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The Heart Sutra is perhaps the most famous Buddhist text, traditionally regarded as a potent expression of emptiness and of the Buddha's perfect wisdom. This brief, seemingly simple work was the subject of more commentaries in Asia than any other sutra. In Elaborations on Emptiness, Donald Lopez explores for the first time the elaborate philosophical and ritual uses of the Heart Sutra in India, Tibet, and the West.
Included here are full translations of the eight extant Indian commentaries. Interspersed with the translations are six essays that examine the unusual roles the Heart Sutra has played: it has been used as a mantra, an exorcism text, a tantric meditation guide, and as the material for comparative philosophy. Taken together, the translations and essays that form Elaborations on Emptiness demonstrate why commentary is as central to modern scholarship on Buddhism as it was for ancient Buddhists. Lopez reveals unexpected points of instability and contradiction in the Heart Sutra, which, in the end, turns out to be the most malleable of texts, where the logic of commentary serves as a tool of both tradition and transgression.
List of contents
Technical Note and Acknowledgments 1Who Heard the Heart Sutra? 2The Commentaries of Vimalamitra and Atisa 3The Heart Sutra as Tantra 4The Commentaries of Kamalasila and Srisimha 5The Heart Sutra as Sadhana 6The Commentaries of Jnanamitra and Prasastrasena 7The Heart Sutra's Mantra 8The Commentaries of Mahajana and Vajrapani 9The Heart Sutra as Exorcism 10Commentators Ancient and Postmodern Index
About the author
Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Summary
"The Heart Sutra" is perhaps the most famous Buddhist text, traditionally regarded as a potent expression of emptiness and of the Buddha's perfect wisdom. This work explores the elaborate philosophical and ritual uses of the "Heart Sutra" in India, Tibet, and the West. It also includes full translations of the eight extant Indian commentaries.
Additional text
"[This] is a superb achievement: It is by far the best and most complete treatment of the Heart Sutra in any Western language."
