A Heart Sutra Journey | Part Twenty

IT COMPLETELY CLEARS ALL PAIN - THIS IS THE TRUTH, NOT A LIE.

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, the embodiment of compassion, continues to confront suffering with the Heart Sutra.

The word here translated clear is prashamana. It can be alternately translated as tranquilizing, healing, curing, or pacifying. From the perspective of emptiness, there is no suffering, no source of suffering, and no one to suffer. Recognizing this from the plane of intellectual understanding may bring some tranquility, and meeting this from the practice of emptiness could bring some healing or curing. But from the place of mantra, the place we are being called to practice with the Heart Sutra, we open to some truly magical possibilities. We spoke about power of mantra on Day 19.

As if to answer the logically ensuing doubts, Avalokitesvara is emphatic: this is the truth, not a lie.

See the full text of the Heart Sutra at: https://oneriverzen.org/heart-sutra