The Essence of the Heart Sutra

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The Essence of the Heart Sutra

By Barbara O'Brien

Updated on June 25, 2019

The Heart Sutra (in Sanskrit, Prajnaparamita Hrdaya), possibly the best known text of Mahayana Buddhism, is said to be the pure distillation of wisdom (prajna). The Heart Sutra is also among the shortest of sutras. An English translation can easily be printed on one side of a piece of paper.

The teachings of the Heart Sutra are deep and subtle, and we do not pretend to completely understand them. This article is a mere introduction to the sutra for the completely baffled.

Origins of the Heart Sutra

The Heart Sutra is part of the much larger Prajnaparamita (perfection of wisdom) Sutra, which is a collection of about 40 sutras composed between 100 BCE and 500 CE. The precise origin of the Heart Sutra is unknown. According to the translator Red Pine, the earliest record of the sutra is a Chinese translation from Sanskrit by the monk Chih-ch'ien made between 200 and 250 CE.

In the 8th century, another translation emerged that added an introduction and conclusion. This longer version was adopted by Tibetan Buddhism. In Zen and other Mahayana schools that originated in China, the shorter version is more common.

The Perfection of Wisdom

As with most Buddhist scriptures, simply "believing in" what the Heart Sutra says is not its point. It is important also to appreciate that the sutra cannot be grasped by intellect alone. Although analysis is helpful, people also keep the words in their hearts so that understanding unfolds through practice.

In this sutra, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is speaking to Shariputra, who was an important disciple of the historical Buddha. The early lines of the sutra discuss the five skandhas -- form, sensation, conception, discrimination, and consciousness. The bodhisattva has seen that the skandhas are empty and thus has been freed from suffering. The bodhisattva speaks:

Shariputra, form is no other than emptiness; emptiness no other than form. Form is exactly emptiness; emptiness exactly form. Sensation, conception, discrimination, and consciousness are also like this.

What Is Emptiness?

Emptiness (in Sanskrit, shunyata) is a foundational doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism. It is also possibly the most misunderstood doctrine in all of Buddhism. Too often, people assume it means that nothing exists. But this is not the case.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama said, "The existence of things and events is not in dispute; it is the manner in which they exist that must be clarified." Put another way, things and events have no intrinsic existence and no individual identity except in our thoughts.

The Dalai Lama also teaches that "existence can only be understood in terms of dependent origination." Dependent origination is a teaching that no being or thing exists independently of other beings or things.

In the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha taught that our distresses ultimately spring from thinking ourselves to be independently existing beings with an intrinsic "self." Thoroughly perceiving that this intrinsic self is a delusion liberates us from suffering.

All Phenomena Are Empty

The Heart Sutra continues, with Avalokiteshvara explaining that all phenomena are expressions of emptiness or empty of inherent characteristics. Because phenomena are empty of inherent characteristics, they are neither born nor destroyed; neither pure nor defiled; neither coming nor going.

Avalokiteshvara then begins a recitation of negations -- "no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no color, sound, smell, taste, touch, thing," etc. These are the six sense organs and their corresponding objects from the doctrine of the skandhas.

What is the bodhisattva saying here? Red Pine writes that because all phenomena exist interdependently with other phenomena, all distinctions we make are arbitrary.

"There is no point at which the eyes begin or end, either in time or in space or conceptually. The eye bone is connected to the face bone, and the face bone is connected to the head bone, and the head bone is connected to the neck bone, and so it goes down to the toe bone, the floor bone, the earth bone, the worm bone, the dreaming butterfly bone. Thus, what we call our eyes are so many bubbles in a sea of foam."

The Two Truths

Another doctrine associated with the Heart Sutra is that of the Two Truths. Existence can be understood as both ultimate and conventional (or, absolute and relative). Conventional truth is how we usually see the world, a place full of diverse and distinctive things and beings. The ultimate truth is that there are no distinctive things or beings.

The important point to remember with the two truths is that they are two truths, not one truth and one lie. Thus, there are eyes. Thus, there are no eyes. People sometimes fall into the habit of thinking that the conventional truth is "false," but that's not correct.

No Attainment

Avalokiteshvara goes on to say there is no path, no wisdom, and no attainment. Referring to the Three Marks of Existence, Red Pine writes, "The liberation of all beings revolves around the liberation of the bodhisattva from the concept of being." Because no individual being comes into existence, neither does a being cease to exist.

