Heart Sutra

Impact

The Heart Sutra, or Heart of Wisdom Sutra, is one of the most popular Buddhist texts in the world. For centuries, Buddhists across Asia—and now across the globe—have chanted the words of the Heart Sutra as sacred text. Many devotees believe that the words of the Heart Sutra have protective quality in themselves. Meditators repeat it as a way to focus their minds. Copying the Heart Sutra can form the basis of meditation. In Japan, in particular, scholars have noted the ubiquity of impressions of the Heart Sutra on various goods, including teacups, hand towels, neckties, and even taxicab windows. Some experts have suggested that reflecting on the various ways Buddhists venerate the Heart Sutra provides a measure of both the extent of its popularity and the breadth of the Buddhist tradition.

Scholars today and throughout history have studied copies of the Heart Sutra for linguistic, historical, and cultural insight. The number of commentaries written on the text throughout history shows how deeply it has been admired by generations of scholars from many Buddhist traditions. The discovery of early copies and textual fragments of the Heart Sutra and other Mahayana texts have forced scholars to rethink the history of Buddhism.

According to Buddhist tradition, shortly after the Buddha died, his close followers held a council in the ancient capital city of Rajagriha (present-day Rajgir, India) to determine how to preserve the Buddha’s teachings. Although details embellishing this event were likely added later, many historians agree that this meeting did indeed take place. All we know for certain is that it happened during the first rainy season following the Buddha’s death. Most modern scholars accept the date of the Buddha’s death as occurring within a few decades of 400 BCE. The Buddha’s teachings were preserved orally for several centuries. As Buddhism spread, various schools formed. Each of these schools had its own ideas about the authenticity of scriptures that were spoken by the Buddha.

Theravadin Buddhism flourishes today most notably in Southeast Asia. Theravadin Buddhists promote the Pali canon as both the oldest collection of Buddhist scriptures and the most authentic version of what the Buddha taught. They also claim that the Buddhist canon was closed with the writing of the Pali canon. In their view, texts that are not included in the Pali canon or were written down after the time of the Pali canon cannot be authentic. Modern scholarship challenges these claims. Scholars today realize that other Buddhist schools maintained oral scriptural traditions that continued after the closing of the Pali canon. Moreover, recent discoveries of ancient Buddhist texts suggest the possibility of an earlier version of the Buddhist canon that follows a different oral tradition than the one reflected in the Pali canon. The destruction of Buddhist sites in India by Muslim invasions beginning in the thirteenth century wiped out traces of Sanskrit Buddhist texts that may have formed a Sanskrit canon—one that served as an alternative to the Pali canon. Textual fragments of the Heart Sutra and other Mahayana texts support arguments concerning the possibility that scriptural traditions existed in India that both predate and persisted after the writing of the Pali canon.

Various Buddhist traditions use different standards to determine whether particular texts can be accepted as expressing the words of the Buddha. The Heart Sutra challenges some of the criteria used by some Buddhist traditions. Whether or not one accepts the legends associated with the Heart Sutra, the wisdom it delivers continues to have relevance today. In more recent times, the Heart Sutra has come to be revered by traditions that are more closely associated with earlier Buddhism and the Pali canon. Even the Thai monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who follows the Theravadin tradition, has written a commentary on the Heart Sutra.