The Heart Sutra

Xuanzang en route to India

The Heart Sutra is most familiar to us in English as it has been translated from Sanskrit in the last generation or two.  But according to the most recent scholarship by Jan Nattier, the Heart Sutra, as we presently know it, originated in China in the 7th century, most likely as the handiwork of Xuanzang, the great Tang pilgrim and monk.   As further elaborated in legend, this is the very Sutra that Xuanzang chanted in the course of his journey from China to India and back again, in order to ward off the myriad evil spirits and dangers.

So the Sutra passed back and forth, across the Himalayas, just like Xuanzang himself, undergoing whatever changes along the way.  If as Nattier proposes, the Sutra was first composed in China, the Chinese version itself was based on a distillation and translation of older Sanskrit texts, and then in turn Xuanzang’s Chinese rendition (the first to be entitled as The Heart Sutra) was retranslated back into Sanskrit to be incorporated once again into the Mahāyāna canon.   

Now here I present my translation of the Heart Sutra by Xuanzang.  In many respects, this rendition closely tracks other readily available versions, including English translations from the Sanskrit text.  One notable exception is the way I have translated the Chinese phrase 舍利子 (pronounced shčlězi), which appears in two places in the Sutra.  This phrase is almost always understood as a reference to Sariputra – one of Buddha’s closest disciples.  Instead I prefer to translate this phrase as meaning Ashes and Dust.   This is a permitted and not uncommon secondary meaning for these words in Chinese – the funerary remains after cremation -- and I much prefer the way this sounds and scans, as part of the overall poem.

And this points to what is perhaps the major difference in the approach I’ve taken with this new translation.  My primary intention is to try and capture the beautiful sound and rhythm of Xuanzang’s original.  For those of you who can’t enjoy it yourselves – you must take my word for it – the Heart Sutra in Chinese has a wonderful sound, filled with liturgical repetition, like the great psalms of the Bible and suras of the Quran.  No doubt this at least partially explains the Sutra's enduring popularity.  Whatever liberties I have taken with the text are in the interest of conveying this poetic quality.

The Bodhisattva Guan Yin  
While meditating upon 
The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra

Saw clearly 
How the Five Bundles
Each and every one of them
Is completely Empty

Everything passes
All suffering
And distress
It’s nothing but 
Ashes and dust

Form is 
No different
Than Emptiness

Emptiness is
No different
Than Form

Form is identical to Emptiness
Emptiness is identical to Form

Feeling
Perception
Willfulness and
Thinking
Are all the same too
Nothing more than
Ashes and dust

All the teachings
Of Buddha are Empty too
Unborn and undying
Unblemished and impure
Neither increasing
Nor diminishing

In the midst of Emptiness
There is no Form
Nor is there feeling 
Sense perception
Volition nor 
Thinking

Without eye ear nose 
Tongue finger or mind

Without shape sound smell
Taste texture or learning

Without the visible realm 
Without even unconscious thought

Without delusion and also 
Subject to delusion without end 

And even without age and death
But also subject to age and death
Without end 

Without the Four Noble Truths

Without wisdom and also
Without means to attain wisdom
As no such thing is attainable

The Bodhisattvas all relied
On the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra
Fixed in the their hearts
Without hindrance
Without obstruction
Without fear
Far from confusion 
And illusion
In the end
To attain Nirvana

Indeed the Buddhas
Of all Three Realms
Depended on the
Perfection of Wisdom 
Sutra to attain
Supreme Enlightenment
For all Eternity

The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra
It is the holiest mantra
The clearest mantra
There is none higher
A mantra unequalled
The mantra to end all suffering
Truly without a false syllable
In the entire chant

The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra
Chant it thus

Gate
Gate
Paragate
Parasamgate
Bodhi svaha

* * * * * * 

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 
究竟涅盤 

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

揭諦
揭諦

波羅揭諦
波羅僧揭諦
菩提薩婆訶