As I have said, The Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya is within the Buddha’s meditation. Avalokiteshvara and Shariputra are the major personal figures, and it looks like Avalokiteshvara is talking to Shariputra, but actually it is Buddha who meditated and as his words this sutra appears.
The bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara, is most familiar to you. It can be seen as the personality or nature of a person, a representative characteristic of each person. It is the basic nature of a living thing, both man and woman, wisdom and compassion, because when compassion and wisdom take form they appear as one being. Avalokiteshvara’s nature is wisdom and his form is compassion. He is made of wisdom, but how he exists in the world, his action as seen by people, is as a compassionate figure. Everyone has the nature of Avalokiteshvara, and it appears by action, by expression and by form. Without action, without form, it doesn’t exist. When a young boy becomes a grown man and has his own boy, that is the birth of a father, and his fatherhood is in the nature of Avalokiteshvara. It is the same for a mother. So in each stage of life there is advance of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. Avalokiteshvara can appear in many forms - the voice of a bird, or beach sounds. A piece of bread, that is Avalokiteshvara, too. Maybe we can understand this name as a question, “What is this?” and not understand it as just one particular figure.
Shariputra is a representative figure of wisdom in Buddhism, and this sutra is a great effort to go beyond the Hinayanistic way of practice to a more universal, higher, mystic way of practice. When you get into this sutra, theoretical expressions which existed from Shakyamuni Buddha to the end of the Hinayanistic material, are well-studied and well-ordered in this sutra. It is not just theorizing, but a dynamic expression, with new understanding which is new and also old. If the historical Buddha appeared, he would say, “This is what I spoke.” Many Hinayanistic Buddhist scholars say. “This is radical; we don’t say it this way.” And some of them say, “This is very nice.”
Satva means “man” or “existence.” Bodhi means “awakened,” or “to awake.” So “bodhisattva” usually means “awakened being,” or “wise man.”
We do not know what this Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is, except that we know it is not different from us, but we also do not know who we are, so we ask, “Who am I?” But if we put the emphasis on “knowing,” since thinking and knowing are just two of the many functions of our being, “knowing” is already limited. It is just one understanding of how we are. To feel it with your whole body is very important, because feeling comes first, before you begin to know. “I do not know” is the expression of a living, feeling thing where something is going on, keeping a great opening. It is not a negative expression, because something is going on.
Thinking is not for yourself, but for others, to let them exist for you, let you exist for them. Thinking always needs a symbol, like language, which is nothing but a way of communicating with other existences and your own ideas. You have to exist, in order to let all of your surroundings know where you are! So thinking is a very fine function of discrimination, the same as arranging furniture in a room. But when we chant “When practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita…” we are talking about “wisdom.” It is intuitive and instantaneous, not logical, rather a quick inspiration of an understanding of things. This is deep, profound understanding. In Sanskrit it is jin jin gambhirayam prajnaparamitayam. Gambhiraya refers to deep, broad, penetrating knowledge. Jin jin means “awareness.” Gambhiraya has a very misty, not just clear, awareness, which goes very far. The moon is not misty when you see it clearly, but when a cloud comes, it becomes very misty. That is this feeling of gambhiraya. In many senses, it is a sense of confusion, a sense of suffering, and yet, a clear understanding of the confusion and suffering. This is not just an explanation of existence, it is direct reality, which is somehow perfect, containing the many, many things which are the contents of life. These are the very contents of practice. Gambhiraya expresses awareness of our being among all. It’s like all beings are your mirror, so whatever you confront is a mirror of you, and you see one thousand million forms of yourself at the same time, reflecting you in that misty way. You reflect all of them within you, not the same as you, but as different beings. This is expressed in gambhiraya. To “deeply practice” prajna paramita is to feel this reality of one existence and all existences.
What is expressed in this sutra is a very daily thing, but not an ordinary thing. “Maha Prajna Paramita” is “great, complete wisdom.” Maha means “no exception, complete.” Right inside your skin this prajna fully exists. So the first thing is, we have to prepare to feel this sutra, not use our brain to understand it. I think our study of this sutra will be one expression of what we are experiencing in everyday life. The more we see the nature of everyday life, these words will be understood.
We have the five skandhas explained in this sutra: Form, feeling or sensation, perception, impulses, consciousness. They are elements of human existence, explained differently from present-day psychology. At the very beginning of the sutra are these words: “All five skandhas are empty.” Later the five senses are listed: “eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body,” plus “mind,” which is the aggregate of the senses. These five skandas are the vehicle of enlightenment. Or they can be expressed as mind and body. “Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness…” is a more detailed explanation of “All five skandas are empty.”