诸法空相 (不生不滅)The Dharma of Dharmas: The Phenomenon/Object of the Nameless
This is the center piece of the Heart Sutra, the shortest of all Sutras and may be believed to have originated during the time when Boddhidharma, the founder of the Zen-School at the Shaolin Temple in Henan, came to China from India during the first half of the 7th century.
The Chinese characters allow for multiple interpretations, however, the meaning is evident when read in the context of Buddhist esoteric philosophy.
The first character, zhu, may be read as “all” or, if broken down etymologically (yan zhe), as “what is said to be” or even “Logos”.
The second character is fa, the law, i.e. in a Buddhist context, the Dharma.
Thus zhu fa means “all law”, “what is called law” or “the Law of the Logos”, the Law of laws.
The other two characters are kong and xiang: Kong in a Buddhist/Sanskrit/Daoist context means “Sunyata”, commonly rendered as “Emptiness”, but it is not a negative emptiness but that of the space of the vast sky/heaven embracing and enabling all what is. It can not be rendered by a worldly name and therefore is referred to as The Nameless, The Unborn, The Dao etc….
Xiang is what comes out of this ‘space’, what is it’s object as well as ‘proof of existence’ though unborn – so I attempt to render it as Phenomenon(s).
The following four characters in brackets are the other half of the Sutra’s center couplet: bu sheng bu mian: without birth nor death. Thus: The Dharma of Dharmas, the Phenomenon of the Nameless, without Birth nor Death. As for a true grasping of what is rendered here the Heart Sutra continuous to then end with a “Spell”, that is a Mantra capable to encapsulate that what is nameless and unborn Dharma…..
t.a., basilea