Posts Tagged ‘Heart Sutra’

August 5 1965

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

August 5, 1965

Rev. Suzuki’s talk on Great Prajna Paramita Sutra

I want to give the conclusion to this Prajna Paramita Sutra this morning.  In short, this sutra suggests to us how everything exists.  Everything exists in two ways, visible and invisible.  Something visible is not invisible.  Actual existence has two faces, visible and umm…invisible.  Something visible is not visible.  Something not visible is visible.  That is true.  Because you think only something visible is only existence so you attach to something visible.  And when you think only thing exists is something visible you become attached to some particular thing.  If you understand something visible is not …is at the same time invisible, and something invisible…is something invisible actually exists, there will be no need to be attached to something visible only and there will be no need for you to be afraid of losing your existence in visible realm.  If you understand two faces of ultimate existence there is no more fear and you own everything.

The practice…..by practice of zen you will have actual feeling of this feeling.  So in this sutra says… “Form is emptiness”.  Form is something visible and emptiness is something invisible.  If I say in this way it is too abstract, so it may be rather difficult to understand.

(more…)

July 15 1965

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

July 15, 1965

Rev. S. Suzuki’s talk on Great Prajna Paramita Sutra

This morning I want to explain the attainment…the attainment here…it

means to resume to our true nature is actually attainments.  To attain nirvana means to resume to our true nature.  Our true nature is beyond our reasoning, beyond our sensory world.  If…when we…when we are beyond our reasoning, or sensory world there is no problem, there is no fear.  There is just our true nature itself.  When we resume to our true nature we say we attained enlightenment.  So actually there is nothing to attain; to resume to our true nature is our attainment.   But from the viewpoint of intiate…initial awareness of the true nature it is attainment, because we will attain…we will resume to our true nature by going beyond our sensual world or sensory world, so step by step, one by one, to get rid of all the emotional functions and thinking…stop thinking we will attain enlightenment.  So in this sense it is attainment.  But, what we attain is not something quite different from our empirical world, so in this sense it is not attainment.  So in this sutra it says “no attainment (or no dharma), no five senses or sense organs, or no world of five or six senses; no problem of birth and death, and old age and illness.  Of course no self at all.

(more…)