The Heart Sutra
What is this essay? It is something I made, but what is it really? According to Buddhism, it exists because of me, because of the five aggregates that make me, namely: body, feelings, perception, mental formation, and consciousness. Everything in this world can be reduced to these aggregates, some physical and mental factors that shape my experiences. Thus, this essay exists as an interplay of the five skandhas. It is my perception of Buddhism, a body of my thoughts. Does this mean that this essay truly exists? I think that the Heart Sutra does not imply that the essay does not exist in the real world. It implies that nothing is permanent. Once I submit the essay, once it is read and graded, its little life span will end. I will delete the document. It will leave my memory. It will have existed once, but not anymore.
Now, who am I? There is a comment on my Instagram post, “You are gorgeous!”, so the woman in the picture is me. I had a conversation with my friend one day and she told me that I am a kind person and a good listener. That is me. My partner told me he is grateful for me because I add color to his life, my jokes make his day, and my laugh gives him warmth. That is me. Or is it?
No. I am made of the five skandhas. I have a body, it is mine, but it is not me. It houses my thoughts, my feelings, all mental formations, but they are ever-changing, they are not me. The way I perceive the world, the way I am conscious of life, those come from me, but they are not me. According to the Heart Sutra, these are “not separate self-entities” (Heart Sutra, 116). These five aggregates do not have any inherent characteristics. They are ever-changing. They exist, but they are not permanent.
That is the meaning of emptiness. Everything is a fleeting moment. I am a fleeting moment. Emptiness, from the Heart Sutra, can be defined as never-ending, boundless, limitless. It is not nothing. On the contrary, I think that emptiness means it is nothing yet everything at once.
Interestingly, I believe that Heart Sutra changes the meaning of what we studied as the Four Noble Truths. The Four Noble Truths say that there is dukkha, i.e. suffering which is caused by tanha, i.e. desire or craving. The Heart Sutra simply says, “Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being, the End of Ill-being, the Path, insight, and attainment are also not separate self-entities” (Heart Sutra, 116). I interpret it as saying that although there is suffering and there is desire, desire is the result of the interplay of the five skandhas. My body likes feeling loved, it thinks loving will make me happy, so I crave a partner. Not having one makes me unhappy, makes me suffer. But I believe that the Heart Sutra implies that I need to realize that the five aggregates are not me, they are ever-changing, and so is the craving. It is not me. Therefore, the suffering, though existing in my world, is also temporary.
Once this understanding is achieved, one can be enlightened. You find your “self” in the emptiness of these five aggregates, i.e., in the understanding of the five skandhas being boundless, having no real form or characteristics. These five don’t exist in a self-sufficient manner. They are empty. All that we think we are, our thoughts, our feelings, our body, it is not us. It is the transitional skandhas.
“…all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness: their true nature is the nature of no birth no death, no being no nonbeing, no defilement no purity, no increasing no decreasing. That is why in emptiness, body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness are not separate self-entities” (Heart Sutra, 116) Thus it makes sense to me. If I realize that the thoughts, perceptions, and feelings I base my entire self on, my entire life on, are simply formless, I will experience life differently and my understanding of suffering will be reduced to this: it is empty too.
My mental formations are empty, all my fears are empty, all my desires are empty, so I experience no suffering. And in realizing this ultimate truth, I can attain Nirvana “no birth no death” (Heart Sutra, 116). “Gate, Gate, Paragate, Para Sam gate Bodhi svaha” (Heart Sutra, 117) which means, gone, gone, gone to the other shore, gone completely, this is awakening, wow.
