Philosophy as Adventures of Ideas

Week2

Thus Spoke Kanjizai Bosatsu

Kazuyoshi KAMIYAMA

2017/4/13

CONTENTS

Introduction

Why Hannya Shingyo?

What is Hannya Shingyo?

Hannya Shingyo:English Translation

Remark

Note: Xuanzang

A question

Appendix(般若心経)

References

INTRODUCTION

In this lecture series, we interpret “philosophy”

as its wider sense.

Our “philosophy” includes Eastern thought.

We start this series with a great Buddhist sutra

“Hannya Shingyo.”

WHY HANNYA SHINGYO?

The reasons why we start with Hannnya Shingyo.

1. You (Japanese) are familiar with Hannya Shingyo in Buddhist

memorial services.

2. Recently it is popular among young people because of the rap

music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSdwx9KZOwg(般若

心経ラッフ 現代語訳)

3. It shows the core of the Buddhist philosophy, which is interesting

as a great adventure of ideas.

4. It can be a good introduction to Western philosophy.

WHAT IS “HANNYA SHINGYO” (THE HEART SUTRA) ?

“Hannya Shingyo”(The Heart Sutra) is one of the

Buddhist sutras (経) that preaches the “Ku”

of Mahayana Buddhism thought (大乗仏教）.

The Heart Sutra is chanted regularly by followers of

Buddhism at meetings and meditation practice.

Although the Sutra is very brief it contains key concepts of

Buddhist Philosophy.

These include the skandhas(五蘊(ごうん)とは「五つの塊」。たとえば「私」

は姿形、感覚、暗黙知、望み、認識という五つの塊から成っている）, the four

noble truths（四諦（したい）：苦諦（くたい）ー一切は苦、集諦（じったい）ー苦には

原因がある、滅諦（めったい）ー苦は滅する、道諦（どうたい））ー苦を滅する道がある）,

the cycle of interdependence（相依性縁起）and the central

concept of Mahayana Buddhism, Emptiness(Ku).

般若心経ENGLISH TRANSLATION

ma ka han nya ha ra mi ta sin gyo

The core sutra of perfect wisdom

by which to reach the other shore（彼岸：悟りの境地）

translated by Hideo Leve（リービ 英雄）

Kanjizai Bosatsu（観自在菩薩ーさまざまな顔を持って、つねに八方を観て、衆生（いっさいの生き物）を救う菩薩（修行に努める人））,

who freely perceives all thing,

practicing the perfect wisdom,

cast the light of perception

on the five elements that compose all world

and saw that they are all emptiness,

and thus overcame

all affliction（苦悩） and disasters,

and spoke:

Oh Sharishi（舎利子ー釈迦十大弟子のうち知恵第一の人）,

form is none other than emptiness,

emptiness is none other than form.

(色即是空・空即是色)

Form -it is, in fact,emptiness.

(Everything is nothing.)

Emptiness -it is,in fact,form.

(Nothing is something.)

To sense,

to imagine,

to will,

to conceive-

they too are all like this.

Thus,Sharishi,

all these are,in character,emptiness

They are not mere things

that appear or disappear.

Nor are they things impure or pure.

Nor do they merely increase or decrease.

And so, within that emptiness,

there is no form,

there is no sensing,

no imagining,

no willing,

no conceiving.

There are no eyes,

no ears,

no nose,

no tongue,

no body,

no mind.

There are no sights,

no sounds,

no smells,

no tastes,

no objects felt,

no realms conceived.

There are no worlds,

from "there is no world of eyes"

to "there is no world conceived by mind."

There are no twelve causes（十二縁起） of pain,

from "there is no ignorance,

and there is no extinction of ignorance"

to "there is no decay and death,

and there is no extinction of decay and death."

There are no four truth（四聖諦）-

of pain,

of desire that is the origin of pain,

of the obliteration（消滅） of that desire

of the path to that oblitera.

There is no enlightenment (悟り),

and there is no attaining of enlightenment,

because there is no attaining of enlightenment.

Because one who quests for enlightenment

relies on the Perfect Wisdom,

his heart is free from obstacles,

he has no fear.

