91 Heart

Fewer than 250 words in its entirety the Heart Sutra is a declaration of the ultimate emptiness, insubstantiality, and impermanence of all form, sensation, perception, emotion, mental formation, and consciousness. Every desire and aversion is a cause of suffering.

We want what we don't have.

We suffer.

We don't want what we don't like.

We suffer.

We cling to what we do like.

We suffer.

Everything changes.

We suffer.

Everything passes away.

We suffer.

At the heart of the Heart is this:

There is neither ignorance nor extinction of ignorance, neither old age and death nor extinction of old age and death; no suffering, no cause, no cessation, no path; no knowledge and no attainment. With nothing to attain, a bodhisattva relies on prajna paramita, and thus the mind is without hindrance. Without hindrance, there is no fear. Far beyond all inverted [or erroneous] views, one realizes nirvana.

By their reliance upon prajna paramita, perfect wisdom, the sutra declares, all buddhas do attain "unsurpassed, complete, perfect enlightenment." They know and accept the truth of impermanence and emptiness, they stop wanting more or less than the present reality, they let go.

They experience cessation of suffering.

Therefore know the prajna paramita as the great miraculous mantra, the great bright mantra, the supreme mantra, the incomparable mantra which removes all suffering and is true not false.

The Heart Sutra concludes with the mantra I first read twenty-five years earlier in the innocent and wonderful book Be Here Now by Ram Dass: "Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha." The mantra remained untranslated in the sutra we recited at the temple but the unforgettable translation I read so many years before resurfaced in my mind as we chanted: "Gone! Gone! Gone beyond! Gone beyond beyond! Hail the goer!" If it felt right I sometimes wrote those words on the sympathy cards circulated in the faculty office among friends of friends of the deceased.

Impermanence.

We're slip sliding away

Slip sliding away

Slip sliding away

You know

The nearer your destination

The more

You're slip sliding away

During our recitation of the sutra there were more bells by the doan—on the handheld inkin, on the small brass bowl called the rin, and on the big brass bowl called the keisu—and near its conclusion the master rose again from his mat to offer more of the powdered incense at the central altar. The doan by herself alone sang the eko, verse expressing intention and dedication.

May this merit extend universally to all so that we together with all beings realize the Buddha Way.

Everyone present joined in one short concluding chant of gratitude before we all rose and, to the rolldown and ring of the inkin, turned in the direction of the central altar and, pressing our heads to our mats, performed three more full prostrations.

All Buddhas

Throughout space and time

All honored ones

Bodhisattvas

Mahasattvas

Wisdom beyond wisdom

Mahaprajna paramita

This concluded the formal service.