Shingyo: Reflections on Translating the Heart Sutra

by M.J. Sullivan

Book by Sullivan (Seiho), M. J.

118 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 2013

About the author

Before a dramatic mid-life course correction while in Japan, young Michael Justin Sullivan had been a sailing captain, delivering yachts from the Northeast to Fort Lauderdale, the Bahamas and beyond into the Caribbean. These were the last days of canvas sail, teak decks and navigating by sextant, a time in the ‘50s and ‘60s when Ft. Lauderdale was still a sleepy Florida city and there were but a few paved roads on the Out Islands.

This is the era captured by Three-Strand Cordage, a novel of one man’s life in three interwoven tales. Against the tranquil background of this vanished era, he finds himself caught up in kidnapping and a murderous shootout, deceived and betrayed in a gun-smuggling plot by anti-Castro Cubans, and fleeing from drug smugglers with his daughter, only to sail into Hurricane Agnes.
In his mid-30s, M.J. Sullivan became a champion Japanese swordsman. As Seiho his calligraphy has twice won the Kampō Prize, as well as the prestigious Nippon Shuji Prize.

His novel, In This Living Body, is twinned with his Shingyō: Reflections on Translating the Heart Sutra, both now available on Amazon.

With a Masters in Asian Studies, three of his calligraphy workbooks have been published in Japan. His classic book on Japanese swordsmanship, Sword and Psyche, led to WAZA, his first novel about Japanese Buddhism and the martial arts, which received the CoVisions Recognition Award for Literature in 1994.

Now primarily a literary author, he still teaches the Zen of swordsmanship and custom brushes calligraphy for clients and collectors from his studio in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was not familiar with the Heart Sutra before reading this little book. If I were to describe the book it would be as a set of notes and reflections on the Heart Sutra by an expert on the written characters that comprise the text. He unlocks for the reader the different shades of meaning of important passages and characters, and in doing so, takes the reader on a nonlinear journey along strands of meaning present in the text. I found myself starting to read the author's notes and then stopping abruptly to consider and reflect and enjoy. I'm sure it was intended as this, but for me, this turned out to be my favorite way to read this book. It also has given me a desire to learn more about the Heart Sutra.