Heart Sutra (Sanskrit)

Heart Sutra (Sanskrit) by Imee Ooi

About Avidya - Ignorance

It is because of ignorance, we are experiencing a worldly life of names and forms through this body with this ego and this mind, ignorantly, not knowing the truth of the selfless impermanent limited and conditional existence that is non-self, that doesn't even belong to the body and mind itself. Due to ignorance, we have attachment to this body, this ego, this mind and everything that the mind perceives through the organs of the senses. We attached to what we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste, what we feel and what we think. And we generate lots of likes and dislikes, cravings and aversions which bring us lots of irritations, frustrations, anger, hatred, desires, jealousy, greed, depression, dissatisfaction and disappointment. And thus suffering arise in us.

Due to ignorance, we don’t know what is real and unreal, what is right and wrong, what is should do and shouldn’t do. We take right as wrong and take wrong as right.

Due to ignorance, we do not know that we are so ignorant and think that we are so smart and intelligent. We also think that we know a lot, and being proud and arrogant, thinking that we are better than someone else and we deserve some kind of respect from other living beings.

The cause or source of suffering or unhappiness is non other than ignorance.

The only tool that can remove ignorance, is wisdom.

To attain wisdom, one must go through purification and self-control over the thoughts, actions and speech. One must first endowed with humility and letting go of selfishness, pride and arrogance.

Then one will learn to develop detachment, dispassion and discrimination. And then one must practice concentration, calmness, peacefulness and equality. Then it will follow by meditation and develop insight and self-awareness. And then wisdom will appear to us naturally.

The wisdom is always within us. But due to the veil of ignorance, we are ignorant of it. It is the same with all beings with different names and forms, we all are having the same wisdom – knowledge of the Truth within us.

When wisdom arise, there is no more ignorance. It is like when a dark room is filled with light, the darkness will disappear.

The sun is always there shinning all the time, but due to the spinning rhythm of the earth, we have the experience of night and day.

The moon is always round but due to the shadow of the earth projects onto it, it seems not round some of the times.

Movement itself is not slow or fast, but when the mind start to have comparison, the conception of this is slow and that is fast is being produced.

Appearance itself has no quality of beautiful or ugliness, but when the mind is being conditioned by the conception of an image being evaluate as beautiful and which is different from that image is ugliness, then the mind will perceive this image as beautiful and that image as ugliness.

If the mind just being aware of all the differences but not generating likes and dislikes, positives and negatives, and cravings and aversions, then there shall be no attachments, no problems and no suffering. But the mind doesn’t act this way, not until we have reconditioned the habits and characteristics of the mind.

And so, Yoga and all its practices are here to help us to have the ability to control over the mind – which leads to the control of the actions and speech, and ultimately lead us to purification of the mind and to return to the state of unconditioned, purity, and attribute-less.

May we all attain wisdom through Yoga practice and be free from ignorance.