The Heart Sutra is the most widely known and widely recited scripture in Mahayana Buddhism. This exciting, trail-blazing, non-traditional commentary takes the reader right into the emptiness of all experience through a delightfully irreverent combination of wit, irony, prose and poetry. In the words of Stephen Batchelor, author of Buddhism Without Beliefs, "Written in a voice that is neither pious nor academic, hectoring nor detached, An Arrow to the Heart is a fine example of the new wave in contemporary Buddhist writing. In its quietly relentless way, this pithy and unorthodox commentary to the Heart Sutra leaves you with nowhere to stand but right here."

This second edition contains a new introduction by Peter Clothier, an internationally-known writer who specializes in writing about art and artists, McLeod's precise yet lucid translation of the Heart Sutra, and a line-by-line commentary on this enigmatic scripture. Each commentary starts with a short poem that raises questions or presents a series of images. The poem is followed by a short prose section that questions the text more deeply. A few interspersed notes provide information about the images, allusions, and references in the poetry and prose sections. The result is a kind of dance-a dance with words, ideas, images, quotations, and stories. Not infrequently the reader falls into a complete and unexpected stillness to dwell on a revealing line or a quotation, before being swept off again into a new direction. In this way McLeod realizes his aim-to elicit the experience of the sutra in the reader, rather than explain its meaning.

In the words of one reader of the first edition, "What I love most about it is that it's not even a book, really - more the literary equivalent of yellowcake uranium, meant to blow the mind open to ultimate reality. This is book as verb, not noun - book as instigator of awareness."

An Arrow to the Heart: A Commentary on the Heart Sutra (Second Edition), Ken Mcleod, Trafford, Paperback, 172 Pages, $19.95

Ken McLeod is one of the more innovative teachers of Buddhism in the West. He studied and trained in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism under Kalu Rinpoche beginning in 1970 and subsequently became his translator for two North American tours, 1972-3 and 1974-5. Under Kalu Rinpoche's tutelage, he completed two three-year retreats (1976-1983) and in 1985 was appointed as the resident teacher of Kalu Rinpoche's center in Los Angeles. After Kalu Rinpoche's passing in 1989, Ken established Unfettered Mind and pioneered a one-on-one consultancy model for spiritual guidance, a model that was quickly adopted by Buddhist teachers around the world. He has translated and written several books including. He has applied his training in a variety of contexts, including business consulting and leadership training, working with executives at HBO, TimeWarner, ReadyPac, and Volvo. Currently, he resides in Northern California where he continues writing about Buddhist practice. An archive of his work can be found at http://unfetteredmind.or.

CONTENTS: An Arrow to the Heart
Acknowledgements for the Second Edition	ix
Shall We Dance?	xi
THE SUTRA	1
THE TITLE	5
THE INVOCATION	19
THE SETTING	23
THE QUESTION	47
THE ANSWER	57
EMPTINESS I	63
EMPTINESS II	71
EMPTINESS III	81
EMPTINESS IV	99
AWAKENING	113
THE MANTRA	119
CONFIRMATION	139
CONCLUSION	151
Selected Bibliography	155