Mike Reads the Heart Sutra

Mike gives some historical context about the Heart Sutra.

Notes on The Heart Sutra

Historical Context - Up To The Fourth Council

This is our first episode in our series on Mahayana Sutras, starting with the Heart Sutra.

I’ll start by giving some historical context, starting with the traditional, orthodox suttas of the Pali Canon.

During the lifetime of Shakyamuni Buddha, His teachings were preserved through chanting, instead of being written down. The integrity of the oral tradition was kept by having multiple groups of monks chanting the same teachings, and counting the number of syllables, cross checking to make sure they were still chanting identical recitations with the same number of syllables. Thus the teachings were primarily organized by length, as in shorter discourses, middle length discourses, and longer discourses, according to the number of syllables.

Some discourses were also grouped by connected themes or numbered lists, but they were not connected in a way that made a compelling narrative story. This often makes it difficult for beginners in Buddhism to know where or how to start their study of the scriptures. I hope that by providing some context I can avoid adding to that confusion or making it any worse.

After Shakyamuni Buddha made his final passage into Nirvana, His disciples gathered to compare notes, discuss rules for the Sangha, and so on. These gatherings were called Buddhist Councils, and they happened around 400 BC, 300 BC, and 200 BC. Around 100 BC, there was a fourth council, called the Theravada Council, which is where the canonical teachings in the Pali language, or Pali Canon, began to be written down. The oral tradition of chanting didn’t go away, and is still practiced today, but thanks to the Theravada Council in Sri Lanka towards Southern India, the chanting is complemented by a vast written library of discourses.

About 200 years later, around the first century of the common era, there was another group of Buddhists, the Sarvastivadan, who also held a council and called it the fourth council. The Sarvastivadan Fourth Council is part of the tradition that gave rise to Mahayana in Northern India.

In studying Buddhism, you might hear references to the Northern Tradition and Southern Tradition, especially when it comes to scripture. That’s a reference to this pair of Fourth Councils, and the influence they had on the direction of Buddhist authors and teachers in the centuries that followed.

The Emergence of Mahayana

Now, I’ll highlight some of the differences between the traditional Theravada and the emerging Mahayana. Much of this will be an oversimplification for the sake of time.

Language is one simple difference. When you see a term in Pali, such as Dhamma, Kamma, Nibanna, those are used in the context of Theravada and the suttas of the Pali Canon. When you see Sanskrit terms, such as Dharma, Karma, Nirvana, those are used in the context of the sutras of the Mahayana.

The Theravada focuses on Shakyamuni Buddha, and considers any past life of Shakyamuni to have been a Bodhisattva. The Mahayana gives more attention to numerous Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, including others besides just Shakyamuni.

The Theravada taught the three marks of existence: impermanence, suffering, and nonself. The Mahayana emphasized the importance of understanding emptiness as a way of understanding the three marks.

One last difference I’ll mention is that the Theravada have a more strict definition of what counts as canonical scripture. The Theravada canon of scripture follows what I described above, seeking to preserve the words of The Buddha accurately. The Mahayana were more open to including teachings written here and there throughout the centuries, thus the realm of Mahayana scripture can be even more vast and overwhelming than the Pali Canon.

For all of these reasons, it’s important to understand some context about the sutra being studied, so that the meaning isn’t simply lost.

The Ab