Heart Sutra
| Heart Sutra | |
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A reproduction of the palm-leaf manuscript in Siddham script, originally held at Hōryū-ji Temple, Japan; now located in the Tokyo National Museum at the Gallery of Hōryū-ji Treasure. The original copy may be the earliest extant Sanskrit manuscript dated to the 7th–8th century CE. | |
| Information | |
| Religion | Mahāyāna Buddhism |
| Author | Unknown |
| Language | Sanskrit (possibly originally written in Classical Chinese) |
| Period | 7th century CE; an early version may have existed in the 3rd century |
| Full text | |
| Heart Sutra at Sanskrit Wikisource | |
| Heart Sutra at English Wikisource | |
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The Heart Sūtra is a popular sutra in Mahāyāna Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the title Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya translates as "The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom".
The Sutra famously states, "Form is emptiness (śūnyatā), 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.