The Heart Sutra

॥ नमो भगवत्यै आर्यप्रज्ञापारमितायै ॥

|| namo bhagavatyai āryaprajñāpāramitāyai ||

Homage to the blessed and noble Perfection of Wisdom.

The Heart Sutra is the most widely chanted text in Mahayana Buddhism. In Sanskrit it is a single page. "Perfection of Wisdom" (prajnaparamita) is both a quality of mind and, here, a goddess-like personification of it.

आर्यावलोकितेश्वरो बोधिसत्त्वो गम्भीरायां प्रज्ञापारमितायां चर्यां चरमाणो व्यवलोकयति स्म । पञ्च स्कन्धाः । तांश्च स्वभावशून्यान् पश्यति स्म ॥

āryāvalokiteśvaro bodhisattvo gambhīrāyāṃ prajñāpāramitāyāṃ caryāṃ caramāṇo vyavalokayati sma | pañca skandhāḥ | tāṃśca svabhāvaśūnyān paśyati sma ||

The noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva, while practicing deeply the perfection of wisdom, looked down and saw that there are five heaps, and saw that they are empty of any nature of their own.

Avalokiteshvara is the bodhisattva of compassion. The "five heaps" (skandhas) are the five groups into which Buddhism divides a person: form (the body and material things), feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. To be "empty of any nature of their own" means that none of them exists independently; each arises only in dependence on other things.

इह शारिपुत्र रूपं शून्यता शून्यतैव रूपम् । रूपान्न पृथक् शून्यता शून्यताया न पृथग् रूपम् । यद्रूपं सा शून्यता या शून्यता तद्रूपम् । एवमेव वेदनासंज्ञासंस्कारविज्ञानानि ॥

iha śāriputra rūpaṃ śūnyatā śūnyataiva rūpam | rūpānna pṛthak śūnyatā śūnyatāyā na pṛthag rūpam | yadrūpaṃ sā śūnyatā yā śūnyatā tadrūpam | evameva vedanāsaṃjñāsaṃskāravijñānāni ||

Here, Shariputra, form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. Emptiness is not separate from form, and form is not separate from emptiness. Whatever is form is emptiness; whatever is emptiness is form. The same is true of feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

The heart of the Heart Sutra. Emptiness is not a void behind things, nor something left over when things are removed. It is simply the way things are: dependent, open, without a fixed core. So form and emptiness are two ways of describing the same reality.

इह शारिपुत्र सर्वधर्माः शून्यतालक्षणा अनुत्पन्ना अनिरुद्धा अमला न विमला नोना न परिपूर्णाः । तस्माच्छारिपुत्र शून्यतायां न रूपं न वेदना न संज्ञा न संस्कारा न विज्ञानम् । न चक्षुःश्रोत्रघ्राणजिह्वाकायमनांसि । न रूपशब्दगन्धरसस्प्रष्टव्यधर्माः । न चक्षुर्धातुर्यावन्न मनोविज्ञानधातुः । न विद्या नाविद्या न विद्याक्षयो नाविद्याक्षयो यावन्न जरामरणं न जरामरणक्षयः । न दुःखसमुदयनिरोधमार्गा न ज्ञानं न प्राप्तिर्नाप्राप्तिः ॥

iha śāriputra sarvadharmāḥ śūnyatālakṣaṇā anutpannā aniruddhā amalā na vimalā nonā na paripūrṇāḥ | tasmācchāriputra śūnyatāyāṃ na rūpaṃ na vedanā na saṃjñā na saṃskārā na vijñānam | na cakṣuḥśrotraghrāṇajihvākāyamanāṃsi | na rūpaśabdagandharasaspraṣṭavyadharmāḥ | na cakṣurdhāturyāvanna manovijñānadhātuḥ | na vidyā nāvidyā na vidyākṣayo nāvidyākṣayo yāvanna jarāmaraṇaṃ na jarāmaraṇakṣayaḥ | na duḥkhasamudayanirodhamārgā na jñānaṃ na prāptirnāprāptiḥ ||

Here, Shariputra, all things have the mark of emptiness. They are not born and do not cease. They are not impure and not pure. They do not decrease and do not increase. Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no mental formations, no consciousness; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or mental object; no realm of the eye, and so on up to no realm of mental consciousness. There is no knowledge and no ignorance, no ending of knowledge and no ending of ignorance, and so on up to no old age and death and no ending of old age and death. There is no suffering, no origin of suffering, no ending of suffering, and no path. There is no knowledge, no attainment, and no non-attainment.

A remarkable passage: it takes the basic lists of early Buddhist teaching — the five heaps, the senses and their objects, the twelve links of dependent origination, and even the Four Noble Truths — and declares that none of them exists as a fixed thing. The teachings are tools, not objects to cling to.

तस्माच्छारिपुत्र अप्राप्तित्वाद् बोधिसत्त्वानां प्रज्ञापारमितामाश्रित्य विहरत्यचित्तावरणः । चित्तावरणनास्तित्वादत्रस्तो विपर्यासातिक्रान्तो निष्ठनिर्वाणः । त्र्यध्वव्यवस्थिताः सर्वबुद्धाः प्रज्ञापारमितामाश्रित्यानुत्तरां सम्यक्सम्बोधिमभिसम्बुद्धाः ॥

tasmācchāriputra aprāptitvād bodhisattvānāṃ prajñāpāramitāmāśritya viharatyacittāvaraṇaḥ | cittāvaraṇanāstitvādatrasto viparyāsātikrānto niṣṭhanirvāṇaḥ | tryadhvavyavasthitāḥ sarvabuddhāḥ prajñāpāramitāmāśrityānuttarāṃ samyaksambodhimabhisambuddhāḥ ||

Therefore, Shariputra, because there is no attainment, the bodhisattva relies on the perfection of wisdom and lives without any covering over the mind. Without a covering over the mind, the bodhisattva is not afraid, has gone beyond all distorted views, and has reached final nirvana. All the Buddhas of the three times, relying on the perfection of wisdom, have fully awakened to unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment.

"The three times" are past, present, and future. Because there is nothing to gain or lose, there is nothing to fear.

तस्माज्ज्ञातव्यः प्रज्ञापारमितामहामन्त्रो महाविद्यामन्त्रोऽनुत्तरमन्त्रोऽसमसममन्त्रः सर्वदुःखप्रशमनः सत्यममिथ्यत्वात् । प्रज्ञापारमितायामुक्तो मन्त्रः । तद्यथा ॐ गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा ॥

tasmājjñātavyaḥ prajñāpāramitāmahāmantro mahāvidyāmantro'nuttaramantro'samasamamantraḥ sarvaduḥkhapraśamanaḥ satyamamithyatvāt | prajñāpāramitāyāmukto mantraḥ | tadyathā oṃ gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā ||

Therefore it should be known that the perfection of wisdom is the great mantra, the mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra equal to the unequaled, the soother of all suffering. It is true, because it is not false. The mantra spoken in the perfection of wisdom is this: Om, gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond — awakening, so be it!

The closing mantra, gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha, is usually left in Sanskrit when chanted. It describes a crossing: from this shore of confusion to the far shore of awakening, and then beyond even the idea of a far shore.

इति प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदयं समाप्तम् ॥

iti prajñāpāramitāhṛdayaṃ samāptam ||

Here ends the heart of the noble Perfection of Wisdom.