An Arrow to the Heart: Second Edition

The Heart Sutra is the most widely known and widely recited scripture in Mahayana Buddhism. This exciting trail-blazing non-traditional commentary takes the reader right into the emptiness of all experience through a delightfully irreverent combination of wit irony prose and poetry. In the words of Stephen Batchelor author of Buddhism Without Beliefs Written in a voice that is neither pious nor academic hectoring nor detached An Arrow to the Heart is a fine example of the new wave in contemporary Buddhist writing. In its quietly relentless way this pithy and unorthodox commentary to the Heart Sutra leaves you with nowhere to stand but right here. This second edition contains a new introduction by Peter Clothier an internationally-known writer who specializes in writing about art and artists McLeods precise yet lucid translation of the Heart Sutra and a line-by-line commentary on this enigmatic scripture. Each commentary starts with a short poem that raises questions or presents a series of images. The poem is followed by a short prose section that questions the text more deeply. A few interspersed notes provide information about the images allusions and references in the poetry and prose sections. The result is a kind of dance-a dance with words ideas images quotations and stories. Not infrequently the reader falls into a complete and unexpected stillness to dwell on a revealing line or a quotation before being swept off again into a new direction. In this way McLeod realizes his aim-to elicit the experience of the sutra in the reader rather than explain its meaning.In the words of one reader of the first edition What I love most about it is that its not even a book really - more the literary equivalent of yellowcake uranium meant to blow the mind open to ultimate reality. This is book as verb not noun - book as instigator of awareness.