Emptiness and the Heart Sutra

“Form is only emptiness, emptiness only form”

The Heart Sutra is one of the most well-known and loved of all Buddhist texts. Inevitably, there are innumerable takes on what it ‘means’. Early western commentators treated it as philosophy or even poetry. But what if it actually points us towards our own immediate experience as the way to “sunder the bonds that cause us suffering”?

Whatever could practising this involve?

First, there are questions that need to be addressed. What is ‘emptiness’? What does it mean to say that our psycho-physical constituents – the skandhas – are ‘empty’? And how can it be that ‘in emptiness’ there are no skandhas, no senses, even no conditioned arising?

Going deeper, we’ll open to our direct experience of the body, senses and skandhas. We’ll explore whether an intrinsic, substantial, separate ‘me’ can be found in “form, feeling, thought, choice and consciousness.” Does this “me” have any basis in experience? Or is experience ‘empty’ of such an entity?

In this way, we’ll begin to discover how the emptiness teaching of the Heart Sutra can compassionately awaken us to our deepest nature, Prajñāpāramitā, from which we are never truly apart.

The retreat program

Each day, there will be two main input and practice sessions led by Tejananda. These will include opportunities for making observations on your practice and asking questions. There will also be plenty of time for ‘open practice’, where you can use the shrine room, do walking meditation or whatever else feels appropriate. Ten-minute practice reviews will be offered to everyone. From Saturday evening to Thursday after lunch we’ll observe complete silence, excepting reviews and discussion in the input sessions.

Each day will end with some devotional activity – chanting, recitation or puja – and then open practice. We’ll also be chanting (not saying!) the Heart Sutra, several times per day.

Summary:

The Heart Sutra invites us to explore “emptiness” – not as philosophy, but through direct experience. We’ll engage with experiential inquiries into form, feeling, thought, choice, and consciousness as empty of a separate, intrinsic “self”. As the empty nature of self becomes clear, we may open to a compassionate awakeness, from which we have never been separate.

Read more about Tejananda here: www.tejananda.net

RETREAT CATEGORY: TRIRATNA INTENSIVE

To attend this retreat you will need to have been regularly meditating for at least two years and regularly attend retreats, a centre or a group within the context of the Triratna Buddhist Community. You must also be comfortable with extended periods of sitting meditation, Buddhist devotional practice and spending most of the retreat in silence.

Please read our booking and cancellation policies and FAQs before booking.