The Prajñā Pāramitā Heart Sutra《般若波羅蜜多心經》

Pin-Huang Chou 周賓凰

2022/11/30

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, while practicing Prajñā Pāramitā, envisions in His deep samadhi the emptiness essence of all five skandhas, thus surpassing the suffering and misfortune of all kinds.

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。

O Sariputra!
Matter is emptiness and emptiness is matter.
Matter is no different from emptiness, and emptiness is no different from matter.
The same is true of the other four skandhas (feeling, perception, mental formation, and consciousness.)

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。

O Sariputra!

All manifestations are empty in essence, no beginning or end, no defilement or purity, and no increasing or decreasing.

舍利子，是諸法空相，不生不滅，不垢不淨，不增不減。

Therefore, in the full emptiness there exists no matter.

There exists no feeling, perception, mental formation, or consciousness;
there exists neither six organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind) nor six senses (form, sound, odor, taste, touch, or mental object).

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，

Virtually no realm exists, visible or invisible.

無眼界，乃至無意識界。

No such thing exists as ignorance or the dispelling of ignorance.

And virtually no such thing exists as the samsara (cycle) of aging and death or the end of samsara.

There are no four noble truths, through from which one gains wisdom or merit.

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。

As there is nothing to be gained, all Bodhisattvas are liberated from their minds, based upon their realization of Prajñā Pāramitā.

以無所得故，菩提薩埵，依般若波羅蜜多故，心無罣礙，

Being freed from minds, they no longer have fear; they dispel all delusions and illusions, and attain the ultimate Nirvāṇa.

無罣礙故，無有恐怖，遠離顚倒夢想，究竟涅槃。

All Buddhas of the past, present and future attain their supreme enlightenment (anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi) by practicing Prajñā Pāramitā.

三世諸佛，依般若波羅蜜多故，得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。

Hence, one should know that Prajñā Pāramitā is truly a great divine mantra, a great luminous mantra, a supreme mantra, a mantra beyond compare, because it eliminates all suffering, and is true to all.

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，眞實不虛。

Thus, let me tell you the Prajñā Pāramitā mantra, stated as the following:

“Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!”

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。