Get Your Hands On Zen Words For The Heart: Hakuins Commentary On The Heart Sutra Put Together By Norman Waddell Accessible Via Brochure

this up at a secondhand store and simply could not stop reading, without knowing where it would lead me, So glad I kept going! And now it's one I can revisit anytime,

I still remember reading the final page, that exact moment, what I saw, what I heard and where I was, A kind of stillness and fullness of time yet fleeting, gone forever, I wanted to hang to it but the day took a turn and it never came back, Perfect lesson, I guess.

The contents are made of wonderful, tough stuff, Bits of it are like poetry and science melded together "threethousand worlds inside a foamfleck on the sea", It stirs my curiosity and I marvel at each page, both the history inside the teachings and the teachings themselves, Yet at the same time I realise that the whole point of the book is not the words on the pages but the way I allow them to interact with my own being and to go beyond words.


A flash of insight occurred when focusing on "No one gets dirty living in the world of men, Not a clean face in all the Buddhas' pure lands".
Like literally seeing a horizon appear from the page between the lines, It was marvelous, wonderful!

The ending words are so tender, All through the book Hakuin practically throws rocks at you and then at the end he turns out to be so completely human and understanding.


I don't think I can come up with a book I know that is like this one, Timeless. 'No ignorance, no end of ignorance, and so on to no old age and death, and no ending of old age and death no pain, karma, extinction, Way no wisdom, no attaining.
' The Heart Sutra is one of the most profound teachings in Buddhist literature, Short and simplistic

yet it is suppose to contain all that one requires for one to reach enlightenment and end one's suffering in the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
Simplistic in its text but extremely difficult to master, This book is a commentary by a Zen master, Hakuin, that lived in theth century, Much of his comments, were meant to shake or shatter the assumptions his students and provide a path to true realization, His comments are sometimes difficult to comprehend but the notes by the author help to understand the master's words sometimes in the context of history, myths, and other stories.
This book requires continuous rereading in order to truly understand its meanings, A great book on the Heart Sutra, As much as you can 'read' a text like this once, Will return to it many times I expect, This is an excellent translation prepared by the gifted and prolific translator Norman Waddell, Hakuin was a Zen master who was extremely sarcastic and irreverent although motivated by compassion, The book includes Hakuin's commentary and the text of the Heart Sutra, This tiny book “Zen Words for the Heart” includes a translation of the Heart Sutra with commentary by theth Century Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku in a Zen idiom, e.
g. Hakuins commentary on the line “Form is no other than Emptiness, Emptiness is no other than Form” in the Heart Sutra:

“A nice hot kettle on a stew.
He ruins it by dropping the couple of "Form and Emptiness" in, Its no good pushing delicacies at a man with a full belly, Striking waves to look for water when waves are water”,

Recommended for readers interested in Hakuins commentary on the Heart Sutra,
Insightful and entertaining. Hakuin Zenjiwas one of the most important of all Japanese Zen masters, His commentary on the Heart Sutra is a Zen classic that reflects his dynamic teaching style, with its balance of scathing wit and poetic illumination of the text.
Hakuin's sarcasm, irony, and invective are ultimately guided by a compassion that seeks to dislodge students' false assumptions and free them to realize the profound meaning of the Heart Sutra for themselves.
The text is illustrated with Hakuin's own calligraphy and brush drawings, .