*** 첫머리에 숨겨진 비밀… ‘관자재보살’ 다섯 글자에 이미 수행의 전부가 담겨 있다 ***The secret hidden at the beginning of the Heart sutra. The five letters of "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva" 觀自在菩薩 already contain the entirety of the Buddhist practice.
The Heart Sutra is the single most recited Buddhist sutra in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. It is most popular because of its brevity but depiction of all core principles of Buddhism so concisely. Xuanzang translated it into Chinese with only 260 letters. And he translated Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva as 觀自在菩薩.
In addition to the most popular known belief and depiction of 觀自在菩薩 as Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva who sees and hears of all sufferings and thus renders all compassion and helps to those in need and in trouble, these five letters compose a hidden message of four distinctive meanings and words. The first three words, 觀自在, show how a Buddhist must practice and live to become a liberated being, Bodhisattva, 菩薩.
觀 means "see," "watch," or "observe keenly." 回光返照—Because one can't see oneself with one's own eyes, one can only see one's true self, the invisible "I" by 回光返照, letting the MIND illuminate oneself invisibly.
自 means self, true self, 本來面目 (Original Face), the original "I", the invisible "MIND" that was never born, never changes, and will never die—depicted in the Heart Sutra as 不生不滅 不垢不淨 不增不減.
在 means now, this moment, today; not yesterday, the past, tomorrow, or the future.
So if a Buddhist practices the mindfulness of every moment of their life, they become aware all sufferings and phenomena are results of workings of the five aggregates, and thus false "I", becomes a Bodhisattva, 菩薩, by adhering to a life of the Noble Eightfold Path..
Therefore, 觀自在, the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, is literally the daily Buddhist practice tool that completely satisfies one element of the Noble Eightfold Path, the Right Mindfulness (정념, 正念).
It is so amazing to find out that all Buddha teachings are based on self-help.
So when one becomes happy, sad, angry, or in any other ego-driven mental state, one must see what they are—the impermanent and interdependent working nature of the five aggregates, the false "I"—that is going through such a mental state. By understanding such feelings and phenomena as what they really are, by being mindful of what one's mental state is in any moment, one can truly overcome the suffering of any impermanent making of a false "I."
Here, the false "I" is composed of the five aggregates, 五蘊.
In the Heart Sutra, it is said that the five aggregates are inherently empty, impermanent, and false, 照見五蘊皆空.
‘照見五蘊皆空(조견오온개공)’은 반야심경의 핵심 구절로, 오온(색·수·상·행·식)이 ‘실체가 없고 공(空)’임을 직관하면 고통의 대상이 사라져 해탈에 이른다는 뜻입니다.
‘Looking at the five aggregates and seeing that they are all empty’ is a key phrase in the Heart Sutra. It means that if you directly see that the five aggregates (form, feeling/sensation, perception, mental formation, and consciousness) are ‘without substance and empty,’ the object of suffering disappears and you reach liberation.
*The Five Aggregates (Skandhas, 오온, 五蘊) in Buddhism are the five temporary, ever-changing components that constitute a person's mental and physical existence: Form (matter), Sensation (feeling), Perception (recognition), Mental Formations (volition), and Consciousness (awareness), explaining that a permanent "self" isn't found, but rather a collection of these interdependent processes, leading to understanding impermanence and no-self (anatta).
* 본래면목(本來面目)은 불교, 특히 선종(禪宗)에서 ‘참된 자아’, 즉 번뇌 이전의 청정한 본성을 가리키며, 모든 중생이 본래부터 지니고 있는 불성(佛性)을 깨닫는 것을 의미합니다.
In Buddhism, especially in Zen Buddhism, the original face (本來面目) refers to the "true self," that is, the pure nature before afflictions, and means realizing the Buddha nature that all living beings inherently possess.
* 回光返照(회광반조)는 ‘빛이 되돌아와 자신을 비춘다’는 뜻으로, 본래는 자기 내면의 본성을 성찰하거나 본래의 밝음을 되찾는 수행법을 의미합니다
回光返照 (returning light) means ‘light returning to illuminate itself’, and originally refers to a practice method to reflect on one’s inner nature or regain one’s original brightness, 本來面目.
붓다가 말씀한 ‘무생법인’, 그 ‘무생’은 어떤 경지인가? 현장 스님의 번역에 그 답이 있다
