There are various translations of The Heart Sutra which is one the main texts in any Ch'an/Zen tradition.
There follows the version used on our Ch'an retreats, and then links to some sites which carry different versions.
When the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
was coursing in the deep
Prajnaparamita,
he perceived that all five skandhas are empty,
thereby
transcending all sufferings.
Sariputra, form is not other than
emptiness
and emptiness not other than form.
Form is precisely emptiness
and emptiness precisely form.
So also are sensation, perception, volition,
and consciousness.
Sariputra, this voidness of all dharmas
is not born,
not destroyed,
not impure, not pure, does not increase or decrease.
In
voidness there is no form,
and no sensation, perception, volition or
consciousness;
no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
no sight, sound,
smell, taste, touch, thought;
there is no realm of the eye
all the way up
to no realm of mental cognition.
There is no ignorance and there is no ending
of ignorance
through to no aging and death and no ending of aging and
death.
There is no suffering, no cause of suffering,
no cessation of
suffering, and no path.
There is no wisdom or any attainment.
With nothing
to attain, Bodhisattvas relying on Prajnaparamita
have no obstructions in
their minds.
Having no obstructions, there is no fear
and departing far
from confusion and imaginings,
they reach Ultimate Nirvana.
All past,
present and future Buddhas,
relying on Prajnaparamita, attain
Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi.
Therefore, know that Prajnaparamita
is the great
mantra of power,
the great mantra of wisdom, the supreme mantra,
the
unequalled mantra,
which is able to remove all sufferings.
It is real and
not false.
Therefore recite the mantra of Prajnaparamita:
Gate, Gate,
Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha.
The Heart Sutra from San Francisco
The FWBO Puja Book Heart Sutra
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