EMPTINESS: THE ESSENCE OF THE HEART SUTRA

Emptiness:

The Essence of the Heart Sutra

A Step to the Great Perfection

Emptiness: The Essence of the Heart Sutra A Step to the Great Perfection

Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche

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The Heart Sutra in Tibetan and English

Session One

Heart Sutra as a Path to Enlightenment

Two

Emptiness

& Answer

the Author

FOREWORD

by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

In several sutras the Buddha taught that in the future, a teacher’s quality will be assessed by how much all their teachings lead to sunyata. Only when they do so is the teacher worthy of veneration. Without that, no matter how kind or temporarily beneficial a teaching may be, it will not be celebrated from any serious dharmic perspective.

For that reason, I am delighted that Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche has now kindly presented these teachings on the Heart Sutra, which itself is the quintessence of Mahayana Buddhism. Indeed, if ever a day comes where we lose the words and meaning of the Heart Sutra, we will lose the Mahayana.

Because sunyata should be explained not only intellectually but also with kindness, compassion, and deep veneration for the Buddha, I see very few people like Khen Rinpoche who can actually do it properly. I therefore welcome this book to the earth and hope that many readers will take it to heart and aspire to apply the Prajnaparamita.

PREFACE

The Heart Sutra was revealed out of a discourse between Shariputra and Avalokiteshvara through the blessings of the Buddha. It is the most condensed explanation of the Prajnaparamita on emptiness as a means to gain transcendent knowledge.

This is my favorite teaching on emptiness because, when I first received it from my master Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, it really woke me up, so that everything became very light and amazingly joyful.

Since then, I have enjoyed teaching it even more while I try to experience it. I wish that everyone who hears it may have a similar experience and may realize the emptiness nature, because it really shatters the solidity of phenomena into pieces and atomizes them as total emptiness in nature. Even just having a glimpse of emptiness— how it transforms your perception from apparent reality to the illusory nature of appearance!

In Buddhist philosophy, emptiness is the most essential point, leading to an understanding of the absolute truth. Still, it is always in union with relative truth as interdependent origination. The absolute true nature of phenomena is inseparable appearance and emptiness, as it is indivisible from relative and absolute truth.

Thus, in the Middle Way, the great Indian scholar Nagarjuna said that emptiness and interdependent origination have the same

meaning, because everything is arisen from emptiness when causes and conditions are assembled in a harmonious way.

So, whoever truly wishes to end suffering and wants to attain complete freedom from this cycle of rebirth in samsara must become well-educated on this sutra, first by receiving enough teachings with logical reasonings, and then by contemplating it thoroughly until gaining certainty into the emptiness nature. Finally, one must meditate on it until one can have the actual realization of this truth.

Without this knowledge and practice you will never get rid of your afflictive emotions, and then you will never achieve freedom and liberation from cyclic existence. This is because emptiness is the direct antidote for ignorance. That is why this is the only perfect path, and the truth, whether you believe it or not.

Even in the higher teachings of the Mahayana or Vajrayana, including the Mahamudra or Dzogchen teachings, you have to understand and contemplate emptiness until you have the realization of emptiness in union with your awareness, which is the absolute true nature of your mind. The moment you have direct perception of this nature you have already transcended the samsaric mind, and then enlightenment is just next door. Open it and you will enter into the buddhafield, the perfection of ultimate liberation.

The only possibility of such realization is through the kindness of all my great masters, especially His Holiness Drubwang Penor Rinpoche. I dedicate the merit for the longevity of all spiritual masters to perfectly accomplish their noble activities to benefit all beings so that they all may realize this truth.

My thanks to all my beloved students who have worked very hard on this Heart Sutra project.

With blessings to experience it, Khenchen T. Gyatso Lama

Editor's notE

Throughout the English text in this book, you will find many Sanskrit and Tibetan words. Generally speaking, with the exception of proper names, these words are italicized the first time they are introduced, but not italicized thereafter. The actual text of the Heart Sutra is always italicized.

