Author Description

<p>The <i>Heart Sutra</i> is perhaps the most famous Buddhist text, traditionally regarded as a potent expression of emptiness and of the Buddha's perfect wisdom. This brief, seemingly simple work was the subject of more commentaries in Asia than any other sutra. In <i>Elaborations on Emptiness</i>, Donald Lopez explores for the first time the elaborate philosophical and ritual uses of the <i>Heart Sutra</i> in India, Tibet, and the West.</p> <br> <p>Included here are full translations of the eight extant Indian commentaries. Interspersed with the translations are six essays that examine the unusual roles the <i>Heart Sutra</i> has played: it has been used as a mantra, an exorcism text, a tantric meditation guide, and as the material for comparative philosophy. Taken together, the translations and essays that form <i>Elaborations on Emptiness</i> demonstrate why commentary is as central to modern scholarship on Buddhism as it was for ancient Buddhists. Lopez reveals unexpected points of instability and contradiction in the <i>Heart Sutra</i>, which, in the end, turns out to be the most malleable of texts, where the logic of commentary serves as a tool of both tradition and transgression.</p>