Heart Sutra

Context

Describing the historical context behind the Heart Sutra involves more than one perspective. We must consider the historical milieu that gave rise to its writing and also take into account how adherents understand its origins. The Buddha was born as a prince with the name Siddhartha Gautama. According to Buddhist legends, at the age of twenty-nine he reached enlightenment, becoming Shakyamuni Buddha, and was persuaded to teach others the process he had used to reach this state of liberation. The summary of his teaching is called the Four Noble Truths. Buddhists refer to the moment that he delivered this first teaching as the First Turning of the Wheel. It is understood to have taken place at a deer park in Sarnath near Varanasi in northern India (near modern-day Nepal) to an audience of his close associates.

Most Mahayana traditions claim that the Buddha spoke the Perfection of Wisdom and other Mahayana scriptures at a subsequent event referred to as the Second Turning of the Wheel. According to legend, this event took place before an audience of bodhisattvas on Vulture Peak, located in Bihar, India. (Bodhisattvas are beings who have reached a high level of understanding and who are on their way to becoming fully enlightened buddhas.) The event has no historic authenticity in any ordinary sense: Mahayana devotees believe that this gathering took place on a higher plane, accessible only by supernatural means. Moreover, the Buddha was able to deliver several scriptures simultaneously at a multiplicity of locations. Mahayana adherents agree that it requires considerable mind stretching to accept and understand this possibility.

Mahayana Buddhists believe that at the time the Perfection of Wisdom and other Mahayana scriptures were first delivered, there was no one on earth who was capable of hearing their wisdom or even accessing the higher plane where the Buddha first spoke them. For this reason, the Buddha hid these teachings in the land of the Nagas for a later time, when humanity would have matured sufficiently to grasp their meaning. Legends claim that the Indian philosopher Nagarjuna, considered the second Buddha by most East Asian Mahayana Buddhists, retrieved many of these scriptures from the land of the Nagas.

Grasping the central tenets of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy requires some background knowledge of early Indian Buddhism, which traces its origins to the Buddha’s first teaching of the Four Noble Truths. These teachings focus on suffering and how to overcome it—a process explained in terms of the Buddhist concept of the “chain of dependent origination.” Thoroughly understanding the interrelationship of all things is fundamental to understanding the concept of emptiness. Understanding the concept of emptiness, in turn, is the key to overcoming suffering.

The way early Indian Buddhists thought about these concepts is presented in the Abhidharma. The Abhidharma is one of the three “baskets” of scriptures that, as a set, form the Pali canon. In 25 BCE, the Theravadin Buddhists held a council in Anuradhapura, the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. This council established the contents of the Tripitaka, the “three baskets” of texts that make up their version of the Buddhist canon. The other two baskets are the sutras (words of the Buddha) and the vinaya (rules for monks and nuns). The texts in the Abhidharma classify and analyze the teachings of the Buddha collected in the sutras. According to early Buddhist legends, the Buddha taught the Abhidharma to his mother shortly after he attained enlightenment. However, unlike the scriptures collected in the other two baskets, the texts of the Abhidharma are understood to have been composed by learned followers of the Buddha. Nevertheless, adherents understand the learning contained in the Abhidharma as expressing the teaching of the Buddha.

According to the Abhidharma system, elements called dharmas are the most fundamental factors of existence. These dharmas form clusters that determine the quality of material and psychological aspects of all entities, both animate and inanimate. The composition of these clusters changes from moment to moment in accordance with the concept of the chain of dependent origination. The Buddha explained the chain of dependent origination in his first teaching of the Four Noble Truths. The term skandha refers to a particular set of clusters of dharmas. The five skandhas are form, feeling, cognition, formation, and consciousness.

The scriptures associated with the Perfection of Wisdom challenge how earlier Buddhists explained the process of enlightenment and also the nature of what is attained when enlightenment is reached. Mahayana Buddhist philosophy explicates a more nuanced understanding of the concept of emptiness than earlier Buddhism and promotes the value of the path of the bodhisattvaas key to the attainment of perfect wisdom. The Perfection of Wisdom is the first set of scriptures to promote these ideas. This shift in thinking marks a turn in Buddhist philosophy from the early Indian Buddhism that is associated with the Pali canon. According to Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, to become enlightened a person must realize that not only the skandhas but even the content of the dharmas themselves are contingent and unstable and subject to the chain of dependent origination.

Mahayana Buddhist philosophy explains that even emptiness itself is empty, a concept difficult to understand in human intellectual terms. Nevertheless, realizing the utter emptiness of emptiness itself is key to conquering the problem of suffering and attaining enlightenment. The Mahayana Buddhists note that it is only through the path of the bodhisattva that individuals can reach this understanding. Bodhisattvas are beings who are dedicated to helping others share the same level of wisdom that they themselves have attained. The Heart Sutra summarizes the relationship between completely understanding the concept of emptiness and the work of bodhisattvas.

As noted, the Heart Sutra is among the shortest of the Perfection of Wisdom scriptures, and the oldest-known copy is believed to have been written around 400 CE. In 649, the Chinese monk, explorer, and translator Xuanzang translated the Heart Sutra into Chinese. This is the first version that refers to the words of the Heart Sutra as a sutra rather than simply a set of powerful words for chanting. Xuanzang’s version was instrumental in popularizing the Heart Sutra throughout Asia. One of Xuanzang’s students wrote a commentary on the Heart Sutra that became very important in the evolution of Tibetan Buddhism. In the mid-eighth century, the Heart Sutra was translated into Tibetan. In the mid-eighteenth century, an important version of the Tibetan Buddhist canon included the Heart Sutra in two sections: It appears with other Perfection of Wisdom scriptures and with collections of tantric, or explanatory, texts. The double posting speaks both to the significance of the Heart Sutra for Tibetan Buddhism and to an understanding of the potency of the words of the scripture.

The Heart Sutra was first translated into English in 1894. More than six decades later, in 1958, Edward Conze published what became a standard translation of the Heart Sutra, as well other longer Perfection of Wisdom texts, in English. The fourteenth Dalai Lama published an English commentary on the Heart Sutra in 2002.