A Reader's Edition

The Heart of Emptiness

The Larger and Smaller Prajnaparamita-hridaya-sutra · Anonymous (Mahayana Buddhist tradition)

What this document is. The Larger and Smaller Prajnaparamita-hridaya-sutra — the "Heart Sutra" — in F. Max Müller's 1894 translation from Sacred Books of the East, vol. 49, long out of copyright. Müller included both versions at the request of Buddhist correspondents in Japan, where he was told this is the most widely chanted Buddhist text of all, seen on shrines and monasteries "more admired, it may be, than understood." The text is reproduced verbatim from the Sacred Books of the East, vol. 49: Buddhist Mahayana Texts (1894), via sacred-texts.com; a fidelity check (fidelity_heart_sutra.py) verifies it against that source on every build. The only edits are mechanical: the page-turn markers the HTML transcription inserted mid-sentence are removed and the sentence rejoined, and two bare footnote numbers pointing to Müller's own textual notes are dropped along with the notes themselves. Nothing here is endorsed; as with every work in the Records, it is set down so it can be read on its own terms.

Translator: F. Max Muller, 1894 Source: Sacred Books of the East, vol. 49: Buddhist Mahayana Texts (1894), via sacred-texts.com Public domain 933 words 2 chapters · 22 verses Retrieved 2026-07-27

How to read this. Two versions of the same short teaching — the Larger telling frames it as an exchange the Buddha witnesses; the Smaller strips the frame away and states the teaching alone, which is the form actually chanted. Each paragraph is its own unit; read a sutra in order or open anywhere. Use the sidebar to jump between the two, the search box to find a phrase, and the motif chips to spotlight a theme. Terms with a dotted underline have a hover definition.

Chapter Verse — a standalone unit Motif — editorial, from the Concordance

Filter by motif — the Concordance

IThe Larger Sutra

11 verses

ADORATION TO THE OMNISCIENT!

This I heard: At one time the Bhagavat dwelt at Râgagriha, on the hill Gridhrakûta, together with a large number of Bhikshus and a large number of Bodhisattvas.

At that time the Bhagavat was absorbed in a meditation, called Gambhîrâvasambodha. And at the same time the great Bodhisattva Âryâvalokitesvara, performing his study in the deep Pragñâpâramitâ, thought thus: 'There are the five Skandhas, and those he (the Buddha?) considered as something by nature empty.'

Then the venerable Sâriputra, through Buddha's power, thus spoke to the Bodhisattva Âryâvalokitesvara: 'If the son or daughter of a family wishes to perform the study in the deep Pragñâpâramitâ, how is he to be taught?'

On this the great Bodhisattva Âryâvalokitesvara thus spoke to the venerable Sâriputra: 'If the son or daughter of a family wishes to perform the study in the deep Pragñâpâramitâ, he must think thus:

'There are five Skandhas, and these he considered as by their nature empty. Form is emptiness, and emptiness indeed is form. Emptiness is not different from form, form is not different from emptiness. What is form that is emptiness, what is emptiness that is form. Thus perception, name, conception, and knowledge also are emptiness. Thus, O Sâriputra, all things have the character of emptiness, they have no beginning, no end, they are faultless and not faultless, they are not imperfect and not perfect. Therefore, O Sâriputra, here in this emptiness there is no form, no perception, no name, no concept, no knowledge. No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. No form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and objects. There is no eye,' &c., till we come to 'there is no mind, no objects, no mind-knowledge. There is no knowledge, no ignorance, no destruction (of ignorance),' till we come to 'there is no decay and death, no destruction of decay and death; there are not (the Four Truths, viz.) that there is pain, origin of pain, stoppage of pain, and the path to it. There is no knowledge, no obtaining, no not-obtaining of Nirvâna. Therefore, O Sâriputra, as there is no obtaining (of Nirvâna), a man who has approached the Pragñâpâramitâ of the Bodhisattvas, dwells (for a time) enveloped in consciousness. But when the envelopment of consciousness has been annihilated, then he becomes free of all fear, beyond the reach of change, enjoying final Nirvâna.

'All Buddhas of the past, present, and future, after approaching the Pragñâpâramitâ, have awoke to the highest perfect knowledge.

