五 蘊 皆 空 (five skandhas all empty)

In this post I’ll do the last four characters of the third line of the Heart Sutra. But perhaps before going any further I should point out that there is no standardization (at least none that I am aware of and/or comply with) for numbering the “lines” of the Heart Sutra. So these “lines” of […]

“… a determined, optimistic attitude ….”

Because ignorance and wisdom are diametrically opposed in the way they apprehend phenomena and because ignorance is an erroneous consciousness, wisdom can overcome ignorance. When ignorance is uprooted, all the afflictions that depend on it also cease. Other counterforces do not have the ability to eliminate ignorance but are applied to individual afflictions. Since cultivating […]

菩薩: Chinese for “Bodhisattva”

The Chinese name of Avalokiteshvara, as we saw in the previous post, is 觀自在. But the Chinese title of Avalokiteshvara is the next two words on the second line of the Heart Sutra: 菩薩. Here is the whole second line, with these two characters in red: 觀  自  在  菩  薩  行   深   般  若 […]

心經: How to write “Heart Sutra” in Chinese characters

The last two characters in the first line of the Heart Sutra are 心經: 摩      訶      般      若      波      羅      蜜      多      心      經ma     ha     ban    ya      ba      ra      mil     ta    shim   gyong The first of these characters is 心 (xīn), is the Chinese character for “mind” and also for “heart”. The character 心 is actually used to translate two different Sanskrit words in […]

The Heart Sutra text

1—————————————————————————————– 摩 訶 般 若 波 羅 蜜 多 心 經 ma ha ban ya ba ra mil ta shim gyong great prajna para mita heart sutra2—————————————————————————————– 觀 自 在 菩 薩 行 深 般 若 kwan        ja           jae          bo         sal  […]