Heart Sūtra

▪ Buddhist text

Sanskrit  Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya-sūtra 

      (“Sūtra on the Heart of the Prajñāpāramitā”), extremely brief distillation of the essence of Prajñāpāramitā (q.v.; “Perfection of Wisdom”) writings, much reproduced and recited throughout Asia. True to its title, this little text goes to the heart of the doctrine it summarizes, in contrast to other brief wisdom sutras that tend to water it down for easier consumption. In the space of a single page (some versions adding an introductory and a concluding paragraph), in words placed in the mouth of the bodhisattva (“buddha-to-be”) of compassion, Avalokiteśvara, and in a series of terse paradoxes, the sutra restates the essentials of Buddhist doctrine from the point of view of the Prajñāpāramitā emphasis on “emptiness.” It ends with the formula considered to allay all pain: “Gone, gone, gone beyond gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all hail!”

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