Category: Buddhist Meditation | Buddhist Path | Recent Meditation Posts
The Heart Sutra is perhaps the most well-known sutra, or scripture, of Mahayana Buddhism. In just 25 verses, it describes the heart of the teachings of the Prajnaparamita, the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra.
The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā Teachings)
The Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra dates back to the 1st or 2nd century BCE. It contains 100,000 verses, while a shorter version is condensed into just 8,000. These sutras describe the development of prajñā, or wisdom, as the fruition of the Mahayana Buddhist path.
The heart, or essence, of the Prajñāpāramitā teachings is illuminated in a far more condensed form in the 25 verses of the Bhagavati Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya, The Enlightened Mother of the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom.
Thanks to its brevity, this text is often memorized and can be used as a meditation. The wisdom within is not presented in a detailed form we are to understand logically, but in a poetic language we are to embody as non-conceptual insight.
The Heart Sutra Explained
The primary speaker of the Heart Sutra is the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara. In the text, he responds to a question asked by Shariputra, an early disciple of the Buddha. Already a realized arhat, Shariputra asks what any of us wanting to fully comprehend the meaning of prajnaparamita would want to know. If we wish to embody the profound perfection of wisdom, where should we place our effort?
In response, Avalokiteshvara offers meditation instructions in experiential form. He describes realization as the insight that all phenomena are empty of existing as independent and unchanging. This includes the five aggregates we mistakenly define as the self, the sense organs of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body, and what is sensed, such as sound, smell, taste, and the objects we can touch. Emptiness also applies to the mind, to all types of suffering and their cessation. Even the teachings of the Buddha such as the four noble truths and the attainment of enlightenment are empty of independent existence.
An extraordinarily radical and shocking teaching, this realization frees us from all that we fear. If there is nothing to attain or hold on to, there is nothing to lose. Avalokiteshvara concludes by reminding Shariputra that, knowing there is nothing to attain, the bodhisattva self-liberates by resting in their true nature, they ‘practice in this way.’
In celebration, he exclaims the famous mantra, ‘om gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.’ The mantra is a joyful affirmation of going to the far shore of freedom, far from suffering, by abiding in the perfection of wisdom.
Upon hearing this, the Buddha, who had been present in deep meditation, arises from his contemplation to affirm the teaching. He reiterates that ‘it is like this,’ referencing the practice and realization of wisdom. Thus, although the Heart Sutra does not share the words of the Buddha himself, it is accepted into the lexicon of Mahayana Buddhism as the Buddha’s presence inspired the dialogue.
Although we can do our best to describe it, the meaning of the Heart Sutra is not something we are meant to cognitively grasp. Instead, the teaching invites us to practice. With mindfulness and awareness meditation, we come to know this wisdom in an intimate way that goes beyond mere intellectual understanding.
How to Practice the Heart Sutra
Shariputra did not ask Avolokiteshvara to explain what emptiness is, nor did he ask for the blessing of understanding. His was not a question of theory. Already wise, Shariputra asks an enlightening question, how should one train the mind?
Just listening to or reading the Heart Sutra is a powerful form of practice (download it here). Having stabilized the mind with mindfulness meditation, we can bring the Heart Sutra into our awareness meditation. We might contemplate the meaning of the sutra as a whole, opening to the felt experience of its essence.
We can also practice with the sutra one stanza at a time, or sit in meditative contemplation with the following quote, perhaps the sutra’s most famous line: ‘Form is empty. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form; Form is also not other than emptiness.’
Going beyond analysis, we can practice by reciting the Heart Sutra mantra.
Om gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha
This all-powerful mantra further condenses the entirety of the Perfection of Wisdom teachings. Of course, true mind-protection, the innermost mantra, is maintaining an unbroken awareness of the two truths of conventional and ultimate reality, that form and emptiness depend on one another.
