HEART OF WISDOM
HEART OF WISDOM
THE HEART AND MIND OF WISDOM
“Wisdom is the apex of Buddhism.
“It is the first factor in the Noble Eightfold Path (Samma Ditthi/Right Understanding).
“It is one of the seven Factors of Enlightenment (Dhamma Vicaya Sambojjhanga).
“It is one of the four means of Accomplishment (Vimansa Iddhipada). It is one of the five Powers (Pannabala), and one of the five controlling Faculties (Pannindriya).
“It is wisdom that leads to purification (of heart and mind) and to final Deliverance (from ignorance-driven craving/clinging and suffering),” Venerable Narada Maha Thera has written in his book THE BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHINGS (published by the Buddhist Missionary Society in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and reprinted for free distribution by The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation in Taipei, Taiwan, February 2004, p. 597).
According to Mahayana Buddhists, the Buddha taught the Dharma in five stages, in the fourth of which he delivered the Prajna (Transcendental Wisdom) scriptures over a couple of decades.
The Prajna Paramita Hrdaya Sutra, more popularly known as The Heart Sutra, is regarded as the essence of the wisdom teachings.
“… Although the Chinese version (as translated from Sanskrit by Tripitaka Master Hsuan Tsang in mid-7th century AD),contains only two hundred sixty single characters, it nevertheless embodies the entire Prajna literature in all its depth and subtlety,” Grand Master T’an Hsu has commented.
Thus The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra begins:
“When Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva was practicing the profound Prajna Paramita, he illuminated the five skandas (aggregates) and saw that they are all empty, and he crossed beyond all suffering and difficulty…”
In The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines (Chapter 20), the Blessed One explained to Subhuti, one of his top disciples, that dependent on the transcendent perfection of wisdom, “tathagatas, arahats, genuinely perfect buddhas reveal to the worlds that the five psycho-physical aggregates are empty; that they comprehend, know, and cognize the worlds also to be empty…”
(as translated by the Padmakara Translation Group, under the auspices of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2018, 84000.co).
In Chapter 32 The Attainment of Manifest Enlightenment, the Blessed One elaborated: “… If, Subhuti, sentient beings knew that all things are empty of inherent existence, then great bodhisattva beings would not undertake training with respect to all things and attain omniscience.
“However, Subhuti, it is because sentient beings do not know that all things are empty that great bodhisattva beings do undertake training with regard to all things and attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment, and that after attaining buddhahood, they establish the sacred doctrine and teach the sacred doctrine to sentient beings…”
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva has affirmed in The Heart Sutra: “All Buddhas of the three periods of time (the past, present, and future) attain Annutarasamyaksambodi (Supreme, Perfect Enlightenment) through reliance on Prajna Paramita…”
In The Transcendent Perfection of Wisdom in Ten Thousand Lines (Chapter 20), the Blessed One said: “… So it is, Subhuti, that this transcendent perfection of wisdom gives rise to the tathagatas, and instructs the worlds (of sentient beings)…”
How does one cultivate and perfect wisdom?
One very powerful method of practice is mindfulness of the Buddha. According to the Blessed One (Chapter 32), all sentient beings who hear the name of a tathagata “will themselves certainly attain manifestly perfect buddhahood in unsurpassed, genuinely perfect enlightenment…”
It’s reciting the Buddha’s name with steadfast faith, mindfulness, and zeal. AMITABHA is the Buddha’s name in Pure Land faith and practice.
The Heart Sutra also commends reciting the mantra of Prajna Paramita, “a great spiritual mantra, a great bright mantra, a supreme mantra, an unequalled mantra.”
“It can remove all suffering; it is genuine and not false,” said Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. “Recite it like this:
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha!”
In The King of Samadhis Sutra (Samadhirajasutra), the Buddha taught the young but highly intelligent and talented Candraprabha that buddhahood can be attained when one knows the nature of phenomena.
Then the Bhagavan said to the youth, “Young man, bodhisattva mahasattvas who wish for this (supreme) samadhi, and wish to attain quickly the highest, complete enlightenment of perfect buddhahood, should become skilled in the wisdom of the nonexistent nature of all phenomena.
“Young man what is being skilled in the wisdom of the nonexistent nature of all phenomena? Bodhisattva mahasattvas know that all phenomena have no existence, have no essence, have no attributes, have no characteristics, have no origin, have no cessation, have no words, are empty, are primordial peace, and are pure by nature…” (1)
Then the Bhagavan said to the youth Candraprabha, “Young man, bodhisattva mahasattvas who wish to attain quickly the highest, complete enlightenment of perfect buddhahood and liberate all beings from the ocean of existence should have this king of samadhis, in which the equality of the nature of all phenomena is revealed, which is praised by all the buddhas and is the mother of the tathagatas.
“They should obtain it, preserve it, understand it, recite it to others, promote it, proclaim it, chant it, meditate on it with the unadulterated meditation, promulgate it, and make it widely known to others…” (2)
The single teaching on phenomena
Is that phenomena have no characteristics.
That is the teaching of supreme wisdom
From having true, correct knowledge. (3)
Through the blessing of the Guide
The ultimate truth is known.
When the ultimate is known
There is nothing to be taught. (4)
With their minds they (bodhisattvas) have ascertained
The selflessness of all phenomena… (5)
The bodhisattvas who know
The emptiness of phenomena
Will never be without that knowledge.
It is the summit of nothingness. (6)
Whoever knows emptiness
Is the characteristic of form
Will not say that emptiness
Is other than the nature of form.
Whoever knows form,
Knows emptiness. (7)
Whoever knows form,
Knows emptiness.
Whoever knows emptiness
Knows nirvana. (8)
They understand the ultimate truth to be like a dream,
And nirvana to be the same as a dream;
Wise ones understand the mind in that way:
That is what is called the supreme restraint of the mind. (9)
Buddhahood is the full awakening from this cosmic dream. Sakyamuni Buddha concluded his first teaching at the Deer Park in Rsivada, Varanasi,saying, “Monks, I then had the knowledge that I had fully awakened to unsurpassed and perfect buddhahood.” (10)
NAMO AVALOKITESHVARA BODHISATTVA
NAMO MAHASTHAMAPRAPTA BODHISATTVA
NAMO SAKYAMUNI BUDDHA
NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA
04.09.2018 20:20 10.09.2018 18:30
The Heart Sutra is chanted daily in devotional services.
Also, one can repeat three times:
MAHA PRAJNA PARAMITA
NAMO AVALOKITESHVARA BODHISATTVA
NAMO MHASTHAMAPRAPTA BODHISATTVA
NAMO AMITABHA
Notes.
1. The King of Samadhis Sutra Chapter 8.1-2 translated by Peter Alan Roberts under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Tanslating the Words of the Buddha 84000.co
2. Ibid., Chapter 9.1
3. Ibid., Chapter 11.26
4. Ibid., Chapter 11.28
5. Ibid., 11.30
6. Ibid., 11.35
7. Ibid., Chapter 25.15
8. Ibid., 25.17
9. Ibid., Chapter 39.158
In Chapter 39 the Buddha teaches Restraint of the Body, Speech and Mind, the three primary practices and disciplines of self-control for bodhisattva mahasattvas to free themselves from attachment to all phenomena, and to attain the complete perfect and supreme enlightenment of buddhahood.
10. The Sutra of the Wheel of Dharma (Dharmacakrasutra)
1.14-20 84000.co
Mahasthama Mindfulness Center
Taman Ipoh Jaya Ipoh Perak Malaysia
8 pages 1257 words 10.04.2018 04:48 04:59 20:22
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