The Heart Sutra

Rating:
Summary: conveying the core of Buddha's teaching
Review: Red Pine's masterful work, once again, provides us with a definitive translation of a core Buddhist text. The translation is accompanied by commentaries that stretch back to Hui Neng, and include modern Buddhas, Thich Nhet Hanh and Robert Aitken. Five stars.

Rating:
Summary: Compassion arising from the realm of Avalokiteshvara
Review: This book is particularly useful for the non-Buddhist, the person seeking enlightenment into the nature of the Dharma without necessarily having to take direct refuge in the three diamonds. Sometimes described as "Buddhism in a nutshell", the exact interpretation of the very concise Heart Sutra today, requires inputs of historical insight as well as a systematic understanding concerning the derivation of the terms used therein.

An exact comprehension of the nuances of meaning associated with these terms is also obligatory. Hence the task of acquiring the necessary knowledge to evaluate the statements presented in the Heart Sutra is quite daunting. Having said that, it is clear that the technical insights that Red Pine brings to the task not only embrace a wide perspective but are also applied with the severe logical precision that this path, crafted by a being of enlightenment, demands for its comprehension. In short, the reader of this book has no obligation to look elsewhere for verification of the elements and interpretations presented therein.

In many ways it is difficult to imagine that a profound illumination would not arise in anyone taking the care to read carefully and to think about the insights that flow in line by line comprehension from this work - even without recourse to additional material. In short, the book is the product of a true master working under the simple cover of "translator". In itself it offers a completely consistent passage into the enlightenment lying beyond the peak, wherein the duality of name and form has yet to arise. This is the transcendental realm traversed by Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig) from which the Buddha of Compassion (that is, compassion itself) appears to the mind of sentient being(s).
Very highly recommended. 5++ stars.


Rating:
Summary: Knowledgeable and Detailed Study
Review: This thoughtful and well written book is a commentary on an important, and very short, Buddhist text called The Heart Sutra. The entire sutra is presented on the first two pages of the book. A short introduction to the major themes of the sutra takes up the next 30 pages. The bulk of the book consists of a hundred and forty page, line by line, analysis of the sutra. The commentary on each line of the text varies in length from one page, to as many as seven or eight, with the majority in the area of three to five pages. The analysis of each line usually consists of several pages of comments by the author, followed by a few more pages of carefully selected commentary by ancient chinese authorities. The author's ability to collect these commentaries is one of the book's chief charms.

Red Pine is the pseudonym of Bill Porter, a non-academic author who lives in Port Townsend, Washington. He has spent the majority of his adult life in Asia, where he went after dropping out of graduate school at Columbia in 1972. During his stay in Asia he lived at times in Buddhist monasteries, and went on several long retreats into the mountains. His style of writing is an interesting and somewhat quirky combination of academic rigor and humorous, and quite orthodox, Buddhist commentary. He is obviously in earnest about the texts that he discusses. Unlike a traditional academic, he takes the texts literally, and clearly believes in the literal truthfulness of the text and the historical background from which it emerged. His commentary may be overly detailed and overly rigorous from the point of some readers, but there is little doubt that he is a sincere seeker who delves into the text in a personal search for revelation. In other words, this is not a cold, academic analysis, but a detailed analysis inspired by faith.

The Heart Sutra itself is an extremely difficult text, at least from the point of view of most westerners. Red Pine says of it, "The Heart Sutra is Buddhism in a nutshell. It covers more of the Buddha's teachings in a shorter span than any other scripture, and it does so without being superficial or commonplace."

Red Pine states that The Heart Sutra is a critical commentary on the philosophy of a popular early Buddhist sect called the Sarvastivadins. The author states that the Sarvastivadins understood that people tend to claim that "something is permanent that is not permanent, ... pleasurable that is not pleasurable, ... self-existent that is not self-existent, and ...pure that is not pure." The author of The Heart Sutra agrees with this analysis. However, The Heart Sutra goes further, and states that Nirvana itself is a delusion. The Heart Sutra also states that "form is emptiness, emptiness form," and that "all dharmas are defined by emptiness." Much of the book is a commentary on the importance and meaning of these and similar assertions which the Sarvastivadins failed to grasp.

Unless you have an unusually academic or abstract turn of mind, I would not recommend a detailed commentary on such esoteric subject matter to a new comer to Buddhism. Instead, I would recommend the works of Pema Chodron, Jack Kornfield (A Path with Heart) or Thich Naht Hanh (The Miracle of Mindfulness). However, if you want to broaden your understanding of Buddhism, or want some profound subject matter to help inspire your practice, then you should find this excellent book very rewarding. Red Pine is an unusual character who writes intelligently, and sincerely, about an interesting and important text.