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The Practice of the Prajnaparamita Sutra (1)
Giving the speaker a space when listening is the essential method for receiving the Prajñā Hṛdaya Sūtra and any teaching. Instead of bringing in your own opinions and preconceptions for comparison, your consciousness must faire le vide—that is:
- create an inner space, free from prejudice or comparison
- silently receive, like a patient coming to a doctor, sincerely asking to be shown the imbalances in body and mind in order to heal oneself
The Prajñā Hṛdaya Sūtra (which appeared about 100 years before Christ, Sūtra number 229 in the Taishō Tripiṭaka) is the first document of the Prajñā literature, consisting of both verse (Gāthā) and prose sections. The main purpose of the Mahāyāna movement through this sūtra is presented as follows:
- The Mahāyāna ideal: The Bodhisattva practices not only for themselves but “for the world, to remove obstacles and afflictions, to give rise to pure faith in nirvāṇa.”
- Dedication of merit: Every new Dharma door, every skillful means to teach and liberate beings, all originate from the supreme power of the Tathāgata, just as all the rivers of India flow from Lake Anavatapta, guarded by the Nāga King.
- The first thunderclap: “the wondrous object cannot be grasped, there is no attainment, no Bodhi” signals the teaching of non-attainment and non-abiding, followed by the theory of the emptiness of the five skandhas (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness), helping the Bodhisattva to be “utterly unattached, without abiding anywhere,” for self-awakening and awakening others.
