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JAPANESE BUDDHISTS have put extraordinary effort into exploring the meaning of the Heart Sutra. The important reference work Complete Catalog of Japanese Books (Kokusho Somokuroku), which indexes all known books written in Japan before 1867 — more than half a million — lists 219 commentaries (or commentaries on commentaries) on the Heart Sutra. Not surprisingly, quite a few have similar titles.
The most revered of the Japanese commentaries is the Secret Key to the Heart Sutra (Hannya Shingyo Hiken) by Kukai (774–835), founder of the Shingon (Mantra) School. From his Vajrayana perspective, Kukai explains that the heart of prajna, wisdom, is not simply a summary of the sutra but the true word — the mantra. Kukai taught his disciples that the sound of each syllable of words in the Heart Sutra is greater than all discussions through the aeons, with its reality beyond the mastery even of countless awakened ones. Kukai states, on the other hand, that chanting and expounding this sutra relieves suffering and offers blessings, while studying and contemplating it leads to enlightenment and the realization of miracles.
Eihei Dogen (1200–1253), regarded as the founder of the Japanese Soto School of Zen, wrote an essay called “Manifestation of Great Prajna” and presented it as the second essay in the seventy-fascicle version of his lifework, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shobo Genzo).1
His discussion begins: “At the moment when Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva deeply practices prajna paramita, the total body clearly sees that all five skandhas are empty.” He goes on to explain that prajna has various aspects, such as the six paramitas and the Four Noble Truths. They are, for Dogen, a single prajna paramita that is actualized right at this moment.
Dogen concludes: “To actualize the manifestation of boundless prajna is to actualize the Buddha, the World-Honored One. Look into this. Study this. To dedicate yourself to it and pay respect to the manifestation of boundless prajna is to see and accept the Buddha, the World-Honored One. It is to be the Buddha, the World-Honored One, seeing and accepting.”
The Illustrated Prajna Heart Sutra (Hannya Shingyo Zue), attributed to the Zen monk Ikkyu (1394–1481), exists in two woodcut versions. One was published in 1844, while the other remains undated. Ikkyu, who called himself Crazy Cloud Person, was known for his eccentric life but profound poems. After his death, he became a popular figure. This book includes his anecdotes and poems as well as classical poems by earlier writers.
In the illustrated book, regarding the first part of the sutra’s title, Ikkyu says:
Maka (maha) means “big.” If you want to know big mind, you must first become free from your small mind. The small mind makes deluded distinctions. With this mind, you separate yourself and others, buddhas and sentient beings. You divide existence from nonexistence, delusion from enlightenment, right from wrong, and wholesome from unwholesome. This is small mind.
If you become free from small mind, there will be no distinction between buddhas and sentient beings, existence and nonexistence, delusion and enlightenment; they will all be equal, and there will be no more distinctions. This is called big mind. It is just like empty sky that is boundless. This is the original nature intrinsic to all of us sentient beings.2
The most iconoclastic commentary on the Heart Sutra may be Poisonous Commentary on the Heart Sutra (Hannya Shingyo Dokugo Chu), in which Hakuin (1685–1768), regarded as the restorer of the Rinzai School of Zen, wrote brief comments and verses. The book was edited by his successor, Torei.
Hakuin’s comment on the statement “Form is no other than emptiness” reads as follows:
In delicious soup you find two pellets of rat dung. You enjoy the soup and can never have enough of it. You brush off waves in search of water. But waves are water. Form does not shelter emptiness; the essence of emptiness is form. Emptiness does not break form; the body of emptiness is form. Form and emptiness are within the dharma gate of nonduality. A lame turtle wipes off its eyebrows to call for the evening breeze.3
And he concludes his commentary:
If you become a greatly courageous person, you understand the meaning of this sutra and practice its teaching at each moment — while walking, coughing, spitting, or stretching your arms. In motion and stillness, you carry its entire power; you embody its entire awe. Then there will be no obstacle you cannot destroy; there will be no virtue you cannot realize. This is called the great dharani, the magical mantra.