Invocation

Salutions to the mother of the Buddhas of the threefold time, the Wisdom Gone Beyond, inconceivable and inexpressible, like space its nature is unborn and unstopped.

The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra

Thus I have heard. Once the Blessed One was dwelling in the Royal Domain of the Vulture Peak Mountain together with a great assembly of monks and a great assembly of Bodhisattvas. At that time the Blessed One entered into the samadhi which examines Dharma known as the "Profound Illumination".

Also at the time the Holy Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva, looked upon the profound course of the Perfection of Wisdom and beheld that the five aggregates were empty by their own nature.

Then through the power of the Buddha, the elder Shariputra thus said to Holy Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva, "How should those sons and daughters of good lineage who wish to practice the profound course of the Perfection of Wisdom train?"

And the Holy Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva replied thus to elder Shariputra. "Shariputra, those sons and daughters of good lineage who wish to practice the profound course of the Perfection of Wisdom should look upon it like this: (they must) rightly see the five aggregates to be empty by their own nature.

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form; emptiness is not different from form, and form is not different from emptiness; in the same way, feeling, perception, predispositions and consciousness are empty.

Shariputra, likewise all Dharmas are empty without characteristics, unborn, unceasing, not impure, devoid of purity, not deficient, and not complete. Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no predispositions, no consciousness, no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no form, no sounds, no smells, no tastes, no touchables and no objects of mind; from no eye-sphere to no mind sphere, until (arriving at) no mind-consciousness element.

There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth up to no old age and death, no extinction of old age and death. Similarly, there is no suffering, origination, cessation and path; no transcendental knowledge, no attainment and also no non-attainment.

Therefore, Shariputra, since there is no attainment, Bodhisattvas — by relying on the Perfection of Wisdom — are fearless through lacking obscurations of mind; they have passed well beyond the false and have achieved Nirvana. All the Buddhas of the three times also, having relied upon the Perfection of Wisdom, fully awake to the unsurpassable, right and complete Enlightenment.

Therefore, the Mantra of the Perfection of Wisdom, the mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassable mantra, the unequalled mantra, the mantra which pacifies all suffering, should be known as the Truth — for there is no deception. The mantra of the Perfection of Wisdom is pronounced thus:

TEYATA OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SOHA

Shariputra, the profound Perfection of Wisdom should be learned in this way by the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva."

Then the Blessed One, having arisen from that samadhi, praised the Holy Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva, saying, "Good, good son of good lineage, it is like that, like that; practicing the Profound Perfection of Wisdom just as you have shown makes the Tathagatas rejoice."

When the Blessed One said this, the elder Shariputra, the Holy Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva, the entire assembly of gods, men, asuras and gandhavas rejoiced and praised the Blessed One.

This completes the Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom.