Prajñāpāramitā Heart Sutra 般若波羅蜜多心經

DESCRIPTION

The Heart Sutra is by far the most popular sutra in the Buddhist world today, chanted aloud by Buddhists daily, regardless of sectarian affiliation. In addition to being the most ubiquitous sutra, it is also one of the smallest - consisting of a mere 25 lines of Sanskrit, or 260 characters in the standard Chinese version.

This course is an in-depth, word-by-word study of the Heart Sutra focused on understanding its underlying teaching of ‘Emptiness’, the philosophical foundation of Mahayana Buddhism. The course will also present the contested origins of the sutra and its various interpretations by different schools of Buddhism.

Primary Reading

📜 Prajñaparamita Heart Sutra, translated from the Chinese version of Xuanzang (649 CE).

Suggested Reading

Other translations of the Heart Sutra (see bibliography below).

Jan Nattier, “The Heart Sutra, a Chinese apocryphal text?" (The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vol. 15, no. 2, 1992, p. 153-218).

Donald S Lopez, Jr. Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra, (Princeton University Press, 1996).

SYLLABUS

Prajñāpāramitā Heart Sutra 般若波羅蜜多心經

玄奘譯

Translated from the 649 Chinese version of Xuanzang

觀自在菩薩行深般若波羅蜜多時，照見五蘊皆空，度一切苦厄.

The bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, while practicing the profound prajñāpāramitā, clearly saw that the five aggregates are empty, thus overcoming all suffering.

舍利子! 色不異空, 空不異色; 色即是空, 空即是色. 受, 想, 行, 識, 亦復如是.

Śāriputra! Form is none other than empty; empty none other than form; Form is then empty, empty is then form. Sensation, perception, conditioning, and consciousness are also like this.

舍利子! 是諸法空相, 不生不滅, 不垢不淨, 不增不減.

Śāriputra! This is the emptiness of all dharmas: they neither arise nor cease; are neither defiled nor pure, and neither increase nor decrease.

是故, 空中無色, 無受, 想, 行, 識; 無眼, 耳, 鼻, 舌, 身, 意; 無色, 聲, 香, 味. 觸, 法; 無眼界, 乃至無意識界; 無無明亦無無明盡; 乃至無老死亦無老死盡; 無苦, 集, 滅, 道; 無智; 亦無得.

For this reason, within emptiness there is no form, no sensation, perception, conditioning, or consciousness; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no sight, sound, scent, taste, touch, or thought; no seeing,..., not even thinking; no ignorance nor end of ignorance,..., not even aging and death nor the end of aging and death; no suffering, its origin, cessation or Path; no wisdom and no attainment.

以無所得故, 菩提薩埵依般若波羅蜜多故, 心無罣礙; 無罣礙故, 無有恐怖, 遠離顛倒夢想, 究竟涅槃.

Being without attainment, bodhisattvas rely on prajñāpāramitā, then their heart is without hindrance; and since without hindrance, without fear; escaping upside-down, dream-like thinking and completely realizing Nirvana.

三世諸佛依般若波羅蜜多故, 得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提.

All buddhas of all times rely on prajñāpāramitā, thus attaining anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.

故知般若波羅蜜多, 是大神咒, 是大明咒, 是無上咒, 是無等等咒, 能除一切苦. 真實不虛, 故說般若波羅蜜多咒即說咒曰：

Hence know, prajñāpāramitā is an all-powerful mantra, a great enlightening mantra, an unexcelled, unequaled mantra able to dispel all suffering. It is true, not false, therefore proclaim the prajñāpāramitā mantra, recite the mantra thus:

揭帝 揭帝 般羅揭帝 般羅僧揭帝 菩提 僧莎訶

Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā!

般若波羅蜜多心經

Prajñaparamita Heart Sutra

Bibliography

Conze, Edward. Buddhist Wisdom: The Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra. New York: Vintage Books, 2001.

Dalai Lama and Thupten Jinpa. The Essence of the Heart Sutra: The Dalai Lama's Heart of Wisdom Teachings. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2002.

Fox, Douglas A. Heart of Buddhist Wisdom: A Translation of the Heart Sutra With Historical Introduction and Commentary. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1985.

Hixon, Lex. Mother of the Buddhas: Meditation on the Prajnaparamita Sutra. Wheaton: Quest Books, 1993.

Hsüan Hua. The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra, With Verses Without a Stand and Prose Commentary. San Francisco: The Buddhist Text Translation Society, 1980.

Hurvitz, Leon. “Hsüan-tsang (602-664) and the Heart Scripture.” in Prajñāpāramitā and Related Systems: Studies in Honor of Edward Conze, ed. Lewis Lancaster, Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series No. 1, 103-21. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.

Lopez, Donald S., Jr. The Heart Sūtra Explained: Indian and Tibetan Commentaries. Albany: State University of New York Pres 1988.

Luk, Charles. Bilingual Buddhist Series: Sutras & Scriptures; Vol. I. Kaohsiung, Taiwan: Fu Kuang Publisher, 1962.

McRae, John. “Ch’an Commentaries an the Heart Sūtra: Preliminary Inferences on the Permutation of Chinese Buddhism,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 11, No. 2. (1988): 87-155.

Nhat Hanh, Thich. The Heart of Understanding:  Commentaries on the Prajñaparamita Heart Sutra. Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1988.

Shih, Heng-Ching. A Comprehensive Commentary on the Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitā-Hrdaya-Sūtra). In collaboration with Dan Lusthaus. Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2001.

Teiser, Stephen F. “Heart Sūtra.” In Ways With Words: Writing About Reading Texts From Early China, ed. Yu, Pauline, Peter Bol, Stephen Owen, and Willard Peterson, 113-116.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

West, Stephen H. “Heart Sūtra.” In Ways With Words: Writing About Reading Texts From Early China, ed. Yu, Pauline, Peter Bol, Stephen Owen, and Willard Peterson, 116-118.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.