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Heart Sūtra root in Pali Canon?

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2 answers
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It's hard not to think of the Heart Sūtra when reading the Kassaka Sutta (Saŋyutta Nikāya 4:19), part of which runs as below (Thanissaro Bhikkhu's translation , emphasis added). Is there any scholarship or commentary on a connection between these two texts, one from the Pali Canon and the other a major Mahayana scripture? Googling -- kassaka heart sutra -- turns up two references -- here and here -- but I'd say those are more contemporary popular literature than scholarship or traditional commentary. > Then Mara the Evil One, taking on the form of a farmer with a large > plowshare over his shoulder, carrying a long goad stick — his hair > disheveled, his clothes made of coarse hemp, his feet splattered with > mud — went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, said, "Hey, > contemplative. Have you seen my oxen?" > > "And what are your oxen, Evil One?" > > "Mine alone is the eye, contemplative. Mine are forms, mine is the > sphere of consciousness and contact at the eye. Where can you go to > escape me? Mine alone is the ear... the nose... the tongue... the > body... Mine alone is the intellect, contemplative. Mine are ideas, > mine is the sphere of consciousness and contact at the intellect. > Where can you go to escape me?" > > "Yours alone is the eye, Evil One. Yours are forms, yours is the > sphere of consciousness of contact at the eye. **Where no eye exists, no > forms exist, no sphere of consciousness and contact at the eye exists: > there, Evil One, you cannot go.** Yours alone is the ear... the nose... > the tongue... the body... Yours alone is the intellect, Evil One. > Yours are ideas, yours is the sphere of consciousness and contact at > the intellect. **Where no intellect exists, no ideas exist, no sphere of > consciousness of contact at the intellect exists: there, Evil One, you > cannot go.**" **Here** is a lovely chanting of the relevant section of the Heart Sūtra by Allen Ginsburg, in his own translation.
Asked by David Lewis (1187 rep)
Nov 6, 2015, 04:12 AM
Last activity: Nov 13, 2015, 02:26 PM