The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Comprised of only 632 Chinese characters, the Heart Sutra is Buddhism in a nutshell. Despite its brevity, this powerful work covers more of the Buddha’s teachings than any other scripture, and its influence is more profound and wide-reaching than any other text in Buddhism. Thich Nhat Hanh’s translation and commentary is regarded as the most simple, clear, concise, and understandable available. He describes the sutra as “a precious gift to us, the gift of fearlessness," offering subtle and profound teachings on non-duality and the letting go of all preconceived notions, opinions, and attachments, thereby becoming open to all the wonders of our life. This completely revised edition celebrates the 20th anniversary of the first publication of a modern classic.

Genres: Buddhism, Philosophy, Religion, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Zen, Audiobook

60 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 31, 1987

About the author

Thích Nhất Hạnh was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist who then lived in southwest France where he was in exile for many years. Born Nguyễn Xuân Bảo, Thích Nhất Hạnh joined a Zen (Vietnamese: Thiền) monastery at the age of 16, and studied Buddhism as a novitiate. Upon his ordination as a monk in 1949, he assumed the Dharma name Thích Nhất Hạnh. Thích is an honorary family name used by all Vietnamese monks and nuns, meaning that they are part of the Shakya (Shakyamuni Buddha) clan. He was often considered the most influential living figure in the lineage of Lâm Tế (Vietnamese Rinzai) Thiền, and perhaps also in Zen Buddhism as a whole.

Reviews

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite book of last summer. it's short so read it three times in a week. it will help you realize that you are a tree!

[Blaine Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one but Thay could make the Abhidharma technicalities and mind-bending paradoxes of emptiness of the Heart Sutra read like simple breathing while looking at clouds. The highest wisdom, prajnaparamita, in Thay's hands shows you its immediacy and practicality for everyday living. After reading and reviewing six different books on the Heart Sutra, his was the one I chose to teach from.

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!

September 2018 Update
Don't miss Thay's new version of this book, now titled The Other Shore: A New Translation of the Heart Sutra with Commentaries. In it Thay provides his new translation and explains why it is needed and how the standard translation (and its variations) has often been the source of misinterpretations and misunderstandings of the central teaching of emptiness.

[Marko Bojkovský · Rating 5 out of 5]

Možda i najlakše, najlepše, najjednostavnije objašnjenje budističkih ideja praznine i promene i povezanosti svega i sve to na malom broju stranica.

"Praznina je temelj svega, zahvaljujući praznini sve je moguće" - Nagarjuna.
i dalje:
"Praznina je prolaznost, ona je promena. Ne bi trebali da se žalimo na prolaznost, jer bez nje ništa ne bi bilo moguće" - Thich Nhat Hahn.
i dalje:
"Tata nemoj da se žališ na prolaznost! Pa bez nje ne bih mogla da porastem!" - neka devojčica.

[Hannah Garden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Y0u can't really three-star a sweet little treatise 0n h0w t0 be m0re kind and m0re aware 0f the hearts 0f pe0ple ar0und y0u, s0 this gets f0ur stars, because Thich Nhat Hanh, I like y0u m0re in the0ry than in practice, y0u 0l' dry-t0ngued devil.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my gosh. Profound. Everything contains everything else. When you really take the time to absorb the meaning of this book, it's quite life changing.

[Phuong Vy Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What/ who you think you really know?"

Over the past one year, whenever encounter anyone who sounds wise and open, I always ask s/he that question. I wonder whether we ever truly know anything/ anyone in this world, since everything & everyone change every single second. And if we hardly know anyone/anything, why we even bother trying to get-to-know or to learn because mastery of something or truly knowing someone are all illusions. (This question arose from some personal experiences during my 24)

Throughout that time, I got different answers:
- One talked about the Known, The Unknown, The Unknow-able
- Some claim the only one person they know are themselves and the only thing they really know is what they want to do
- Some said we know nothing
- Some said they know their bff, their mother, their children.
- Some just didn't answer

And, I stopped questioning since I thought it was enough and it might go nowhere. Getting other's answer doesn't really help me clarify my own.

But Thay made it so simple & so clear. “Views, knowledge, and even wisdom are solid, and can block the way of understanding.” "Understanding flows"

If I keep trying to know things, I will never know them truly, as they change constantly, and I will feel frustrated. But if I try to understand something, it means that Im aware of the context where it is, be one with it to look deeply into its nature, but never assume that it would remain unchanged.

