The Uselessness of the Heart Sutra

If we read and study the Heart Sutra we might wonder, what the heck does this have to do with the realities of my day-to-day life? I would observe that the Heart Sutra has nothing whatsoever to do with the material realities of day-to-day life. That is one of its great values.  As the sociologist Robert Bellah said (and I paraphrase a bit) no one can stand to live in everyday working life for very long; we need to take regular breaks from that reality.

"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form, form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form, whatever is form is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is form."  If engagement with form (ie, matter, the material world) is everyday life, we need to contemplate emptiness to take a wholesome break from everyday life.  Form and emptiness are not fundamentally different, they are simply different perspectives on the same phenomenon. I think we need both perspectives to stay sane, and that is the point of the Sutra.  Most of us are conceptually mired in our relationship to form, to the material world. I, for one, need to take several breaks from materialism every day.

To take my little vacation from material reality I recall that the Sutra continues through all the five material senses until it gets to the mental sense. Then it repeats, "Consciousness is emptiness, emptiness is consciousness, consciousness is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from consciousness, whatever is consciousness is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is consciousness." Contemplating this is the most satisfying exit.

The Taoists point out that the value in a cup is found in the empty space which we can fill with water (or, in the morning, tea for me). The value of the Heart Sutra is precisely its material uselessness.