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Transcript of Thich Nhat Hanh English Dharma Talks
113 The reasons for a new translation of the Heart Sutra
Thich Nhat Hanh's message of explanation to his students,
translated from the Vietnamese. He wrote this text on the 22nd August 2014,
after completing his very first translation draft in Vietnamese.
August 22, 2014
Dear Family,
Thay needs to make
this new translation of the Heart Sutra because the patriarch who originally
compiled the Heart Sutra was not sufficiently skilful enough with his use of
language. This has resulted in much misunderstanding for almost 2,000 years.
Thay would like to
share with you two stories: the story of a novice monk who paid a visit to a
Zen master, and the story of a Bhikkhu who came with a question to the Eminent
Master Tue Trung.
In the first story,
the Zen master asked the novice monk:
“Tell me about your
understanding of the Heart sutra.”
The novice monk
joined his palms and replied:
“I have understood
that the five skandhas are empty. There are no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body or
mind; there are no forms, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, or objects of mind;
the six consciousnesses do not exist, the eighteen realms of phenomena do not
exist, the twelve links of dependent arising do not exist, and even wisdom and
attainment do not exist.”
“Do you believe what
it says?”
“Yes, I truly believe
what it says.”
“Come closer to me,”
the Zen master instructed the novice monk. When the novice monk drew near, the
Zen master immediately used his thumb and index finger to pinch and twist the novice’s
nose.
In great agony, the
novice cried out “Teacher! You’re hurting me!” The Zen master looked at the
novice. “Just now you said that the nose doesn’t exist. But if the nose doesn’t
exist then what’s hurting?”
The Eminent Master
Tue Trung was a lay Zen master who had once served as the mentor for the young
King Tran Nhan Tong, in 13th Century Vietnam. One day, a Bhikkhu paid him a
visit to ask him about the Heart Sutra.
“Respected Eminent
Master, what does the phrase ‘form is emptiness, emptiness is form,’ really
mean?”
At first the Eminent
Master remained silent. And then, after a while, he asked:
“Bhikkhu, do you have
a body?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then, why do you say
that the body does not exist?”
The Eminent Master
then continued, “Do you think that in empty space there is form?”
“No, I do not see
that there is form.”
“Then why do you say
that emptiness is form?”
The Bhikkhu stood up,
bowed, and went on his way. But the Master summoned him back in order to recite
to him the following gatha:
Form is emptiness,
emptiness is form,
is a skillful means
created temporarily by the Buddhas of the three times.
Emptiness is not
form, form is not emptiness
Their nature is
always pure and illuminating, neither caught in being nor in non-being.
In this story the Eminent
Master Tue Trung seems to contradict the Heart Sutra and challenge the sacred
formula ‘form is emptiness and emptiness is form,’ considered inviolable in the
Prajñāpāramitā literature.
Thay believes that
the Eminent Master went too far. The Master was not able to see that the
mistake doesn’t rest in the formula, ‘form is emptiness’ rather, it resides in
the unskillfulness of the line, ‘Therefore in emptiness there is no form.’
According to Thay, the way in which words are used in the Heart Sutra, right
from the beginning up to the line: ‘no birth, no death, not defiled, not
immaculate, not increasing, nor decreasing,’ is already perfect. Thay’s only
regret is that the patriarch who recorded the Heart Sutra did not add the four
words ‘no being, no non-being’ immediately after the four words ‘no birth, no
death,’ because these four words would help us transcend the notion of being
and non-being, and we would no longer get caught in such ideas as ‘no eyes, no
ears, no nose, no tongue…’ The nose of the novice monk is still sore, even
today. Do you understand?
The problem begins
with the line: ‘Listen Shariputra, because in emptiness, there is no form,
feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness’ (in Sanskrit:
TasmācŚāriputraśūnyatayāmnarūpamnavedanānasamjñānasamskārānavijñānam). How
funny! It was previously stated that emptiness is form, and form is emptiness,
but now you say the opposite: there is only emptiness, there is no body. This
line of the sutra can lead to many damaging misunderstandings. It removes all
phenomena from the category ‘being’ and places them into the category of
‘non-being’ (no form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations or
consciousness…). Yet the true nature of all phenomena is the nature of no being
nor non-being, no birth and no death. The view of ‘being’ is one extreme view
and the view of ‘non-being’ is another extreme view. It is because of this
unskillfulness that the novice monk’s nose is still sore.
