A Note to You, Beloved Seeker
The Heart Sutra is small, but it opens worlds.
It’s not long. It’s not flowery. It is direct wisdom – fierce, luminous, and clear – like lightning through fog.
This sacred text, central to Mahayana Buddhism, offers a condensed but powerful revelation: everything is empty, and from that emptiness arises compassion, clarity, and liberation.
In this Core Transmission, I’ve taken the essence of the Heart Sutra and written it in my own devotional, poetic style – a version you can hold in your heart, repeat in ceremony, or use as a reminder when the world feels overwhelming or too heavy to bear.
Sometimes the shortest teachings are the ones we carry furthest.
Let this one walk beside you.
What You’ll Receive From This Transmission
Clarity
- A poetic and direct interpretation of a revered Buddhist teaching
- Freedom from metaphysical confusion and spiritual perfectionism
Activation
- Awakening of the intuitive truth that you are already whole
- Relief from trying to fix, earn, or prove your worth
Emotional Liberation
- A deeper understanding of non-attachment without apathy
- Loving detachment from illusions, old identities, and looping thoughts
Spiritual Support
- A mantra to return to during transition, anxiety, grief, or awakening
- Gentle remembrance that you are already Divine
Why the Heart Sutra Is So Beloved
- It is one of the shortest sutras in all of Buddhism, yet it holds infinite depth.
- It teaches “Form is Emptiness, and Emptiness is Form” – a core truth of Mahayana philosophy.
- It reminds us that everything we grasp, fear, or crave has no fixed nature – and that’s what sets us free.
- It reveals that enlightenment is not about adding – it’s about letting go.
The Heart Sutra – Translation by Shri Krishna Kalesh (Paul Wagner)
In the vast, luminous stillness beyond illusion, Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, looked deeply into the Five Skandhas and saw that they are all empty of inherent self.
Through this vision, he was freed from all suffering.
He spoke to Sariputra: “Form is Emptiness. Emptiness is Form. Form does not differ from Emptiness, nor does Emptiness differ from Form. The same is true for sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.
Sariputra, all phenomena are marked by emptiness: they are not born, do not cease, are not pure or impure, do not increase or decrease.
Therefore, in emptiness, there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no formation, no consciousness. No eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind.
No color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind. No realm of eyes – until no realm of mind consciousness.
No ignorance and also no ending of ignorance, until no old age and death, and also no ending of old age and death.
No suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation, no path. No wisdom, no attainment, and no non-attainment.
Because there is no attainment, the Bodhisattva relies on Prajnaparamita and his mind is free of hindrance.
Without hindrance, there is no fear. Far beyond all delusion, he reaches Nirvana.
All Buddhas of past, present, and future rely on Prajnaparamita and realize full, complete awakening.
Therefore, know the Prajnaparamita is the great bright mantra, the mantra of great knowledge, the unsurpassed mantra, the unequalled mantra, the destroyer of suffering.
This is truth, not deception. So proclaim the Prajnaparamita mantra:
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha.
Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O awakening, hail!
Traditional English Translation
The Bodhisattva of Compassion, when he meditated deeply, saw the emptiness of all five skandhas and sundered the bonds that caused him suffering.
Here then, Form is no other than emptiness, Emptiness no other than form. Form is exactly emptiness, Emptiness exactly form.
Sensation, thought, impulse, consciousness are also like this.
All things are by nature void. They are not born or destroyed, Nor are they stained or pure, Nor do they wax or wane.
So, in emptiness, no form, no sensation, thought, impulse, consciousness; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no color, sound, smell, taste, touch, or what the mind takes hold of, nor even act of sensing.
No ignorance or end of it, nor all that comes of ignorance; no withering, no death, no end of them.
Nor is there pain, or cause of pain, or cease in pain, or noble path to lead from pain; not even wisdom to attain, Attainment too is emptiness.
So know that the Bodhisattva, holding to nothing whatever, but dwelling in prajna wisdom, is freed of delusive hindrance, rid of the fear bred by it, and reaches clearest Nirvana.
All Buddhas of past and present, Buddhas of future time, using this prajna wisdom, come to full and perfect vision.
