Kumārajīva’s Heart Sūtra 1

Kumārajīva’s Heart Sūtra

摩訶般若波羅蜜大明呪經
姚秦天竺三藏鳩摩羅什譯
Sūtra of the Large Perfect Wisdom Spell

Translated by Indian Tripitika Master, Kumārajīva (344–413), during

Yao Qin times (384–417)

觀 世 音 菩 薩。行 深 般若 波羅蜜 時。照見五陰空。度一切苦厄。

Avalokita-svara, the Bodhisattva, moving in the deep course of
perfect wisdom, beheld the five heaps, and having seen they were
empty, delivered all from suffering and woe.

舍利弗。色空故無惱壞相。受空故無受相。想空故無知相。行空故無作相。識
空故無覺相。何以故。
Śaripūtra. Through emptiness, form has no mark of harassment1.
Through emptiness, feeling has no mark of feeling/ experiencing.
Through emptiness, perception has no mark of recognition. Through
emptiness, impulse has no mark of doing. Through emptiness,
consciousness has no mark of awareness.

舍利弗。非色異空。非空異色。色即是空。空即是色。受想行識亦如是。
Śaripūtra. Form is not other than emptiness. Emptiness is not other than
form. Whatever is form is emptiness. Whatever is emptiness is form. The
same for feeling, perception, impulse, and consciousness.

舍利弗。是諸法空相。不生不滅。不垢不淨。不増不減。是空法。非過去非未
來非現在。

1 Experimental tl. Alternates: ‘vexation’, ‘impingement’ . Note that in all cases, the
very thing that traditionally characterized or ‘marked’ the skandha is precisely what it
doesn’t have and cannot truly characterize it.

English by 白文天. 01/02/18

Kumārajīva’s Heart Sūtra 2

Śaripūtra. All these dharmas are marked by emptiness, they do not

arise or go away, are not defiled or immaculate, do not increase or
decrease. These empty dharmas are not past, not future, not present.

是故空中。無色。無受想行識。無眼耳鼻舌身意。無色聲香味觸法。無眼界。
乃至無意識界。無無明。亦無無明盡。乃至無老死。無老死盡。
Accordingly, there is no form in emptiness—no feeling, perception,
impulse, consciousness. There is no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind.
There are no sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables, or objects of mind.
There is no eye element up to no mind element. There is no ignorance, and
no stopping of ignorance, up to no old-age and death, and no stopping of
old-age and death.

無苦集滅道。無智亦無得。
There is no suffering, cause, extinction, path. There is no wisdom and
nothing attained.

以無所得故。菩薩依般若波羅蜜故。心無罣礙。
By having attained nothing, Bodhisattvas, relying on perfect wisdom, have
no thought coverings.

無罣礙故。無有恐怖。離一切顛倒夢想苦惱。究竟涅槃。
Having no thought coverings, they have nothing to fear. They have left
behind all distortions, dreams, and distress and in the end is nirvana.

三世諸佛。依般若波羅蜜故。得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。
Buddhas of the three periods of time relying on perfect wisdom attain the
utmost, right, and perfect enlightenment.

故知般若波羅蜜。是大明呪。無上明呪。無等等明呪。能除一切苦。
So recognize perfect wisdom as the all-encompassing wisdom spell, the
utmost wisdom spell, the equal-to-the-unequaled wisdom spell that can
expel all suffering.

眞實不虚故。説般若波羅蜜呪
It is true, real and effective, so speak forth the perfect wisdom spell.

即説呪曰

English by 白文天. 01/02/18

Kumārajīva’s Heart Sūtra 3

To speak the spell say:

Gate gate paragate para-samghate, bodhi svahah!

English by 白文天. 01/02/18