Jonquils – Spring is here already!

I’ve been thinking about starting another blog specifically for exploring the Heart of Wisdom Sutra, the shortest of the hundreds (thousands?) of Buddhist sacred texts, that encapsulates the profoundest teachings of Buddhism. It has been the foundational text of all my spiritual learning and continues to provide me with deep insights every day. As many of you may know, the Heart Sutra is a focal point of my teaching as a Buddhist priest as well, and although I don’t refer to it specifically, it underlies everything I talk about here in this blog as well as everything that I have so far learned about the nature of reality and the meaning of Truth: the Heart Sutra is the gateway to enlightenment and paves my spiritual path to understanding ‘Being’. But I might have to wait until my final semester of study is complete before leaping into another new project! In the meanwhile, please enjoy this beautiful video with the chanting of the Heart Sutra…

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the meaning of the word “heart”. In Japanese, the name of the Heart Sutra is 般若心経 (Hannya Shingyo), and the third Japanese character 心 means ‘heart’. In English, we tend to distinguish between ‘heart’ and ‘mind’, whereby the heart is the location of emotions and feelings and, of course, a symbol of love; and the mind is the location of consciousness and thoughts and knowledge. But in Japanese, the word 心 means both heart and mind – there is no separation. This becomes quite a problem when translating into English because I must stop and ask, well which one is it – heart or mind? But lately I’ve started to question this apparent separation between heart and mind, feelings and thoughts, as realise that it’s not that clear cut after all.

The full name of the Heart Sutra is the Heart of the Practice of the Perfection of Wisdom; that is, heart as ‘essence’, as the intrinsic nature or deepest underlying quality of something. And this is what we mean when we say we are getting to “the heart of the matter”: getting down to the essential and profound aspect of something. It also means to realise in a clear thinking way some deep underlying truth about something. When we get to “the heart of the matter” we gain some insight into the “truth of the matter”. Beyond just knowledge, getting the heart of the matter brings forth an awareness of wisdom from the core of our being; it is through our hearts that we can gain wisdom, which we recognise with our minds as containing some deep truth. In that moment of insight – at the heart of the matter – we are using our minds to understand this; that is, there is no separation between heart and mind at that point.

Mushroom in my garden – that is its true colour!

And when we offer our “heartfelt” thanks, what do we mean? Something “heartfelt” means coming from the very core of our true being, it means something that is fundamentally authentic and true and pure: the wellspring of our being. So “heart” also equates with the essence of who we are – natural and unadorned and truthful. But when we offer our gratitude, in that “heartfelt” moment it is through our minds that recognise this gratitude and we think of words to express our thanks. Again, there is no clear separation between our heart and mind in that moment of offering heartfelt thanks.

So after thinking (with my mind) about the meaning of “heart” I realise that heart is the location of wisdom, of authentic being, of love, but that this realisation can only be made manifest through mind that enables us to experience and appreciate and share. We may say “heart” and “mind” but really they are just the two faces of our pure being. So, I just want to say…

I heart you!