New Heart Sutra translation

[Josan]

Dear all,

You might have come across this already http://plumvillage.org/news/thich-nh...a-translation/

It is a new translation of the Heart Sutra by Thich nhat Hanh,

Gassho to Myozan Kodo for the link,



David

[Jundo]

I posted this comment on another thread today about this. TNH's page explains ...

The problem begins with the line: ‘Listen Shariputra, because in emptiness, there is no form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness’ (in Sanskrit: TasmācŚāriputraśūnyatayāmnarūpamnavedanānasamjñāna samskārānavijñānam). How funny! It was previously stated that emptiness is form, and form is emptiness, but now you say the opposite: there is only emptiness, there is no body. This line of the sutra can lead to many damaging misunderstandings. It removes all phenomena from the category ‘being’ and places them into the category of ‘non-being’ (no form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations or consciousness…). Yet the true nature of all phenomena is the nature of no being nor non-being, no birth and no death. The view of ‘being’ is one extreme view and the view of ‘non-being’ is another extreme view. It is because of this unskillfulness that the novice monk’s nose is still sore.

Hmmm. I don't believe he is adding what is not already contained in the more common translations, so I wonder if it is really necessary. He sees a problem with the more common language that may not be there to most folks who already understand that this is not some simple "do not exist".

Also, he is adding words that, I believe, he feels should be there rather than what Chinese and Sanskrit versions say (I did that in a way in our Treeleaf Version, when I took some words in Sanskrit and explained the meaning in somewhat more ordinary English: "A/vo/lo/ki/tes/va/ra/ Bo/dhi/satt/va/, A/wa/kened/ One/ of/ Com/pas/sion" and "In Praj/na/ Pa/ra/mi/ta/, the/Deep/ Prac/tice/ of/ Per/fect/ Wis/dom"). That is fine, but I am not sure TNH is solving any problem.

Further, some of his other word choices are very personal to him, and perhaps not sufficient. To translate "form" as "this body" and to say ...

“That is why in Emptiness,
Body, Feelings, Perceptions,
Mental Formations and Consciousness
are not separate self entities.

... does not sufficiently convey the wondrous sweep of Emptiness.

I wonder what other folks are going to say about this Translation. I would say "Nice Try But No Cigar" (And Neither No Not-Cigar!)

Heart Sutra put into one word: No! (Mu!).

Overuse of MU! is also a cop out. There is a real Teaching (actually, a bunch) in the Heart Sutra that is MU but also so much more. MU is not even just "MU", but is all of reality!

That is why, if a fellow comes to you and asks how to make cherry pie, it is not sufficient to just shout "MU!". One should better hand him the Betty Crocker Cookbook. However, one might also tell him that the crust and cherries, the oven and baker, the plate and fork and luscious taste are also all MU! Emptiness is Pie Filling, Tummy Filling Precisely Empty! :

Actually, this seems to be one of the problems that TNH feels is sees in the Heart Sutra, that in his opinion it is saying in one part "this in emptiness, there is no cherry pie". However, that is not really what is said in the existing translations at all, which point to something much more subtle than just a mere "is and is not cherry pie" nor even a "no cherry pie nor not-cherry pie" (although that may be about as close as one can say in words).

Maybe he [TNH] is too hung up on the words in this case.

Gassho, J