Review by Preston Keido Houser

Kerr, Alex. Finding the Heart Sutra: Guided by a Magician, an Art Collector and Buddhist Sages from Tibet to Japan. Dublin: Allen Lane, 2020. 297pp. Ebook and paperback.

I’ve been exposed to the Heart Sutra for several decades now (I hesitate to use the word study since the sutra seems to put the critical faculty to sleep even as it awakens awareness). It is one of those amazing historical texts with which one has difficulty finding fault — an error-free scripture.

Perhaps I’m missing something. Therefore, I seize any opportunity to see what others can make of this criticism-defying text. We need all the help we can get. One must accept gifts graciously, and Finding the Heart Sutra by Alex Kerr is indeed a welcome gift. Often the first Buddhist scripture to behold, the Heart Sutra usually makes more “sense” as one of the final, send-off texts in life, as Kerr points out in his Introduction when referring to friends David Kidd and Marguerite Yourcenar — a springboard in more ways than one.

Kerr employs a straightforward approach to his manuscript: Introduction, a transliteration of the Heart Sutra, followed by a ten-part, section-by-section, word-by-word exegesis and commentary — refreshing to be reminded of people, places, or concepts that may have faded. The Dalai Lama, Andy Warhol, Thich Nhat Hanh, Nagarjuna, Mencius, Gore Vidal, Shakespeare — a metaphysical menagerie that populates the commentary. Kerr’s style resembles an informed chat concerning serious matters, again, refreshing in that he does not let the reader get too bogged down in technicalities — it makes for an energizing read.

More of a handbook than a scholarly treatise (although the scholarship is there), Finding the Heart Sutra is akin to a field guide… or perhaps a memoir of a traveling companion… or a mirror journal written to oneself — that’s the impact of the Heart Sutra. Along with commentary, Kerr has provided notes, references, glossary, and a Who’s Who. Oh, and the icing on top: wonderful calligraphy in Kerr’s hand, especially the airy emptiness (空).

Thanks to the Heart Sutra, and now Kerr’s enlightening contribution, I know even less than I did when I first encountered this mind-blazing text… and I’m probably better off for it. As Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan succinctly wrote, “I’m younger than that now.”

(For the hardback or kindle editions of the book, click here.)

Alex Kerr will be interviewed on Nov 29 at 11.00 am Japan time by Ken Rodgers in a Zoom event hosted by Writers in Kyoto. For details and registration, please click here.