Heart Sutra

Heart Sutra (Skt. prajñāpāramitā hṛdaya; Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་, Wyl. shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i snying po), aka The Twenty-Five Verses on the Perfection of Wisdom — the most popular sutra of the prajñaparamita collection and indeed of the mahayana as a whole. Although the sutra primarily consists of a dialogue between Shariputra and the great bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, their words are inspired by the blessings of the Buddha, who remains absorbed in samadhi meditation until the end of the discussion. As with all the prajñaparamita sutras, the teaching took place at Vulture's Peak near Rajagriha.

Commentraies

Tibetan

Taranatha, Tib. ཤེར་སྙིང་གི་ཚིག་འགྲེལ་, sher snying gi tshig 'grel

ཤེར་སྙིང་གི་ཚིག་འགྲེལ་, sher snying gi tshig 'grel

English

The Dalai Lama, Essence of the Heart Sutra (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2002), includes a commentary by Jamyang Gawé Lodrö 1429-1503.
Garchen Rinpoche, Oral Commentaries on the Heart Sutra in Relation to Shamatha and Vipassana Meditation And Seven Point Mind Training, San Francisco 2001 (San Francisco Ratna Shri Sangha).
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1988, 2009)

Translations

Edward Conze, The Short Prajnaparamita Texts, London: Luzac & Co, 1973

Famous Quotations

གཟུགས་སྟོང་པའོ། སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་གཟུགས་སོ།

གཟུགས་ལས་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་གཞན་མ་ཡིན།

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ལས་ཀྱང་གཟུགས་གཞན་མ་ཡིན་ནོ།།

Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form.
Emptiness is no other than form,
Form is no other than emptiness.

Buddha Shakyamuni, Heart Sutra

Teachings on the Heart Sutra Given to the Rigpa Sangha

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Rigpa London, 19 October 1991
Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, April-May 1998
Dzogchen Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, July 1998
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, using a commentary by Taranatha, Lerab Ling, 8-10 June 2010
Sogyal Rinpoche, Haileybury, UK, 25 April 2011

External Links