Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya Sūtra (The Heart Sutra)

大明太祖高皇帝御製般若心經序

Imperial Preface to the Heart of Prajñā Sūtra, Composed by Emperor Taizu Gao of the Great Ming

二儀久判，萬物備周，子民者君君，育民者法
其法也。三綱五常以示天下，亦以五刑輔弼
之。有等凶頑不循教者，往往有趨火赴淵之
為，終不自省。是凶頑者，非特中國有之，盡天
下莫不亦然。俄西域生佛，號曰釋迦，其為佛
也，行深願重，始終不二。於是出世間脫苦
趣為其效也，仁慈忍辱務明心以立命，執
此道而為之，意在人皆在此利濟群生。今時
之人罔知佛之所以，每云法空虛而不實，何
以導君子、訓小人。以朕言之則不然。佛之
教實而不虛，正欲去愚迷之虛，立本性之實，
特挺身苦行，外其教而異其名，脫苦有情。昔
佛在時，侍從聽從者皆聰明之士，演說者乃三
綱五常之性理也。既聞之後，人各獲福。自佛
入滅之後，其法流入中國，間有聰明者動演
人天小果猶能化凶頑為善，何況聰明者知
大乘而識宗旨者乎。如心經每言空不言實，
所言之空乃相空耳。除空之外，所存者本性
也。所以相空有六，謂口空說相，眼空色相，耳
空聽相，鼻空嗅相，舌空味相，身空樂相。其六
空之相又非真相之空，乃妄想之相為之
空相，是空相愚及世人禍及今古，往往愈
墮彌深不知其幾。斯空相，前代帝王被所
惑而幾喪天下者，周之穆王，漢之武帝，唐之

玄宗，蕭梁武帝，元魏主燾，李後主，宋徽宗。
此數帝廢國怠政，惟蕭梁武帝、宋之徽宗以
及殺身，皆由妄想飛升及入佛天之地。其佛
天之地未嘗渺茫，此等快樂世嘗有之，為人
性貪而不覺，而又取其樂人世有之者，何且
佛天之地如。為國君及王侯者，若不作非為，
善能保守此境，非佛天者何如。不能保守而
偽為，用妄想之心即入空虛之境，故有如是，
斯空相，富者被纏則婬欲並生喪富矣，貧者
被纏則諸詐並作殞身矣，其將賢未賢之人
被纏則非仁人君子也，其僧道被纏則不能
立本性而見宗旨者也。所以本經題云心經
者，正欲去心之邪念以歸正道，豈佛教之妄
耶。朕特述此，使聰明者觀二儀之覆載，日月
之循環，虛實之孰取，保命者何如。若取有道、
保有方，豈不佛法之良哉！色空之妙乎！

Long ago, when the two principles were divided and the myriad things were complete, those who governed the people were rulers, and that which nurtured the people was law. The Three Bonds and Five Constants were displayed to the world, supplemented by the five punishments. Yet there have always been the violent and refractory who do not follow instruction, who again and again rush into fire and plunge into the abyss, and to the end do not examine themselves. Such violent and refractory ones are found not only in the Middle Kingdom; throughout the world it is nowhere otherwise. Then in the Western Regions a Buddha was born, called Śākya. As a Buddha, his practice was deep and his vows were weighty, and from beginning to end he was undivided. Thus transcending the world and releasing beings from the realms of suffering was his work; benevolent compassion and the patience of forbearance, striving to clarify the mind in order to establish one's destiny, holding fast to this path and acting upon it, his intention was that all people should by this means bring benefit and deliverance to the multitude of living beings.

The people of the present age do not know what the Buddha was about. They keep saying, the Dharma is empty and unreal, how could it guide gentlemen or instruct the common folk? In Our judgement it is not so. The Buddha's teaching is real and not empty. He sought precisely to remove the emptiness of delusion and to establish the reality of original nature. Therefore he set forth alone in austere practice, placed his teaching outside the conventional and gave it a different name, in order to release sentient beings from suffering. In the Buddha's own day, those who attended him and those who listened to him were all persons of discernment, and what was expounded was none other than the nature and principle of the Three Bonds and Five Constants. Having heard it, each gained merit. After the Buddha entered nirvāṇa his teaching flowed into the Middle Kingdom, and from time to time persons of discernment have set forth even the lesser fruits of the human and heavenly realms, and have been able to transform the violent and refractory into the good; how much more those persons of discernment who know the Great Vehicle and recognise its essential purport.

Thus the Heart Sūtra always speaks of emptiness and not of reality. But the emptiness it speaks of is only the emptiness of phenomenal characteristics. Beyond this emptiness, what remains is original nature. The emptinesses of phenomenal characteristics are six in number: the mouth is empty of the characteristic of speech, the eye is empty of the characteristic of form, the ear is empty of the characteristic of sound, the nose is empty of the characteristic of smell, the tongue is empty of the characteristic of taste, the body is empty of the characteristic of pleasurable contact. Yet these six emptinesses of characteristics are not the emptiness of true characteristics; rather, the characteristics of deluded imagining are taken as the characteristic of emptiness. This characteristic of emptiness has bewildered the people of the world and brought calamity upon ancient times and the present alike, and again and again men have fallen the deeper for it, in numbers beyond counting.

