Manchester Buddhist Centre

A day of study and explor­a­tion of this import­ant Buddhist text

The Heart Sutra is prob­ably the most well known of Mahayana Buddhism’s devel­op­ment of the Buddha’s teach­ings — a text entirely on the sub­ject of Sunyata, the inher­ent empti­ness of all phenomena

The Heart Sutra

The Bodhisattva of Compassion,
When he med­it­ated deeply,
Saw the empti­ness of all five skand­has
And sundered the bonds that caused him suf­fer­ing.
Here then,
Form is no other than empti­ness,
Emptiness no other than form.
Form is only empti­ness,
Emptiness only form.
Feeling, thought, and choice,
Consciousness itself,
Are the same as this.
All things are by nature void
They are not born or des­troyed
Nor are they stained or pure
Nor do they wax or wane
So, in empti­ness, no form,
No feel­ing, thought, or choice,
Nor is there con­scious­ness.
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
No col­our, sound, smell, taste, touch,
Or what the mind takes hold of,
Nor even act of sens­ing.
No ignor­ance or end of it,
Nor all that comes of ignor­ance;
No with­er­ing, no death,
No end of them.
Nor is there pain, or cause of pain,
Or cease in pain, or noble path
To lead from pain;
Not even wis­dom to attain!
Attainment too is empti­ness.
So know that the Bodhisattva
Holding to noth­ing whatever,
But dwell­ing in Prajna wis­dom,
Is freed of delusive hindrance,
Rid of the fear bred by it,
And reaches clearest Nirvana.
All Buddhas of past and present,
Buddhas of future time,
Using this Prajna wis­dom,
Come to full and per­fect vis­ion.
Hear then the great dhar­ani,
The radi­ant peer­less man­tra,
The Prajnaparamita
Whose words allay all pain;
Hear and believe its truth!

Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate
Bodhi Svaha