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Heart Sutra

प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदय

The Heart Sutra—in Sanskrit Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya, “the heart of the perfection of wisdom”—is the shortest and best known of the Mahayana scriptures on the perfection of wisdom, a vast literature that took shape in India from around the first century BC. In a few lines it distils their central teaching. It is recited daily in Buddhist temples across China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, and its Chinese version is among the most copied texts in the world; its origins, and whether the Sanskrit or the Chinese came first, are still debated.

The bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, the embodiment of compassion, deep in the practice of wisdom, sees that the five aggregates that make up a person—form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness—are empty of any nature of their own. He tells the Buddha’s disciple Śāriputra that “form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” and goes on to empty, one by one, the categories of Buddhist teaching itself: the senses and their objects, the chain of dependent origination, even the four noble truths, knowledge and attainment.

Relying on this wisdom, bodhisattvas dwell without fear and reach nirvana, and all the buddhas of past, present and future awaken. The sutra ends with a mantra, still chanted in Sanskrit everywhere: gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā—“gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond: awakening, hail!”

Sanskrit text: the shorter text as restored by F. Max Müller and Bunyiu Nanjio, The Ancient Palm-Leaves containing the Pragñâ-Pâramitâ-Hridaya-Sûtra and the Ushnîsha-Vigaya-Dhâranî (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Aryan Series I.3, Oxford, 1884; public domain), pp. 48–50, based chiefly on the ancient palm-leaf manuscript preserved at the Hōryūji monastery in Japan, transcribed from the Internet Archive scan; the opening homage and the closing colophon are omitted. English: translated from the Sanskrit with AI (Claude), then edited for accuracy and consistency. Not reviewed by a human specialist. Free to reuse under CC BY-SA 4.0. Margin numbers are the sections of the text, following the paragraphs of the 1884 edition.
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    About Buddhist scripture

    The Heart Sutra is an anonymous Mahayana Buddhist scripture, a condensation of the perfection of wisdom literature that took shape in India from around the first century BC. Its date and origin are debated; it is among the most widely recited Buddhist texts in East Asia.

    Who’s who

    Avalokiteśvara
    The bodhisattva of compassion, who sees that the aggregates are empty and teaches Śāriputra.
    Śāriputra
    One of the Buddha’s chief disciples, renowned for his wisdom, to whom the teaching is addressed.

    Key terms

    emptiness शून्यता śūnyatā
    The absence of intrinsic nature in things. Here form and the other aggregates are said to be emptiness itself.
    intrinsic nature स्वभाव svabhāva
    A nature of its own, independent of anything else; the aggregates are seen to be empty of it.
    aggregates स्कंध skandha
    The five constituents of a person: form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness.
    things धर्म dharma
    The basic elements of experience, all of which the sutra says are marked by emptiness.
    element धातु dhātu
    One of the eighteen elements of cognition: six sense faculties, six objects and six kinds of consciousness.
    perfection of wisdom प्रज्ञापारमिता prajñāpāramitā
    The insight into emptiness on which bodhisattvas and buddhas rely; also the name of the teaching itself.
    bodhisattva बोधिसत्त्व bodhisattva
    A being set on awakening, who seeks buddhahood for the sake of all beings.
    nirvāṇa निर्वाण nirvāṇa
    The final extinction of suffering, reached by one who relies on the perfection of wisdom.
    awakening संबोधि saṃbodhi
    The unsurpassed, complete and perfect enlightenment of a buddha.
    mantra मंत्र mantra
    A sacred formula recited aloud; the sutra ends with the mantra of the perfection of wisdom.
    SanskritEnglish

    The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom

    प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदयम् (Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya) · Avalokiteśvara, practising the perfection of wisdom, sees that the five aggregates are empty: form is emptiness, emptiness is form; the mantra “gone, gone, gone beyond.”

    1

    आर्यावलोकितेश्वरबोधिसत्त्वो गंभीरायां प्रज्ञापारमितायां चर्यां चरमाणो व्यवलोकयति स्म । पंच स्कंधाः तांश्च स्वभावशून्यान्पश्यति स्म ।

    The noble bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, carrying out the practice of the deep perfection of wisdom, looked down: there were five aggregates, and he saw that they were empty of intrinsic nature.

