Heart Sutra
The Heart Sūtra is a popular sūtra in Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the title translates as "The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom". It is traditionally associated with the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, who is the interlocutor of the sūtra.
The sūtra famously states, "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form." It has been called "the most frequently used and recited text in the entire Mahayana Buddhist tradition." The text has been translated into English dozens of times from Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan, as well as other source languages.
Summary of the sūtra
In the sūtra, Avalokiteśvara addresses Śaripūtra, explaining the fundamental emptiness of all phenomena, known through and as the five aggregates of human existence : form, feeling, volitions, perceptions, and mind. Avalokiteśvara famously states, "Form is Emptiness. Emptiness is Form", and declares the other skandhas to be equally empty—that is, dependently originated.Avalokiteśvara then goes through some of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings, such as the Four Noble Truths, and explains that in emptiness, none of these notions apply. This is interpreted according to the two truths doctrine as saying that teachings, while accurate descriptions of conventional truth, are mere statements about reality—they are not reality itself—and that they are therefore not applicable to the ultimate truth that is by definition beyond mental understanding. Thus the bodhisattva, as the archetypal Mahayana Buddhist, relies on the perfection of wisdom, defined in the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra to be the wisdom that perceives reality directly without conceptual attachment, thereby achieving nirvana.
Popularity and stature
The Heart Sūtra is "the single most commonly recited, copied, and studied scripture in East Asian Buddhism." It is recited by adherents of Mahayana schools of Buddhism regardless of sectarian affiliation with the exception of Shin Buddhists and Nichiren Buddhists, apart from being recited by Yiguandao believers, who also worship Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, known as the "Ancient Buddha of the Southern Seas".While the origin of the sūtra is disputed by some modern scholars, it was widely known throughout South Asia from at least the Pala Empire period and in parts of India until at least the middle of the 14th century. The stature of the Heart Sūtra throughout early medieval India can be seen from its title 'Holy Mother of all Buddhas Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom' dating from at least the 8th century CE.
The long version of the Heart Sūtra is extensively studied by the various Tibetan Buddhist schools, where the Heart Sūtra is chanted, but also treated as a tantric text, with a tantric ceremony associated with it. It is also viewed as one of the daughter sūtras of the Prajnaparamita genre in the Vajrayana tradition as passed down from Tibet.
The text has been translated into many languages, and dozens of English translations and commentaries have been published, along with an unknown number of informal versions on the internet.
Versions
There are two main versions of the Heart Sūtra: a short version and a long version.The short version as translated by Xuanzang is the most popular version of adherents practicing East Asian schools of Buddhism. Xuanzang's canonical text has a total of 260 Chinese characters. Some Japanese and Korean versions have an additional 2 characters. The short version has also been translated into Tibetan but it is not part of the current Tibetan Buddhist Canon.
The long version differs from the short version by including both an introductory and concluding section, features that most Buddhist sūtras have. The introduction introduces the sūtra to the listener with the traditional Buddhist opening phrase "Thus have I heard". It then describes the venue in which the Buddha promulgate the teaching and the audience to whom the teaching is given. The concluding section ends the sūtra with thanks and praises to the Buddha.
Both versions are chanted on a daily basis by adherents of practically all schools of East Asian Buddhism and by some adherents of Tibetan and Newar Buddhism.
Dating and origins
Earliest Chinese translation
The earliest version of the Heart Sūtra may have been translated by Zhi Qian in 222-250 CE. However, because it was already lost by Xuanzang's time, its contents are unknown. According to Conze, Kumarajiva's translation of the short version of the Heart Sūtra is the earliest translation of the Heart Sūtra; however he believes it should be attributed to one of Kumarajiva's disciples. John McRae and Jan Nattier have argued that this translation was created by someone else, much later, based on Kumārajīva's Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa. The earliest extant copy of Kumarajiva's translation however, dates only to the Jin dynasty. According to Huili's biography, Xuanzang learned the sūtra from an inhabitant of Sichuan, and subsequently chanted it during times of danger on his journey to the West. Xuanzang however did not translate the Heart Sūtra until some years after his return to China in 649 CE. Xuanzang's version of the Heart Sūtra in the Chinese Tripiṭaka is the first extant version to use the title "Heart Sūtra". Fukui Fumimasa has argued that Heart Sūtra may mean dhāraṇī sūtra.This sūtra is classified by Edward Conze as belonging to the third of four periods in the development of the Prajñāpāramitā canon, although because it contains a mantra, it does overlap with the final, tantric phase of development according to this scheme, and is included in the tantra section of at least some editions of the Kangyur. Conze estimates the sūtra's date of origin to be 350 CE; some others consider it to be two centuries older than that.
