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Heart Sūtra
Heart Sūtra. A highly influential and popular Mahāyāna scripture used in both Tibetan and east Asian Buddhism; the full title is ‘The Sūtra of the Heart of the Perfection of Insight’. This scripture, only one paragraph in length, is a terse summary of Perfection of Insight (prajñā-pāramitā) teaching, and describes the truth realized in meditation by the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. This truth is that form (one of the five skandhas and here standing in for all individual, differentiated phenomena) is emptiness (śūnyatā, the transcendent and undifferentiated absolute) and vice versa. In this way, it affirms that the transcendent is found only in its manifestation in the immanent and nowhere else. It ends with a mantra to be recited, the effect of which is to induce understanding of ultimate truth in the reciter. Because of its extreme brevity, it has been used both as a summary statement of Mahāyāna truth, and as a liturgical and ritual text. Recent research has shown that the Heart Sūtra is almost certainly a Chinese composition back-translated into Sanskrit.
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DAMIEN KEOWN. "Heart Sūtra." A Dictionary of Buddhism. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. DAMIEN KEOWN. "Heart Sūtra." A Dictionary of Buddhism. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O108-HeartStra.html DAMIEN KEOWN. "Heart Sūtra." A Dictionary of Buddhism. 2004. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O108-HeartStra.html |
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Heart Sūtra
Heart Sūtra (Mahāprajñapāramitā-hridaya-sūtra). A short Buddhist text, which, like the Diamond Sūtra, may be regarded as a distillation of the essential teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). The Heart Sūtra may be dated at around 350 CE.
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Cite this article
JOHN BOWKER. "Heart Sūtra." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "Heart Sūtra." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-HeartStra.html JOHN BOWKER. "Heart Sūtra." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-HeartStra.html |
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