True meanings of the Heart Sutra 心經的真義

True Meanings of the Heart Sutra

The Carving of Heart Sutra at Ngong Ping of Lantau Island consists of 38 10-meter-high timber columns carved with the calligraphy of the Heart of Prajña Paramita (Wisdom) Sutra from Professor Jao Tsung I, the master in studies of Chinese ancient civilization., To symbolize the Buddhist teaching of "That which is form is emptiness, That which is emptiness is form", there is a wordless column, namely the 23rd one, which was deliberately left blank.

The Carving of Heart Sutra project was completed and opened to the public in May 2005. In just more than a year's time, various problems started to appear on the timber columns, including spreading of wood-rotting fungi, worm-holes and cracking. One may still recall clearly the pledge from the government when tens of millions of dollars were spent on the project, promising that the advance technology of nanostructured coatings could preserve the wooden carving for at least a hundreds year. The explanation from the Architectural Services Department and Tourism Commission was that cracking on timber was a long existing natural phenomenon, and fungi growing on timber placed outdoor is nothing new either. However, no word was mentioned about the wormholes.

Under normal conditions, nanostructured coatings have to be re-applied every 3 to 5 years, due to the weathering effect of rain and sunlight. Problems appear much sooner than expected, indicating that it is very likely that the initial treatments of the timbers were not done properly.

Fungi start growing on top of some of the columns, some as big as the size of a palm, white or brown in colour, while others have wormholes. But the worst part of all is that cracks appear on all columns, and each has to be crowned by steel rings at the top in order to prevent further expanding of the cracks.

The local tree expert Professor C.Y. Jim pointed out that the problems of fungi and wormholes were clearly the indication of the decaying of the softer outer layer of the timber, and poor drainage design had further speeded up the rotting process. In fact Professor Jim had advocated for the use of stone material at the initial stage of the project. The main reason for the Steering Committee of the project to rule out the usage of stone was that they were worried about a "Stone Sutra Carving would eventually fall apart" due to weathering problems. But to many people's surprise, the material finally selected was timber. Professor Jao, the initiator of the project and the idea of timber carving, had expressed his deep concerns on the situation through his daughter and the Hong Kong University Jao Tsung I Petite Ecole, and wished that the government would look into the problems as soon as possible.

Master Ma, a web-pal of mine, has an enlightening comment on which I can't agree more :

" 'All dharma arise and cease according to the law of cause and effect.' The decaying of the timber columns is a perfect example of 'Impermanent'. The fungi on the top of the columns are actually preaching Buddhist sermon by showing us their survival ability. Just for the sake of another tourist attraction, the government not only killed 38 hundred-year-old trees for the timber, but the natural beauty of the green hill chosen as the site was also destroyed. People make extraordinarily painstaking efforts and spend millions of dollars, hoping to achieve 'Eternity', but at the end, so many brains of such high I.Q. were no matches for the primitive brainless micro-organism. Perhaps the true meaning of the Heart Sutra does not lie in the calligraphy of Professor Jao, nor on that wordless 23rd column. The true meaning of the Heart Sutra exists in that little mushrooms grown out from those decaying timbers, and in those nature loving and respecting hearts."

心經的真義
大嶼山昂平的巨型木刻《心經簡林》，由38根高逾8至10米的古木木樁組成，樁上刻有國學大師饒宗頤教授手書《般若心經》經文，其中第23條最高的木樁沒有任何雕刻，代表著無限和無量，「色即是空，空即是色」之意。

木刻2005年5月開幕至今只一年多，但木樁已先後出現真菌滋生、蟲蛀及裂紋三大問題。還記得當年政府斥資千萬元興建木刻，聲稱木刻經先進納米塗層處理、能防霉防蟲保存百年以上。旅遊事務署及建築署的解釋是，裂紋純屬天然，早已存在；木材放置戶外，發霉亦是正常現象；蟲蛀問題則沒有解釋。一般防霉防蟲的納米塗層，正常情況亦需要隔3至5年補油一次，木樁經歷日曬雨淋，雖然塗層亦難免被沖掉損耗，但木樁出現問題，反映可能當日塗層工序處理不當，以至惡化加速，問題提早出現。

部份木樁的頂端已長出了大大小小的真菌，大若手掌，小如硬幣，呈白色或深褐色；另外兩根木樁出現蟲蛀圓孔，多根木樁亦有蟲蛀痕跡；更甚者是，全部木樁均出現裂紋，木樁頂部只能繫上鐵箍，防止裂紋擴大。

據對樹木頗有研究的詹志勇教授指出，木樁出現蟲蛀及真菌問題，反映木樁外圍較軟弱的部分腐爛，加上排水設計不佳，更加速腐壞。其實詹教授早就提出選用風化速度較慢百倍的石材製作巨柱，簡林計劃督導委員會當年捨石材的原因，是擔心風化作用下「石刻經文會散」，但最終採納的建議，竟然是更易腐爛的木刻。據悉倡議計劃及建議採用木刻的饒教授亦十分關心木刻腐爛問題，透過女兒經港大饒宗頤學術中心表示望政府盡快處理。

對於網友馬老師的慨嘆，深有同感：

「『諸法因緣生，諸法因緣滅』。木柱的腐朽，正好說明甚麼是『無常』！柱上的野菌，正以它的生命力來演說佛法！政府為了弄個景點，不只殺害那些百年老樹，也毀去原來小山丘上的自然美。有人苦心孤詣，以為花盡千金就可買到永恆。結果眾多IQ爆棚的腦袋竟敵不過這些沒頭沒腦的微生物！心經的真義，也許不在饒公之書法，也不在那無字之柱，它只是在那個從朽木中長出的小菇，在每一個敬畏大自然的人的心裡。」