The Heart Sutra itself, in particular, contains many Sanskrit words. When the actual text of the Heart Sutra is presented, the Sanskrit words are represented using the traditionally accepted spelling with the diacritic marks that one would find in a Sanskrit text. In the text of the book, which expresses Khenchen’s explanations of the sutra in English, western phonetic transliterations for those words are used. Thus, for example, the bodhisattva called Avalokiteshvara in Khenchen’s explanation is spelled Avalokiteśvara within the text of the sutra. Likewise, Shariputra in English is spelled Śāriputra in Sanskrit.

There are many translations of the Heart Sutra , all with the same meaning but expressed slightly differently. As noted, the translation of the sutra presented in the first portion of the book and used throughout the first teaching was originally done by the Nalanda Translation Committee and then edited by the international division of the Pema Mani Translation Committee of Namdroling Monastery in 2021. In the second teaching, Khenchen himself

translated extemporaneously.

We are pleased to make these two teachings available to the reader. The reader will note that the first teaching is based on the common and traditional line-by-line treatment of the Heart Sutra based on the bhumis and the five paths. The second teaching is a more contemporary explication of the philosophical or “logical reasonings” for emptiness, geared to a Western audience of students and practitioners.

In transcribing and editing the oral teachings of our beloved teacher for publication in this book, we, the editing staff, have done our best to be true to those teachings and not to add any of our own words or ideas. We have tried to secure as complete a review as possible of the finished product. If we have failed to accurately portray any aspect of Khenchen's teachings, we accept full responsibility.

Inconceivable, inexpressible prajñāpāramitā

Is unborn, unceasing, the very nature of space,

Yet it can be experienced as the self-cognizing wisdom of discrimination—

Homage to the mother of the buddhas of the three times!

In Sanskrit: ‘Bhagavatī prajñāpāramitā hrīdaya.’

In Tibetan: ‘Chomden déma shérab kyi parol tu chinpé nyingpo.’

In one volume.

Homage to the Bhagavatī Prajñāpāramitā!

Thus have I heard:

Once the Blessed One was dwelling in Rajagriha at Vulture Peak Mountain, together with a great gathering of the sangha of monks,

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Session One The Heart Sutra as a Path to Enlightenment

This teaching was given at Palyul Changchub Chöling, Gulf Breeze, Florida in August 2016.

Sometimes we wonder why we need spiritual teachings, why we need to gain understanding in Buddhist philosophy, and why we need to do so many practices. When we think about this, it helps to remember that all sentient beings face the realities of cyclic existence. We know this from our own experience of happiness and suffering, from what we are taught by our society, and from whatever belief systems we may have. In general, we identify this reality as the faults of samsara—for humans, these are the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death. Most of us can easily deal with happiness and enjoyment, but when suffering occurs, it creates many problems for us, mostly on an emotional level. As a result, we start to wonder if there is a way to end suffering, to permanently remove it from our lives. That thought leads us to a spiritual path because all religions claim to put an end to suffering and provide some kind of eternal happiness.

If we choose Buddhism, we find that it is based on recognizing the assemblage of causes and conditions that lead to either suffering or happiness. We know this assemblage of causes and conditions as “interdependent origination.” The products of scientific discovery and technological development are results of the same law of causality, but in Buddhism we recognize that all parts of cyclic existence, including all of samsara and nirvana, depend upon their own specific assemblages of causes and conditions.

Enlightened beings such as Shakyamuni Buddha know this ultimate truth, this absolute reality, and through it they find the path to truth and follow it to attain complete enlightenment. In that way they end the suffering of samsara and achieve ultimate happiness. Because they know the whole range of mind, from complete ignorance all the way to enlightenment, enlightened beings understand what each and every individual sentient being needs to know in order to accomplish a similar enlightened state. The key point here is to know

one’s own mind. One’s own mind is the cause of samsara, liberation, and enlightenment. One’s own mind projects whatever reality one experiences. So really the only problem one needs to solve is how to train one’s mind to recognize the causes of the suffering in one’s own life and in the rest of the world. Once one has done that, one can learn to avoid such negative causes and, instead, recognize and adopt those causes that lead to peace and complete enlightenment.

