The Heart Sutra:
A Dual Language Translation in Verse
who hears all sorrows
Shifts of consciousness and expanded awareness are effects that have interested humanity since the beginning. Using chanting and language—gaining signifiers bound to sounds is one way to engage pure awareness of mind to effect change. This can be termed various things, such as radical consciousness, or energy manipulation. But whatever the system or phenomena is called, there is something undeniable in tying sound-vibration to intention.
Mantras are a part of the ancient practice of chanting. But to all readers, power without guidance is foolish danger. If you choose to follow the path a teacher’s guidance is recommended.
In the Heart’s Perfect Wisdom, known famously as the Heart Sutra, the mantra we will examine is the last line of the work. That was my start. Moons ago, when I started this study, I was curious as to what the words could mean from the perspective of the modern vernacular languages that derive from Sanskrit. From the standpoint of a reverse-engineered folk-etymology—I started my translation. I kept this style of backwards looking because I wanted to see if this mantra stood the test of time. I gave it a modern treatment. Would its transcendent nature prove timeless?
I’ll explain below.
On the Narrative: When the blessédBodhisattva Avalokiteśvara realized how to forever liberate all beings from suffering and sorrow, she taught the way to her student. This sutra, a sacred Buddhist scripture, explains that moment.
On the Heart’s Perfect Wisdom: Easily the most popular Buddhist teaching, the Heart Sutra is an exposition of many profound truths; Some lines say that things do not have any permanent, inherent, or absolute nature. Other lines express that phenomena do not arises alone; all is subject to the interdependency of mutual causes and conditions in oneness. This is expressed as the Bodhisattva Guanyin tells the Heart’s Perfect Wisdom to her one student, teaching him the mantra that moves worlds.
On the Global Heart Sutra: This sacred teaching is considered to be the cosmic birthplace of all who awaken. Across different lineages of Buddhist teachings from India, Tibet, China, Malaysia, Korea, and Japan. the Heart Sutra is considered to be the final revelation that expounds the final and fundamental truth. This path is a process to awakening individual primordial awareness, and to free the mind. As the last word in Buddhism, it is considered the pinnacle and summation of all Buddhist thought. The Heart’s Perfect Wisdom is considered auspicious, purifying and most holy. It is chanted worldwide, having a place at life events and Buddhist rituals. This Sutra began India in the time of the oral tradition. It was first scribed in the 1st century and additional written documents of the class of prajnaparamita literature has been found and dated to the 7th century.
On Mysticism: As a musician I’ve spent decades discerning playing notes, aiming to get closer to the truth. Frequencies intone vibration, giving them a house for energy. In this sutra, the sound and meanings of sacred mantras provide a vibrational powerhouse of energy. I am still on my journey to literacy in translation of Hindi and Sanskrit considering semantics, inflection and cadence as well as respecting the multivalency of language. From there I dance with various metrical forms of verse to smith the perfect sounds and cement their meanings.
प्रज्ञापारमिताहॄदय सूत्रं
ॐ नमः सर्वज्ञाय ॥
तद्यथा ।
गते गते पारगते परसंगते बोधि सवाहा ॥
The Heart’s Perfect Wisdom.
Uttering the sound of the three states of existence
I enter mystic union of oneness with the entire cosmos
In the three worlds, in the three times, my breath
Binds the sound AUM purifying the body, speech and mind.
I take refuge and invoke the awakened mind of the
Goddess who knows all and hears all suffering.
Gone gone crossed over gone
Completely beyond gone to the far shore
Awakened
And all is good
Notes on Translation
On Contemplation: When studied the Maha Prajna Paramita Hrdaya Sutra, (The scripture of the Heart’s Transcendental Perfect Wisdom) known as the “Heart Sutra,” I contemplated it for a long time. I let it take residence in my voice box, subtly sounding the vibrations as I integrated this Sutra into my spiritual practice. This sacred recitation mainly lived in my spoken voice. After seasons of holding this Sutra close to me, I felt my own heart awakening, blossoming like a lotus.
On Form: The verse form of the line is also measured with vowel harmony over the entirety of the line through assonance expressed with glides, nasals, and liquids throughout.
On Diction: The sutra and its mantra are timeless. To do justice to the timeless nature of this ever-present wisdom, I have tried to render the words into everyday speech. The translation of the mantra of the Heart Sutra uses modern language. This mitigates the need for historical or spiritual context into Buddhist cosmology or culture and abandons the intellectualism of the orthodox and normative Buddhist type of translation glosses. In doing so I maintain the tradition of the effortless view by keeping the diction to what is simple straightforward speech. This was the aim of my words and their expression.
On Pronunciation: I have some background speaking Hindi from the impressions of the sounds speakers from Kolkata. In those traditions I have learned the majority of my prayers, rituals and general accent. When this sutra is chanted in Sanskrit, nasalization can be employed to demarcate the end of a passage or phrase. This changes the vowels and consonant syllables slightly as their voicings are intoned through the nose.
