The Heart Sutra : Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra

Prajnaparamita-Hridaya-Sutra
The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra :

Tadyata Om Gate Gate Para Gate Parasam Gate Bodhi Svaha 

~*~

Prajna = Wisdom 

Paramita = Perfection

 ~*~

The Prajnaparamita sutra is the most important text of Mahayana Buddhism, which emphasizes the doctrines of emptiness and bodhicitta.

The text is often represented and personified by a female deity.

She is depicted with four arms and seated in the vajra posture/cross legged. Her first two hands are in the meditation mudra. In her second left hand is a text, specifically The Heart Sutra and in her right second hand is a vajra, which symbolizes the indestructibility or diamond - like nature buddha-mind or enlighten mind. 

With Rao visiting Bhaktapur in Nepal 

While my time in Kopan Monastery and my Buddhist studies , i had the luck to meet a doctor, a scholar in Sanskrit and a Buddhist practitioner Rao Mallampati. He is a south Indian man but half of his life spent it working as researcher in America. During his personal retreat in Kopan, he engage with much kindness with me and was really happy to help me with the text of the Heart Sutra. As i have chanted in the past in Korean language, i have read it in English and heard it many times from Tibetan monks , but yet my need to connect in more profound way was there...So we set our days and some times at noon , sometimes at late afternoon, we had our a class. These days where these kind of days from your life that you see them as a " bookmark ". It was an exchange from heart to heart and when the base is beyond " i give and you take ", then something is really moving there.

To do the whole text in Sanskrit, and discover the meaning of every single word , it was a very unique experience. Many questions arose from my side , and many many things that i was reading in my Buddhist books , these days took a place in my mind. He also tried to teach me the correct pronunciation , and me i spend many afternoon trying to memorize the text in Sanskrit while doing kowra at Kopan's stupas ( Circumambulation ). No mention how easy was to learn it in this way. So Here it is the 4 parts of the Heart Sutra in Sanskrit and all my notes on English translation. I hope this will be helpful for anyone who is interesting in the text in its originally writing, in Sanskrit.  

 

on the above video at 0:17:16 there is a full recitation of the heart sutra in Sanskrit from a Buddhist monk  

Four parts:

• Introduction
• Abhidharma
• Bodhisattva Path
• Sutra 

Introduction:

Om namo bhagavatyai arya-prajnaparamitayai

Om Salutation to the blessed and noble one ( who has reached the other shore of the most excellent transcendental wisdom )

Verse1 : 

Arya-avalokitesvaro bodhisattvo /
The Noble Avalokateswaro Bodhisattva

Verse 2 :
Gambhiram prajnaparamita caryam caramano /
While practicing the deep practice of prajnaparamita

Verse 3 :
Vyavalokayati sma panca-skandhas /
Look upon the five skandas ( the 5 aggregates that gives the sense of our being. These are form, sensation, perception, memory, consciousness )

Verse 4 :

Tamscha svabhava sunyam pasyati sma. /
and saw them to be of any self - existence

Verse 5 :
Iha sariputra /
Here Sariputra ( son of Sari, first disciple of Buddha )

Verse 6 :
Rupam sunyata, sunyataya rupam /
Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form

Verse 7 :
Rupam na prithik sunyata, sunyataya na prithik rupam /
Emptiness is not separate from Form , Form is not separate of emptiness

Verse 8 :
Yad rupam sa sunyata, Sunyataya tad rupam /
Whatever is Form is Emptiness , whatever is Emptiness is Form

Verse 9 :
Evam eva, vedana samjna, samskara vijnanam. /
The same holds good for sensation, perception, memory, consciousness.

Verse 10 :
Iha sariputra sarva dharmah, sunyata laksanah /
Here Sariputra, all dharmas defiened by emptiness

Verse 11 :
Anutpanna, Aniruddha, Amala, Aviamala, Anuna, Aparipurnah. /
No birth or destruction , purity or defilement , completeness or deficient.