The famous gatha
ascribed to the sixth patriarch Hue Nang (Hui-neng), in which he presented his
insight to the fifth patriarch Hoang Nhan (Hung-jen), also expresses this
notion and is also caught in the same wrong view:
Originally, there is
no Bodhi tree
The bright mirror
does not exist either
From the non-beginning
of time nothing has ever existed
So where can the dust
settle?
We can say:
“A white cloud passes
by and hides the mouth of the cave
Causing so many birds
to lose their way home.”
The insight of
prajñāpāramitā is the most liberating insight that helps us overcome all pairs
of opposites such as birth and death, being and non-being, defilement and
immaculacy, increasing and decreasing, subject and object, and so on, and helps
us to get in touch with the true nature of no birth/no death, no being/no
non-being etc… which is the true nature of all phenomena. This is a state of
coolness, peace, and non-fear that can be experienced in this very life, in
your own body and in your own five skandhas. It is nirvana. Just as the birds
enjoy the sky, and the deer enjoy the meadow, so do the wise enjoy dwelling in
nirvana. This is a very beautiful sentence in the Nirvana Chapter of the
Chinese Dharmapada.
The insight of
prajñāpāramitā is the ultimate truth, transcending of all conventional truths.
It is the highest vision of the Buddha. Whatever paragraph in the Tripitaka,
even in the most impressive of the Prajñāpāramitā collections, if it so
contradicts this, it is still caught in conventional truth. Unfortunately, in
the Heart Sutra we find such a paragraph, and it is quite long.
That is why in this
new translation Thay has changed the way of using words in both the original
Sanskrit and the Chinese translation by Huyen Trang (Xuan-Zang). Thay
translates as follows: ‘That is why in emptiness, body, feelings, perceptions,
mental formations, and consciousness are not separate self entities.’ All
phenomena are products of dependent arising: that is the main point of the
prajñāpāramitā teaching. ‘Even insight and attainment do not exist as separate
self entities.’ This sentence is as important as the sentence ‘form is
emptiness.’ Thay also has added ‘no being, no non-being’ into the text. No
being, no non-being is the deep vision of the Buddha stated in the Kātyāyana
sutra, when he offered a definition on right view. These four words, no being,
no non-being, will help future generations not to suffer from a twisted nose.
The Heart Sutra was
intended to help the Sarvāstivādins relinquish the view of no self and no
dharma. The deepest teaching of Prājñāpāramitā is the emptiness of self
(ātmaśūnyatā) and the emptiness of dharma (dharmanairātmya) and not the
non-being of self and dharma. The Buddha has taught in the Kātyāyana sutra that
most people in the world are caught either in the view of being and non-being.
Therefore, the sentence ‘in emptiness there is no form, feelings…’ is obviously
still caught in the view of non-being. That is why this sentence does not
correspond to the Ultimate Truth. Emptiness of self only means the emptiness of
self, not the non-being of self, just as a balloon that is empty inside does
not mean that the balloon does not exist. The same is true with the emptiness
of dharma: it only means the emptiness of all phenomena and not the
non-existence of phenomena. It is like a flower that is made only of non-flower
elements. The flower is empty of a separate existence, but that doesn’t mean
that the flower is not there.
The Heart Sutra made
a late appearance at a time when Tantric Buddhism had begun to flourish. The
patriarch who compiled the Heart Sutra wanted to encourage followers of Tantric
Buddhism to practice and recite the Heart Sutra, so that’s why he presented the
Heart Sutra as a kind of mantra. This was also a skillful means. Thay has used
the phrase, ‘The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore,’ because in the
mantra there is the expression pāragate which means ‘gone over to the other
shore, the shore of wisdom’. Pārāyana and pāramitā have both been translated as
‘crossing over to the other shore.’ In the Sutta Nipāta there is a chapter
called Pārāyana which has also been translated as ‘crossing over to the other
shore.’
Dear Family, I hope
you enjoy practicing the new version of the Heart Sutra in English. We have an
English translation and Br. Phap Linh is in the process of composing the music
for the new chant. The next edition of the Chanting Book will include this new
translation. Yesterday, on the 21st of August, after finishing the translation
at around 3a.m., a moon ray penetrated Thay’s room.
With love and trust,
Your Teacher
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