Roshi used his Taisho this week to start our exploration of the Prajna Paramita Sutra.  A copy of the sutra can be found HERE.

 

Before diving into the actual text, it is important to get some foundational knowledge about how such a sutra actually works.  We normally read texts in order to gather data and facts.  For instance, we may read the newspaper to learn about world events or we may read a technical journal to learn the newest techniques in our chosen field.  However, we do not read this sutra in order to gain data about Buddhism.  The Prajna Paramita Sutra will not instruct you about how to meditate or how to have an awakening.    

 

Roshi noted that the sutra is full of repetitions and very ornate and extravagant language.  However, we are told that this text is foundational to Mahayana Buddhism.  If our tradition is all about the simplicity of “chopping wood and carrying water” why would we study such a baroque text?  Roshi invited us to think of the sutra not as a factual document filled with data, but rather as a piece of improvised Jazz.  Roshi also likened the text to how the Indian Sitar is played.  Generally, in both cases, the musician starts with a lot of repetition of formulistic playing.  This continues until the musician “feels” something and improvises from there.  This is how the sutra works as well.  We read the text until we feel something.  The purpose is not the data in the words, but the mental state we are put in while reading.

 

Roshi stopped here and asked us to consider why the sutra would be written this way.  Well, the core of Prajna Paramita is “emptiness.”  How do you convey this in words?  The challenge is so deep!  What does the word emptiness even mean.  How would someone even explain it using words, concepts, and descriptions.  At this point, we should immediately understand why this is the PERFECT sutra for Zen.  There is no way emptiness can be explained with words, concepts, and data.  The sutra is simply trying to put us into a mental state where we can rediscover this underlying universal truth.  We are invited not just to use our brain with this sutra, but our whole body, and our whole karma.  One does not read the Prajna Paramita, one experiences it.

 

Roshi next noted that many people consider Buddhism to be nihilistic because they misinterpret the word “emptiness.”  If we look at the wider universe, we could say that it is pretty much empty.  Think about it, generally speaking there is only one particle in each cubic centimeter of interstellar space.  That is pretty “empty!”  Also, even solid matter like a human is pretty “empty.”  Each of your atoms are 99.99% empty space!  So, existence is also pretty much empty.  Does this mean that the universe is devoid of meaning?  Roshi asked us to consider the expansiveness of emptiness and not to get tripped up in our western conceptualization of this word.  

 

Roshi wrapped up by asking us to consider the foundation of our life and to give serious consideration to those things which make you upset.  If everything is empty (literally and metaphorically) then we must ask if it is real.  If we can realize that these things are not real, then they will stop having the power to upset us.  Roshi suggested doing this each morning.  What better way to start the day then to realize that all of our problems are not real and that life is already perfect!