5. “Broad-wide-body” (
6. “Freed-from-fear” (
7. “Nectar-king” (
8. “Amida” (
9. Namo amitabhaya tathagataya! Tadyatha, amritodbhave, amrita-siddhambhave, amrita-vikrante, amrita- vikranta-gamine, gaganakirtikare! Svaha!
“Adored be the Tathagata of Infinite Light! Namely: O Nectar-raising one! O Nectar-perfecting one! [O Nectar-] producing one! O One who makes nectar pervade! O One who makes nectar universally pervade! O One who makes nectar known as widely as space! Hail!”
This is read, as can be inferred from the text, after the recitation of the Surangama dharani.
It is customary in the Zen monastery to recite the
1. There are two texts with the title of The Hridaya: the one is known as the Shorter and the other the Larger. The one printed above is the shorter sutra in general use in Japan and China.
The opening passage in the larger text in Sanskrit and Tibetan, which is missing in the shorter one, is as follows: [The Tibetan has this additional passage: “Adoration to the Prajnaparamita, which is beyond words, thought, and praise, whose self-nature is, like unto space, neither created nor destroyed, which is a state of wisdom and morality evident to our inner consciousness, and which is the mother of all Excellent Ones of the past, present, and future”.] “Thus I heard. At one time World-honoured One dwelt at Rajagriha, on the Mount of the Vulture, together with a large number of Bhikshus and a large number of Bodhisattvas. At that time the World- honoured One was absorbed in a Samadhi (Meditation) known as Deep Enlightenment. And at the same moment the Great Bodhisattva Aryavalokitesvara was practising himself in the deep Prajnaparamita.”
The concluding passage, which is also missing in the shorter text, runs as follows:
“O Sariputra, thus should the Bodhisattva practise himself in the deep Prajnaparamita. At that moment, the World-honoured One rose from the Samadhi and gave approval to the Great Bodhisattva Aryavalokitesvara, saying: Well done, well done, noble son! so it is! so should the practice of the deep Prajnaparamita be carried on. As it has been preached by you, it is applauded by Tathagatas and Arhats. Thus spoke the World-honoured One with joyful heart. The venerable Sariputra and the Great Bodhisattva Aryavalokitesvara together with the whole assemblage, and the world of Gods, Men, Asuras, and Gandharvas, all praised the speech of the World-honoured One.”
2. From the modern scientific point of view, the conception of Skandha seems to be too vague and indefinite. But we must remember that the Buddhist principle of analysis is not derived from mere scientific interest; it aims at saving us from the idea of an ultimate individual reality which is imagined to exist as such for all the time to come. For when this idea is adhered to as final, the error of attachment is committed, and it is this attachment that forever enslaves us to the tyranny of external things. The five Skandhas (“aggregates” or “elements”) are form (
3. Hsuan-chuang's translation has this added: “He was delivered from all suffering and misery.”
4. “Empty” (
5. No eye, no ear, etc., refer to the six senses. In Buddhist philosophy, mind (
6. No form, no sound, etc., are the six qualities of the external world, which become objects of the six senses.
7. “Dhatu of vision etc.” refer to the eighteen Dhatus or elements of existence, which include the six senses (
8. “Till we come to” (