The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on The Prajnaparamita Sutra

Description

The heart of the prajñaparamita sutra is regarded as the essence of Buddhist teaching. It is recited daily in Mahayana temples and practice centers throughout the world. This translation and commentary are the fruit of the author’s more than 40 years of monastic study and practice. Thich Nhat Hanh describes the heart sutra as “Avalokitesvara bodhisattva’s precious gift to us, the gift of fearlessness.”

“If you are a poet, you will clearly see that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain, without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. If we look even more deeply, we can see the sunshine, the logger who cut the tree, the wheat that became his bread, and the lodger’s father and mother. Without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist. In fact, we can point to one thing that is not here- time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat, the mind. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. so we can say that the cloud and the paper are ‘inter-are W cannot just be ourselves alone; we have to be inter-be with every other thing”