Let go of discriminations
between this world
and the next,
hurry and become free.
이승 저승 없는 마음 어서어서 벗어나세.
This is one of the more surprising lines in Daehaeng Kun Sunim’s translation of the Heart Sutra. Literally, it is “With the mind that has no discriminations between the world of the living and the world of the dead, hurry and become free.”
I honestly can’t say I have a firm grasp on why this was included. Was it more for Koreans who tend to think more about the dead? Maybeee, but I’d be hesitant to say Kun Sunim included something because it was unique to a particular culture. Looking at the text again, it includes “this realm” and “that realm”, which would also include time, I think, because we tend to think of the dead as existing in the past.
Maybe this just simply means that all beings, living and dead, visible and invisible, past and present, exist at this moment(?) we call Buddha-nature or true-nature or mind. Know this state, and from there, make yourself free. Maybe that’s what’s being said.
Wake Up and Laugh! 