Heart Sutra (梵本般若波羅蜜多心經)

About 梵本般若波羅蜜多心經

Tang · Source text translated by 不空

1,090 · about 4 min

The Sanskrit text of the *Heart Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom* was translated by the eminent monk Amoghavajra of the Tang Dynasty. As one of the "Three Great Masters of the Kaiyuan Era," Amoghavajra dedicated himself to translating Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures into Chinese during the height of the Tang Dynasty, and this translation emerged against the backdrop of a flourishing era of Buddhist translation. The sutra centers on the teaching of "perceiving the five aggregates as empty," expounding the profound principle that form and emptiness are not separate and that all phenomena are empty in nature, guiding practitioners to reach the far shore of Nirvana through the wisdom of Prajñā. As the essence of the Perfection of Wisdom scriptures, its brief two hundred words encapsulate the core of Mahayana Buddhism's teaching on emptiness. It is revered as the "sutra among sutras" and holds a lofty position in the recitation and study systems of Chinese Buddhism, making it one of the most widely circulated and influential Buddhist classics.