Heart Sutra

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HEART S?TRA

A text of fewer than three hundred Chinese characters in its earlier short version, the Heart S?tra (Sanskrit, Prajñ?p?ramit?h?daya; Chinese, Boruo boluomiduo xin jing) was given to the great translator Xuanzang (ca. 600–664) to recite for protection on his pilgrimage to and from the holy land in India. Through his successful use of the s?tra and its concise eloquence, the text became the single most commonly recited and studied scripture in East Asian Buddhism. The Heart S?tra is thought to embody the most profound teaching of prajñ??p??ramit??, the perfection of prajn?? (wisdom), and it is recited in rituals by participants in the Chan school, the Tiantai school, and other traditions.

The longer version of the Heart S?tra has a conventional s?tra opening in which ?nanda recites the teaching as given by ??kyamuni Buddha on Vulture Peak, followed by a formal conclusion. The short version lacks these framing elements, consisting solely of Avalokite?vara's explanation of the identity of form and ?unyata (emptiness), as well as a mantra. Based on literary evidence, Jan Nattier has argued that the short version was constructed initially in Chinese and then translated into Sanskrit. If correct, this would be an otherwise unknown sequence in Buddhist literary history.

The Heart S?tra opens with the statement that Avalokite?vara understood the emptiness of all things and was thus liberated from all suffering. Addressing ??riputra, the stand-in for the abhidharma under-standing of Buddhism in this scriptural genre, Avalokite?vara then describes the perfect equivalence of emptiness and form; that is, emptiness is not a separate realm underlying or transcending the mundane world, but a different aspect of that same world, or a transcendent realm entirely identical with mundane reality. With concise but systematic thoroughness, the text denies the ultimate reality of virtually all aspects of that mundane world, including such quintessential Buddhist teachings as the four noble truths of du?kha (suffering), its cause, its elimination, and the path to that end. With a wordplay on attainment, taken first as sensory apprehension and then as the achievement of spiritual goals, the Heart S?tra describes the perfection of wisdom as the source of the enlightenment of all the buddhas. Finally, it identifies the perfection of wisdom with a mantra: gate gate p?ragate p?rasa?gate bodhi sv?h?. The grammar of this phrase is obscure (as is the case for mantras in general), even more so for East Asian users of the text, but it is usually understood to mean roughly "gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond; enlightenment; hail!"

See also:Prajñ?p?ramita Literature