The Heart Sutra Explained in 11 Minutes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2022
- Have you ever wanted to fast-track your journey to Enlightenment? This short video will show you everything you need to know.
: A visual semiological analysis of the radical components of the Heart Sutra and primer on Han Characters.
I am a Buddhist illustrator and I was doing some research on the Heart Sutra because I wanted it to be the subject for an upcoming illustration I am working on. I found your video and it was so informative, beautiful, and compassion driven! I heard this sutra chanted for years in Vietnamese. it was so insightful to hear your thoughts! Thank you!
I am so grateful for your comment and I am very happy to hear you enjoyed it!
It has just become one of my favourite TH-cam videos
I'm so happy that you enjoyed it !
This video is absurdly great, informative and most of all, extremely beautiful.
Thank you ! I'm really glad to hear you enjoyed it ~
It could be a nice general overview for beginners of what Sanskrit (mtrka) and Kan-ji represent by nature but you cannot just rely on direct explicit interpretation of Kan-ji to get closely to the meaning of Heart Sutra. Moreover these pictures as associations are meaninglessness here, and even misleading. It is recommended to refer to Kumarajiva translation of the Sutra text from Sanskrit to Kan-ji to understand the basic terms under Maha-yana and Vajra-yana concepts as well as the complexity of the translation task from Sanscrit to Kan-ji, and then get aquatinted with Kobo-daishi texts and explanations of the Sutra, who actually brought associated texts, mantras and mandalas to Japan.
Thanks for your question ! The translation given in my video at 00:38 is mine - although it draws inspiration from Thích Nhất Hạnh’s. As I suspect you are probably aware, the 260 characters of the Heart Sutra you see in this video are the same as the ones which 玄奘 transmitted to China, before 空海 transmitted the text to Japan.
The Images are intended to act as 方便, or कौशल्य: there is an inherent falseness to all explanations of Buddhist concepts; apprehending rūpaṃ śūnyatā śūnyataiva rūpaṃ is not the same as understanding it, of course. The sutras bring followers closer to the “other shore” - but as instruments of 方便, sutras alone cannot take them there entirely.
Thus, the images in this video are intended as a way to open the text to learners via a secondary route. The layers of meaning added through transmission are not incidental - they are vital to crossing the ocean of subjectivity to reach other practitioners; and, I believe, as is the thesis of this video, the montage of images can even help learners take another step along the journey to truly being able to understand what is meant by rūpaṃ śūnyatā śūnyataiva rūpaṃ.
@@GwensHollow
I agreee there are many routes to the top of the mountain for sure. And there are various Yanas, which is btw a hidden part of the Sutra’s text (four of them are named within it).
I have got no questions. I am just pointing out that the Sutra has many layers of meanings. Everyone gets the one he or she is capable to understand and embody at the moment. Ancient aryas knew that, explained and passed meanings accordingly. For visualisations of core meainings it was used to rely upon mandalas as I am sure you are aware of.
This is all so cool! Such a new way to see the sutra for non Mandarin speakers! @gwenshollow please keep teaching on the sutra with video! Maybe you could make another video on the sutra about this very conversation and the linguistic transmission history, as you mention! I would like to share your work with our Buddhist study group…I have always wanted to learn more about Pali version as well. Thank you for your time in making this video for all beings!!!!
Just a note, I'm not sure about sanskrit, but Japanese orthography doesn't use symbols to separate kanji in transliteration outside of dictionaries. This is because all kanji are limited to either one or two kana, which each transliterate into one or two English letters max. Because of this, so long as you don't skip anything, transliteration from letters to yomigata is unambiguous. For example:
Kanji, is three kana long. かんじ the only question about division is if the second kana belongs to the first or the second kanji. Because it is one of the dozen syllables that are most commonly found as the second in a two kana kanji (being the い (-i or rarely the う-u row kana and ん nn or n) we can easily assume that the second kanji does not begin with n.
Where it could be more useful to add things for clarification is to put parenthesis and use a translation of each kanji separated by hyphens. This could look like
The kanji (China-character) are the most difficult part of learning Japanese.
You could go further and include the relevant kanji in parentheses instead.
I really enjoy playing Kendo (剣道) with my friends.
Again, because of how the Japanese sound system works, so long as you include all the letters, you don't need to clarify that it's ken-do.
There are exceptions, such as names or ancient terms where standard readings aren't used, such as names of the various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas or even of some towns, but even then, you're better off just romanizing it without special characters.
I sincerely hope you keep making in depth analytical content about this kind of thing. This is the best explanation of the heart sutra and its context in society ive found on TH-cam (by someone who speaks English lol)
thank you ! I'm so glad that you enjoyed it.
