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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

心經(初中版) Heart Sutra

First off, a quote from Albert Einstein:

"It is very difficult to explain this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it. The individual feels the nothingness of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in nature and the world of thought. He [the experiencer] looks upon individual existence as a sort of prison and wants to experience the universe as a single, significant whole"


Mr. Einstein at one with the universe


The Heart Sutra has become quite prevalent in popular culture these days, I have a vaque idea of what it is and I heard part of it from our paternal grandmother, I am somewhat surprised most people including Pa don't know the literal meaning of this very short and delightful poem. Pa asked me again about the mantra part today, the following is my feeble attempt to explain this important Buddhist classic.


The common Chinese translation is the Xuanzang 玄奘 version from Tang Dynasty. Let's add modern Chinese punctuation, highlight the names, and put brackets around [Sanskrit] words which are only transliterated.  


It's already more readable. Apparently, this is a lesson to 舍利子 , a prized student of 釋迦牟尼 Siddhattha , about 涅槃(nirvana)as experienced by another student 觀自在who is known to us as 觀音


1  觀自在菩薩行深[般若波羅蜜多]時。照見五蘊皆空。度一切苦厄。
2  舍利子,色不異空。空不異色。色即是空。空即是色。受、想、行、識,亦復如是。
3  舍利子,是諸[法]空相。不生,不滅。不垢,不淨,不增,不減。
4  是故空中。無色。無受、想、行、識。無眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意。無色、聲、香、味、觸、法。
5  無眼界。乃至無意識界。
6  無無明。亦無無明盡。乃至無老死。亦無老死盡。無苦、集、滅、道。無智,亦無得。以無所得故。[菩提薩埵]。
7  依[般若波羅蜜多]故。心無罣礙。無罣礙故。無有恐怖。遠離顛倒夢想。究竟涅槃。 三世諸佛。依[般若波羅蜜多]故。得[阿耨多羅三藐三菩提]。
8 故知[般若波羅蜜多]。是大神咒。是大明咒是無上咒。是無等等咒。能除一切苦。真實不虛故。說[般若波羅蜜多]咒即說咒曰:
9 ”[揭帝],[揭帝],[般羅揭帝],[般羅僧揭帝],[菩提僧莎訶]。“


[般若波羅蜜多]means a special kind of wisdom, since that's no good or bad, wise or unwise in enlightenment, this term defies translation. It is called Perfection of Wisdom to distinguish it from earthly wisdom
[法]Dharma, here it is loosely translated into Chinese 法, or way
[菩提薩埵] = 菩薩, an enlightened persion
[阿耨多羅三藐三菩提]- supreme wisdom




On top of the Sanskrit word, the Chinese wording is also a little strange (or maybe Sanskrit like), using double negative 明  (no no knowledge) for no ignorance, and using triple negative to say the opposite 無無明盡, (no end of no knowledge) . Other than that, it is quite trivial to translate the core meaning to modern Chinese sans the poetic quality (all Sanskrit scriptures and epic poems are meant to be sung, so it is also somewhat repetitive):


1 觀音  在完美智慧的時候,他超然於世界的痛苦
舍利子 呀,你眼見的不過是幻象, 你的感受也是一樣
舍利子 呀,知識也是空的,宇宙是沒有開始和結束的, 沒有好壞, 也沒有
涅感裡, 沒有個人的思想和一切眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、的感覺
5 但是你的眼界和意識是無盡的
6 因為原來是沒有, 所以沒有得失,沒有愚蠢和聰明,老死和永生的分別,更無世間的條框。覺誤成菩薩。
7 依靠[般若波羅蜜多]智慧,因為涅盤裡心無障碍,所以沒有害怕和不合理的夢想。古往今來的佛,都依靠[般若波羅蜜多]而得到了至高無上的智慧
8 有一個能除一切苦的咒,這咒語是:
9 “去吧,去吧,到彼方去吧,都到彼方去吧,覺誤吧,就這樣了


line 9 is a mantra typically left untranslated, it is recognizable in any language as "Gate Gate, Para Gate,...", our grandma would say it in Ningbo dialect: "腳底,腳底, 菠蘿腳底, 腳底菠蘿,....". When I listen to the Sanskrit version on youtube, it is quite soothing. In simple language, it is: "Go, go, all go to the other realm, godspeed!".


It is quite obvious this is the "Cosmic Consciousness" of Richard Bucke. Here 釋迦牟尼 Siddhattha is not talking philosophy, he is not preaching renouncement of the world, instead, it is a description of how an enlightened person "sees" the void. Read the text carefully, it's a narrative of what actually happened, not at all a philosophical ideal, nor is it a guide to enlightenment  (other than the mantra).


The enlightened feeling seems to be identical to what Einstein described, and similar to an LSD induced "good" trip. Bucke presented evidence that various Christian religious figures and philosophers had also gone through similar life pivoting awakenings. (BTW, it's obvious Einstein qualifies as a bodhisattva 菩提薩埵. i.e., 菩薩). 


Recent scientific discoveries have further isolated the parietal lobe of the brain to be responsible for this spiritual experience. Accomplished Tibetan monks in meditation, Franciscan nuns in deep prayer can surpress parietal lobe activities and enter this realm with no sense of time and space. Incredibly, there's a Dr. Persinger who had devised a God Helmet that stimulates the right temporal and the parietal lobes to reproduce the God experience at the flick of the switch. This is a link to God Helmet . (highly recommended)

What is the alternative to enlightenment?  Universal human suffering and dispair. If we consider how insignificant we are in the universe of billions of galaxies, and each of which with billions of stars, everyone of us merely exists. This is the theme of Existentialism (you may remember Jean Paul Sartre & Albert Camus novels from college) , the only way our free will can assert itself is by stop existing, that is, by committing suicide! 大吉
  
Having not experienced nirvana (nor dropped acid) myself, I am choosing humanity over enlightenment for now. However, I must admit I am extremely curious, I'd strap on Dr. Persinger's God Helmet in a heartbeat.  (Unfortuntely, the God Helmet seems to work better with spiritual people, it did not work for Richard Dawkins.)



Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, depicting another of out-of-body experience, some people consider the climatic Teresa pornographic















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