Heart Sutra
The Heart Sutra (also know as the Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra or or Essence of Wisdom Sutra) (Sanskrit: प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदयसूत्र Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra; Traditional Chinese: 般若波羅蜜多心經, Pinyin: Bōrěbōluómìduō Xīnjīng; Japanese: 摩訶般若波羅蜜多心経, Maka Hannyaharamita Shingyō; Korean: 반야심경, Banya Simgyeong) is a well-known Mahāyāna Buddhist scripture that is very popular among Mahayana Buddhists both for its brevity and depth of meaning.
Introduction
The Heart Sutra is a member of the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā) class of Mahāyāna Buddhist literature, and along with the Diamond Sutra, is considered to be the primary representative of the genre. It consists of just 14 shlokas (verses) in Sanskrit, or 260 Chinese characters in the most prevalent Chinese version, Taisho Tripitaka Vol. T08 No. 251, translated by Xuan Zang. This makes it the most highly abbreviated version of the Perfection of Wisdom texts, which exist in various lengths of up to 100,000 slokas. This sutra is classified by Edward Conze as belonging to the third period in the development of the Perfection of Wisdom canon, although it is included in the tantra section of at least some editions of the Kangyur.[1]
The study of the Heart Sutra is particularly emphasized in the practice of East Asian Buddhism. Its Chinese version is frequently chanted (in the local pronunciation) by the Zen (Chan/Seon/Thiền) sects during ceremonies in Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam respectively. It is also significant to the Shingon Buddhist school in Japan, whose founder Kūkai wrote a commentary on it, and to the various Tibetan Buddhist schools, where it is studied extensively.
A striking feature of the sutra is the fact that its teaching is not actually delivered by the Buddha, which places it in a relatively small class of sutras not directly spoken by the Buddha. In some Chinese versions of the text, the Buddha confirms and praises the words of Avalokiteśvara, although this is not included in either the extant Sanskrit version nor the preeminent Chinese version translated by Xuan Zang.
Synopsis
The sutra introduces the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteśvara, who represents the faculty of prajña (wisdom). His analysis of phenomena is that there is nothing which lies outside the five aggregates of human existence (skandhas) — form (rūpa), feeling (vedanā), volitions (samskārā), perceptions (saṁjñā), and consciousness (vijñāna).
Avalokiteśvara then addresses Śariputra, who in this text — as with many other Mahāyāna texts — is a representative of the Early Buddhist schools, described in many other sutras as being the Buddha's foremost disciple in wisdom. Avalokiteśvara famously states that, "form is emptiness (Śūnyatā) and emptiness is form" and declares the other skandhas to be equally empty — that is, without an independent essence. Avalokiteśvara then goes through some of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings such as the Four Noble Truths and explains that in emptiness none of these labels apply. This is traditionally interpreted as saying that Buddhist teachings, while accurate descriptions of conventional truth, are mere statements about reality — they are not reality itself — and that they are therefore not applicable to the ultimate truth that is by definition beyond dualistic description. Thus the bodhisattva, as the archetypal Mahāyāna Buddhist, relies on the perfection of wisdom, defined in the larger Perfection of Wisdom sutras to be the wisdom that perceives reality directly without conceptual attachment. This perfection of wisdom is condensed in the mantra with which the Sutra concludes.
Key Mantra
The following mantra, chanted throughout the Mahāyāna Buddhist world, appears in the Heart Sutra:
| Sanskrit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Devanāgarī | Romanization | Pronunciation | Translation |
| गते गते | Gate gate | [gəteː gəteː] | Gone, gone |
| पारगते | Pāragate | [pɑːɾə gəteː] | Gone beyond |
| पारसंगते | Pārasamgate | [pɑːɾəsəm gəteː] | Gone completely beyond |
| बोधि स्वाहा | Bodhi svāhā | [boːdɦɪ sʋɑːhɑː] | Praise to awakening.[2] |
The text itself describes the mantra as "Mahāmantro, mahā-vidyā mantro, ‘nuttara mantro samasama-mantrah," which Conze translates as "The great mantra, the mantra of great knowledge, the utmost mantra, the unequaled mantra, the allayer of all suffering." These words are also used of the Buddha, and so the text seems to be equating the mantra with the Buddha. Although the translation is acceptable, the case ending in Sanskrit mantra is the feminine vocative, so gate is addressed to a feminine person/figure. A more accurate translation is "Oh she who is gone!" In this respect, the mantra appears to be keeping with the common tantric practice (a practice supported by the texts themselves) of anthropomorphizing the Perfection of Wisdom as the "Mother of Buddhas."
One can also interpret the mantra as the progressive steps along the five paths of the Bodhisattva, through the two preparatory stages (the path of accumulation and preparation — Gate, gate), through the first bhumi (path of insight — Pāragate), through the second to seventh bhumi (path of meditation — Pārasamgate), and through the eight to tenth bhumi (stage of no more learning — Bodhi svāhā).
The current Dalai Lama explains the mantra in a both as an instruction for practice and as a device for measuring one's own level of spiritual attainment, and translates it as go, go, go beyond, go thoroughly beyond, and establish yourself in enlightenment.[3] In the discourse, he gives a similar explanation to the four stages (the four go's) as in the previous paragraph.
Musical setting
American composer Lou Harrison set Esperanto language texts translated from the Heart Sutra to music in his 1973 cantata La Koro Sutro.
The Band Akron/Family set the English version to music entitled Gone Beyond on their album, Meek Warrior.
Notes
- ↑ Conze, Edward. 1960. The Prajn̄āpāramitā literature. Gravenhage: Mouton.
- ↑ The translation can only be loose since, as with many mantras, the Sanskrit does not appear to be completely grammatical.
- ↑ discourse on the Heart Sutra
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Conze, Edward. 1960. The Prajn̄āpāramitā literature. Gravenhage: Mouton. OCLC 377068
- Thich Nhá̂t Hạnh, and Peter Levitt. The heart of understanding: commentaries on the Prajñaparamita Heart Sutra. Berkeley, Calif: Parallax Press. 1988. ISBN 0938077112
- Hakuin. Zen words for the Heart: Hakuin's commentary on the Heart Sutra. Boston: Shambhala. 1996. ISBN 1570621659
- Perfect Wisdom, Short Prajnaparamita Sutras - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- Red Pine. The heart sutra: the womb of Buddhas. Washington, DC: Shoemaker & Hoard. 2004. ISBN 1593760825
External links
- Heart Sutra - translated into English by Nalanda Translation Committee - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- Heart Sutra - translated into English by Edward Conze - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- Heart Sutra - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- Heart Sutra - translated into English by The Sutra Pagoda Institute - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- Heart Sutra in Chinese calligraphy. - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- Heart Sutra sung by Anita Mui - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- A Textual Commentary on the Heart Sutra - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- Heart Sutra (Sutra del cuore) - Sanskrit, Korean, Chinese, Italian, and Latin translations - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- Heart Sutra in Chinese - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- A discourse on The Heart Sutra by Pasada of Edinburgh Buddhist Centre/MP3 - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
- A discourse on The Heart Sutra by Master Hsing Yun of UWest - Retrieved October 4, 2007.
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