In all honesty, this was a sort of one-of-a-kind project and it's hard to me to say if I'll make something like it again. But your support and encouragement means a whole lot - and I am definitely open to it if inspiration strikes again :)
Nonetheless - all the effort - of those interested - in Lord Buddha
- and after 5 decades of meditation (Zen/Raja Yoga)
- one comes to the clear realisation that the Enlightened One
- was/is purer and more simple - than all the explanations - for His existence and and His work.
Some work from the 1940's in Raja Yoga - is being released - for the new re-understanding
- of Lord Buddha's real worth. May it be so. Fare thee well.
I am here because of the 2019 movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Ghidorah's theme from the film has the heart sutra chanting!
What you did is so impressive and valuable! Huge thanks!
Very Intriguing explanation of a sutra at the heart of Mahayana Buddhism. Thanks for sharing this approach ❤
I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed it !
This is really quite remarkable! I studied Buddhism and calligraphy in Japan back in the 1970s. I also had a year of Mandarin before that. I've struggled many times to explain the construction of Chinese characters, and this explanation is the best I've ever seen. It is concise and understandable to someone completely unfamiliar with Chinese. Nicely done. The filming of the brush is also very well done -- up close, steady, not jumping around -- the viewer can see how the brush is used to make the various strokes. I appreciated the beauty of the writing as well.
The last part, attempting to associate photo images with the characters, didn't really work for me. It is a terrific idea, don't get me wrong, but it's a little like Freud's dream interpretation: a train going through a tunnel means something very different to a railroad engineer than to a teenager who witnessed a train derailment. I'm not sure what any of the photos meant (especially the water shooting out of the girl's mouth, what was that?) The concept is really good, but I think photos are too open to interpretation to convey particular meanings. As part of my master's degree in psychology, I did an introspective study comparing my own reading of written Chinese to conversations in American sign language. They are both visual forms of language that can be understood without reference to speaking. Watching someone sign the characters would be really cool, (provided, of course, one could understand sign language!)
amused
Thank you so much for your comment! I am glad you hear that you enjoyed the primer of Han characters and my brushwork :)
I'm happy to hear that the Visual Semiological Analysis portion called to mind Freudian psychoanalysis for you! What a wonderful connection to make. As I've written elsewhere, in another comment, the images in this video are intended as a way to open the text's ultimate meanings to learners via a secondary, non-literal route; the thesis of the latter half, such that it is, would be that intuitive understandings of the connection between Form and Emptiness might be probed through over-analysis of the text until semantic value is rendered vacant
As for the mouth spitting water, that was my visual representation of the phonetic radical 咅 from the character 菩, which radical carries the meaning of "to spit out". All of the images represent the meanings of individual radicals in the same way
Your idea about ASL and Chinese is an interesting one! I'd love to see that project done
Thanks for the effort for explained very hard topic🎉
What an awesome presentation!
Wonderful work! Thank you for your elaboration.
I'm so glad to hear you liked it!
Thank you for this ❤
You are obviously very creative and of refined taste.
The announcer of this video is very intelligent and may actually understand the import of the Heart Sutra.
Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you so much for your kind words ! I am glad you enjoyed it :)
So very cool! I learned so much. And I love watching you write!
Thank you so much! I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed it :)
outstanding!
Acharya Osho says..
_* Whatever salt, whatever sweetness is there in the life of India, it is because of Buddha.. Some taste of sweetness, it is because of Buddha..!*_
*_India is known as "Light of Asia" because of Lord Buddha..!_*
*_Otherwise India would have been absolutely tasteless..!_*
,
_* Salute to India..!
Lord Buddha is a lamp pillar for India..!
Lord Buddha is a lamp pillar..!*_
- Pitamah Patriji
,
Excellent! Thank you for your work and patience. Best explanation I've experienced to date. Keep it up. I'm a fan! Peace.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
thank you--very helpful.
No problem ! I'm glad you found it helpful
Good
Thanks - Eventually I can begin to really understand
Good
Good
@GwensHollow I hope you see this comment. Thank you for the video and analysis. I am from India and I know intermediate Sanskrit. Your video has made me mad about learning Chinese/Buddhist texts. I am impressed by your Sanskrit too. Can you please recommend any books that I can read to learn Chinese from Sanskrit (especially Buddhist texts)? Thanks
thank you so much for your comment! I am so happy to hear you enjoyed the video. This is probably not a perfect answer - but here you can find a PDF which annotates the heart sutra in English. It makes reference to both Sanskrit and Han Characters. It might work as an initial resource for you to get started with before finding others : drive.google.com/file/d/1oK4VYRQIdGeXN607whCoonxVu_9WIbSR/view?usp=sharing
Great video! Since the sutra is Japanese version, I just want to mention that "mother" in Japanese character is 母 (pronounced "haha") and NOT 媽 (Mandarin Chinese). Also, Japanese meaning of characters can be different from the Chinese meaning.💚🙏
Thanks for your question ! I elected to illustrate the concept of Phono-semantic Compounds with Mandarin Chinese because, as I am guessing you are probably aware, the Japanese systems of 音読み and 訓読み obfuscate somewhat the explication of this concept; e.g. 語 and 吾； 指 and 旨；婚 and 昏; etc. I agree that this logic is not explicitly delineated in the original script; however, given that this video is aimed at beginners, I hoped that the elision would be permissible under the unifying term "Han Characters". よろしくお願い致します。
That character 母 in Chinese is also mother (mǔ), it's simply another way of saying 妈.
