The Four Great Vows (四弘誓願)

The teachings are infinite; we vow to learn them all.
法門無量誓願學
法門 Pinyin: fǎ-mén. Meaning (literal): Dharma gate. Composition: 法 + 門 (“Dharma” + “gate”)
無量 Pinyin: wú-liàng. Meaning: immeasurable. Composition: 無量 (“no” + “measure”)
學 Pinyin: xué. Meaning: learn

五 蘊 皆 空 (five skandhas all empty)

In this post I’ll do the last four characters of the third line of the Heart Sutra. But perhaps before going any further I should point out that there is no standardization (at least none that I am aware of and/or comply with) for numbering the “lines” of the Heart Sutra. So these “lines” of […]

菩薩: Chinese for “Bodhisattva”

The Chinese name of Avalokiteshvara, as we saw in the previous post, is 觀自在. But the Chinese title of Avalokiteshvara is the next two words on the second line of the Heart Sutra: 菩薩. Here is the whole second line, with these two characters in red: 觀  自  在  菩  薩  行   深   般  若 […]

The Six Distortions (from the Analects)

From the Analects, 17.6: 好仁不好學、其蔽也愚。 好知不好學、其蔽也蕩。 好信不好學、其蔽也賊。 好直不好學、其蔽也絞。 好勇不好學、其蔽也亂。 好剛不好學、其蔽也狂。 Confucius once asked Zhòng Yóu (仲由) if he had heard of  “the six words and the six distortions”. Yóu said he had not. The Master then explained as follows: The “six words” (六言) are: 仁 (kindness), 知 (wisdom), 信 (reliability), 直 (honesty), 勇 (courage), and […]

心經: How to write “Heart Sutra” in Chinese characters

The last two characters in the first line of the Heart Sutra are 心經: 摩      訶      般      若      波      羅      蜜      多      心      經ma     ha     ban    ya      ba      ra      mil     ta    shim   gyong The first of these characters is 心 (xīn), is the Chinese character for “mind” and also for “heart”. The character 心 is actually used to translate two different Sanskrit words in […]