Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra

The Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya Sūtra — the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom — is the most widely recited text in Mahāyāna Buddhism. In fewer than three hundred words, it distils the vast Prajñāpāramitā literature into a single incantatory utterance. Its central declaration — "form here is emptiness, and emptiness indeed is form" — has shaped Buddhist philosophy, liturgy, and contemplative practice across East Asia for over fifteen centuries. The sutra is chanted daily in Zen, Tibetan, and Pure Land temples from Japan to Tibet to Vietnam, and has been translated into more languages than any other Buddhist scripture.

The text takes the form of a teaching by the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara to the monk Śāriputra. Having looked deeply into the nature of reality through the practice of the Perfection of Wisdom, Avalokiteśvara declares that all five skandhas — the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, mental formation, and consciousness that constitute experienced reality — are empty of self-nature. From this insight follows the sutra's famous litany of negation: no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue; no ignorance and no end of ignorance; no suffering, no origin, no cessation, no path. The negation cuts through every category of Buddhist doctrine itself, culminating in the mantra: "Gone, gone, gone to the other shore, landed at the other shore, Svāhā!"

This translation is by F. Max Müller, from the Sanskrit text, published as "The Smaller Pragñâ-Pâramitâ-Hridaya-Sûtra" in Buddhist Mahāyāna Texts, Sacred Books of the East, Volume XLIX (Oxford, 1894). Müller's rendering abbreviates certain enumerations with "&c." — a convention of nineteenth-century scholarly translation indicating that the reader should mentally complete the standard lists (the eighteen dhātus, the twelve nidānas) which are given in full in the Larger version of the sutra in the same volume. The text was verified from the sacred-texts.com edition of the Sacred Books of the East and cross-referenced with the ldbj.com reproduction.

Adoration to the Omniscient!

The venerable Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, performing his study in the deep Pragñâpâramitâ (perfection of wisdom), thought thus: "There are the five Skandhas, and these he considered as by their nature empty (phenomenal)."

"O Sâriputra," he said, "form here is emptiness, and emptiness indeed is form. Emptiness is not different from form, form is not different from emptiness. What is form that is emptiness, what is emptiness that is form."

"The same applies to perception, name, conception, and knowledge."

"Here, O Sâriputra, all things have the character of emptiness, they have no beginning, no end, they are faultless and not faultless, they are not imperfect and not perfect. Therefore, O Sâriputra, in this emptiness there is no form, no perception, no name, no concepts, no knowledge. No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. No form, sound, smell, taste, touch, objects."

"There is no eye," &c., till we come to "there is no mind."

(What is left out here are the eighteen Dhâtus or aggregates, viz. eye, form, vision; ear, sound, hearing; nose, odour, smelling; tongue, flavour, tasting; body, touch, feeling; mind, objects, thought.)

"There is no knowledge, no ignorance, no destruction of knowledge, no destruction of ignorance," &c., till we come to "there is no decay and death, no destruction of decay and death; there are not (the four truths, viz. that there) is pain, origin of pain, stoppage of pain, and the path to it. There is no knowledge, no obtaining (of Nirvâna)."

"A man who has approached the Pragñâpâramitâ of the Bodhisattva dwells enveloped in consciousness. But when the envelopment of consciousness has been annihilated, then he becomes free of all fear, beyond the reach of change, enjoying final Nirvâna."

"All Buddhas of the past, present, and future, after approaching the Pragñâpâramitâ, have awoke to the highest perfect knowledge."

"Therefore one ought to know the great verse of the Pragñâpâramitâ, the verse of the great wisdom, the unsurpassed verse, the peerless verse, which appeases all pain — it is truth, because it is not false — the verse proclaimed in the Pragñâpâramitâ: 'O wisdom, gone, gone, gone to the other shore, landed at the other shore, Svâhâ!'"

Thus ends the heart of the Pragñâpâramitâ.

Colophon

This text reproduces F. Max Müller's translation of the Smaller Pragñâ-Pâramitâ-Hridaya-Sûtra from Sanskrit, published in Buddhist Mahāyāna Texts, Sacred Books of the East, Volume XLIX (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894). Müller's translation is from the same volume that contains his Diamond Sutra — both belong to the Prajñāpāramitā family of sūtras. The Heart Sutra exists in two recensions: the Larger, which includes a narrative frame with the Buddha on Vulture Peak, and the Smaller, which begins directly with Avalokiteśvara's teaching. This is the Smaller recension, which corresponds to the version most widely chanted across East Asia.

Müller's rendering preserves certain nineteenth-century scholarly abbreviations ("&c.") where standard Buddhist enumerations (the eighteen dhātus, the twelve nidānas) would appear in the full text. His parenthetical note identifying the omitted dhātus has been preserved as part of the translator's apparatus.

The fifth text in the Buddhist section of the Good Work Library. Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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