Because there is no cessation, there is no impermanence, and because there is no impermanence, there is no suffering. Because there is no suffering, there is no path to liberation from suffering, no wisdom, and no attainment of wisdom. Thoroughly perceiving this is "supreme perfect enlightenment," the bodhisattva tells us.

Conclusion

The last words in the shorter version of the sutra are "Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha!" The basic translation, as I understand it, is "gone (or ferried) with everyone to the other shore right now!"

Thorough understanding of the sutra requires working face-to-face with a real dharma teacher. However, if you want to read more about the sutra, these two books are particularly helpful:

Red Pine, (Counterpoint Press, 2004). An insightful line-by-line discussion.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, (Wisdom Publications, 2005). Compiled from heart wisdom talks given by His Holiness.

O'Brien, Barbara. "The Essence of the Heart Sutra." Learn Religions, Apr. 5, 2023, learnreligions.com/the-heart-sutra-450023.

Five Skandha

The First Skandha: Form (Rupa)

Rupa is form or matter; something material that can be sensed, touched, or seen. In early Buddhist literature, rupa includes the Four Great Elements (solidity, fluidity, heat, and motion) and their derivatives. These derivatives are the first five faculties listed above (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body) and the first five corresponding objects (visible form, sound, odor, taste, tangible things).

Another way to understand rupa is to think of it as something that resists the probing of the senses. For example, an object has a form if it blocks your vision -- you can't see what's on the other side of it -- or if it blocks your hand from occupying its space.

The Second Skandha: Sensation (Vedana)

Vedana is a physical or mental sensation that we experience through contact of the six faculties with the external world. In other words, it is the sensation experienced through the contact of eye with visible form, the ear with sound, nose with odor, tongue with taste, body with tangible things, mind (manas) with ideas or thoughts.

It is particularly important to understand that manas -- mind or intellect -- is a sense organ or faculty, just like an eye or an ear. We tend to think that mind is something like a spirit or soul, but that concept is very out of place in Buddhism.

Because vedana is the experience of pleasure or pain, it conditions craving, either to acquire something pleasurable or avoid something painful.

The Third Skandha: Perception (Samjna, or in Pali, Sanna)

Samjna is the faculty that recognizes. Most of what we call thinking fits into the aggregate of samjna.

The word "samjna" means "knowledge that puts together." It is the capacity to conceptualize and recognize things by associating them with other things. For example, we recognize shoes as shoes because we associate them with our previous experience with shoes.

When we see something for the first time, we invariably flip through our mental index cards to find categories we can associate with the new object. It's a "some kind of tool with a red handle," for example, putting the new thing in the categories "tool" and "red."

Or, we might associate an object with its context. We recognize an apparatus as an exercise machine because we see it at the gym.

The Fourth Skandha: Mental Formation (Samskara, or in Pali, Sankhara)

All volitional actions, good and bad, are included in the aggregate of mental formations, or samskara. How are actions "mental" formations?

Remember the first lines of the Dhammapada (Acharya Buddharakkhita translation):

Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.

Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

The aggregate of mental formations is associated with karma because volitional acts create karma. Samskara also contains latent karma that conditions our attitudes and predilections. Biases and prejudices belong to this skandha, as do interests and attractions.

The Fifth Skandha: Consciousness (Vijnana, or in Pali, Vinnana)

Vijnana is a reaction that has one of the six faculties as its basis and one of the six corresponding phenomena as its object.

For example, aural consciousness -- hearing -- has the ear as its basis and a sound as its object. Mental consciousness has the mind (manas) as its basis and an idea or thought as its object.

It is important to understand that this awareness or consciousness depends on the other skandhas and does not exist independently from them. It is awareness but not a recognition, as recognition is a function of the third skandha. This awareness is not a sensation, which is the second skandha.

For most of us, this is a different way to think about "consciousness."

Why Is This Important?

The Buddha wove his explanation of the skandhas into many of his teachings. The most important point he made is that the skandhas are not "you." They are temporary, conditioned phenomena. They are empty of a soul or permanent essence of self.

In several sermons recorded in the Sutta-pitaka, the Buddha taught that clinging to these aggregates as "me" is an illusion. When we realize these aggregates are just temporary phenomena and not-me, we are on the path to enlightenment.