The Heart Sutra is such a great story. It’s from a long time ago so we’re missing a whole lot of the details of exactly what happened. But in essence the bodhisattva wakes up. A sudden awakening and after, apparently it seems, years of studying. It seemed to be a practice of straining to get rid of the mind, memorizing Buddhist concepts and all the other things that go along with strict Buddhism.
Then all of a sudden he bursts through. Boom! Ah! Ah! The simplicity of it. He gets very excited, certainly everybody will get this so easily!
He comes running back to the monastery and he basically says, “Guys! Guys! Guess what? There aren’t any concepts! You don’t have to overcome concepts. They don’t actually exist. They just drift by. Emotions just drift by. Thoughts aren’t actually there. Tou’re there and the moment that you see this… it’s gone. It’s all gone.
Gone, gone. Concepts, ideas, struggling, illusion is all gone, gone, gone beyond. Gone beyond the beyond. They are so gone they’re never gonna come back. What an Awakening!
And that’s the Heart Sutra: “Gone. Gone. Gone beyond. Gone beyond the beyond. Oh what an awakening!”
Bodhi Svaha.
When we chant this mantra keep in mind that these are just illusions capturing you. What seems so difficult to overcome is not difficult to overcome at all. Thoughts and illusions just float away the second you’re aware. So when you’re chanting this be in that state of freedom: Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate. Bodhi Svaha.