The Heart Sutra: An Introduction
© Yeshe Chodon
The text below is taken from this web site written by a teacher from Pusok Temple in Korea.
Heart of the Prajna-Paramita Sutra, also called Heart Sutra, is the shortest and the most popular sutra in Buddhism. If the six hundred volumes of the Maha Projna Sutra can be summarized by the Diamond Sutra in around 5000 words, then the Diamond Sutra can be summarized by the Heart Sutra in around 250 words.The Heart Sutra is regarded as the summation of the wisdom of Buddha. It explains perfectly the teaching of non-attachment, which is basically the doctrine of emptiness.
I choose the Heart Sutra as this month's topic because it is such an essential Buddhist teaching. The Heart Sutra is a fundamental text in all Schools of Zen Buddhism. It is chanted daily in monasteries and Zen Centers around the World. It is also read and chanted by most of the Mahayana schools. In its prevalence, it is the equivalent of the Christian Lord's Prayer."So highly revered is this sutra that even the sound of it is believed to bring wisdom to those who hear it. The Heart Sutra crosses all boundaries and traditions."
However, it is a timely topic as well, because His Holiness, the XIV Dalai Lama will offer teachings in San Jose, CA on May 17, 18, 19 on the topic of the Heart. Sutra. Visit http://www.medicinebuddha.org/ for details on this event. Tickets are still available as of Feb. 17, 2001.
I attempt only to make the reader aware of the existence and significance of this Sutra and to list some sources for the text of the Sutra ( in many different languages) and sources of qualified commentary.
Text of the Sutra
There is an astonishing amount of bandwidth throughout the Web devoted to the Heart Sutra. The links in this article are just the beginning.
http://cres.anu.edu.au/~mccomas/heartsut...
The Heart Sutra Home Pageis a good starting place because it provides many Heart Sutra Links and versions of the text in Tibetan, (PDF File, gifs, Word Document), English, Spanish, Sanskrit, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese.
Next you might want to visit
http://www.dmcclanahan.com/hsutra.htm
Introduction to Heart of the Prajna-Paramita Sutra where the above quoted explanation appears again, and from where you can link to a version of the Sutra translated from the Chinese along with line-by-line commentary.
http://www.virtualsask.com/buddha/
is a web site simply called Heart Sutra. Again, there is a brief explanation followed by the text of the Sutra. The Sutra, appears paradoxical at first: "form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form" can be daunting. But we come to see that this is a distillation of Buddhism so succinct and complete that indeed little can be added, and it is the study of the Sutra itself, with the help of a qualified teacher, that will bring about new understanding.
