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Heart Sutra — Prajnaparamita Hridaya

c. 100 BCE–100 CE (Sanskrit); Chinese translation c. 7th century CE · Early Mahayana Buddhism (c. 1st century BCE–1st century CE) · India

The Heart Sutra — Complete Text

1Thus have I heard at one time.

2The Lord was staying at Rajagriha on the Vulture Peak together with a great assembly of monks and Bodhisattvas.

3At that time the Lord entered the Samadhi called "Profound Illumination,"

4and at the same time the noble Lord Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva,

5the great being, was practicing the profound Prajnaparamita.

6He looked down from on high—he beheld but five heaps:

7and he saw that in their own being they were empty.

8Here, O Sariputra, form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form;

9emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness;

10whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form.

11The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.

12Here, O Sariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness;

13they are not produced or stopped,

14not defiled or immaculate,

15not deficient or complete.

16Therefore, O Sariputra, in emptiness there is no form,

17nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness;

18no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;

19no forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables, or mind-objects;

20no sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to

21no mind-consciousness element;

22there is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance,

23and so forth, until we come to:

24there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death.

25There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path.

26There is no cognition, no attainment, no non-attainment.

27Therefore, O Sariputra, it is because of his non-attainment

28that a Bodhisattva, through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom,

29dwells without thought-coverings.

30In the absence of thought-coverings he has not been made to tremble,

31he has overcome what can upset,

32and in the end he attains to Nirvana.

33All those who appear as Buddhas in the three periods of time

34fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect Enlightenment

35because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom.

36Therefore one should know the Prajnaparamita as the great spell,

37the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell,

38the unequalled spell,

39allayer of all suffering,

40in truth—for what could go wrong?

41By the Prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered.

42It runs like this:

43Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

44Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening!

notes

The Heart Sutra (Prajnaparamita Hridaya — "The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom") is the shortest and most widely recited text in Mahayana Buddhism. Despite being only 14 Sanskrit shlokas, it summarises the entire Prajnaparamita literature, which runs to hundreds of thousands of lines. The sutra's central declaration — "form is emptiness, emptiness is form" — is one of the most discussed statements in the history of philosophy. It asserts that all phenomena lack inherent, independent existence; what appears to be solid and real is in fact dependently arising and ultimately empty of selfhood. The closing mantra — "Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha" — is perhaps the most widely chanted phrase in Mahayana Buddhism, recited daily in Zen temples, Tibetan monasteries, and Pure Land traditions alike. Translation: F. Max Müller, in "Buddhist Mahayana Texts," Sacred Books of the East, vol. 49, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894. Public domain.

SutraMeditationBuddhistEmptinessDharma

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