Released from all inverted (逆さまの） thought

and dreamlike delusion,

he enters into the ultimate Nirvana（解脱の境地、涅槃）.

All Buddhas（仏陀）,

all awakened beings of past,

present and future,

relying on the Perfect Wisdom,

attain the supremely correct,

universal wisdom,

and thus realize

that the Perfect Wisdom

is the great mantra（真言ー神秘的な威力をもつ呪文）,

the great mantra of enlightenment,

is the peerless（比類のない）mantra,

the mantra beyond compare.

It can relieve all suffering.

It is true,

it is not mistaken.

And so he chants the mantra of Perfect Wisdom.

Thus does he chant:

Gone,gone across,you who have gone across,

across to the other shore,

you who have reached the other shore.

Blessed be wisdom!

(GYATEI GYATEI HARAGYATEI HARASOGYATEI

BOJISOWAKA HANNYA SHINGYO)

REMARK

In Hannya Shingyo we can find lots of similarity with

Western philosophy.

For example, Kanjizai Bosatsu is clearly an “out” der

Welt sein (Heidegger: “in der Welt sein”). According to

him, we have no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no

body, no mind like the “brain in a vat” (Putnam,1981).

Moreover, he points out that everything does not appear

or disappear, which reminds us of the ontology of Greek

philosopher Parmenides.

Kanjizai Bosatsu looks to define the Ku (emptiness) by

negative words such as “there are no eyes,” “no ears,

“ etc., which reminds us of the tradition of Apophatic

theology (or Negative theology否定神学). Apophatic

theology is a theological approach that describes God

by negation, speaking of God only in terms of what He

is not rather than presuming to describe what God is.

NOTE

Although the writer of Hannya Shingyo is not known

for sure, some researchers believe that it was written

by Xuanzang(602～664).

XUANZANG玄奘(602～664)

Buddhist monk and Chinese pilgrim to India who translated the

sacred scriptures of Buddhism from Sanskrit into Chinese and

founded in China the Buddhist Consciousness Only school. His

fame rests mainly on the volume and diversity of his translations

of the Buddhist sutras and on the record of his travels in

Central Asia and India. The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the

Western Regions(大唐西域記) is his travel report. “Journey to the

West, "Monkey King“”(西遊記) is a novel that tells the journey.

(http://global.britannica.com/biography/Xuanzang)

Journey from China to India by Xuanzang

(http://todaibussei.or.jp/asahi_buddhism/12.html）

A QUESTION

How do you think about the assertion of Kanzizai

Bosatu that everything is Ku(empty)? Is it possible to

accept it or not? If it is, how does it possible?

APPENDIX(般若心経)

般若心経

摩訶般若波羅蜜多心経

観自在菩薩行深般若波羅蜜多時照見五

蘊皆空度一切苦厄舎利子色不異空空不

異色色即是空空即是色受想行識亦復如

是舎利子是諸法空相不生不滅不垢不浄

不増不減是故空中無色無受想行識無眼

耳鼻舌身意無色声香味触法無眼界乃至

無意識界無無明亦無無明尽乃至無老死

亦無老死尽無苦集滅道無智亦無得以無

所得故菩提薩埵依般若波羅蜜多故心無

罣礙無罣礙故無有恐怖遠離一切顛倒夢

想究竟涅槃三世諸仏依般若波羅蜜多故

得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提故知般若波羅蜜

多是大神咒是大明咒是無上咒是無等等

咒能除一切苦真実不虚故説般若波羅蜜

多咒即説咒曰

掲諦 掲諦 波羅掲諦 波羅僧掲諦

菩提薩婆訶 般若心経

REFERENCES

リービ英雄 (訳),松原泰道金岡秀友『英語訳般若心経』浄土宗清林寺、2005年

http://www004.upp.so-net.ne.jp/amarume/hanyaen.html

般若心経入門

(www.geocities.jp/tubamedou/Tandoku/Shinngyou1.htm)

般若心経ラッフ現代語訳

（https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSdwx9KZOwg）

苫米地英人：超訳『般若心経』 (PHP文庫)