Reading this small book was a really liberating experience for me :)

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The heart of Buddhism (with Zen leanings) is encapsulated in this slim and poetic volume, but this book is for everyone. If you don't know Buddha from butter, it won't matter. It's probably the best introduction to the fundamental concepts of dependent origination and emptiness I have come across, without the didacticism or defensiveness that often accompanies more scholarly "explanations." It's simple, the way it's supposed to be. The way it is!

[Irene Jurna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Na ruim een jaar mediteren heb ik de hartsutra zo'n 50 keer gereciteerd zonder de tekst te begrijpen. ''Vorm is leegte, leegte is vorm'', vormt de kern van de sutra. Wat betekent dat?

Thich Nhat Hanh legt dat in dit boek duidelijk en beknopt uit. Wat overigens niet wil zeggen dat je de hartsutra daarna helemaal doorgrond, of - zoals ze in het boeddhisme zeggen - helemaal doorziet. Dat zit zo: de hartsutra is niet bedoeld om enkel rationeel te begrijpen. Het is bedoeld als bevrijdingslied: ''The Prajñaparamita [Heart Sutra] gives us solid ground for making peace with ourselves, for transcending the fear of birth and death, the duality of this and that.''

Een hele belofte! Maar na 50 keer reciteren, vind ik het rationeel (beter) snappen van de tekst al heel fijn.

Dankjewel hiervoor: Thich Nhat Hanh en Willem, die een uitleg deelde in tekst: https://zentrum.nl/2020/04/29/wijzen-... en audio: https://soundcloud.com/user-795627678...

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

“To be is to inter-be. You cannot just be by yourself alone, you have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is, because everything else is.”

“In the light of Buddhist meditation, love is impossible without understanding. You cannot love someone if you do not understand them. If you do not understand what you love, it is not love— it is something else.”

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, simple, and deeply insightful commentary on the core sutra of mahayana Buddhism. The Heart Sutra is the heart of the prajna paramita literature, the great deepening of the Buddha's original teaching. This work demystifies the concept of "emptiness" by substituting the idea that we "inter-are." no one if us, no concept, nothing exists independent of the rest of us. You could read this book in an hour, and keep returning to it for a lifetime.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first of Thich Nhat Hanh's many books, read last weekend just a few days before his death. I thought it might be challenging material but in fact was very understandable, and enjoyable.

[mia moraru · Rating 5 out of 5]

simply incredible. quietly profound, changing.

[Lon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thich Nhat Hanh's gift as a poet illuminates what might otherwise be impenetrable and abstruse. Emptiness, the central insight of the sutra, is a key to freeing us from concepts that get us stuck in life, such as the notion of impermanence or the notion of an independent and enduring self.

This edition has been supplanted in the Plum Village community by The Other Shore, which treats the same subject matter but uses Hanh's 2014 translation of the Heart Sutra, retitled The Insight that Leads Us to the Other Shore. There's much to commend the new rephrased sutra and I appreciate the desire to use language less likely to be misapprehended, but I have misgivings about calling it a new translation. Where Hanh believes the sutra's lines could lead to misunderstanding, he takes the liberty of changing them. This pre-2014 rendering remains more faithful to the text of the Heart Sutra as it has come to us across the centuries and is known and chanted throughout much of the Mahayana Buddhist world.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tentatively three-starred since I am, at the moment, unable to agree with the author's writings. Or perhaps it is more of a matter of understanding.

I can see how a piece of paper encompass the sun, trees, a speck of dust. So can I see the farmer's toil, his time, her sweat, a bull's labour, the sun's energy, the rain, in every grain of rice I eat.

But I am unable to see me myself in others, others in me. Though this much I know: that I am defined by everything else in the universe - my siblings, friends, colleagues, family - as is the universe by me.

Maybe that is what the author meant.

P.S.: I have a nagging thought that the author may have read Derrida's writings. Or that Derrida had a Buddhist influence. I'll be damned if inter-be is not differance.

[Trina · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's possible to read this slim book in one hour, but not to assimilate it. Tich Nhat Hanh does his best to simplify the heart sutra for western readers. Maybe oversimplify is a better word. Some of his insights into Buddhist teaching are marvelous and clear; others are maddening. 'This is, because that is' does little to explain, e.g., how wealth consists of poverty and vice versa except in the grand sense of everything being part of everything else. Still, there are many lessons worth learning from the zen masters if we stay open and enter deeply into the things we want to understand.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always read books like these and wish I could be more spiritual than I am. Or maybe not even more spiritual, but more able to harness these messages in my daily life. I love the ideas of Buddhism, but I'm pretty solidly enmeshed in my passions. :) In any case, it's good to keep reading and thinking and trying. This little book has a lot about emptiness and interbeing--how everything contains everything else within it and nothing could exist without everything else. I like it.