The FirsT Two Turnings oF The wheel oF Dharma

The First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma

You have probably heard or read about Buddha’s teachings on the four noble truths. These teachings explain the causal origin of all cyclic or relative existence, including the external world, its internal living beings, the distant universe of galaxies, and even modern discoveries. Everything that exists depends on its own specific causes and conditions for its being. Even though things just exist, even though things don’t want to cause problems for us, the way we experience them creates suffering, which becomes a big challenge for ourselves, our families, our communities, and for the whole world.

That is why the first noble truth is the truth of suffering. It is possible to experience suffering in anyone’s life and at any time. That is the truth and the nature of samsara. Many people believe they have no choice but to accept suffering as a part of life; that is why learning that all things, including suffering, are the result of causes and conditions is a very important part of one’s education.

Knowing that is the first step. Then one has to begin investigating one’s behavior in order to discover the causes of one’s own suffering or unhappiness. Eventually, one finds that the afflictive emotions of

this life and the karma created by negative actions in previous lives are the causes for one’s suffering. Even though the past is gone, we know that our experiences in childhood have conditioned our experiences as adults. Even though the past is gone, it still affects our present life, just as our present life will influence our future lives.

Investigation into suffering also reveals that one’s mind determines whether one suffers or not. One finds that with the cessation of afflictive emotions, lasting peace becomes a reality. So, all one has to know is how to accomplish this cessation, and that is done by following the path that Buddha laid out before us. At the end of this path lies the wisdom that enables one to realize the totality of existence all the way from relative truth to absolute truth. This wisdom is the most effective, powerful, and profound aspect of the path. It is perfected transcendent wisdom free from all the flaws of samsaric mind, including karmic influences and the afflictive emotions.

In order to achieve such wisdom, one needs to know more about the absolute nature of phenomena and the absolute nature of mind. These two absolute natures are not separate. As taught in the higher tantras, if one knows the absolute nature of mind, one will also know the absolute nature of phenomena. This is true because mind is the source of both samsara and nirvana. Mind is the foundation of enlightenment and perfected wisdom. All this is contained in the Tripitaka, or Three Baskets, that makes up the first turning of the wheel of dharma. The Buddha taught on this level for many years after his enlightenment at about thirty-five years of age.

The Second Turning of the Wheel of Dharma

The second turning of the wheel of dharma contains the Buddha’s

very extensive Prajnaparamita teachings, which he gave from the age of forty-two until he was about seventy-one. Tradition says that one million verses of these teachings were given in the god realms, eight hundred thousand teachings remain in the realms of non-human beings, and one hundred thousand verses were taken and hidden by nagas, half of which Nagarjuna obtained and brought with him to the human realm. These are the largest accumulations of Prajnaparamita teachings. There are also medium-length teachings and short teachings of about eight thousand verses. The shortest version condenses the meaning of all the other Prajnaparamita teachings into what is called the Heart Sutra, which is made up of what are often called “pith” teachings or the naked truths of transcendent wisdom.The word sutra is Sanskrit. Su means “beneficial,” “perfected,” or “complete,” and also relates to “suchness.” Tra means “to protect.” So, a sutra is intended to give protection from the sufferings of samsara to those who read and understand it. And, since samsara is a product of the mind, a sutra provides protection from the afflictive emotions, discursive thinking, and the conceptualization of samsaric mind.

Sutras contain teachings that originate from the enlightened mind of Shakyamuni Buddha and were expressed through his enlightened speech. However, not all sutras were taught by the Buddha. Some sutras were composed exactly according to his teachings by his skilled and perfected followers. The translated Tibetan term for these is “sutras written with the Buddha’s permission.” Other sutras were not written by the Buddha but are considered to have his blessing. For example, the Heart Sutra is taught by Avalokiteshvara to Shariputra “through the power of the Buddha,” and at the end of the teaching, the Buddha confirms what was taught. It is known as the Heart Sutra because, just as the heart is generally considered to be the central organ of the human body, this sutra contains the heart or essence of

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