You are on page 1of 1

Summary of the heart sutra

In the sutra, Avalokiteśvara addresses Śariputra, explaining the fundamental


emptiness (śūnyatā) of all phenomena, known through and as the five
aggregates of human existence (skandhas): form (rūpa), feeling (vedanā),
volitions (saṅkhāra), perceptions (saṃjñā), and consciousness (vijñāna).
Avalokiteśvara famously states, "Form is Emptiness (śūnyatā). Emptiness is
Form", and declares the other skandhas to be equally empty—that is,
dependently originated.
Avalokiteśvara then goes through some of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings
such as the Four Noble Truths, and explains that in emptiness none of these notions
apply. This is interpreted according to the two truths doctrine as saying that
teachings, while accurate descriptions of conventional truth, are mere statements
about reality—they are not reality itself—and that they are therefore not applicable to
the ultimate truth that is by definition beyond mental understanding. Thus the
bodhisattva, as the archetypal Mahayana Buddhist, relies on the perfection of
wisdom, defined in the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra to be the wisdom that perceives
reality directly without conceptual attachment thereby achieving nirvana.

The sutra concludes with the mantra gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā,
meaning "gone, gone, everyone gone to the other shore, awakening, svaha."

from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Sutra

You might also like