[Levi Pierpont · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short and thoughtful commentary on a sacred text that definitely needs commentary to be understood in any capacity as a modern reader with limited knowledge of Buddhist philosophy. Worth reading, as Thích Nhat Hanh's explanation and analogies are as poignant as ever in this little book.

*I listened to this book.*

[Robbie Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

While not a flawless book, this rendition and discussion of the Heart Sutra is an accessible entry-point for some of Buddhism's key philosophies. For those who find those philosophies resonant, this work is also replenishing and profound.

[Weathervane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Key Buddhist text. Lovely.

[Sienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely short meditation on indivisibility.

[Jayank · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that I find myself incapable of reviewing because of how incredibly profound and perspective-rich it is. I gave this a read on one of my twitter friends’ recommendations and also because I didn’t know much about Buddhist philosophy.

If I were made to summarise it in one line it would be “nothing is a part of the universe, everything is the universe”

Like I mentioned, I am not capable enough to critique this incredible piece of writing but this has the power of shifting your entire understanding and outlook of the world.

I will put some quotes from the book here because I would definitely want to reread this again.

Understanding is like water flowing in a stream. Wisdom and knowledge are solid and can block our understanding. In Buddhism knowledge is regarded as an obstacle for understanding. If we take something to be the truth, we may cling to it so much that even if the truth comes and knocks at our door, we won't want to let it in. We have to be able to transcend our previous knowledge the way we climb up a ladder. If we are on the fifth rung and think that we are very high, there is no hope for us to step up to the sixth. We must learn to transcend our own views. Understanding, like water, can flow, can penetrate. Views, knowledge, and even wisdomare solid, and can block the way of understanding.

There is an Indian story about a grain of salt that wanted to know just how salty the ocean is, so it jumped in and became one with the water of the ocean.
In this way, the grain of salt gained perfect understanding.

When you have a grain of corn, and you entrust it to the soil, you hope that it will become a tall corn plant.
If there is no impermanence, the grain of corn will remain a grain of corn forever, and you will never have an ear of corn to eat. Impermanence is crucial to the life of everything.

Look at your hand and ask yourself, "Since when has my hand been around?" If I look deeply into my hand I can see it has been around for a long time, more than 300,000 years. I see many generations of ancestors in there, not just in the past, but in the present moment, still alive. I am only the continuation. I have never died once. If I had died even once, how could my hand still be here?

"To say you don't know is the beginning of knowing."

I asked the leaf whether it was scared because it was autumn and the other leaves were falling. The leaf told me, "No. During the whole spring and summer I was very alive. I worked hard and helped nourish the tree, and much of me is in the tree. Please do not say that I am just this form, because the form of leaf is only a tiny part of me. I am the whole tree. I know that I am already inside the tree, and when I go back to the soil, I will continue to nourish the tree. That's why I do not worry. As I leave this branch and float to the ground, I will wave to the tree and tell her, 'I will see you again very soon."

A wave on the ocean has a beginning and an end, a birth and a death. But Avalokitesvara tells us that the wave is empty. The wave is full of water, but it is empty of a separate self. A wave is a form which has been made possible thanks to the existence of wind and water. If a wave only sees its form, with its beginning and end, it will be afraid of birth and death. But if the wave sees that it is water, identifies itself with the water, then it will be emancipated from birth and death. Each wave is born and is going to die, but the water is free from birth and death.

I recommend anybody that is going through a tough time in their lives to give this a read, this is beyond words on paper.

[Baylor Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can't really understand Judaism without the Ten Commandments or Christianity without the Lord's Prayer (both make it into any complete catechism) and my impression is you can't really understand Buddhism without the Heart Sutra. But to Western eyes its utterly mystifying with all its Sanskrit words and foreign concepts, so a guide from the inside is needed to open it up. Enter Thich That Hanh. His brief and elegant commentary expands the sutra and with it much of Buddhist thought. At every step through the sutra he gently invites the reader to question their assumptions:

"In Buddhism, knowledge is seen as an obstacle for understanding. If we take something to be the truth, we may cling to it so much that if the Truth comes and knocks at our door we won’t want to let it in. We have to be able to transcend our previous knowledge in the same way we climb up a ladder. If we are on the 5th rung and think that we are very high, there’s no hope for us to step up to the sixth. We must learn to transcend our own views. Understanding, like water, can flow and penetrate. Views, knowledge, and even wisdom are solid and can block the way of understanding."

