TheHeart
Sutra
Bhagavati Prajna Paramita Hridaya
Heart of the Great Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom
Homage to the Noble Lady, the Perfection of
Transcendent Wisdom
Thus have I heard these
words. Once the Blessed One was dwelling
in Rajagriha at Vulture Peak, together with a great gathering of monks and
bodhisattvas. At that time the Blessed
Lord entered the samadhi that expresses phenomena called profound
illumination.
At the same time, the Noble
Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva-mahasattva, observed carefully the practice of
the profund Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom.
He saw precisely that the five aggregates were themselves empty by
nature.
Through the power of the
inspiration of the Buddha, venerable Shariputra said to the Noble
Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva-mahasattva:
“How should a son or a
daughter of noble family train, who wishes to practice the Profound Perfection
of Transcendent Wisdom?”
Addressed in this manner
the Noble Avalokiteshvara answered the venerable Shariputra.
“O, Shariputra, a son or
daughter of noble family who wishes to practice the Profound Perfection of
Transcendent Wisdom should see it like this:
The five aggregates
themselves are empty by nature. One
should see that in a precise and pure way.
Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.
Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness. In the same way, feelings, perceptions,
mental formations, and consciousnesses are empty.
Thus, Shariputra, in
emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no mental formation, no
consciousness. There is no eye, no ear,
no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind.
There is no appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no
phenomena.
There is no visual
constituent and so on up to no mental constituent and no mental consciousness
constituent. There is no ignorance, no
cessation of ignorance and so on up to no old age and death, no cessation of
old age and death. Likewise, there is
no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path. There is no primordial awareness, no
accomplishment, and no nonaccomplishment.
Therefore, Shariputra,
because the bodhisattvas have nothing to attain, they leave it up to the
Profound Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom and dwell in it. Their minds being without veil, they have no
fear. Having reached beyond any error,
they have attained the state beyond suffering.
All the Buddhas manifesting
in the three times, effectively have attained the totally pure, unsurpassable,
and perfect Awakening by leaving it up to the Profound Transcendent Wisdom.
Therefore, the mantra of
Transcendent Wisdom, the mantra of great insight, the unsurpassable mantra, the
mantra that equals the unequaled, the mantra that perfectly dissipates all
suffering should be known as the Truth since there is no falsehood. The mantra of the Perfection of Transcendent
Wisdom is said like this:
Tayata om gate gate
paragate parasamgate bodhi soha
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