The Heart Sutra of Perfect Wisdom is the heart of Mahayana Buddhism. The Prajna-paramita Heart Sutra speaks of the highest intuitive wisdom, the perfect understanding that carries one across to the other shore of existence, that is, to nirvana.
The Heart Sutra of Perfect Wisdom is the heart of Mahayana Buddhism. The Prajna-paramita Heart Sutra speaks of the highest intuitive wisdom, the perfect understanding that carries one across to the other shore of existence, that is, to nirvana.
Like every Prajnaparamita sutra, this text seeks to awaken in the person who studies it a special, higher state of consciousness, a state of direct experience, of seeing reality as it is. And this state is precisely Prajna-paramita, Transcendent Wisdom. The sutra, like the Madhyamaka (Shunyavada) philosophy developed from the Prajnaparamita texts, calls this reality shunyata (emptiness), a reality that cannot be described or expressed in categories and concepts (which are mental constructs).
Text of the sutra
Pinyin (a system for transliterating Chinese)
jie di jie di bo luo jie di bo luo seng jie di pu ti sa po he (3x)
guan zi zai pu sa xing shen bo re po luo mi duo shi
zhao jian wu yun jie kong du yi qie ku e
she li zi se bu yi kong kong bu yi se
se ji shi kong kong ji shi se
shou xiang xing shi yi fu ru shi
she li zi shi zhu fa kong xiang
bu sheng bu mie bu gou bu jing bu zeng bu jian
shi gu kong zhong wu se wu shou xiang xing shi
wu yan er bi she shen yi wu se sheng xiang wei chu fa
wu yian jie nai zhi wu yi shi jie
wu wu ming yi wu wu ming jin
nai zhi wu lao si yi wu lao si jin
wu ku ji mie dao wu zhi yi wu de yi wu suo de gu
pu ti sa duo yi bo re po luo mi duo gu
xin wu gua ai wu gua ai gu wu you kong bu
yuan li dian dao meng xiang jiu jing nie pan
san shi zhu fo yi bo re po luo mi duo gu
de a nou duo luo san miao san pu ti
gu zhi bo re po luo mi duo shi da shen zhou
shi da ming zhou shi wu shang zhou shi wu deng deng zhou
neng chu yi qie ku zhen shi bu xu
gu shuo bo re po luo mi duo zhou ji shuo zhou yue
jie di jie di bo luo jie di bo luo seng jie di pu ti sa po he (3x)
Translated by E. A. Torchinov from the Chinese version by the great Chinese translator and philosopher Xuanzang.
The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara1, while practicing the deep prajna-paramita, clearly saw that all five skandhas2 are empty. Then he was freed from all suffering, crossing over to the other shore.
Shariputra3! What is perceived by the senses is not different from emptiness.
Emptiness is not different from what is perceived by the senses.
What is perceived by the senses is emptiness itself.
Emptiness is itself what is perceived by the senses.
The groups of feelings, perceptions, formative factors and consciousness are exactly the same.
Shariputra! For all dharmas, emptiness is their essential mark. They are neither born nor do they perish, they are neither defiled nor purified, they neither increase nor decrease. Therefore in emptiness there is no group of what is perceived by the senses, no groups of feelings, perceptions, formative factors and consciousness; there are no faculties of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and mental perception; there is nothing seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched, and there are no dharmas; there is nothing from the sphere of visual perception up to the sphere of mental perception.
There is no ignorance and no ending of ignorance, and so on, up to the absence of old age and death and the absence of the ending of old age and death.
There is no suffering, no cause of suffering, no cessation of suffering and no path leading to the end of suffering.
There is no wisdom and no attainment, and nothing to be attained.
Because bodhisattvas rely on prajna-paramita, there are no obstacles in their minds. And since there are no obstacles, there is no fear. They have removed and overturned all illusions and attained final nirvana. All the Buddhas of the three times, by relying on prajna-paramita, attained anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
Therefore know that prajna-paramita is the great divine mantra, the mantra of great awakening, the highest mantra, the incomparable mantra, endowed with true essence and not empty. That is why it is called the mantra of prajna-paramita.
This mantra says:
GATE, GATE, PARAGATE, PARASAMGATE, BODHI, SVAHA!
In the Chinese reading, the mantra sounds like this:
JIEDI, JIEDI, BOLUOJIEDI, BOLUOSENGJIEDI, PUTI, SAPOHE!
Its approximate translation: “O you who carry beyond, who carry beyond, who lead beyond the limits, who lead beyond the limits of the limitless to awakening, hail!”
Notes
1. Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Skt.), Gwanseum (Kor.), Guanyin (Chin.) — the Bodhisattva of perfect compassion.
2. The five skandhas — a classification of all elements of existence into 5 groups: 1) the sensory, 2) sensations, 3) perceptions, 4) forces, 5) consciousness.
3. Shariputra — a disciple of the Buddha, “the Standard-Bearer of the Dharma.”