Similar to a certain proverb of Solomon, Hanh follows that passage with the Chinese proverb: "To say 'I don't know' is the beginning of knowing." 25 years into my life I'm finally finding the courage to utter those words truthfully and I take this challenge from Hanh seriously: to come out from under a restrictive box, to not stand constantly at the intellectual defensive, and to pick up the "key of open-mindedness and willingness" as the AA Big Book would say. On the 5th rung of the ladder I once stood paralyzed in fear of abandoning all I hold dear, but stepping up one more rung isn't abandonment, its seeing from a greater height, able to see more angles, further depth, and with more nuance.

One idea Hanh introduced from another angle was reincarnation. From a rational, Western perspective this is child's silliness and laughable, if not outright heresy. But Hanh encourages the reader to depart from philosophy and really consider "how long have you existed?" Before you were born in the womb? Before you were conceived in some part of your parents? In your grandparents? Looking at your hand you can see much of who you are came from those before you and even now the water in your body is borrowed from elsewhere. If we are formed from dust and return to dust, then do you not go on living after you die in another? Life and death, Hanh says, are but ideas (mental formations which are part of the five Skandas - aggregates - that make up a person) and we get preoccupied with forms, fearing this form of us will die and we will no longer be human, yet taking for granted that we will continue on in a new form! Even from the standpoint of Christian doctrine on the Resurrection this isn't untrue: these bodies will not stay the same but "we will all be changed" and take on a new form. These were expansive thoughts for me and I think they can be beneficially meditated on without devolving into relativism or pantheism.

If you are looking to understand this sutra or any Buddhist thought, I heartily recommend.

[Ekta M · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra is the essence of Buddhist teaching. It is chanted or recited daily in monastic and lay communities throughout the world.

Book: The Heart Of Understanding: Transform Suffering Into Peace, Joy and Liberation.
Author- @thichnhathanh
Genre- Non-Fiction
Published in 2024 by @alephbookco
1st Published in 1988 by Parallax Press
Pages 65


Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) was one of the best-known Zen Buddhist teachers in the world. He had offered several talks on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra during his retreat and lectures. This book is a compilation of several of those talks.
During the retreats, Thay encouraged particpants to give attention to each daily activity in order to encourage Mindfulness.

In this book, he focuses on teaching Mindfulness and Compassion and how these can enable a calm and clear approach to daily life.

He guides us as to how compassion can be cultivated and how can we allow the true heart of understanding to arise within us through which one can connect with themselves deeper and also with the world.
Thay's teachings are not only for inner peace but also for global harmony.

This book is not a read but its a feeling. If you get lost in it you can feel a different feeling in you. Something inside you will shift and suddenly you will want to be a better person.

To enrich our understanding and aid us in our exploration, Thay has given beautiful examples. I like how the ancient wisdom is bridged with modern day challenges to give a person clarity in this complicated world.

In simple words this book will teach you how to be a better person not only for yourself for the world as a whole. It will help you to discover your inner peace, nourish your soul and be kind.

This book is a perfect example of 'books that are short but have a deep meaning'.

If you are someone who likes to read on Spirituality, Personal Growth and stuff like that then you can definitely pick up this book.
Also note that the book although short is time consuming. You need to have a proper mindset to consume it. Its not just your another read.

[Mark Robison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've started Thich Nhat Hanh's short interpretation of the Heart Sutra a few times, but it wasn't until I tried Edoardo Ballerini's audio version that it lit up for me.

It starts with the Vietnamese monk's frequent telling of how a poet can see everything — the sun, the rain, the lumberjack, yourself — in a sheet of paper. Then it takes a dive into emptiness and how there's really no birth and death. And then suddenly you find yourself in the shoes of a child in Manila forced into prostitution. This is some deep stuff.

One main point is that you are truly one with everything — and until you grasp this deeply, you won't be able to do meaningful work toward peace.

Excerpt:

Perfect Understanding is prajñaparamita in Sanskrit. The word “wisdom” is usually used to translate prajña, but I think that wisdom is somehow not able to convey the meaning. Understanding is like water flowing in a stream. Wisdom and knowledge are solid and can block our understanding. In Buddhism, knowledge is regarded as an obstacle for understanding. If we take something to be the truth, we may cling to it so much that even if the truth comes and knocks at our door, we won’t want to let it in. We have to be able to transcend our previous knowledge in the same way we climb up a ladder. If we are on the fifth rung and think that we are very high, there is no hope for us to step up to the sixth.We must learn to transcend our own views. Understanding, like water, can flow, can penetrate. Views, knowledge, and even wisdom are solid, and can block the way of understanding.

