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Emptying the Mind –
Let us imagine a paper that is blank, completely devoid of any writing. Look into this empty space. If your mind is empty like this untainted blank page, it is in a state of prajna. There is a state of mind where neither good nor evil has yet emerged. The world encourages people to be good, and Buddhism too encourages the cultivation of a virtuous mind. However, those who engage in deep mind-practice, studying the Heart Sutra, must explore the true mind, the mind that exists even before good and evil arise. All kinds of thoughts may come to you as you read this book. Let us take a brief moment to break away from all those thoughts and put them to rest. When you can do that, you will find heaven and earth and the myriad things of all creation, the true dharma-realm of the void, and all the buddhas of the past, present, and future. Yet we should not become attached to these things either. The Heart Sutra consists of 268 Chinese characters, including the title. In these few characters, it contains the essence of the buddha dharma. Although small in amount, ginseng extracts contain all the nourishment provided by ginseng. Similarly, the Heart Sutra is a distillation of the Buddha’s eighty-four thousand teachings. It is a dharma instruction that the Buddha provided to his disciples when in their training they had reached a considerable level of perspective. There were some six hundred volumes of scriptures related to prajna at the time, and the 268 characters of the Heart Sutra summarize the substance of these many teachings.
The Heart Sutra explains the teachings in a relatively systematic manner from a doctrinal perspective. It is written in the form of a discourse between Avalokite vara Bodhisattva, who is well versed in the Buddha’s ideas, and Ś riputra, one of the chief disciples of the Buddha.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Venerable Kyongsan (Jang, Eungcheol, b.1940) was the fifth Head Dharma Master of Won Buddhism. He entered the Won Buddhist faith at the age of twenty and graduated from the Department of Won Buddhist Studies at Wonkwang University in 1968. He served as President of the Youngsan College of Zen Studies, Executive Director of Administration for Won Buddhism, and Director of the Jung-ang Retreat Center before being inaugurated as the fifth Head Dharma Master in 2006.
Venerable Kyongsan continued with his efforts to realize the ideals of his predecessor, Venerable Daesan, the Third Head Dharma Master, whose Three Proposals for World Peace are the development of moral discipline for cultivating the mind, the opening up a common market, and the establishment of United Religions.
Venerable Kyongsan’s particular devotion was the realization of world peace through inter-religious cooperation, uniting people of all religious faiths to work toward the establishment of a worldwide organization of United Religions.
In the 12th year of his service as the fifth Head Dharma Master, he retired and became Head Dharma Master Emeritus in November 2018.
Venerable Kyongsan has written many books, including “The World of Lao-tzu,” “Taming the Ox: Our Mind,” “Hill of Freedom: Commentary on The Heart Sutra,” “The Functioning of a Buddha’s Mind: The Diamond Sutra in Everyday Life,” and “The Moon of the Mind Rises in Empty Space.”
CONTENTS
Introduction
Emptying the Mind • 11
The Most Frequently Read and Recited Sutra • 12
Aspiration to Cleanse the Karmic Power • 13
With the Composure of an Immovable State of Mind As It Is • 14
Building the Prajna Dragon Boat • 15
The Buddha Realized Prajna and Possessed It • 16
How to Read and Recite the Heart Sutra • 17
The Structure of Emptiness and Nonbeing in the Heart Sutra • 21
About the Full Version and the Concise Version of the Heart Sutra • 22
Prajñāpāramitā Heart Sūtra (The Full Version) • 25
Prajñāpāramitā Heart Sūtra (The Concise Version) • 28
Master Kyongsan’s Interpretation of the Heart Sutra • 30
CHAPTER ONE
Toward the Other Shore
A Core Scripture Guiding Us to the Stage of Buddhahood • 35
Prajna Is the Truth • 36
Three Elements of Prajna • 39
The Three Meanings of Prajna • 41
Where Is Prajna? • 44
Toward the Village of the Buddhahood Land • 46
To Reach the Village of the Buddha Land • 48
Moving Ceaselessly Toward the Other Shore • 49
The Shore of Māra Defeated • 51
The Status of Beyond the Household and the Status of Tathagata • 53
Core Path of Practice • 55
CHAPTER TWO
Introduction to Prajna
Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva of Compassion • 62
In Search of Prajna in Our Mind • 64
The Battle between the True Mind and the False Mind • 66
Defeating the Minions of Māra • 67
The Minions of Māra within Our Mind • 68
To Know the No-mind Realm Is to See One’s True Nature • 70
The Five Skandhas, or Five Aggregates • 71
The Functioning of Karmic Consciousness • 77
Seeing the Five Aggregates Clearly • 79
The Physical Body Is Inherently Nonbeing • 81
Humans Are Beings of Nonbeing • 82
The Mountain That We Must Climb Over • 85
The Authentication of a Teacher • 86
The Practice of Cultivating the True Mind • 88
Breaking Away from All Suffering • 90
CHAPTER THREE
The Truth of Prajna
Existence and Nonexistence Are Not Different from Each Other • 97
What Causes Change? • 102
Being and Nonbeing Are One • 103
All Manner of Minds Are Also Buddhas • 106
The Prajna Truth Is Empty of Defining Characteristics • 110
How Old Is the Prajna Truth? • 111
Prajna Truth Is the Realm of Absolute Values • 112
Prajna Truth Is Immeasurable • 113
CHAPTER FOUR
Realization of Prajna
One Who Lives by the Way and Principle of Emptiness • 125
What Drags the Self Around? • 127
The Mental Operations of Sensations, Perceptions,
Impulses, and Consciousness • 130
How to Preserve the Realm of Nonbeing • 131
We Live by Commanding Six Faculties • 136
Six Objects to Which We Respond • 137
The Six Types of Consciousness That We Create • 138
The Soul Shares Affinities with the Parents • 140
The Buddha’s Life • 141
Three Pleasures Enjoyed by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas • 143
Twelvefold Chain of Dependent Origination • 147
Mind Ignorant of the Truth • 148
The Repository of Volitional Action • 150
The State in the Womb • 151
Separation from the Mother • 152
Feelings of Attachment: Craving • 153
Trying to Grasp the Object One Craves: Grasping • 155
The Desire to Prolong: Becoming • 156
We Live through Lives in the Past, Present, and Future • 159
To Move beyond Craving, Grasping, and Becoming • 162
This Mind of Here-and-Now Is Important • 165
The Buddha’s First Dharma Instruction • 168
Break Away from the Buddhadharma to Be Truly Free • 170
Enlightened, but without a Trace of Enlightenment • 174
CHAPTER FIVE
The Practice of Prajna
How to Practice • 182
How Bodhisattvas Practice • 184
Adopting the Prajna Truth as a Standard • 186
Prajna in Our Mind • 188
With the Unimpeded Mind • 190
Creating the Immovable State of Mind • 192
Wisdom Is Attained When We Rely on Prajna • 194
Shine upon Desires and Melt Them Away with the Light of Prajna • 195
Waking Up from the Dream through the Power of Prajna • 196
How Did the Buddhas of the Three Time-Periods . . . ? • 198
The Capabilities of Buddhas • 200
What Actually Controls Matter and the Soul • 201
CHAPTER SIX
Spell of Prajna
The Meaning of the Spell • 208
Assistants in Our Mind • 209
Spells Corresponding to Sensory Conditions • 210
Let Us Reach Prajna through the Spell • 213
Eliminating All Suffering • 216
The Buddha’s Life Is a Life of Prayer • 217
