Heart Sutra Day 2 – Inherently, all beings share the same life, the same mind, the same body

This light of one mind reveals the truth of all realms
seen and unseen:

Inherently,
all beings share the same life,
the same mind,
the same body.
They work together as one,
freely giving and receiving whatever is needed,
ceaselessly manifesting and changing.
But because they don’t know this,
they walk the path of suffering.

모든 중생들은 본래부터
공생·공심·공용·공체·공식 하며
고정됨이 없이 나투고 화하여 돌아가건만
그것을 몰라서 일체 고苦의 길을 걷나니라.

As you can see, these sections are much longer than those of The Thousand Hands Sutra! I think most of the sections will be shorter going forward, but because there was so much tied up in this one idea, it just wasn’t possible, or ideal, to split it up.

That out of the way, this is probably on of my favorite verses of all time! “All beings are inherently sharing the same life, the same body, the same mind, working together as one, and freely giving and receiving whatever is needed, ceaselessly manifesting and changing. But because they don’t know this, they walk the path of suffering.”

Just wow. Right here. It’s all right here. How we are living, how we should live, and why we suffer. (mostly, there’s more detail about suffering, but this covers the basics.) The “why” behind all the Precepts. Why we should view things positively, and why we shouldn’t engage in negative views of people and events. It all flows from this truth. If you want to grow, if you want to live a happy life, if you want to be reborn in a good place, memorize this and reflect on its implications! (Okay, I’m getting a bit beyond my own spiritual ability in promising all those things, but I suspect I’m not wrong, lol!)

2 thoughts on “Heart Sutra Day 2 – Inherently, all beings share the same life, the same mind, the same body”

  1. I have a question. Keeping this verse in mind, how it can be connected, not sure what’s the right word, how it can made egual = to when something is kept out, like harmful beings and energies, it was mentioned in a book, and also KunSunim said when she met someone evil… So how to not have negative views if someone is obviously doing something negative. There is an awareness of things, right? And how can one have “happy life” with that when there is so many difficult and unhappy things all around, including oneself’s difficulties and not having those happy things, lol. Grateful for many things – yes, but happy, i don’t know,

    1. I’m not quite sure what your question is, but here goes!
      You’re living in the same pond as everyone else, good people, bad people, whomever. So when it seems like someone is behaving badly, if it’s someone in your life you’re very close to, you can respond one way and try to help them as best you’re able. For example, if your child is behaving badly, you still love them even though you’d like to see a different behavior.
      It’s the same why with people you don’t know: Entrust the hope they they are well and happy, and get a taste of this nondual foundation. If people are happy and satisfied, even if still ignorant, they won’t do too much wrong (compared to hungry, desperate people, which also warps people’s consciousness.) If they experience this nondual foundation, they’ll really behave well towards others.
      But, trying to make people behave like I think they should is a mistake. I can’t, for one thing, and that’s often just a reflection of my own fixed views. One person behaving badly (so it seems to me) may be someone who’s made incredible improvements since their last life.
      But we all live in this same pond, breathing the same air and water, so we want to make positive, generous, warm-hearted contributions of our thoughts and interpretations of other’s behavior. For that will (usually) allow them to move forward without getting caught up in resentments, and will also help us in uncountable ways.

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