Prajña-pâramitâ-hridaya (Heart Sutra)

The text opens with adoration to the Omniscient. The venerable Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, performing his study in the deep Pragñâpâramitâ, considers the five Skandhas and regards them as by nature empty. Addressing Sâriputra, he states that form is emptiness and emptiness is form, that the two are not different, and that the same applies to perception, name, conception, and knowledge. He tells Sâriputra that all things have the character of emptiness, having no beginning, no end, being neither faultless nor not faultless, neither imperfect nor perfect. He states that in this emptiness there is no form, perception, name, concepts, or knowledge; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind; and no objects of sense. He continues that there is no knowledge or ignorance, no decay and death, none of the four truths, no knowledge, and no obtaining of Nirvâna. He explains that one who approaches the Pragñâpâramitâ dwells enveloped in consciousness, and when that envelopment is annihilated becomes free of fear and enjoys final Nirvâna. He states that all Buddhas of past, present, and future awoke to highest perfect knowledge through it, then proclaims the verse: "gone to the other shore, Svâhâ."