~*~


Abhidharma:

Verse 12-13 :
Tasmac sariputra sunyatayam na rupam na vedana, na samjna, na samskarah na vijnanam. /
Therefore sariputra in Emptiness there is no Form, no sensation, no perception, no memory, no consciousness.

Verse 14 :
Na cakshuh-srotra, ghrana-jihva, kaya-manamsi. /
No eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind

Verse 15 :
Na rupa sabda gandha rasa sprashtvaya dharmah. /
No shape, no sound, no smell, no taste, no feeling, no thoughts.

Verse 16 :
Na cakshur-dhatur yavan, na manovijnana-dhatuh. /
No element of perception from eye to conceptual consciousness.

Verse 17-18 :
Na avidya, na avidya-ksayo, yavan na jaramaranam, na jaramarana-ksayo./
No ignorance, nor the end of ignorance, or no to old age and death nor end of old age and death.
( the 12 depending origination factors :

1. Ignorance
2. Memory
3. Consciousness 
4. Name and Form
5. The 6 senses
6. Contact 
7. Feeling
8. Desire
9. Grasping
10. Arising
11. Birth
12. Old age and death )

Verse 19 :
Na duhkha, samudaya, nirodha, marga.
No suffering, no cause, no relief, nor path. /
( 4 noble truths :

1. Truth of Suffering
2. The Cause of Suffering
3. The Truth of Cessation
4. The Truth of Path )

Verse 20 :
Na jnanam, na praptir, na-apraptih.
No knowledge, no attainment, and no non-attainment.


~*~


Bodhisattva Path:

Verse 21-22 :
Tasmac Sariputra Apraptivad
Bodhisattvo prajna-paramitam Astritya /
Therefore Sariputra, without attainment Bodhisattvas take refuge in prajnaparamita.

Verse 23 :
Veharanty acitta Avarnah. /
and live without the walls of the mind.

Verse 24 :
Citta Avarana nastitvad atrastro /
Without walls of the mind thus without fears.

Verse 25 :
Viparasya atrikranto nishta nirvanah. /
They see through delusions and finally come to Nirvana.

Verse 26-27 :
Tryadva vyavashitah, sarava buddhah prajna - paramitam Astritya /
All Buddhas from 3 ages ( past, present and future )
take refuge in prajnaparamita

Verse 28 :
Anuttaram samyak sambodhim Ambhisumbuddhanah. /
and realize unexcelled  perfect enlightement.

~*~

Sutra:

Verse 29 :
Tasmac jnatavyam prajna-paramitam maha mantro. /
Therefore you should know the Great Mantra of prajnaparamita.

Verse 30 :
Maha Vidya mantra. /
The mantra of great magic.

Verse 31 :
Anuttara mantro. /
The unexcelled mantra.

Verse 32 :
Asamasama mantrah. /
The mantra equal to the unequal.

Verse 33 :
Sarva dukha prasamanah, satyam Amityuavat. /
Which heals all suffering , it all true and not false.

Verse 34 :
Prajna-paramittam ukto mantrah, tadyata
The mantra of prajna-paramitam does spoken

Verse 35 :
Gate , Gate , Paragati,
Parasam gate  Bodhi svaha 
 

Dedicate this post to all sentient beings and to my dharma friend Lama Lopon Sonam who with much patience try to answer and discuss all of my questions about life and its reality...

Renunciation

The first teaching of Buddha, 2.500 years ago, was the Forth Noble Truths.

. The truth of suffering
. The truth of origin of suffering
. The truth of cessation
. The truth of the path

And by reflecting on the four Noble Truth the 3 principles of the path towards enlightenment which are :

. Renunciation - that one wants to be free of the suffering of the cycle existence ( samsara ) -

. Generate bodhicitta mind - one cultivates pure altruistic intention to benefit all the other beings -

. Understanding the emptiness simply by cultivating the correct view on the depending arising and all things, which is an ego-free view.

