There Is No Suffering: A Commentary on the Heart Sutra

Rating:
Summary: A down to earth approach
Review: I live in Taiwan and have attended lectures by Master Sheng-Yen. The compassion and understanding of his lectures, I think, are well-expressed in this commentary on the Heart Sutra, the essential text for Chan (Zen) Buddhism. The text proceeds like many of Master Sheng-Yen's analyses of poetic texts and sutras, tackling the text stanza by stanza, sometimes dwelling on the meaning of individual lines or words. Sanskrit words or phrases, some of which are retained in the English translation which preceeds the commentary, are given full explanation, as well as a justification for why they remain untranslated. At the same time, the commentary is anything but a dry or tedious work of scholarship. Master Sheng-Yen's work is appropriate for those who have never read the sutras since the wisdom of the Buddha is consistently related to everyday experience without homilies, moralizing, or the tone of a sermon. If you haven't read the heart sutra and are interested, consider this text as a good introduction--both to the Heart Sutra and to the work of Master Sheng-Yen.