Earliest extant versions and references to the Heart Sūtra
The earliest extant dated text of the Heart Sūtra is a stone stele dated to 661 CE. It was engraved three years before the death of Tripitaka Master Xuanzang and twelve years after its translation, by patrons from Yueyang County adjacent to Chang'an not far from where Xuanzang was doing his translation work at the time. It is part of the Fangshan Stone Sūtra and located in Yunju Temple nearby Beijing. The second oldest extant dated text of the Heart Sūtra is another stone stele located at Yunju Temple. It is dated to 669 CE. The third earliest extant dated text of the Heart Sūtra is a stone stele dated to 672 CE; formerly believed to be the oldest extant text which now stands in the Beilin Museum, Xian. All of the above stone steles have the same descriptive inscription : " Xuanzang was commanded by Emperor Tang Taizong to translate the Heart Sūtra."A palm-leaf manuscript found at the Hōryū-ji Temple is the earliest undated extant Sanskrit manuscript of the Heart Sūtra. It is dated to c. 7th–8th century CE by the Tokyo National Museum where it is currently kept.
Authorship of the Heart Sūtra
Nattier's hypothesis
According to Conze, approximately 90% of the Heart Sūtra is derivable from the larger Sanskrit Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, including the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, and the Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.Nattier questions the Sanskrit origins of the Heart Sūtra. Nattier states that there is no direct or indirect evidence of a Sanskrit version before the 8th century, and she dates the first evidence of Chinese versions to the 7th century. Nattier believes that the corroborating evidence supports a Chinese version at least a century before a Sanskrit version.
Nattier further argues that it is unusual for Avalokiteśvara to be in the central role in a Prajñāpāramitā text. Early Prajñāpāramitā texts involve Subhuti, who is absent from both versions of the Heart Sūtra. The Buddha is only present in the longer version of the Heart Sūtra. Nattier claims the presence of Avalokitesvara in the Heart Sūtra could be considered evidence that the text is Chinese in origin as Avalokitesvara was never as popular in India. Nattier also points out that the "gate gate" mantra exists in several variations, and is associated with several different Prajñāpāramitā texts.
According to Nattier, only 40% of the extant text of the Heart Sūtra is a quotation from the Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa, a commentary on the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra written by Nāgārjuna and translated by Kumārajīva; while the rest was newly composed. Based on textual patterns in the extant Sanskrit and Chinese versions of the Heart Sūtra, the Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa and the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, Nattier has argued that the supposedly earliest extant version of the Heart Sūtra, translated by Kumārajīva, that Xuanzang supposedly received from an inhabitant of Sichuan prior to his travels to India, was probably first composed in China in the Chinese language from a mixture of material derived from Kumārajīva's Chinese translation of the Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa, and newly composed text. According to Nattier, Xuanzang's version of this text was later translated into Sanskrit, or properly speaking, back-translated, since part of the sūtra was a translation of a Sanskrit text.
According to Nattier, excluding the new composition, Kumarajiva's version of the Heart Sūtra matches the corresponding parts of Kumārajīva's translation of the Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa almost exactly; the other, Xuanzang's version are missing two lines with a number of other differences, including one different line, and differences in terminology. The corresponding extant Sanskrit texts, while agreeing in meaning, differ in virtually every word.
Criticism of Nattier
Nattier's hypothesis has been rejected by several scholars, including Harada Waso, Fukui Fumimasa, Ishii Kōsei, and Siu Sai Yau, on the basis of historical accounts and comparison with the extant Sanskrit Buddhist manuscript fragments. Harada and Ishii, as well as other researchers such as Hyun Choo and Dan Lusthaus, also argue that evidence can be found within the 7th-century commentaries of Kuiji and Woncheuk, two important disciples of Xuanzang, that undermine Nattier's argument.Li states that of the Indic Palm-leaf manuscript or sastras brought over to China, most were either lost or not translated. Red Pine, a practicing American Buddhist, favours the idea of a lost manuscript of the Large Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra with the alternate Sanskrit wording, allowing for an original Indian composition, which may still be extant, and located at the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda.
Harada rejects Nattier's claims that the central role of Avalokiteśvara points to a Chinese origin for the Heart Sūtra. Harada notes that the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, one of the two oldest prajñāpāramitā sūtras, also has other speakers than the Buddha, namely Subhuti, Saripūtra as well as Ananda. Harada also notes the blending of Prajñāpāramitā and Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhist belief beginning from at least Faxian and Xuanzang's time ; and therefore Avalokiteśvara's presence in the Heart Sūtra is quite natural. Siu also notes that Avalokitesvara's presence as the main speaker in the Heart Sūtra is justifiable on several bases.
However, the question of authorship remains controversial, and other researchers such as Jayarava Attwood continue to find Nattier's argument for a Chinese origin of the text to be the most convincing explanation.