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THE GREAT HEART OF WISDOM SUTRA

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva

when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita

perceived that all five skandhas are empty

and was saved from all suffering and distress.

Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness;

emptiness does not differ from form.

That which is form is emptiness;

that which is emptiness, form.

The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses,

consciousness.

Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness;

they do not appear nor disappear,

are not tainted or pure,

do not increase or decrease.

Therefore in emptiness, no form,

no feelings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness;

no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;

no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch,

no object of mind;

no realm of eyes and so forth until no realm of

mind-consciousness;

no ignorance and also no extinction of it, and so forth until

no old age and death and also no extinction of them;

no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path;

no cognition, also no attainment.

With nothing to attain

the bodhisattva depends on Prajna Paramita

and his mind is no hindrance.

Without any hindrance no fears exist;

far apart from every inverted view he dwells in nirvana.

In the three worlds all buddhas depend on Prajna Paramita

and attain anuttara-s amyak-s ambodhi.

Therefore know the Prajna Paramita

is the great transcendent mantra,

is the great bright mantra,

is the utmost mantra,

is the supreme mantra,

which is able to relieve all suffering

and is true not false.

So proclaim the Prajna Paramita mantra,

proclaim the mantra that says:

Gaté, gaté, paragaté, paras amgaté! Bodhi! Svaha!

Now I’ll take you through it line by line.

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva

Avalokiteshvara, also called Guanyin or Kwan Yin in Chinese, and Kannon or Kanzeon in Japanese (and Chenrezig in Tibetan, by the way), is one of the main characters in the longer sutra from which the Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra is derived. A bodhisattva, in addition to being the subject of songs by both Steely Dan and The Beastie Boys, is a being who has vowed to put off becoming a full-fledged buddha until he (or she, but I’ll stick with “he” for now—apologies again to Mom) saves all the beings in the universe. There are loads of legendary tales of Gautama Buddha’s supposed previous lifetimes, and in those he is often referred to as the Bodhisattva.

In ancient Buddhism, it was a commonly held—though very much mistaken—belief that only a monk or nun could become a full-fledged buddha, and so the category of bodhisattva , a being devoted to freeing others rather than just attaining enlightenment for himself, was created as something regular folk could aspire to. Notice that a bodhisattva is, if you really think about it, way cooler than a buddha. It might be said that a buddha selfishly enjoys the pleasures of buddhahood while a bodhisattva puts them off until every other being in the universe enjoys them as well. Which would you rather think of yourself as?

The bodhisattva ideal became an important aspect of Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana means “great vehicle.” This movement was a more all-encompassing Buddhism than the monastery-bound tradition that had developed in the first centuries following Gautama Buddha’s death. With the idea that regular folk could become bodhisattvas, the Mahayana sects were able to attract a greater number of followers than the older Buddhist sects, which the Mahayanists derisively called Hinayana, or “puny girly-man vehicle.” Almost all Buddhist sects that still exist today are part of the Mahayana tradition. The notable exception is the Theravada school, which flourishes mainly in southern Asia and has recently made significant inroads into the West.

Avalokiteshvara was originally conceived of as male, but representations of him became more and more androgynous until the modern Chinese and Japanese depictions in which almost always Guanyin/Kannon is female. A Buddhist sex change!

S/he/it (!) is the bodhisattva