How does one apply the basic principles of the Heart Sutra in everyday life? It is hard enough to fully comprehend such a profound piece of knowledge yet the Buddha had all the confidence that it would lead all those who make it a practice to understand and put it into practice in their daily lives would be free from all bondage of ignorance be liberated from this cycle of birth, life and death. The very title itself got me hooked when I first encountered the Sutra, "Wisdom beyond Wisdom, Heart Sutra. What did the Buddha meant by wisdom that is beyond wisdom? To my limited mind I thought it was pretty catchy and wondered what Gautama was playing at. How can there be wisdom that is beyond wisdom, one is either wise or not and then it occurred to me that the Buddha was challenging my small mind to transcend itself and see beyond what it is looking at and perhaps see what is, with the purity of the heart, with higher consciousness. To see without the intervention of thoughts or to pierce right through the veils of mental formations and conditioning, more like to feel rather than see reality as it truly is. The heart is a feeling instrument, it feels pain, hurt, love and compassion and so forth. the heart does not react but accepts these feelings. The heart unlike the mind does not see this as right or wrong, good or bad it simply acknowledge what is as it is. The heart does not judge or condemn, it does not dwell on the matter and simply let it pass upon recognizing pain as pain and pleasure as pleasure, it does not cling to the nature of pain or pleasure.
The mind on the other hand clings to and tries to digest and investigate the natures every phenomena that it encounters; it is inquisitive and critical it needs to put things into perspective, The mind cannot accept and let go of what it encounters no matter how trivial or vital the thing may be, it will turn a minor issue into a large tragedy and a profound truth into an insignificant fact of life simply because this it what the mind does and I am talking about what the Buddhist call the 'monkey mind', the mind that does not sleep. This mind clings to forms and has no concept of the emptiness that is beyond the form, the monkey finds itself out of sync if there is no form to play with. Hence it is our human nature to value forms and cannot accept the fact that this forms that we hold to be the truth is actually 'empty of their own being'.However to the awakened mind, minds that are truly seeking for the ultimate truth like that of the mind of Gautama the Buddha, the scientific mind, the truth of the Heart Sutra begins to shed some light and makes sense. If not physically proven,which modern science is attempting, at least through feeling the principle or essence of the truth within our heart. That all that we perceiving as the reality is actually nonexistent, ephemeral construct of our collective minds and might I add that there is nothing wrong with that too as we have yet to attain to a complete enlightenment of the Buddha.
There are no doubt many great beings in the world today who has penetrated into the mysteries of reality that we do not know of as such beings would not expose themselves without good cause. But those who have the ability to walk through walls or on water are considered as magicians just as the Harry Potter characters walks through the walls at the railroad station into another dimension of magical realm. The average mind like mine is still having problems finding the keys to my apartment or my car, I am still worried about where my next paycheck is going to come from and so forth. My monkey mind still runs the show in my head and how far or how near am I to God, like is He pissed at me for having this ideas or worse yet am I a Muslim, a Hindu, a Christian or a Buddhist. Well I am still on the train to find out, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi's Dharma train, once on it hard to get off, it is said. I will and cannot come to the conclusion as yet even if my souls is on the line but the truth will materialize if it has not already after all what is being enlightened?
In Zen, it is said, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water,
After enlightenment, carry water chop wood."
...If the Heart feels then it is...it may last like a flash of lightning in on a clear noon day sky...if you are awakened you might feel it... if you are asleep, well your whole lifetime you will be a waste...stay awake!
# Heart Sutra, Enlightenment, Buddha.
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