In preparation for Classes 1 and 2, we have a collection of translations of the Heart Sutra by different authors over the years. D.T. Suzuki, Edward Conze, Tanahashi and Halifax, Tenzin Gyatso (Dalai Lama), Norman Waddell, Max Muller, Red Pine (Bill Porter), Karl Brunnholzl, Geshe Sonom, Robert Haduch
Here is the version we’ll be using in the class, and a commentary: Heart Sutra and Explanation
Here are recordings of classes, to date:
August 2020: Overview. What is the central existential question raised by the Heart Sutra?
September 2020; Verse I. What is the ‘mind’ that ‘penetrates’ the Heart Sutra?
October 2020: Verse II-Line 1&2. Bringing realization of the Heart Sutra into our lives.
November 2020: Verse II-Line 4. Emptiness, Suchness, & Interdependent Co-Origination.
January 2021: Verse II&III. What happens when we don’t understand or misunderstand the meaning and implications of the Heart Sutra.
February 2021:An inquiry into how ‘Things’, i.e. Realities are created in the mind.
March 2021: A further inquiry into our creating of Realities and the resulting “whole mass of suffering”.
April 2021: Verse V-Line 4: Beyond negation. Verse VI. From negation to realization.
May 2021: Verse VI overview where the Sutra pivots from understanding to realization.
June 2021: Verse VI-Line 1. Bodhisattvas and the Vastness of “All”.
August 2021: Exploring the context of “within” as gestating within fundamental awareness and, from that gestating, becoming able to offer appropriate medicine.
September 2021: The meaning of “Prajnaparamita” as expressed in several sutras.
October 2021: “Prajnaparamita” = Seeing through the (optical) illusion of ‘Thingness’.
November 2021: The terms “Selfness” and “Mind” as expressed in various Buddhist schools and texts.
December 2021: Without hindrances/obscurations, we see the world as it is.
January 2022: Free of ‘selfness’ and of ‘being’—no longer Making ‘Things’: the gateless gateway to Liberation.
February 2022: Suchness: The ‘Unfolding This Moment’, as it is!
April 2022: Samsara transformed…
May 2022: Realizing Nirvana…
June 2022: What is ‘seen’ following awakening—the mutually engaging Uniqueness/Oneness unfolding in suchness each moment.
July 2022: The Buddha’s Vow—the Complete offering of existence to existence, unfolding each moment.
September 2022: “With this awareness, we now do proclaim…” seen through Awakening.
October 2022: “Gate! Gate! Paragate!…etc.” – Describing the Five Levels/Stages of Insight.