    A bodhisattva is a being set on awakening, and the five aggregates are the constituents of a person: form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness. “Intrinsic nature” means a nature of its own, independent of anything else.
    Famous passage Form is emptinessThe sutra’s central line: “form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.”
    2

    इह शारिपुत्र रूपं शून्यता शून्यतैव रूपं रूपान्न पृथक् शून्यता शून्यताया न पृथग्रूपं यद्रूपं सा शून्यता या शून्यता तद्रूपं ।

    Here, Śāriputra, form is emptiness, and emptiness is form; emptiness is not other than form, form is not other than emptiness; what is form is emptiness, what is emptiness is form.

    Śāriputra was one of the Buddha’s chief disciples, renowned for his wisdom.
    3

    एवमेव वेदनासंज्ञासंस्कारविज्ञानानि ।

    Just so are feeling, perception, formations and consciousness.

    In emptiness

    All things are marked by emptiness, and in emptiness the aggregates, senses and objects are negated.

    Famous passage No eye, ear, noseIn emptiness there is no form, feeling or perception, and no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind.
    4

    इह शारिपुत्र सर्वधर्माः शून्यतालक्षणा अनुत्पन्ना अनिरुद्धा अमला न विमला नोना न परिपूर्णाः । तस्माच्छारिपुत्र शून्यतायां न रूपं न वेदना न संज्ञा न संस्कारा न विज्ञानानि । न चक्षुःश्रोत्रघ्राणजिह्वाकायमनांसि । न रूपशब्दगंधरसस्प्रष्टव्यधर्माः ।

    Here, Śāriputra, all things are marked by emptiness: not arisen, not ceased, not defiled, not pure, not deficient, not complete. Therefore, Śāriputra, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no formations, no consciousness; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, object of touch, things.

    “Things” renders dharmas, the basic elements of experience. In the last list the word means the objects of the mind.
    5

    न चक्षुर्धातुर्यावन्न मनोधातुः ।

    No eye-element, and so on up to no mind-element.

    The eighteen elements of cognition are the six sense faculties, their six objects and the six kinds of consciousness. Here they are listed from the eye-element to the mind-element.
    6

    न विद्या नाविद्या न विद्याक्षयो नाविद्याक्षयो यावन्न जरामरणं न जरामरणक्षयो न दुःखसमुदयनिरोधमार्गा न ज्ञानं न प्राप्तित्वं ।

    No knowledge, no ignorance, no ending of knowledge, no ending of ignorance, and so on up to no old age and death, no ending of old age and death; no suffering, its origin, its cessation, the path; no knowledge, no attainment.

    “And so on up to” abbreviates the twelve links of dependent arising, from ignorance to old age and death. Suffering, its origin, its cessation and the path are the four noble truths.

    Relying on the perfection of wisdom

    Bodhisattvas and buddhas rely on the perfection of wisdom to reach nirvāṇa and awakening.

    7

    बोधिसत्त्वस्य प्रज्ञापारमितामाश्रित्य विहरति चित्तावरणः । चित्तावरणनास्तित्वादत्रस्तो विपर्यासातिक्रांतो निष्ठनिर्वाणः ।

    Relying on the perfection of wisdom of the bodhisattva, one dwells with a covering of the mind. Since there is no covering of the mind, one is unafraid, has gone beyond inverted views, and reaches final nirvāṇa.

    Most later texts read acittāvaraṇa, “without a covering of the mind”; this translation follows the text as printed. Nirvāṇa is the final extinction of suffering.
    8

    त्र्यध्वव्यवस्थिताः सर्वबुद्धाः प्रज्ञापारमितामाश्रित्यानुत्तरां सम्यक्संबोधिमभिसंबुद्धाः ।

    All the buddhas of the three times—past, present and future—relying on the perfection of wisdom, have fully awakened to unsurpassed, complete and perfect awakening.

    The mantra

    The perfection of wisdom is praised as the great mantra, which is then spoken.

    Famous passage Gate gate pāragateThe closing mantra, “gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond: awakening, hail!”
    9

    तस्माज्ज्ञातव्यो प्रज्ञापारमितामहामंत्रो महाविद्यामंत्रोऽनुत्तरमंत्रोऽसमसममंत्रः सर्वदुःखप्रशमनः सत्यममिथ्यत्वात् प्रज्ञापारमितायामुक्तो मंत्रः । तद्यथा गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा ।

    Therefore one should know the perfection of wisdom as the great mantra, the great spell of knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra equal to the unequaled, which calms all suffering—true, because it is not false. The mantra spoken in the perfection of wisdom goes like this: gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā (“gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond: awakening, hail!”).

    A mantra is a sacred formula recited aloud. Svāhā is the exclamation that closes a ritual offering.