I guess it's like mom and mother in English, they can he used alternatively.
So, I basically see no difference here.
I'm curious, would this work the same in Tibetan characters?
I'm not sure! I am not an expert in Tibetan script - from what I understand, the script is an alphabet which functions a little like a syllabary; this would necessarily function quite differently from the logographic writing system of Chinese and perhaps not produce quite the same level of semantic layering. However, I might imagine that some semantic layering might still exist !
@@GwensHollow It would be awesome to know, let's hope someone who knows Tibetan reads this and can confirm. I need that info for a book I'm working on... but I don't speak or read Tibetan, so I'm a bit lost. This was so interesting though!
Where can I get a copy in liturgical Japanese I have a Gongyo book in that
This is a link to a PDF copy of the full text of the sutra, plus a full explanation in 現代語: www.nhk-fdn.or.jp/han/pdf/hannyashingyou.pdf
I hope it's helpful!
wow
this is such a cool idea! but i need it at half-speed. 🙏🌬 :) it's cool!! wow.
Glad you like it!
💚⛩
आचार्य ओशो कहते हैं..
*_भारत के जीवन में जो कोई कुछ नमक हैं, जो मिठास हैं, वह बुध्द के कारण.. थोडा कुछ मिठास का स्वाद हैं, वह बुध्द के कारण..!_*
*_भारत को "Light of Asia" के नाम से पेहचान जाता हैं वि भगवान बुध्द कारण..!_*
*_नहीं तो भारत बिलकुल बेस्वाद होता..!_*
===================
_*भारत को सलाम..!
भगवान बुध्द भारत के लिए एक दिप स्तंभ हैं..!
भगवान बुध्द एक दिप स्तंभ हैं..!*_
- पितामहा पत्रीजी
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I want to learn this mantra
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤️❤️
BBBRRRAAAVVVOOO!!!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Very cool lol you always knew how to make me smile bb
This is so funny. Great vid m8!
Lol wut
Hey! how can I get in touch with you one on one?
I had hoped by watching this to undertand what is the meaning of this sutra. It seems to me that people just chant it without really understanding what it is teaching. That submerges profound Buddhist teachings down to the realm of superstition!
I think you raise a really interesting point! It is true that because of the complex linguistic meldings of the sutra, many practitioners do not actually "know" what they are saying - not on the most literal level, at least. One of the things I wanted to suggest in the video, however, is that even if practitioners do not understand the literal words they are saying - I think they still might be able to access deeper meanings of the words and still engage with its ultimate messages of Form and Emptiness.
Unfortunately no amount of analysis will bring you to the threshold (gate) or give substantial electrochemical energy needed to unlock these biophysical links that connect an individual with the experiential fabric of where this Sutra is pointing. For the Heart Sutra is merely a sign post used to reassure the novice monk that the path they are presently moving through is safe, organized and definitive even though it has no boundaries or form, but is tangible when awakening starts to occur....
Wordy.
Very true.. that ?which you talk about is too hard and long and lonely path ..they must have left such sign posts to comfort and give hope to beings like us.. affirmations helps 🙏🙂
Thank you. My own feelings exactly put but I couldn't find the correct words!
Gassho
Well, this explains everything I wanted to know about the word,"woke". Thanks!
ok
You will learn nothing of the meaning of the Heart Sutra watching this video. You will sadly only be guided into mistaking the pointing finger for the moon. The author should be ashamed.
I'm sorry to hear you couldn't see the moon! Most of Shakyamuni's 舎利子 couldn't discern what was meant by the twirling of his flower either. There is no shame in that.
I believe this video is a joke, clickbait. You can even see Marijuana at 7:15
Thanks for your comment, thesecret111 ! I wouldn't deny that the title has elements of "clickbait" (although I do think the video ends up fulfilling the essential claims of its title). As for leaf at 7:15, that image was chosen as a representation of the character component 麻 (meaning "hemp"), which is a radical of the character 摩 - itself a component of the sinitic rendering of महा, 摩訶. Hopefully that helps to clear things up! I can certainly understand your confusion
Poor translation...
this reminded me of fulcanelli's phonetic cabala, thanks for sharing