The View: All is good, and the view is luminous and spontaneous space. With various traditions, views and lineages, different interpretations abide. These ideas confer assignments of different philosophical positions as well as practices of yoga and meditation. Sometimes ideas are expressed as a philosophical view taken, other times these energies enact as a ritual within meditation. There are those certainly who interpret all this as a culture or a religion. But for all the ways in which these ideas manifest in my mind, I translate these words into what seems most true and transcendent at any given occasion and time.
The work: Beneath I will provide a short explication of several examples of divergent translations.
The Heart’s Perfect Wisdom: Simplicity inspired this translation style; manifest in short words in simple language. Kuntuzangpo, my aim was to illustrate the “natural state.” The Sanskrit words of the title of this Sutra have many layers of meaning, but they literally say prajna (wisdom) paramita (perfection) hridaya (heart) and sutra (scripture). The prose exposition along with its commentary has thousands of lines of teachings across Asia and the West from enlightened masters and sages. But I keep a tight line, with a short turn.
The blesséd Bodhisattva Ārya Avalokiteśvara:The narrative of this sutra explains that the Bodhisattva will liberate all beings from suffering and sorrow. In considering that this Buddha is described as the one who hears the sorrows of the world, I realized the translation. In Sanskrit, that name means the one who hears all cries of suffering, and this is an epithet of the savioress goddess Guanyin.
The mantra of the Heart’s Perfect Wisdom aids in finding the nature of mind to enter enlightenment. The enlightened mind is the awakened mind, expressing form and formlessness in inseparable union. Additionally, the luminous moment of realization of enlightenment can be spontaneously present, free of mental fabrication or logical constructs of intellect. This enlightened nature of mind is beyond subject and object orientation and resides in the great nondual perfection of oneness. Whether it be called Mahamudra, Rigpa, or Samadhi, this perfect oneness is our true nature of mind.
The Sutras say that the Bodhisattva sits with the monks and sages and learnéd laity at the holiest of places. It expresses that the people who came to hear the final word of the Bodhisattva were as many as the grains of sand at the banks of the sacred river Ganges. The Ganges river is known as a mother and as a goddess, known to be the great purifier of all wrongs, karma, and sins. It is known as the holiest of waters which can protect, heal, and make anything that it touches pure. This river is the Goddess Ganga. As the great mother, as a river of Himalayan glacial waterfall, this water makes the Gangetic plains the most fertile place on earth with 4 harvest cycles in a single year, with every season bearing crops for its burgeoning population. As a final resting place for beings, the river Ganges is where last rites and funerary preparations ad rituals are held. This river is a holy cremation site of millions of Hindus and has been for thousands of years. It also functions as a life-giving source of fresh water. Spanning the breadth of life and death—the Bodhisattva expresses that the individuals listening to the sacred wisdom were as many as grains of sand at the Ganges, a further testament to the truth of life.
The original is written thusly; गते गते पारगते परसंगते बोधि सवाहा ॥ Its transliteration says, ‘gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi swaha.’ I translate it as: Gone gone beyond gone beyond completely gone awakened, and all is good.
गते Pronounced ‘Ga te’, I take my meaning from the modern hindi ‘Gae the’ in modern means went or had went, had gone, or gone. So I used a colloquialism to reach back millenia. I translate this meaning as ‘gone’.
Considering the precious nature of life, I understood the meaning of पार ‘para’ to signify across or beyond. Relative to the meaning I considered its significance in crossing over to the next world. From the realization of how life is precious we express compassion for self and others.
To the far shore (from this shore)तद्यथा Is transliterated as tad yathaa. I translate this phrase to mean this shore. Going to the far shore from this place onward into that beyond place across is a translation of final meaning. In ritual a person may move beyond boundaries of mind. Mythologically, rivers have associations with death and transitions, with images of psychopomps or death ferries. Because the word ‘para’ signifies “across/beyond” in the mantra, combined with the meaning of “tad,” the shore, the combined meaning I translated to expresses the idea ‘from this shore, here.’ Though uncommon for this sutra, my translation of ‘crossed over,’ is consistent with the theme of precious life, and Buddhist themes of impermanence.
The last word ‘swaha’ meaning well said, or good words, I consider this word in light of the fundamental truth that “all is good.” “Swaha,” expresses that irrespective of all conditions and times and perceived events, causes and phenomena, all is good. It is the final meaning, the ultimate truth. And it is the last word of this mantra. As such, I recognize it as the ultimate power behind the mantra. Above are the explications of the liberties I have taken with this transcendent text. I dedicate the merit generated in this work for the benefit of all beings, that they may be free of suffering and be happy always.