Essential Dharma for Zen Practice – Heart Sutra 心經

 
                Bodhasattva Avalokitesvara

Heart Sutra is very essential for a Buddhist Practitioner. It is my daily
routine in chanting this sutra prior to pricticing meditation for many years.
It is very useful and powerful Dharma teaching  in upholding a right view and
awareness in contemplation.

       Heart Sutra in Chinese Version

The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra

Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara,
while deeply immersed in Prajna Paramita,
clearly perceived the empty nature of the five skandhas,
and transcended all suffering.
Sariputra! Form is not different from emptiness,
emptiness is not different from form.
Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
So it is with feeling, conception, volition, and consciousness.
Sariputra! All dharmas are empty in character;
neither arising nor ceasing,
neither impure nor pure,
neither increasing nor decreasing.
Therefore, in emptiness, there is no form;
there is no feeling, conception, volition, or consciousness;
no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind;
no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas;
no realm of vision, and so forth, up to no realm of mind-consciousness;
no ignorance or ending of ignorance, and so forth,
up to no aging and death or ending of aging and death.
There is no suffering, no cause, no extinction, no path.
There is no wisdom and no attainment.
There is nothing to be attained.
By way of Prajna Paramita,
the bodhisattva’s mind is free from hindrances.
With no hindrances, there is no fear;
freed from all distortion and delusion,
ultimate nirvana is reached.
By way of Prajna Paramita,
Buddhas of the past, present, and future,
attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
Therefore, Prajna Paramita
is the great powerful mantra,
the great enlightening mantra,
the supreme and peerless mantra.
It can remove all suffering.
This is the truth beyond all doubt.
And the Prajna Paramita mantra is spoken thus:

    Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha

This English version of Heart Sutra is used by:
Buddha Gate Monastery:
http://www.buddhagate.org/teachings.html

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