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**CesseOveldset** · 09-14-2010, 04:07 PM

Regarding the dating of the Heart Sutra (remembering that the Buddha's death was around 483 BCE) :

" Recent scholarship is unable to verify any date earlier than the 7th century CE."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Sutra

As for the deity Avalokiteshvara, do we really need to believe in deities ? Outside of practice devices in Vajrayana, isn't that just superstition? :

"Western scholars have not reached a consensus on the origin of the reverence for Avalokiteśvara. Some have suggested that Avalokiteśvara, along with many other supernatural beings in Buddhism, was a borrowing or absorption by Mahayana Buddhism of one or more Hindu deities, in particular Shiva or Vishnu"

http://religion.wikia.com/wiki/Avalokite%C5%9Bvara

Quite apart from all of that, and the obvious similarites to some of the Pali suttas, it doesn't seem to be addressing the way that the Buddha himself actually taught about emptiness.

Here's the Cula-suññata Sutta: The Lesser Discourse on Emptiness MN 121

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipit....121.than.html

I think maybe some people either get very confused about 'emptiness' and misunderstand what it means ..or else get obsessed with it.

My opinion is that perhaps when we let go and relax a little mentally and begin to fully understand impermanence and not-self, that a far more direct understanding of emptiness will be developed through our meditation practice, as well as through our everyday awareness on a moment-to-moment basis.

However, that's just a personal viewpoint.

09-14-2010, 04:07 PM	#8
CesseOveldset Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 550 Senior Member	Regarding the dating of the Heart Sutra (remembering that the Buddha's death was around 483 BCE) : " Recent scholarship is unable to verify any date earlier than the 7th century CE." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Sutra As for the deity Avalokiteshvara, do we really need to believe in deities ? Outside of practice devices in Vajrayana, isn't that just superstition? : "Western scholars have not reached a consensus on the origin of the reverence for Avalokiteśvara. Some have suggested that Avalokiteśvara, along with many other supernatural beings in Buddhism, was a borrowing or absorption by Mahayana Buddhism of one or more Hindu deities, in particular Shiva or Vishnu" http://religion.wikia.com/wiki/Avalokite%C5%9Bvara Quite apart from all of that, and the obvious similarites to some of the Pali suttas, it doesn't seem to be addressing the way that the Buddha himself actually taught about emptiness. Here's the Cula-suññata Sutta: The Lesser Discourse on Emptiness MN 121 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipit....121.than.html I think maybe some people either get very confused about 'emptiness' and misunderstand what it means ..or else get obsessed with it. My opinion is that perhaps when we let go and relax a little mentally and begin to fully understand impermanence and not-self, that a far more direct understanding of emptiness will be developed through our meditation practice, as well as through our everyday awareness on a moment-to-moment basis. However, that's just a personal viewpoint.
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