http://egreenway.com/weblog/2005/09/13/heart-sutra/ From the Ground Up Sat, 17 May 2008 05:28:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 http://egreenway.com/weblog/2005/09/13/heart-sutra/#comment-5404 BruceMacRae Smith Sat, 21 Apr 2007 17:04:21 +0000 http://egreenway.com/weblog/2005/09/13/heart-sutra/#comment-5404 As with all texts based upon spoken words, expressed a very long time ago, there have been recording, repetition, transmission, translation, of the original words; so we do not know precisely what was originally said. There are those who will say that this is not important, because it is possible to find the core-message within the whole text. It is not as simple as that; errors in the precise wording will lead to errors in understanding and practice. For example : "matter is not different from emptiness and emtiness is not different from matter." The word "different" (sometimes it ocurrs as "differ") is not correct. The correct word is "separate". The acceptance of the word "different" leads to misunderstanding, because phenomena (matter) are certainly different from their source and sustainance, emptiness, though they are not separate, they are whole. The difference is that (phenomena) matter is dimensional, limited, and dependant upon emptiness; whereas emptiness is without dimension, unlimited, and independant. As with all texts based upon spoken words, expressed a very long time ago, there have been recording, repetition, transmission, translation, of the original words; so we do not know precisely what was originally said. There are those who will say that this is not important, because it is possible to find the core-message within the whole text. It is not as simple as that; errors in the precise wording will lead to errors in understanding and practice. For example : “matter is not different from emptiness and emtiness is not different from matter.”
The word “different” (sometimes it ocurrs as “differ”) is not correct. The correct word is “separate”. The acceptance of the word “different” leads to misunderstanding, because phenomena (matter) are certainly different from their source and sustainance, emptiness, though they are not separate, they are whole. The difference is that (phenomena) matter is dimensional, limited, and dependant upon emptiness; whereas emptiness is without dimension, unlimited, and independant.

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