(Great Wisdom)
Romantic Dining in Cheneston's Restaurant (London)
Heart Sutra by vajrasound, released 16 August 2016 The Heart Sūtra The Essence of Perfect Wisdom In Sanskrit: Bhagavatī-prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya In Tibetan: Bcom ldan ‘das ma shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i snying po In English: The Essence of the Blessed Lady, Perfect Wisdom Thus have I heard at one time. The Blessed One was staying at Vulture Peak in Rajgir together with a great saṇgha of monks and a great saṇgha of bodhisattvas. At that time the Blessed One entered into a meditation on the teaching called Profound Illumination. At that same time, the great bodhisattva, the great being, Noble Avalokiteśvara, while considering profound practice of perfect wisdom, saw the five aggregates to be empty of nature. Then due to the Buddha’s power, Venerable Śāriputra said to the bodhisattva, the great being, Noble Avalokiteśvara, “How should a son or daughter of noble family who wishes to practice profound perfect wisdom train?” When he had been asked this, the bodhisattva, the great being, Noble Avalokiteśvara replied to Venerable Śariputra, “A son or daughter of noble family who wishes to practice profound perfect wisdom should see things like this: he or she should correctly see the five aggregates to be empty of nature. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form. Form is not other than emptiness. Sensation, perception, karmic formation, and consciousness are likewise empty. Śāriputra, in that way all phenomena are emptiness; they lack characteristics, they are unborn, unceasing, unstained, free from stain, not deficient, nor complete. Thus Śāriputra, in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no karmic formations, no consciousness. There is no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no form, no sound, no taste, no smell, no texture, no mental objects. There is no domain of the eye up to no domain of the mind, all the way up to no domain of the mental consciousness. There is no ignorance, no exhaustion of ignorance, up to no aging and death, all the way up to no exhaustion of aging and death. Likewise there is no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path, no wisdom, no attainment, no non-attainment. Thus, Śāriputra, since a bodhisattva has no attainment, he or she relies upon perfect wisdom and thus has no mental obscuration and no fear. Because of this the bodhisattva goes beyond all that is mistaken and reaches perfect nirvāṇa. All of the buddhas of the three times, as well, fully awaken to complete and perfect unsurpassed awakening in reliance on perfect wisdom. Therefore the mantra of perfect wisdom, the great knowledge mantra, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra that is equal to the unequaled, the mantra that completely pacifies all suffering should be known as true since it is undeceiving. The mantra of perfect wisdom is said like this: tadyathā gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā Śāriputra, a bodhisattva, a great being, should train in perfect wisdom in that way.” Then the Blessed One arose from meditation and said to Noble Avalokiteśvara, “Excellent! Excellent! Son of noble family, it is like that! Son of noble family, it is just like that! Perfect wisdom should be practiced just as you have taught, and the Thus-gone Ones will rejoice.” When the Blessed One said this the Venerable Śāriputra, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara and their entire retinues, as well as the world with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas rejoiced and praised what the Blessed One had said. This completes the Noble Essence of Perfect Wisdom. Translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. This translation is dedicated to the good health and long life of our precious gurus.
