I have been playing a lot recently with the roots of Jewish Mindfulness Meditation in Insight Meditation (Vipassana) and traditional Buddhist meditation. As a Zen practitioner, I am familiar with the Heart Sutra, a liturgy that is chanted daily throughout the Buddhist world. I began to play around with what a Jewish Heart Sutra would sound like. Take a look below!
The Great Wisdom-Heart Prayer – Tefilat Chochmat-Lev Hanorah
The Great Tzadik practicing deep perfection of wisdom
Perceived the emptiness of all five desires,
And overcame all suffering.
O Chasidim, God is no other than creation,
Creation no other than God.
Creation is precisely God,
God precisely creation.
Sensation, thought, impulse and consciousness are also like this.
O Chasidim, all things are manifestations of Ayin.
Not born, not destroyed, not stained, not pure.
No gain, no loss.
Thus in Ayin there is no Yesh,
In Yesh, there is no Ayin.
No sensation, no thought, no impulse nor consciousness;
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
No color, sound, smell, taste, touch, thing;
No realm of sight, no realm of consciousness;
No ignorance, no ending to ignorance;
No old age and death; no ceasing of old age and death.
No suffering, no cause of suffering, no ending to suffering.
No path, no wisdom and no gain.
No gain – thus Tzadikim live this Wisdom Perfection
With no hindrance of mind –
No hindrance therefore no fear.
Far beyond all delusion, The World to Come is already here.
All past, present and future Tzadikim live this Wisdom Perfection
And attain supreme, perfect Heart-Wisdom.
Therefore know that the perfection of wisdom is the great prayer,
The great bright prayer, the supreme prayer, the unsurpassable prayer
By which all suffering is wiped away.
This is the Truth without deception.
Therefore set forth this great Wisdom-Heart prayer,
Set forth this prayer and proclaim:
This is our life,
The length of our days,
Day and night we meditate upon it.
The Great Wisdom-Heart Prayer!
Tefilat Chochmat Lev Hanorah!
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Adam Fogel
www.mindfuljudaism.com