The Heart Sutra (Red Pine)
Not My Zen Cup of Tea
[My 2-star Amazon review (April 8, 2013) of “The Heart Sutra” by Red Pine.]
The author of this text, Red Pine, and the publisher, Counterpoint, did not demonstrate a heart in producing this book, so I will not demonstrate one reviewing it. The font size is almost microscopic, which makes it almost unreadable to me. I have hundreds of books on my shelves, and not a single one has font this small. All I can conclude is that the author and publisher wanted to extract every possible penny from the book and didn’t care about the quality of their product. I decided to review this book because I am always looking to refine my Recommended Spiritual Reading List, which I include in the books I write.
In the Introduction, the author states that “The Heart Sutra is Buddhism in a nutshell. Nonsense. It is Madhyamika Buddhism in a nutshell. I still have my original copy of Edward Conze’s “Selected Sayings from the Perfection of Wisdom,” (purchased forty years ago), and although I now (as a full-time mystic/philosopher/ and ex-Zennist) have little regard for the sayings in the book, it is still a mind-bending read. When I open Conze’s book side-by-side with Red Pine’s, there is no real comparison between the two, and Conze’s rendering of the Heart Sutra trumps Red Pine’s.
As I perused this book, it confirmed what I already knew-- that Red Pine has no real insight into Buddha Dharma. Since I had already started his Lankavatara Sutra before I got the “Heart Sutra,” I was prepared for his superficial writings, which are devoid of real Wisdom.
A real problem with the Heart Sutra is that it makes no sense. It states that “form is emptiness; emptiness is form… whatever is form is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is form.” If this is the case, then there is no need for an emptiness doctrine. Instead of seeing form as empty, one might as well see emptiness as form. Moreover, you can imagine form as emptiness until your brain goes numb—but if someone with a gun shoots you, the “formless” bullet, unlike empty space, will kill you.
Singer-mystic Donovan summarizes the application of the Heart Sutra in Buddhist spiritual practice when he rhapsodizes, “First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.” In other words, the emptiness Dharma can be understood as provisional. But I have no affinity for provisional spiritual teachings—especially when there are other, superior, non-provisional ones available.
The fact is, “emptiness” has no ontological status; emptiness has no meaning other than referring to some “thing” that is said to lack self, substantiality, and permanence. But the ontological Primary in all schools of mysticism is Awareness, or Consciousness—the Dharmakaya. When a Bodhisattva’s awakened Prajna (or Awareness) has crossed to the Other Shore (meaning it is united with Bodhi (Light-energy, the Sambhogakaya in the Heart, the Tathatagarbha), then the Bodhisattva has become a Buddha, one who unobstuctedly radiates as free Awareness.
The awakened Heart (Prajna Gone Beyond) is the Self (or Buddha-nature). As the Zen master Hui Hai put it: “Prajna unknown knows all; Prajna unseen, sees all.” But from my perspective, the emptiness doctrine, epitomized by the Heart Sutra, is contrived and superfluous—and Dzogchen teachings (which emphasize immediate natural Awareness or Presence) provide a more radical, direct, and integral Way to “cross over to the Other Shore “of Buddhahood.
[My 2-star Amazon review (April 8, 2013) of “The Heart Sutra” by Red Pine.]
The author of this text, Red Pine, and the publisher, Counterpoint, did not demonstrate a heart in producing this book, so I will not demonstrate one reviewing it. The font size is almost microscopic, which makes it almost unreadable to me. I have hundreds of books on my shelves, and not a single one has font this small. All I can conclude is that the author and publisher wanted to extract every possible penny from the book and didn’t care about the quality of their product. I decided to review this book because I am always looking to refine my Recommended Spiritual Reading List, which I include in the books I write.
In the Introduction, the author states that “The Heart Sutra is Buddhism in a nutshell. Nonsense. It is Madhyamika Buddhism in a nutshell. I still have my original copy of Edward Conze’s “Selected Sayings from the Perfection of Wisdom,” (purchased forty years ago), and although I now (as a full-time mystic/philosopher/ and ex-Zennist) have little regard for the sayings in the book, it is still a mind-bending read. When I open Conze’s book side-by-side with Red Pine’s, there is no real comparison between the two, and Conze’s rendering of the Heart Sutra trumps Red Pine’s.
As I perused this book, it confirmed what I already knew-- that Red Pine has no real insight into Buddha Dharma. Since I had already started his Lankavatara Sutra before I got the “Heart Sutra,” I was prepared for his superficial writings, which are devoid of real Wisdom.
A real problem with the Heart Sutra is that it makes no sense. It states that “form is emptiness; emptiness is form… whatever is form is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is form.” If this is the case, then there is no need for an emptiness doctrine. Instead of seeing form as empty, one might as well see emptiness as form. Moreover, you can imagine form as emptiness until your brain goes numb—but if someone with a gun shoots you, the “formless” bullet, unlike empty space, will kill you.
Singer-mystic Donovan summarizes the application of the Heart Sutra in Buddhist spiritual practice when he rhapsodizes, “First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.” In other words, the emptiness Dharma can be understood as provisional. But I have no affinity for provisional spiritual teachings—especially when there are other, superior, non-provisional ones available.
The fact is, “emptiness” has no ontological status; emptiness has no meaning other than referring to some “thing” that is said to lack self, substantiality, and permanence. But the ontological Primary in all schools of mysticism is Awareness, or Consciousness—the Dharmakaya. When a Bodhisattva’s awakened Prajna (or Awareness) has crossed to the Other Shore (meaning it is united with Bodhi (Light-energy, the Sambhogakaya in the Heart, the Tathatagarbha), then the Bodhisattva has become a Buddha, one who unobstuctedly radiates as free Awareness.
The awakened Heart (Prajna Gone Beyond) is the Self (or Buddha-nature). As the Zen master Hui Hai put it: “Prajna unknown knows all; Prajna unseen, sees all.” But from my perspective, the emptiness doctrine, epitomized by the Heart Sutra, is contrived and superfluous—and Dzogchen teachings (which emphasize immediate natural Awareness or Presence) provide a more radical, direct, and integral Way to “cross over to the Other Shore “of Buddhahood.
