HEART of WISDOM SUTRA
Translated by Venerable ZaChoeje Rinpoche

Chom den de ma Shes rab kyi pha rol tu chi pai mying po
(The Blessed Mother - The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom)

Thus have I heard; At one time the Bagavan Buddha was graciously seated at the Royal City of Rajagriha, on Vulture Peak Mountain together with a great community of fully ordained beings, and a great community of Bodhisattvas. At that time, the Bagavan Buddha was totally absorbed with a meditation on the variety of phenomena known as the “Profound Illumination.” Also at that time the great spiritual hero, the noble Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, clearly beheld the practice of the profound Gone-Beyond Wisdom, and saw that even the five aggregates are empty of self-nature.

Then through the blessed inspiration of the Buddha, the venerable Shariputra spoke to the great spiritual hero, the noble Avalokiteshvara: “How should any noble son or spiritual daughter who wishes to practice the profound Gone-Beyond Wisdom, train?”
When this had been asked, the great spiritual hero, the noble Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara spoke these words to venerable Shariputra. “Oh son of Shari, any spiritual son or spiritual daughter of the noble family who wishes to practice the profound Gone-Beyond Wisdom should behold in detail; he or she should continually and perfectly behold that the five aggregates are empty of self-nature. Form is empty, emptiness is form. Aside from form, emptiness is not something else. Emptiness is not other than form. Form too is not other than emptiness. Similarly, feelings, perceptions, compositional factors and consciousness are empty.

“O Son of Shari, it is like that with all phenomena; they are emptiness with no defining characteristics, no arising, no stopping, no stain, no stainless, no decrease and no increase.”

“O Son of Shari, therefore in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no compositional factors, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no form, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no phenomena. There is no eye source up to no mind source all the way to no mental consciousness source as well.
There is no ignorance and there is no end of ignorance, and so on up to no old age and no death, and no end of old age and death. Similarly, there is no truth of suffering, no truth of cause, no truth of cessation, no truth of path; no wisdom, no attainment, and even no non attainment.“

“Therefore O Son of Shari, because it is like that, since Bodhisattvas have no attainment, they enduringly abide and rely on the profound Gone-Beyond Wisdom. Having no obscurations in their mind they have no fear within their minds. Passing utterly beyond all that is false, they will reach the ultimate end of nirvana. All the Buddhas who grace the three times with their presence attain the peerless and perfect state of total purification and perfect enlightenment by relying on this profound Gone-Beyond Wisdom.”

“Therefore, the great mantra of profound Gone-Beyond Wisdom is the mantra of great insight, the peerless mantra, the mantra equal to the unequaled, the mantra that quells all sufferings. As it is never false it is known as true. The great mantra of profound Gone Beond Wisdom is proclaimed as:

Tadyata gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha

It is like this, gone, gone, gone beyond, gone utterly beyond to purified growth, so be it.

“Thus O Son of Shari, the great Bodhisattva should train in this way in the profound Gone-Beyond Wisdom.”

Thereupon, Bagavan Buddha arose from that meditative absorption and praised the great spiritual hero, the Nobel Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara by saying: “This is Excellent! Excellent, Excellent, my spiritual son of Nobel family, thus it is, O Son of Noble family thus it is. One must practice the profound Gone-Beyond Wisdom just as you have revealed and all the Tatagatas will rejoice.”

As Buddha said these words, the venerable Shariputra, the great spiritual hero, the Nobel Avalokiteshvara, that whole assembly including the world with its gods, humans, demi-gods, and gandharvas, everyone with a perishable basis rejoiced and openly praised what had been said by the Bagavan Buddha.