no "independent existence." What kind of existence does it have? It is foolish to think there is nothing there; there is no thing there. But there's something, some stuff, something is appearing. And what is there has a dependently-originated existence and is, therefore, rightfully called a "thing" (dharma, phenomena).

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  Avalokitesvara (in basalt)

  "Self" arises in this way, not as a real entity but an illusion brought about by the presence of the aggregates. When one grasps that all there has ever been are phenomenal aggregates -- impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal -- then one is able to let go and be free of all clinging and suffering. It is called the "Heart" (hṛdaya) Sutra not because of emotions or sweetness but because it comes as the culmination, the brief summary, the pith, the essence of 100,000 verses of detailed explanation. It is the essence of perfected wisdom. It is the key to stream entry, that which when not grasped keeps us as ordinary worldling but when grasped causes a "change of lineage" (gotrabhu) to the noble ones. The Buddha himself said it. There are not enlightened disciples to be found in other traditions, at least not in the Buddhist sense of the term bodhi ("awakened," "enlightened," "liberated") because nowhere else is this Doctrine of No-Self ever taught, ever explained, ever pointed out.

Beloved Kwan Yin (Guanyin)

Better than [the Goddess of Compassion] Kwan Yin (the feminine form of Avalokiteshvara)? More beloved than [the Cosmic Buddha of Light] Amitabha? No, probably not, but what is higher and more exalted than wisdom?

The Buddha himself noted how popular and beloved Ananda was, whereas the monastics did not seem to realize the kalyana-mitta potential of Ven. Sariputta, the male monastic he declared foremost in wisdom. One can easily imagine the same thing must have happened among the females with the Buddha highlighting the value of the great bhikkhuni Khema Theri, the nun he declared foremost in wisdom.

How to make the Heart Sutra simpler

Rewrite it in modern English so readers can get it

Holding lotus, symbol of blossoming

Wow, this perfection of wisdom is cool! It's eye-opening!

Avi, awake and wanting to awaken others, was reviewing the wisdom that has gone beyond and looked down from on high and saw just five heaps, saw that in and of themselves they were impersonal, not a self, empty.

Herein, Sali, form is empty and empty is form; the impersonal is not different than form, and form is not different than the empty. Anything that is empty, impersonal, and not self is form.

And the same is true of sensations, perceptions, formations, and consciousnesses.

Herein, Sali, all phenomena are impersonal. They bear the mark of being impersonal, empty: They are not produced and not stopped, not dirty or clean, not missing something and not full.

Ven. Sariputra as "Sali"

So you see, Sali, in the impersonal, there is no form (no body composed of the Four Elements), nor sensations, nor perceptions, nor formations, nor consciousnesses.

There are no bases for these things [that are all dependently originated]: no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, nor the things that impinge on them: forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, or objects of mind, nor the things these sense depend on for their sensitivity: no element (sensitive tissue) of sight, and so forth, until we come to: no element (sensitive tissue) at the heart of consciousness.

[Why? It is because, after all, all things are impersonal, empty, not a self, so a bunch of them together don't make a self either).]

Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva as "Avi"

Likewise, really, there is no ignorance, so there is no end of ignorance [since it doesn't really exist except as an illusion), and so forth, until we come to: There is no aging and death, no end of aging and death. There is no disappointment, no coming into being, no extinction, and no path to the extinction of disappointment. There is no knowing, no attainment, and there is no non-attainment of this realization.

And so, Sali, because of one's not-attaining anything that a being-bent-on-enlightenment, perfecting this wisdom that has gone beyond, dwells free of discursive thoughts. In their absence, one is free of trembling. One has overcome all that can upset and so realized nirvana.

All those who appear as supremely awakened teachers the three periods of time -- past, present, and future -- fully awake to this utmost realization, right and perfect awakening because they have perfected the wisdom that has gone beyond.

Devi Prajnaparamita of Java

So, Sali, everyone should know this perfection of wisdom as a kind of mantra, the mantra of great knowing, the utmost mantra, the unequalled mantra, the allayer of all disappointment and ill. It's true; I mean, what could really go wrong except as an illusion?

By perfecting this kind of wisdom is this mantra, which runs like this: gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

("Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, oh what an awakening, it's true!") This is indeed the pith of perfect wisdom.

• Buddha's Wisdom (video); Dhr. Seven (text), Wisdom Quarterly