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Title: Buddhist Wisdom : The Diamond Sutra and The Heart Sutra by Ed Conze, Judith Simmer-Brown, John F. Thornton, Susan Varenne ISBN: 0-375-72600-4 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 24 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The heart sutra in sanskrit and english
Comment: This is a very fine text of the heart sutra which encourages
us to pronounce the sanskrit out loud as a spiritual
practice. I keep wondering though, isn't there more?
Sutras usually take a little longer to read.
Rating: 5
Summary: Heart & Diamond reviewed
Comment: I am familiar with Edward Conze's translations and comments on the Diamond and Heart Sutras primarily through the 1958 edition of this work. First of all, these are scholarly translations and commentaries. The commentaries are logical and precise, as they need to be to get at the heart of the teaching, in particular, of the Heart Sutra. Conze states, correctly, that to understand the Heart Sutra one has to understand something about Abhidharma concepts. The Abhidharma texts represent early schools of thought in India regarding consciousness and read like a Sears catalog of psychological elements put into a moral context and including conditioned and unconditioned dharmas. The Heart Sutra is in part a response to Abhidharma; one which goes beyond it. Abhidharma is considered the "dry bones" of Zen for good reason. Nevertheless, there are equally good reasons why Shunryu Suzuki told his students at San Francisco Zen Center to study with Conze (advice which was followed). The Heart Sutra is such a pure and intense condensation of wisdom that the effort to understand it is repaid tenfold by even small glimpses of its meaning. It is paradoxical that the teaching of "form is emptiness, emptiness is form,"etc., is amenable to a logical approach, yet Conze is very effective at demonstrating that, at least for those of us who have not attained wisdom-that-goes-beyond (prajna), this is precisely the path to take. His analysis of the Sanskrit in the context of Buddhist logic unlocks a very fruitful path for following the meaning of the Heart Sutra. An openminded approach to Conze's translation and commentaries, applied with some determination and perseverance, is well worth the effort, both with the Diamond and the Heart Sutras, though perhaps more so with the latter. What hits us in the face at first as flatly contradictory reveals itself to be something more than we can imagine. Shunryu Suzuki told us that the "No" in the Heart Sutra is far more positive than any "Yes" could ever be. I haven't seen another approach to the Heart Sutra in print that equals Edward Conze's.
Rating: 1
Summary: a review is not a review, therefore it is called a review
Comment: Manual of Zen Buddhism has a better translation of both these Sutras. I am also very
appreciative of the Shambhala translations by Price and Mou-lam that doesn't have the
Heart Sutra but has a translation of the Platform Sutra coupled with the Diamond Sutra.
The problem I have with this translation is that after very much enjoying the
Price/Mou-lam translation I thought it might be worth while to have a translation of the
Heart and Diamond in one volume. I had seen this translation so decided to look into it
and felt immediately uncomfortable by the decision to venerate the Buddha. The Buddha
of course was an average wealthy householder who became enlightened. In other words,
he was a somewhat regular human being. In this translation he is usually translated as "The
Lord." In both the Suzuki and Price/Mou-lam translations he is usually referred to as "The
Buddha" or "The World-Honored One" or the "Tathagata" (thus-come, or thus-gone).
Also, this is the only one of the three translations that has someone else, as a servant,
arrange the Buddha's seat after he returns from begging for his meal. A small point, but it
is very touching to think of the Buddha as being humble. This is just the beginning of my
problems with this translation. For instance, the Diamond Sutra is relatively short, so why
not have the complete Sutra and then have the Sutra with commentary like Sheng-yen
does with the translation of the Sutra of Complete Enlightenment. All in all a terrible job.
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Title: The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika by Nagarjuna, Jay L. Garfield ISBN: 0195093364 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: November, 1995 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin Classics) by Edward Conze, Thomas Wyatt ISBN: 0140440887 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: July, 1959 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Diamond Sutra: The Perfection of Wisdom by Red Pine, Sanskrit ISBN: 1582432562 Publisher: Counterpoint Press Pub. Date: 17 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: The Lotus Sutra by Burton Watson ISBN: 0231081618 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 1993 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya (Teachings of the Buddha) by Bhikkhu Nanamoli, Bhikkhu Bodhi ISBN: 086171072X Publisher: Wisdom Publications Pub. Date: March, 1995 List Price(USD): $65.00 |
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