The Heart of the Universe: Exploring the Heart Sutra

I have no doubt that the translation by Mu Soeng contains remnants of the translator's inner light. But, even a poor translation, ( which this is not), couldn't hide the beauty inherent in these words, just as they are arranged here.Thanks to all who made it shareable.

I've read Mu Soeng's commentaries before. His work is always worth studying. This particular commentary really gave the Heart Sutra imagery that worked for me in a way I had not expected

This translation of The Heart Sutra was a very rational look at one of the most important Mahayana Sutras. I read Red Pine's translation and commentaries before this one. They compliment each other very nicely. However I would probably start with this one and then read Red Pine's since his is more dense.

Mu Soeng puts himself in the same class as Red Pine (Bill Porter) and the Cleary Brothers with this outstanding work, which is a tremendous work of scholarship mixed with tremendous insight into the Heart Sutra.

Nice commentary and breakdown of the Heart Sutra. It does not have the lengthy historical/scholarly commentaries like Red Pine's Heart Sutra commentary, but I enjoyed it very much just the same.

The Heart Sutra--a presentation of the crucial Buddhist concept of "emptiness" in just a few dozen lines--may be among the most beloved and most commented-upon texts in Buddhism. So it is reasonable to ask whether a new commentary on the sutra offers anything novel.Mu Soeng, a teacher of Vipassana "insight meditation," has chosen to use quantum physics to undergird his approach to the Heart Sutra, a relationship he underscores in his title, "The Heart of the Universe." Science is now revealing that when we descend as far as we are currently able into the world of matter, we discover not an indivisible particle, but an energetic process, iterating itself endlessly and converging into materials and forms. Soeng likens this to the teaching of the Heart Sutra that at the ultimate level there is no fixed, unchanging "thing-in-itself," but only a manifestation, a purely relational existence that Buddhism calls "emptiness" (shunyata).The intersection of Buddhist phenomenology and quantum science is an intriguing one, and has been explored in other books such as the Dalai Lama's  The Universe in a Single Atom . So Mu Soeng is not on entirely unbroken ground here, but he presents the ideas with about as much clarity as can be hoped for when describing one of the most brain-bending areas of science for a lay audience.Still, my concern is that as science advances, there is every chance these sections will go out of date, probably sooner rather than later. Luckily, scientific discussion is not all there is to this book. Soeng addresses other elements of the sutra, including the nature of prajna wisdom; he also gives an exceptionally illuminating discussion of "cessation" and nirvana that might just be worth the whole book. One of his main and most distinctive messages is that, as in quantum physics, nothing is a static thing; all "things" (including emptiness and nirvana) are processes. This is a view that is radically open to the fundamental Buddhist philosophy that all is flux, and helps put us in a position to expect no permanence of anything.Though hardly a hundred pages long, this book does not feel insubstantial. Indeed, it offers some ideas that may genuinely advance a practitioner's understanding of both the path and the goal--or as the Heart Sutra would have it, the non-path and the non-goal.~

The Heart of the Universe: Exploring the Heart Sutra, by Mu Soeng. This thin volume from fellow Wisdom author and resident scholar at the Barre Institute for Buddhist Studies is thick in wisdom. As the title suggests it explores the Heart Sutra, placing it in context and then line-by-line commentary. It also uses the Heart Sutra as the platform for a clear and compelling account of Buddhist psychology, philosophy, and wisdom. Fans of the Heart Sutra will find the commentary fascinating and provocative. People unfamiliar to the Heart Sutra will be amazed at the parallels between the Buddha's insights 2500 years ago and the findings of 20th century quantum physics. While not offered as self-help, this scholarly treatise offers such help to the astute reader. It goes to the core of the Buddha's teaching, his fundamental insight regarding the nature of self and reality. Mu Soeng says, "To see oneself truly and authentically, as an event -- an ever changing process -- rather than a thing-in-itself, is the greatest act of re-imaging." The metaphor we use to understand what it means to be a self makes all the difference. If the metaphor is a solid thing than we are vulnerable to dukkha (suffering, dissatisfaction). If the metaphor is a process there are no edges in which to create dukkha and therefore no suffering or pervasive dissatisfaction in life.When we relate to self as a solid entity, we understand this moment or a segment of our lives in terms of a past moment. This past moment, or more accurately, our memory of this past moment has been selected and is therefore incomplete, it is also biased by beliefs, rules, and preconceptions. In this way, the previous moment serves as a metaphor for the future moment. The past distortion gets propagated into the future thereby interfering with our ability to experience this moment with more clarity as a "new" experience. We miss the opportunity to experience this moment unladen with the burden of past experience and its concepts, beliefs, and rules. Arnie Kozak author of  Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness

This is a short and very readable explanation of one of the most profound and fundamental teachings in Buddhism: that the nature of everything is flow and interdependence, so that nothing - no sensation, no thought, not even the Earth itself - has absolute self-arising existence. As one grows in the felt recognition of this truth, one becomes increasingly free of stress and dissatisfaction - increasingly free of suffering. Mu Soeng has written a gem from his own scholarship, long-time Buddhist practice, and personal realization. If I were stuck on a tropical island for the rest of my life and could take only three Buddhist books with me, this would be one of them.

Am excellent read, and a good commentary on the Heart Sutra.