{"id":522,"date":"2009-04-01T16:15:37","date_gmt":"2009-04-01T16:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/04\/the-heart-sutra.html"},"modified":"2009-04-01T16:15:37","modified_gmt":"2009-04-01T16:15:37","slug":"the-heart-sutra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/04\/the-heart-sutra.html","title":{"rendered":"The Heart Sutra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not sure what to say this week, the only thing really on my mind besides writing a cookbook is that my good friend died on Thursday. She was 35 and had been battling cancer for a bit and was supposed to get better but she didn’t. Her death was shocking and sudden. I saw her last Saturday, sat on her stoop in Brooklyn with her Mom and boyfriend, talking about her plans to move to Seattle. Five days later I got the call that she was gone.
\nHer memorial was on Sunday at Barcade in Brooklyn, a bar owned by her ex-husband and her good friends. I was planning to say some words, and sat at 88 Orchard coffee shop downstairs Sunday morning listening to The Chills by Peter Bjorn and John over and over, looking over photos and thousands of emails; we’d been inseparable work buddies for nearly four years and at least fifty of her emails end with “anyways, suck it”. But nothing seemed to make sense for me to say – either too personal, or not personal enough, or too funny, or not funny enough — or too Buddhist; I kept reading the Heart Sutra over and over, which I had first been introduced to by Brad Warner in his book Hardcore Zen in 2003, a period that marked the beginning of my relationship with Anne.
\nAnne was damn funny, wicked, cool, sexy and crazy. Anne was a girl, a tough lady, a troublemaker, a huge heart, and equally good at doing whiskey shots as yoga asanas. She was gorgeous and fashionable. She had Uggs way before they were stupid. On our many hours in a car together, traipsing over the tri-state area in a rented Prius for work, our conversation careened from talking about boys, to office drama, to religion and philosophy, to what was Paris Hilton wearing in US Weekly. I finished my coffee and decided that nothing I could say could express my loss or my gratitude at having known her.
\n
\nI walked outside and picked up the 3 quarts of pickles I’d ordered for her memorial from The Pickle Guys on Essex. One of the pickle guys (who I’d told why I was getting the pickles) said he was sorry. I walked off to the Doughnut Plant on Grand Street to pick up the six dozen doughnuts we’d ordered – Anne’s favorites, and we had to have them there. On my way out, waiting for Trey to pick me up and head to Barcade, someone told me to have fun at my doughnut party. I smiled and thought, yeah, I guess this memorial is<\/strong> a doughnut party.
\nListen to: THE CHILLS by Peter Bjorn and John<\/a>
\nThe Heart Sutra <\/strong>
\nAvalokitesvara Bodhisattva,
\nwhen deeply practicing prajna-paramita,
\nclearly saw that the five skandas are all empty,
\nand was saved from all suffering and distress.
\nSariputra,
\nform is no different to emptiness,
\nemptiness no different to form.
\nThat which is form is emptiness,
\nthat which is emptiness, form.
\nSensations, perceptions, impressions, and consciousness
\nare also like this.
\nSariputra,
\nall things and phenomena are marked by emptiness;
\nthey are neither appearing nor disappearing,
\nneither impure nor pure,
\nneither increasing nor decreasing.
\nTherefore, in emptiness,
\nno forms, no sensations, perceptions, impressions, or consciousness;
\nno eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind;
\nno sights, sounds, odors, tastes, objects of touch, objects of mind;
\nno realm of sight up to no realm of consciousness;
\nno ignorance and no end of ignorance,
\nup to no aging and death,
\nand no end of aging and death
\nno suffering, accumulation, cessation, or path;
\nno wisdom and no attainment.
\nWith nothing to attain,
\nbodhisattvas
\nrely on prajna-paramita,
\nand their minds are without hindrance.
\nThey are without hindrance,
\nand thus without fear.
\nFar apart from all confused dreams,
\nthey dwell in nirvana.
\nAll buddhas of the past, present and future
\nrely on prajna-paramita,
\nand attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
\nTherefore, know that prajna-paramita
\nis the great transcendent mantra,
\nthe great bright mantra,
\nthe supreme mantra,
\nthe unequalled balanced mantra,
\nthat can eliminate all suffering,
\nand is real, not false.
\nSo proclaim the prajna-paramita mantra,
\nproclaim the mantra that says:
\ngate, gate,
\nparagate,
\nparasamgate,
\nbodhi, svaha!
\nThe Heart Sutra of Prajna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not sure what to say this week, the only thing really on my mind besides writing a cookbook is that my good friend died on Thursday. She was 35 and had been battling cancer for a bit and was supposed to get better but she didn’t. Her death was shocking and sudden. I saw her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Heart Sutra - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/04\/the-heart-sutra.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Heart Sutra - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not sure what to say this week, the only thing really on my mind besides writing a cookbook is that my good friend died on Thursday. 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