Of course I'm not a dharma teacher to talk or write thoroughly about the Buddha's teachings but since currently I'm living in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Nepal, I thought i can share some of my experiences in relation to my understanding on how can one look upon the life itself and especially when life seems that is collapsing.
From the teachings that I receive up to now and from my personal study I understand how precious is one to come to the understanding of the truth of suffering and the causes of suffering - the two first noble truths - .
The understanding natural leads to a strong determination that one wants to renounce the suffering from his life and bring vastness of happiness instead.

There are 3 kinds of sufferings that one can experience :

. The suffering of suffering which easily all beings can understand the pain of pain. Physical or mental and all at a certain point we renounce this pain , as we don't want to experience it.

. The suffering of change. Our "un-contentment" mind always seek temporary happiness through possessions , relationships , reputation etc. but of course all these , is the case that are constantly change and our ego-view mind cannot cope with the change and thus we experience suffering.

. The pervasive suffering. Is the suffering that comes from the way we perceive all phenomena and the Self. The aggregates of the mind ( the 5 Skandas in Sanskrit )
- form
- sensation
- perception
- memory
- consciousness
Are polluted through the Buddhist point of view by delusions and karma , therefore all the phenomena we perceive to exist through the contaminated aggregates are creating causes for self misery continually throughout our life span.

So that why is important to understand the truth of suffering and the cause of suffering so we can make our first step towards renunciation. This is the first step towards enlightenment.

Then naturally questions arisen. How do I get out of this continuous suffering ?
What is the nature of this freedom ?
What is the path to attain it ?

Well I really cannot answer for you into this , but I'm sure that with self study and self investigation one can certainly give some answers but the most important is that there are tools out there ready for use !
The dharma teachings, if you learn how to listen to them and if you start putting them into practice, is one of the most powerful tools that one can have in order to taming the mind and remove all obscurations from it, so its pure clear nature be finally revealed.
The Tibetan Buddhism tradition that I'm studying, presented the Lam - Rim discourse to the world about one millennium ago, which are the stages to enlightenment.
One who can listen , study , understand and contemplate on Lam - Rim , he can transform his behavior.

Through the Lam - Rim are taking place 3 kinds of high trainings:
1. Ethic training - one becomes an expression of non-violence and a pure heart -
2. Single point concentration training - one is able to abandon all meaningless distractions into his way -
3. Wisdom training - one is able to abandon delusions of all kinds -

Absolutely hard work but it works ! I'm studying less than 2 months here , total beginner but I'm so impressed how life looks thought my eyes now. And I had a good "test drive" while I am here. Couple of weeks ago I learn that all my "possessions" that i left in India are gone. When I left Greece I took with me all my precious possessions. My favorites clothes, presents from my best friends, and of course my laptop with my hard disc , with all my teaching yoga material an accumulation of studying of the last years , a booklet that I was writing on yoga , all my memories with thousands of photos now lost and of course my precious Ashtanga authorization paper from Manju P. Jois. Because of my coming to the kopan monastery I thought that it was better to leave my stuff in India and make my time here more focus on the studies and more simple in my needs and way of living. So when I learn that everything were stolen for first time in my life I didn't freak out ! My first thought was for the person who did it because knowing who he is, I know that what he did is out of his weakness of grasping material possessions despite of the wealth life that he has ...I really felt so sorry for him.
After that I was still breathing ..! No anxiety , no panic. Still breathing . I couldn't believe that this reaction was happening to me and seriously it was the first sign that the transformation is actually taking place! To decide not to be merely labeled by my possessions and absolutely let go of that past get me somehow more free. And being able to stay at Kopan all these weeks, is making me feel that maybe for first time, that I am to my real" home ".

I dedicate this post to Lama Zopa Riponche , that is my inspiration and the lamp that i hold when i walk to the darkness paths of my ignorance