My translation of the short Chinese Heart Sutra

Mahayana

Thus have I done(although 'me' and 'doing' is in sunyata, I should clarify for being Mahayana-adjacent): I had too much free time before the exam, so I decided to translate the Heart Sutra into English(the things I do to procrastinate). Unfortunately I don't know Sanskrit, so translating the original text is out of the question for me. So, I got the Chinese translation that is used in Korea and did the deed. Please go through it and feel free to pick any nits you come across.

The Sutra of the Great, Perfected Wisdom(Prajnaparamita)'s Heart

Avalokitesvara, when abiding in the deep prajnaparamita, beholds that the five piles of maya are all hollow and leaps over all painful disasters. O Sariputra! that which is filled is not different from what is hollow, and what is hollow is not different from that which is filled; the filled is hollow and hollowness fills; reception, conception, action, perception is nothing unlike it. O Sariputra! the hollow form from which all dharma sprout is neither living nor dead, neither unclean nor cleansed, neither waxing nor waning. For in hollowness, there is no filling nor reception, conception, action, perception, there be not eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, wearing; not color, sound, scent, taste, sensation, dharma perceived; not boundary of eyes through thinking; not lack of wisdom nor the end thereof, not age and death nor the end thereof; not pain, clinging, snuffing, pathway; not wisdom nor gaining it. For there is nothing to gain, bodhisattvas fall back only to prajnaparamita, hence their heart is not blocked; for their heart is not blocked, there is no fear; they leap over all reversed perversions to reach nirvana at last. All buddhas past, present and future, for they fall back only to prajnaparamita, gain the supreme enlightenment unmatched by any other(anuttara-samyak-sambodhi). So know that prajnaparamita is a mantra highly divine, highly bright, with nothing above, equal to no other; able to deny any pain, true with no falsehood. Hence declared is the mantra. And it is thus: Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.(Leapt one, leapt one, wholly leapt one; wholly leapt beyond, let peace be to thee.) Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha. Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

Posted Dec 13, 2025, 10:48 AM UTC

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