2025-05-16 View Heart Sutra calligraphy landscape paintings, listen to Dharma masters explain the Heart Sutra at the museum

The Heart Sutra, though only 260 characters long, holds a pivotal place in the Buddhist world. It encapsulates the essence of the 600-volume Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sutra and expresses the core philosophy of Buddhism. Remarkably, these 260 characters can also form a painting. The Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, Florida, is currently exhibiting Taiwanese artist Li Junyi’s Heart Sutra Landscape Paintings. On May 16, the museum invited Venerable Huicheng from Hsi Lai Temple to give a talk on the Heart Sutra, attracting around 80 eager participants.

Li Junyi’s Heart Sutra Landscape Paintings strive for a unity of text and image, drawing inspiration from traditional Chinese calligraphy, book printing, and stone inscriptions to create visual effects. The 260 characters of the Heart Sutra are repeatedly imprinted using square cork stamps. The artworks are composed of square grids, each containing point-like imprints of black ink. With the absorbent cork tools carefully layered and stamped, the result evokes the essence of Chinese ink wash landscape painting. The artist seeks to illustrate that what may seem hazy or ethereal is in fact shaped by an omnipresent order.

The Heart Sutra is one of the most profound and widely chanted scriptures in the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition. Using just 260 characters, it conveys a depth as vast as the universe. What lies beyond knowledge and wisdom? How can the mind attain true freedom? How can we transcend life and death? In her lecture, Venerable Huicheng quoted Fo Guang Shan’s founder, Venerable Master Hsing Yun, who taught that the Heart Sutra is the scripture most intimately connected to everyone’s life. To truly understand oneself, one must study the Heart Sutra. By understanding and applying its wisdom (prajñā), we can experience life in a new and meaningful way.

“Form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form. Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.” The Venerable explained that the Heart Sutra encourages us to go beyond surface appearances and fixed perceptions, to perceive the true nature of all phenomena from within. By liberating ourselves from conditioned views, we cultivate deep compassion and wisdom at the root. When we recite, “no birth, no death, no purity, no defilement, no increase, no decrease,” we come to understand that the highest state of being is already within our own minds.

Noah Book shared that he was thrilled to have the rare opportunity to attend such a lecture at the museum. He found the subject of the Heart Sutra so unique and profound, and felt honored to hear such an insightful explanation from the Venerable—it was a truly worthwhile experience.

Stacy Poritzku deeply enjoyed the lecture on the Heart Sutra, especially since her interest and study of Buddhism has grown stronger in recent years. She was deeply impressed by Venerable Huicheng’s ability to precisely explain many core Buddhist concepts in such a short time. She also shared that her Buddhist practice over the years has led her to feel gratitude for all things and to cherish the present moment. She described herself as someone who "needs to see to believe," but learning Buddhism helped her transform—now she just “believes.”

Mei Hanzheng, director of the International Buddhist Progress Society (IBPS) Miami Association, remarked: “A human body is hard to obtain, and the Dharma is hard to hear.” The Heart Sutra landscape art at the museum, created from words, paired with Venerable Huicheng’s lecture, made South Florida residents feel truly blessed. The museum originally opened registration for 60 attendees, but around 80 people arrived, and the museum had to turn away some guests. While the organizers expressed apologies to those who couldn’t enter, volunteers from the association shared information about Fo Guang Shan Miami, inviting those interested in Buddhism to visit the temple.