Sunday, September 7, 2008

Heart Sutra

The Heart (of the Perfection of Wisdom) Sutra
Translation by Vietnamese abbot Thich Dao Quang
Japanese version: here

Avalokiteshvara,
the Bodhisattva of Compassion, meditating deeply on the Perfection of Wisdom, saw clearly that the Five Aspects of human existence are empty,* and so released himself from suffering.

Answering the monk Sariputra, he said: Body is nothing more than emptiness, emptiness is nothing more than body. The body is exactly empty, and emptiness is exactly body.

The other four aspects of human existence --
feeling, thought, will, and consciousness --
are likewise nothing more than emptiness,
and emptiness nothing more than they.

All things are empty:
Nothing is born, nothing dies,
nothing is pure, nothing is stained,
nothing increases, and nothing decreases.

So, in emptiness, there is no body,
no feeling, no thought,
no will, no consciousness.

There are no eyes, no ears,
no nose, no tongue,
no body, no mind.

There is no seeing, no hearing,
no smelling, no tasting,
no touching, no imagining.
.
There is nothing seen, nor heard,
nor smelled, nor tasted,
nor touched, nor imagined.

There is no ignorance,
and no end to ignorance.
There is no old age and death,
and no end to old age and death.
.
There is no suffering, no cause of suffering,
no end to suffering, no path to follow.


There is no attainment of wisdom,
and no wisdom to attain.

The Bodhisattvas rely on the Perfection of Wisdom,
and so with no delusions,
they feel no fear,
and have Nirvana here and now.

All the Buddhas,
past, present, and future,
rely on the Perfection of Wisdom,
and live in full enlightenment.

The Perfection of Wisdom is the greatest mantra.
It is the clearest mantra,
the highest mantra,
the mantra that removes all suffering.

This is truth that cannot be doubted. So say it:
Gaté, gaté, paragaté, parasamgaté. Bodhi! Svaha!
("Gone, gone, gone over, gone fully over. Awakened! So be it!")

*EMPTINESS is the usual rendering of the Buddhist term Shunyata. It refers to the fact that no "thing" -- including human existence -- is ultimately substantial, which in turn means that no thing is permanent, and no thing is totally independent of everything else. In other words, every thing in this world is interconnected and in constant flux. A deep appreciation of this idea of emptiness thus saves us from the suffering caused by our egos, our attachments, and our resistance to change and loss. The "Five Aspects" (skandhas) of human existence are body, feeling, thought, will, and consciousness. Avalokiteśvara: "the deity that looks down" is a Mahayana embodiment of compassion, usually associated with or manifesting as Kwan Yin (the great goddess of kindness). Shown here in two distinct Indonesian styles, Javanese and Sumatran.

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