'Therefore we ought to know the great verse of the Pragñâpâramitâ, the verse of the great wisdom, the unsurpassed verse, the verse which appeases all pain--it is truth, because it is not false--the verse proclaimed in the Pragñâpâramitâ: "O wisdom, gone, gone, gone to the other shore, landed at the other shore, Svâhâ!"

'Thus, O Sâriputra, should a Bodhisattva teach in the study of the deep Pragñâpâramitâ.'

Then when the Bhagavat had risen from that meditation, he gave his approval to the venerable Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, saying: 'Well done, well done, noble son! So it is, noble son. So indeed must this study of the deep Pragñâpâramitâ be performed. As it has been described by thee, it is applauded by Arhat Tathâgatas.' Thus spoke Bhagavat with joyful mind. And the venerable Sâriputra, and the honourable Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, and the whole assembly, and the world of gods, men, demons, and fairies praised the speech of the Bhagavat.

Here ends the Pragñâpâramitâhridayasûtra.

IIThe Smaller Sutra

11 verses

ADORATION TO THE OMNISCIENT!

The venerable Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, performing his study in the deep Pragñâpâramitâ (perfection of wisdom), thought thus: 'There are the five Skandhas, and these he considered as by their nature empty (phenomenal).'

'O Sâriputra,' he said, 'form here is emptiness, and emptiness indeed is form. Emptiness is not different from form, form is not different from emptiness. What is form that is emptiness, what is emptiness that is form.'

'The same applies to perception, name, conception, and knowledge.'

'Here, O Sâriputra, all things have the character of emptiness, they have no beginning, no end, they are faultless and not faultless, they are not imperfect and not perfect. Therefore, O Sâriputra, in this emptiness there is no form, no perception, no name, no concepts, no knowledge. No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. No form, sound, smell, taste, touch, objects.'

'There is no eye,' &c., till we come to 'there is no mind.' (What is left out here are the eighteen Dhâtus or aggregates, viz. eye, form, vision; ear, sound, hearing; nose, odour, smelling; tongue, flavour, tasting; body, touch, feeling; mind, objects, thought.)

'There is no knowledge, no ignorance, no destruction of knowledge, no destruction of ignorance,' &c., till we come to 'there is no decay and death, no destruction of decay and death; there are not (the four truths, viz. that there) is pain, origin of pain, stoppage of pain, and the path to it. There is no knowledge, no obtaining (of Nirvâna).'

'A man who has approached the Pragñâpâramitâ of the Bodhisattva dwells enveloped in consciousness. But when the envelopment of consciousness has been annihilated, then he becomes free of all fear, beyond the reach of change, enjoying final Nirvâna.'

'All Buddhas of the past, present, and future, after approaching the Pragñâpâramitâ, have awoke to the highest perfect knowledge.'

'Therefore one ought to know the great verse of the Pragñâpâramitâ, the verse of the great wisdom, the unsurpassed verse, the peerless verse, which appeases all pain--it is truth, because it is not false-the verse proclaimed in the Pragñâpâramitâ: "O wisdom, gone, gone, gone to the other shore. landed at the other shore, Svâhâ!"'

Thus ends the heart of the Pragñâpâramitâ.

Glossary

Terms of the text and its translation. Each entry links to a chapter where the term is at work.

Skandhas: The five aggregates said to make up a person — form, sensation, perception, mental formation, consciousness — each declared empty in the sutra's opening move. sutra-1
Bodhisattva: One who seeks Buddhahood not for themselves alone but for all beings — Avalokitesvara, who speaks the teaching here, is the Bodhisattva of compassion. sutra-1
Nirvâna: The extinguishing of craving and suffering — and, in this sutra's own logic, itself empty: something to stop grasping at obtaining, not a place to arrive. sutra-1
Bhagavat: "The Blessed One" — an epithet for the Buddha, who frames the whole exchange by entering meditation at the start and giving his approval at the close. sutra-1
Pragñâpâramitâ: "The perfection of wisdom" — Müller's transliteration of Prajñāpāramitā, the wisdom that sees through form to emptiness, named in the sutra's own title. sutra-1