Hannya Shingyō
Introduction
The Hannya Shingyō — "sūtra (経) of the heart (心) of wisdom (般若, Prajna)" — is the shortest and most recited text in Mahayana Buddhism. A condensation of the vast Prajnaparamita literature, it distills the essential teaching on emptiness into 260 Chinese characters.
Its central teaching is that the five aggregates — form, sensation, perception, mental formations, consciousness — are all emptiness (śūnyatā). This insight liberates from fundamental fears: the fear of death, the fear of lack, the fear of suffering. This is not a nihilistic emptiness, but the open and unobstructed nature of all existence.
Chanted daily in all Zen monasteries, often in classical Japanese or Sanskrit, the Hannya Shingyō is an act of practice as much as a teaching — its recitation is itself a manifestation of Prajna.
The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, practicing the deep Prajnaparamita,
clearly saw that the five aggregates are all emptiness,
and crossed beyond all suffering.
Shariputra, form is not different from emptiness;
emptiness is not different from form.
Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.
The same is true of sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.
Shariputra, all dharmas bear the mark of emptiness:
they neither arise nor cease,
are neither pure nor impure,
neither increasing nor decreasing.
Therefore, in emptiness:
there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no mental formation, no consciousness;
no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;
no form, no sound, no smell, no taste, no tangible object, no mental object;
no realm of the eye up to no realm of consciousness;
no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance,
and so on up to
no old age and death, no extinction of old age and death;
no suffering, no origin, no cessation, no path;
no wisdom, no attainment.
Because there is nothing to attain,
the Bodhisattva, relying on Prajnaparamita,
has no obstacle in the mind.
With no obstacle in the mind, there is no fear.
Far beyond all inverted and deluded thinking,
one ultimately reaches Nirvana.
The Buddhas of the three times,
relying on Prajnaparamita,
attain Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.
Know therefore that Prajnaparamita
is the great luminous mantra,
the great supreme mantra,
the incomparable mantra,
which allays all suffering — true, not false.
Therefore the mantra of Prajnaparamita is proclaimed:
Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā.
Translated from classical Chinese (Xuanzang version, 649). Central text of Prajnaparamita literature, chanted daily in Zen monasteries of all schools.