Hear then the great dharani, the radiant, peerless mantra, the supreme, unfailing mantra, the Prajnaparamita whose words allay all pain:
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha.
The Chinese Translation
🪷 心經：獻給追求寧靜與光明的修行者的核心傳承
🌸 給親愛的修行者的一封信
心經雖短，卻能開啟無數世界。
它不長，也不華麗。它是直接的智慧——銳利、明亮、清晰，如霧中的閃電。
這部神聖經文是大乘佛教的核心法門，提供了簡潔而有力的啟示：萬法皆空，從空性中升起慈悲、清明與解脫。
在這份核心傳承中，我以自己虔誠而詩意的方式詮釋了心經的本質——這是一個你可以銘記於心、在儀式中誦讀、或在世界令你感到過於沉重之時用來提醒自己的一部經文。
有時，最短的教誨是我們走得最遠的陪伴。
讓這部經文與你同行。
✨ 你將從這份傳承中獲得什麼
清晰
- 對一部受人尊崇的佛教教義的詩意與直接詮釋
- 免於形上學的困惑與靈性上的完美主義
啟動
- 喚醒你直覺中的完整真理
- 解除試圖修復、證明、或贏得價值的壓力
情感上的解脫
- 更深刻地理解無執著而不冷漠
- 對幻象、舊身份與反覆思緒的慈悲放下
靈性支持
- 一個能在轉變、焦慮、哀傷或覺醒中依靠的咒語
- 溫柔地提醒你，你已是神聖的存在
為什麼心經如此受人喜愛
- 它是整個佛教中最短的經文之一，卻蘊藏著無限深意。
- 它教導「色即是空，空即是色」——大乘哲學的核心真理。
- 它提醒我們，我們所執著、恐懼或渴求的一切都無固定自性——而這正是自由的來源。
- 它揭示了開悟不是加法，而是減法，不是獲得，而是放下。
心經——克里希納‧卡列什（保羅‧瓦格納）譯本
在超越幻象的廣闊寧靜之中， 觀世音菩薩——慈悲的菩薩， 深入觀察五蘊， 看見它們皆無自性、空無所有。
憑此洞見，祂解脫了一切苦。
祂對舍利子說： 「色即是空，空即是色。 色不異空，空不異色。 受、想、行、識亦復如是。
舍利子，一切法空相， 不生不滅，不垢不淨， 不增不減。
是故空中無色， 無受想行識， 無眼耳鼻舌身意， 無色聲香味觸法， 無眼界，乃至無意識界；
無無明，亦無無明盡， 乃至無老死，亦無老死盡；
無苦集滅道， 無智亦無得。
以無所得故，菩提薩埵， 依般若波羅蜜多故， 心無罣礙； 無罣礙故，無有恐怖， 遠離顛倒夢想，究竟涅槃。
三世諸佛， 依般若波羅蜜多故， 得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。
故知般若波羅蜜多， 是大神咒，是大明咒， 是無上咒，是無等等咒， 能除一切苦，真實不虛。
故說般若波羅蜜多咒曰：
揭諦 揭諦 波羅揭諦 波羅僧揭諦 菩提薩婆訶。
Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O awakening, hail!
傳統英文譯文
菩薩行深般若波羅蜜多時， 照見五蘊皆空， 度一切苦厄。
舍利子，色不異空，空不異色， 色即是空，空即是色， 受想行識，亦復如是。
舍利子，是諸法空相， 不生不滅，不垢不淨， 不增不減。
是故空中無色， 無受想行識， 無眼耳鼻舌身意， 無色聲香味觸法， 無眼界，乃至無意識界；
無無明，亦無無明盡， 乃至無老死，亦無老死盡；
無苦集滅道， 無智亦無得。
以無所得故， 菩提薩埵依般若波羅蜜多故， 心無罣礙； 無罣礙故，無有恐怖， 遠離顛倒夢想，究竟涅槃。
三世諸佛， 依般若波羅蜜多故， 得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。
故知般若波羅蜜多， 是大神咒，是大明咒， 是無上咒，是無等等咒， 能除一切苦，真實不虛。
故說般若波羅蜜多咒曰：
揭諦 揭諦 波羅揭諦 波羅僧揭諦 菩提薩婆訶。
