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Title: An Arrow to the Heart: A Commentary on the Heart Sutra
ISBN: 1425133770
Author:
Ken McLeod
Publicate Date: 2007-10-16
Publish: 2007-10-16
List Price: $19.95
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $14.35
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $14.58
Amazon Merchant Price: $17.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Straight to the Heart
McLeod's interpretation and commentary is the best I've ever read. He makes the strange familiar and gives the familiar a refreshing twist. If you've tried before to reach into the Heart Sutra (and perhaps other traditional texts) and found yourself blocked, I strongly suggest you give McLeod's approach a try. He's invented a better can opener, and once you use it, you'll have access to a wonderful world of insight. Read it in a sitting, or take it with you and refer to it over time. Either way, you will benefit.
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2: Fresh Look at the Heart Sutra
Ken McLeod's innovative Zen like approach to one of the most significant sutra's in Buddhism is both enlightening and challenging. McLeod, who has studied Buddhism and is a teacher in his own right, has not stopped at the traditional. He continues to teach in new and fresh ways. The Dharma remains alive and vital in his teachngs and works. He refuses to provide a series of "recipes" and instead inspires the reader to "make the bread" of non-duality and emptiness.
"An Arrow to the Heart" takes the Heart Sutra phrase by phrase. McLeod plays with the ideas, explains meanings, dances around and through to the deeper meaning, opening possibilities not thought of before from the Sutra. He urges the reader to stop after a few pages or sentences if necessary and not try to read through the whole book at one time.
I'm not sure if the general reader, not familiar with the Heart Sutra and the playfulness of Zen would find this easy to understand, but the language and sheer poetic approach, might inspire one to persist and find out more about self and Buddhism. This is a book someone could go back to and read again, finding deeper meaning and treasures not discoverd the first, second, or even third time.
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3: overrated
I am not all the way through this book yet, so perhaps my impression will change, but so far, I think people who are finding something in this book are saying so because they think they are supposed to, or they are on the author's wave length.
I clearly am not.
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4: Pierced
I highly recommend this book. You can feel the gesture of the author's hand in every word, written with careful intent, yet no word locks you up, tells you where to be or gives you an outcome, the result of which leaves you wide open.
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5: Unique & Profound
On p.6, the author's words express my experience of the entire book: "This meeting? It's a mystery... You know something took place, but you can't put it in words." Throughout my initial reading I often understood, re-lived, or sensed things for which words were inadequate. These experiences were both intense and ephemeral. I found that allowing the words to wash over me--without struggling to make certain that I had the "correct" understanding--made the work all the richer. I expect this book will feel new each time I step into its pages.
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