The Heart Sutra

When Avalokiteśvara×Avalokiteśvara - the bodhisattva (enlightened being) of compassion. Known in East Asia as Guanyin or Kannon. Bodhisattva was practicing the profound Prajñāpāramitā×Prajñāpāramitā - the "perfection of wisdom," the deep insight this sutra teaches. This translation keeps the Sanskrit: wisdom (prajñā) gone all the way to the far shore (pāramitā)., he illuminated the Five Skandhas×Five Skandhas - the five "heaps" or bundles that make up a person: form/body, and the four named next. and saw that they were all empty×Empty / Emptiness - not "nothingness." It means nothing exists as a separate, permanent, independent self; everything is made of other things and is always changing., and crossed over all suffering and affliction.

Explanation

The sutra opens with Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, deep in meditation. Looking into what a person is made of - the five bundles of body and mind - he sees that none of them is a separate, fixed thing. Seeing this "emptiness" clearly, he crosses beyond suffering. Everything after this unpacks what he saw.

“Śāriputra׌āriputra - one of the Buddha's chief disciples, famous for his sharp intellect. The sutra is spoken to him., form is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from form. Form itself is emptiness, and emptiness itself is form. Sensation, conception, synthesis, and discrimination×Sensation, conception, synthesis, discrimination - the four mental aggregates. In more familiar terms: feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. This older translation uses the words sensation, conception, synthesis, and discrimination. are also such as this.

Explanation

The heart of the sutra. "Form" means the body and the physical world; "emptiness" means having no separate, independent existence. The two are not opposites: your body is real, yet made entirely of non-body things and always changing. What is true of form is true of the other four aggregates as well.

Śāriputra, all dharmas×Dharmas - here, all things: every object, thought, and event. (Elsewhere "Dharma" means the Buddha's teaching; here it means phenomena.) are empty: they are neither created nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, and they neither increase nor diminish×Neither created nor destroyed... - pairs of opposites we treat as absolute. The teaching is that they are relative and never capture the true, ever-changing nature of things..

Explanation

Because nothing has a separate self, the usual opposites do not finally apply to it. Nothing is truly created out of nothing or destroyed into nothing; nothing is purely stained or purely clean; nothing simply grows or shrinks. Things only change form, the way a cloud becomes rain.

This is because in emptiness there is no form, sensation, conception, synthesis, or discrimination×Why "no"? The sutra now denies the very list it just gave. It does not mean these things do not exist - it means that in emptiness none of them is a separate, self-standing thing to grasp.. There are no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or thoughts×The six senses - eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind (thoughts count as a sixth sense). With their objects and the awarenesses between them, they make up the "eighteen realms" that map all experience.. There are no forms, sounds, scents, tastes, sensations, or dharmas. There is no field of vision and there is no realm of thoughts.

Explanation

Here is the sutra's famous string of negations. It is easy to misread: the text is not saying the body, the senses, or the world do not exist. It is saying that, seen in the light of emptiness, none of them is a separate, self-standing thing to grasp at or push away. The list walks through the standard Buddhist map of experience - the aggregates, the six senses with their objects, the realms they form - and empties each of a separate self.

There is no ignorance nor elimination of ignorance, even up to and including no old age and death, nor elimination of old age and death×The twelve links - the chain of "dependent arising" (from ignorance through to old age and death) that describes how suffering keeps arising, and how breaking a link can end it.. There is no suffering, its accumulation, its elimination, or a path×The Four Noble Truths - in this translation's words: suffering, its cause ("accumulation"), its end ("elimination"), and the path that leads out.. There is no understanding and no attaining×No understanding and no attaining - even wisdom itself, and the "gaining" of enlightenment, are empty of separate selfhood. There is no prize outside us to seize..

Explanation

The negations continue through two more classic teachings. "No ignorance ... no old age and death" runs through the twelve links, Buddhism's chain of how suffering arises and ends. "No suffering, its accumulation, its elimination, or a path" names the Four Noble Truths. Even "understanding" and "attaining" are included: not even the teachings, and not even enlightenment, are something separate to cling to.

“Because there is no attainment, bodhisattvas×Bodhisattvas - beings who seek enlightenment not just for themselves but to help all others; the central ideal of Mahayana Buddhism. rely on Prajñāpāramitā, and their minds have no obstructions. Since there are no obstructions, they have no fears. Because they are detached from backwards dream-thinking×Backwards dream-thinking - distorted, upside-down views: taking things to be permanent, separate, and self-existing when they are not. Letting go of them removes fear., their final result is Nirvāṇa×Nirvāṇa - complete peace and freedom, with all craving, fear, and delusion extinguished. Not a heaven or a place, but a way of being..

Explanation

The turn from analysis to freedom. Resting in this insight, the mind of a bodhisattva has nothing to snag on - no obstruction, and so no fear. Letting go of "backwards dream-thinking," our upside-down habit of seeing things as permanent and separate, what remains is nirvana: not a place, but the peace left when craving, fear, and delusion go out.

Because all buddhas×Buddhas - fully awakened beings. "Buddha" means "one who is awake." of the past, present, and future rely on Prajñāpāramitā, they attain Anuttarā Samyaksaṃbodhi×Anuttarā Samyaksaṃbodhi - Sanskrit for "supreme perfect awakening": the complete, unsurpassed enlightenment of a buddha.. Therefore, know that Prajñāpāramitā is a great spiritual mantra×Mantra - a sacred sound or phrase, usually chanted, held to carry spiritual power. The sutra calls this wisdom the greatest of mantras., a great brilliant mantra, an unsurpassed mantra, and an unequalled mantra. The Prajñāpāramitā Mantra is spoken because it can truly remove all afflictions. The mantra is spoken thusly:

Explanation

This wisdom is how every buddha, in every age, reaches complete awakening. The sutra then praises it as a mantra - the greatest, brightest, and highest - because it has the power to end all suffering. That praise leads straight into the chant that closes the text.

gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā×gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā - roughly "Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond - awakening - so be it!" Chanted, not explained, as the heart of the sutra.

Explanation

The mantra is traditionally left in Sanskrit and simply chanted. Its words mean roughly: "Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond - awakening - so be it!" It celebrates the whole journey of the sutra: crossing from fear and grasping to the far shore of freedom.