{"id":284,"date":"2017-03-21T02:26:12","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T06:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dharmadosung.com\/?page_id=284"},"modified":"2018-10-22T12:49:57","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T16:49:57","slug":"the-heart-sutra","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dharmadosung.com\/?page_id=284","title":{"rendered":"The Heart Sutra"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Heart S\u016btra (Sanskrit: \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u092a\u093e\u0930\u092e\u093f\u0924\u093e\u0939\u0943\u0926\u092f Praj\u00f1\u0101p\u0101ramit\u0101 H\u1e5bdaya) is a famous s\u016btra in Mah\u0101y\u0101na Buddhism. Its Sanskrit name Praj\u00f1\u0101p\u0101ramit\u0101 H\u1e5bdaya literally means “The Heart of the Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom”. The Heart S\u016btra is often cited as the best-known and most popular Buddhism scripture of all.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Bodhisattva of Great Compassion, when deeply practicing\u00a0<\/span>prajna paramita<\/span>, realized that all five aggregates are empty and became free from all suffering and distress.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here,\u00a0<\/span>Shariputra<\/span>, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The same is true of sensations, perceptions, impulses, consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here,\u00a0<\/span>Shariputra<\/span>, all dharmas are empty; they do not appear or disappear, are not tainted or pure, do not increase or decrease.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore in emptiness, no form, no sensations, no perceptions, no impulses, no consciousness. No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no form, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind; no realm of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

No ignorance, nor extinction of ignorance, no old age and death, nor extinction of them. No suffering, no cause of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path; no wisdom, no attainment with nothing to attain.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bodhisattva relies on\u00a0<\/span>prajna paramita<\/span>, therefore the mind has no hindrance; without any hindrance, no fears exist; free from delusion, one dwells in nirvana. All buddhas of the past, present, and future rely on\u00a0<\/span>prajna paramita<\/span>\u00a0and attain supreme enlightenment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore know that\u00a0<\/span>prajna paramita<\/span>\u00a0is the great mantra, is the great enlightening mantra, is the unsurpassed and unequalled mantra, which is able to eliminate all suffering. This is true, not false.<\/span><\/p>\n

So proclaim the\u00a0<\/span>Prajna Paramita<\/span>\u00a0mantra, which says<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Introduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Heart S\u016btra, belonging to the Perfection of Wisdom (Praj\u00f1\u0101p\u0101ramit\u0101) category of Mah\u0101y\u0101na Buddhism literature along with the Diamond S\u016btra, is perhaps the most prominent representative of the genre.<\/h3>\n

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The Heart S\u016btra is made up of 14 shlokas in Sanskrit, with each shloka containing 32 syllables. In the standard Chinese translation by Xuanzang, it has 260 Chinese characters. In English it is composed of sixteen sentences. This makes it the shortest text in the Perfection of Wisdom genre, which contains scriptures in lengths up to 100,000 shlokas.<\/p>\n

According to Buddhist scholar and author Geshe Kelsang Gyatso in his commentary to the Heart S\u016btra:
\nThe Essence of Wisdom Sutra (Heart S\u016btra) is much shorter than the other Perfection of Wisdom s\u016btras but it contains explicitly or implicitly the entire meaning of the longer Sutras.<\/em><\/h4>\n

This sutra is classified by Edward Conze as belonging to the third of four periods in the development of the Perfection of Wisdom canon, although because it contains a mantra (sometimes called a dharani), it does overlap with the final, tantric phase of development according to this scheme, and is included in the tantra section of at least some editions of the Kangyur. Conze estimates the sutra’s date of origin to be 350 CE; some others consider it to be two centuries older than that. Recent scholarship is unable to verify any date earlier than the 7th century CE.<\/p>\n

The Chinese version is frequently chanted (in the local pronunciation) by the Chan (Zen\/Seon\/Thi\u1ec1n) school during ceremonies in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam respectively. It is also significant to the Shingon Buddhist school in Japan, whose founder K\u016bkai wrote a commentary on it, and to the various Tibetan Buddhist schools, where it is studied extensively.<\/h4>\n

The s\u016btra is in a small class of s\u016btras not attributed to the Buddha. In some versions of the text, starting with that of Fayue dating to about 735, the Buddha confirms and praises the words of Avalokite\u015bvara, although this is not included in the preeminent Chinese version translated by Xuanzang. The Tibetan canon uses the longer version, although Tibetan translations without the framing text have been found at Dunhuang. The Chinese Buddhist canon includes both long and short versions, and both versions exist in Sanskrit.<\/p>\n

\"THE<\/p>\n

Origin and early translations<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The earliest extant text of the Heart Sutra is the palm-leaf manuscript found at the Horyuji Temple, and dated to 609 CE. It was one of two texts which formed the basis for a published edition by Max M\u00fcller (1881), and formed the basis of a published edition by Shaku Hannya (1923). (See image top right) However it is important to note that a comparison of the script with India manuscripts and inscriptions argues for a date in the 8th century for the Horyuji manuscript.<\/p>\n

A Chinese text attributed to Xuanzang and dated 649 CE is preserved in the Chinese Tripi\u1e6daka. Stories exist of earlier translations but are likely to be apocryphal.<\/h4>\n

In particular Edward Conze acknowledges that the text attributed to Kumaraj\u012bva is the work of his student. It is not mentioned a biography compiled in 519 CE. John McRae and Jan Nattier have argued that this translation was created by someone else, much later, based on Kumarajiva’s Large S\u016btra. Zhi Qian’s version, supposedly composed in 200-250 CE, was lost before the time of Xuanzang, who produced his own version in 649CE, which closely matches the one attributed to Kumarajiva. Xuanzang’s version is the first record of the title “Heart S\u016btra” (\u5fc3\u7d93 x\u012bnj\u012bng) being used for the text, and Fukui Fumimasa has argued that \u5fc3\u7d93 actually means dh\u0101ra\u1e47\u012b scripture. According to Huili’s biography, Xuanzang learned the sutra from an inhabitant of Sichuan, and subsequently chanted it during times of danger in his journey to the West.<\/p>\n

Thus the available evidence points towards the Heart Sutra being composed in 6th or 7th century.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Title<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Zhi Qian version is titled Po-jo po-lo-mi shen-chou i chuan or Prajnaparamita Dharani; the Kumarajiva version is titled Mo-ho po-jo po-lo-mi shen-chou i chuan or Maha Prajnaparamita Mahavidya Dharani. Xuanzang’s translation was the first to use Hrdaya (“Heart”) in the title.<\/h4>\n

Despite the common name Heart S\u016btra, the word s\u016btra is not present in known Sanskrit manuscripts, which refer to it simply as praj\u00f1\u0101p\u0101ramit\u0101h\u1e5bdaya. Xuanzang’s translation was also the first to call the text a sutra. No extant Sanskrit copies use this word, though it has become standard usage in Chinese and Tibetan, as well as English.<\/p>\n

Some citations of Zhi Qian’s and Kumarajiva’s versions prepend moho (which would be maha in Sanskrit) to the title. Some Tibetan editions add bhagavat\u012b, meaning “Victorious One” or “Conqueror”, an epithet of Prajnaparamita as goddess.<\/p>\n

In the Tibetan text the title is given first in Sanskrit and then in Tibetan:<\/h4>\n