By this characteristic of emptiness rulers of former dynasties were deluded and very nearly lost their realms: King Mu of Zhou, Emperor Wu of Han, Xuanzong of Tang, Emperor Wu of the Xiao Liang, Emperor Tao of Northern Wei, Li Houzhu of the Southern Tang, Huizong of Song. These several emperors wrecked their states and grew slack in government; Emperor Wu of the Xiao Liang and Huizong of Song even came to lose their lives, all because of deluded fantasies of ascending as immortals and of entering the realms of buddha heavens. Yet the realms of buddha heavens have never been a far off mist. Such delights this world itself has known. But because human nature is greedy and unaware, men seize even those pleasures the human world already affords; how then should the realms of buddha heavens be otherwise? For a sovereign of a state, or a king or feudal lord, if he commits no wrong and is well able to preserve this present condition, what is this if not a buddha heaven? When he cannot preserve it and acts falsely, using a mind of deluded imagining, he enters at once a realm of empty hollowness; and thus it has been.

By this characteristic of emptiness, when the rich are entangled, lust and craving spring up together and their wealth is lost; when the poor are entangled, every kind of deceit is contrived and they destroy themselves; when those on the verge of becoming worthy yet still unworthy are entangled, they fail to become humane men and true gentlemen; when monks and Daoists are entangled, they cannot establish original nature or perceive the essential purport.

This is why the title of the present sūtra reads Heart Sūtra: it is precisely to remove the heart's deviant thoughts and return it to the orthodox path. How then could the Buddha's teaching be a delusion? We have set this forth especially that persons of discernment may contemplate the covering and bearing of the two principles, the circling of sun and moon, and which of the empty and the real is to be taken, and how life is to be preserved. If what one takes has its Way, and what one preserves has its method, how could the Buddha Dharma not be excellent indeed? Such is the marvel of form and emptiness.

般若波羅蜜多心經序

Preface to the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra

夫法性無邊，豈藉心之所度；真如非相，詎假
言之所詮。是故眾生浩浩無窮，法海茫茫何
極。若也廣尋文義，猶如鏡裏求形，更乃息念
觀空，又似日中逃影。茲經喻如大地，何物不
從地之所生，諸佛唯指一心，何法不因心之
所立。但了心地，故號總持，悟法無生，名為
妙覺。一念超越，豈在繁論者爾。

Dharma nature is boundless; how could it be measured by what the mind reckons? Suchness is without characteristics; how could it be captured by what words explain? For this reason beings stream forth without end, and the sea of Dharma stretches on without limit. To search the text and its meanings far and wide is like seeking a form inside a mirror; to still thought and contemplate emptiness is like fleeing one's shadow at noon. This sūtra is likened to the great earth: what thing is not born from the earth? The buddhas point only to the one mind: what dharma is not established through the mind? Simply to understand the mind ground is called total retention, dhāraṇī; to awaken to the non arising of dharmas is called wondrous awakening. A single thought transcends all this; how could it lie in elaborate discourse?

觀自在菩薩行深般若波羅蜜多時，照見五
蘊皆空，度一切苦厄。

When Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva was practising the deep perfection of wisdom, he clearly saw that the five aggregates are all empty, and so passed beyond all suffering and affliction.

「舍利子！色不異空，空不
異色，色即是空，空即是色；受、想、行、識，亦復如
是。

"Śāriputra, form is not other than emptiness; emptiness is not other than form. Form is precisely emptiness; emptiness is precisely form. Feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are likewise so.

「舍利子！是諸法空相，不生不滅，不垢不淨，
不增不減。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
亦無老死盡；無苦、集、滅、道；無智，亦無得。

Śāriputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness: neither arising nor ceasing, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing. Therefore in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no formations, no consciousness; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, dharmas; no eye element, up through no mind consciousness element; no ignorance and no ending of ignorance, up through no old age and death and no ending of old age and death; no suffering, no origin, no cessation, no path; no wisdom and no attainment.

「以無
所得故，菩提薩埵依般若波羅蜜多故，心無
罣礙；無罣礙故，無有恐怖，遠離顛倒夢想，究
竟涅槃。三世諸佛依般若波羅蜜多故，得阿
耨多羅三藐三菩提。

Because there is nothing to attain, the bodhisattva, relying on the perfection of wisdom, has a mind without obstruction. Because the mind is without obstruction, he is without fear; far removed from inverted views and delusive thoughts, he reaches final nirvāṇa. All buddhas of the three times, relying on the perfection of wisdom, attain anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi, unsurpassed complete perfect awakening.

「故知般若波羅蜜多是
大神咒、是大明咒、是無上咒、是無等等咒，能
除一切苦，真實不虛，故說般若波羅蜜多咒。」

Therefore know that prajñāpāramitā is the great spiritual mantra, is the great bright mantra, is the unsurpassed mantra, is the mantra equal to the unequalled. It is able to remove all suffering. It is true and not false. Therefore the prajñāpāramitā mantra is declared.

即說咒曰：

He then spoke the mantra, saying:

「揭帝　揭帝　般羅揭帝　般羅僧揭帝
　菩提　莎婆訶」

gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā