ok, this is amazing. a Japanese zen monk uses a loopstation and beatboxing to chant the heart sutra

if you're a nerd, you might have heard Yoshimitsu's stage music from tekken tag. the lyrics there are part of the heart sutra-

different kinds of nerds might remember the Wu Tang's song in memory of ODB, Life Changes, where the monk at the end recites the heart sutra

so what is the heart sutra? well, when you read the text, it seems really dark and nihilistic- https://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/heartsutra.html

it is the teachings of the Boddhisatta of Compassion, Avalokiteshwara, who meditated on suffering and the human condition.

Shariputra asks How do we attain the perfection of wisdom?
Avalokiteshwar responds that using your senses and awareness is to miss the point. All of these distinctions we make between things are arbitrary and ground us in the illusion of life

He recites the famous aphorism - "emptiness is form, and form is emptiness." all phenomena are empty of inherent characteristics- not being born or dying, coming or going, or related to anything other than themselves.

the idea of this sutra is related to the notion of the 'two truths', the notion that conventional reality as we understand it is a thing - i see you with my eyes- and that ultimate reality is also a thing - there is no difference between you, me, my eyes, or your image therein

ultimately, he says, searching for enlightenment or wisdom is futile, because there's no path, no search, nothing to search for, and nothing once you get there. there is no cessation of suffering because there never was suffering.

nothing came into existence, but was always there, and thus, nothing is ceasing existence, because it was never there. the ultimate truth here is that the liberation you seek isn't salvation from suffering, it's freedom from the very idea of the self itself.

once you attain the level of understanding that the self is meaningless, you are awake, and once you are awake, you are gone. As the sutra ends you recite 'gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi swaha'- gone, gone, everyone to the other shore, awaken, amen.

or, in modern parlance, "we out, peace."