Now I need to try Thich Nhat Hanh's second attempt called "The Other Shore: A New Translation of the Heart Sutra with Commentaries.

[Goan B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ja, eens per paar maanden kom ik toch altijd weer terecht bij een boek dat over het boeddhisme gaat - ofwel door een fixe korting in boekwinkels, ofwel omdat ik het van mensen in mijn handen gedrukt krijg, ofwel omdat het me zelf toch ook wel een beetje grijpt. Zo ook deze keer, met dit boekje van Nhat Hanh, waar hij het 'gedicht' van de hartsoetra haarfijn en met passie uitlegt. Nu heb ik hier enkele dingen over te zeggen
(1) Sowieso vind ik het superchill om een gedicht te lezen met meteen de interpretatie erbij. Zo weet je zeker dat je de boodschap min of meer door hebt. Dit is ook weer een training voor toekomstige gedichten.
(2) Boeddhisme snijdt echt wel houd en het is zeker een interessante praktische filosofie. Echter moet je enkele premises wel aannemen om het écht in je op te nemen
(3) Korte boekjes wekken de impressie dat ik echt keiveel heb gelezen, waardoor ik op 31 december weer kan leven met de gedachte dat ik wél iets uit 2021 gehaald heb

Nou, bij deze. Om het nog even met een pretentieuze noot te eindigen: Mijn boeken van 2021 volgen een beetje een Hegeliaanse dialectiek, waar het Christendom in the Antichrist kan worden gezien als de these, het boeddhisme in dit boekje kan worden gezien als de antithese, waardoor de tensie tussen die twee boeken het derde boek, Meditations van my boy Aurelius, als synthese vormt. Toch fijn dat ik nog iets haal uit mijn studie filosofie, want een baan ga ik er niet mee vinden. Ach, pretentieus zijn op Goodreads > Geld.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book is generally very well received and praised for its clarity and depth, my experience was a bit more mixed. I appreciated the author’s ability to weave spiritual insight with everyday life, making abstract ideas like emptiness and interbeing easier to grasp. However, I felt that some sections lacked the depth I was hoping for, especially for a text with such philosophical richness. At times, the commentary felt repetitive, and I found myself wanting a bit more rigor or exploration beyond the surface-level interpretations.

That said, it’s hard to deny the book’s strengths. The meditative tone of the writing invites contemplation, making it a resource for those seeking to engage with the text on a personal or practical level.

If you’re looking for a simple and approachable commentary on the Heart Sutra, this might be worth a read.

[Belikin Ilya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version on Audible and it turned out to be the original lecture recording. You may hear the analog buzz going trough the whole thing, somehow adding to authenticity. You hear the Thich Nhat Hanh voice using clumsy English and the sound of the bell as well as the noises of the audience. You get a sense of presence in a room with many different people who come there to hear about the interbeing. The paper, the forest, the cloud, the rain drops, the leave. So many teachers in one short lecture. It is beautiful, it encouraged me to open up and listen to see into and seek deeper understanding.

[Marisha Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We are not separate. We are inextricably interrelated. The rose is the garbage, and the non-prostitute is the prostitute. The rich man is the very poor woman, and the Buddhist is the non-Buddhist. The non-Buddhist cannot help but be a Buddhist, because we inter-are. The emancipation of the young prostitute will come as she sees into the nature of interbeing. She will know that she is bearing the fruit of the whole world. And if we look into ourselves and see her, we bear her pain, and the pain of the whole world." ❤️❤️❤️

[Floor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ik denk dat ik met zekerheid durf te zeggen dat dit het mooiste boekje is dat ik ooit gelezen heb. Ik voelde het zo diep binnenkomen in de kern van mijn wezen, het raakte delen van mezelf die ik nog nooit op zo'n manier onder woorden heb kunnen brengen. De boodschap van de kracht van het inter-zijn, het loslaten van de vrees voor de dood of geboorte, het idee van geen-dualiteit, is zo'n intense bevrijding en verlichting. Ik voel me zo dankbaar!!!

[Jennifer Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way Ticht Nacht Han talks about death and impermanence has provided me with more peace during this period of immense, heart-wrenching grief than the idea of a Christian heaven has. Pondering why this is so. I just love his writing. It makes my heart feel settled.