自在寺 · At Ease Temple
The Heart Sutra: the Chinese text and a plain introduction
The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, usually called the Heart Sutra, is one of the most widely recited scriptures in Chinese Buddhism. The version most used today is the Tang-dynasty Chinese translation by the monk Xuanzang: 260 characters that sum up the teaching of emptiness found in the Perfection of Wisdom scriptures.
The Chinese text
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。
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。
舍利子，是諸法空相，不生不滅，不垢不淨，不增不減。
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。
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。
三世諸佛，依般若波羅蜜多故，得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。
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：
揭帝揭帝，般羅揭帝，般羅僧揭帝，菩提莎婆訶。
The text follows the Taishō Tripiṭaka, no. 251, from the CBETA digital canon; the punctuation is our own. Chanting books differ in a few characters.
What each part says
This is a short outline in our own words, to help first-time readers. It is not a translation. For deeper study, please learn from a teacher.
- Opening: Guanyin (here called Guanzizai, the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara), practising deep wisdom, sees that the five aggregates that make up body and mind are empty, and so passes beyond all suffering.
- Form and emptiness: Shariputra was the disciple of the Buddha best known for wisdom. He is told that physical things and emptiness are not two different things, and that the same is true of feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness.
- Empty by nature: all things are empty in nature. In that nature nothing is born or destroyed, defiled or pure, increased or decreased.
- Nothing to cling to: seen from emptiness, the aggregates, the senses and their objects, the twelve links of dependent origination, the four noble truths and even wisdom itself are not things to cling to.
- A mind without hindrance: relying on this wisdom, the bodhisattva's mind has no hindrance and so no fear; free of mistaken views, it reaches nirvana. The Buddhas of past, present and future also reach complete awakening through it.
- The mantra: the sutra ends with a mantra. By tradition it is kept in its Sanskrit sound rather than translated.
Key terms
- Prajna (般若): wisdom that sees the true nature of things.
- Paramita (波羅蜜多): "reaching the other shore", from the shore of suffering to the shore of freedom.
- The five aggregates (五蘊): form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness, the five parts Buddhism uses to describe body and mind.
- Guanzizai (觀自在): another Chinese name for Guanyin. Xuanzang wrote 觀自在, Kumarajiva 觀世音. The temple's name, 自在寺, comes from the sutra's first words.
Turning the wheels at At Ease Temple
Inside the Mountain Gate, beside the path, stand seven Heart Sutra wheels carved with its text. By tradition, turning a wheel once is like reciting the text inside it once. Walk up to the wheels and press "Turn the wheels".