A Heart Sutra Journey | Part Nineteen
"THEREFORE KNOW, PRAJNA PARAMITA IS THE GREAT MANTRA, THE VIVID MANTRA, THE BEST MANTRA, THE UNSURPASSABLE MANTRA."
Prajnaparamita is beyond knowledge - this monolithic transcendent wisdom cannot be fathomed by the intellect. Therefore, we are presented with a mantra. A mantra is a sacred grouping of words or syllables believed by practitioners to have spiritual powers. This is beyond the normal purview of the rational, but then nothing up until now in this sutra has been accessible by reason.
The mantra is described as vivid - coming from the Sanskrit vidya, root for magician. Also best, from the Sanskrit anuttara, alternately unexcelled. So a magical, unexcelled, and unsurpassable (equal to the unequaled) mantra. Now we are in a totally different realm - a realm of faith.
This gives one pause - as it is not easy for us as Westerners to abandon our attachment to reason. But Avalokitesvara has been leading us here by the hand the whole time. In trying to penetrate the great truth of emptiness with the skandhas, we are ill-equipped. How then can transcendent wisdom be comprehended?
"Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, doing deep Prajna Paramita, ..."
See the full text of the Heart Sutra at: https://oneriverzen.org/heart-sutra
