13 July 2015. A Look Over the Fence… The Heart Sutra

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Ani Choying Drolma sings the Heart Sūtra

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Ani Choying Drolma sings the Great Compassion Mantra

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Buddhism is one of the Big Three Traditional Religions in Russia (the other two are Orthodox Christianity and Islam). Judaism and the Evangelical Church (Lutherans, NOT non-Christian American Radical Sectarians) are minor traditional religions, with real Russian Protestants (not American Sectarian wannabes) being acceptable too. Buddhists make up about 1 percent of the Russian population (1.5 million), with about a third of these actively practising to some extent or other. Buddhist friends tell me that the Heart Sūtra is the most popular sūtra amongst believers, more popular than Om mani padme om (“The jewel is in the lotus”) is. I know next-to-nothing about Buddhist theology, so, I can’t comment on that. However, this is part of Russia, too. It’s all ours or none of it’s ours… simple as that…

BMD

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