The Heart Sutra

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the Prajnaparamita, perceived that all five aggregates in their own being are empty, and was saved from all suffering and distress. Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form. That which is form is emptiness; that which is emptiness, form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness. Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness. They do not appear or disappear, are not tainted or pure, do not increase or decrease. Therefore, in emptiness: no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no impulses, no consciousness. No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. No color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind. No realm of eyes... and so forth until no realm of mind consciousness. No ignorance and also no extinction of it... and so forth until no old age and death and also no extinction of them. No suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path, no cognition, also no attainment with nothing to attain. The Bodhisattva depends on Prajnaparamita and the mind is no hindrance. Without any hindrance no fears exist. Far apart from every perverted view one dwells in Nirvana. In the three worlds all Buddhas depend on Prajnaparamita and attain Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi. Therefore know that Prajnaparamita is the great transcendent mantra, is the great bright mantra, is the utmost mantra, is the supreme mantra, which is able to relieve all suffering and is true, not false. So proclaim the Prajnaparamita mantra, proclaim the mantra that says: gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

The Heart Sutra sits alongside the Dhammapada in the Buddhist section of the library but operates at a different level. The Dhammapada describes how the mind works and what practice looks like. The Heart Sutra describes the nature of the mind that is the forerunner. They are not contradictory — they are sequential. Get the Dhammapada's practice established first; then the Heart Sutra's deconstruction has something to deconstruct.

The via negativa it employs — approaching truth through systematic negation — connects directly to the Upanishads' neti neti, Plotinus's aphairesis (removal of all attributes), and Kabbalah's Ein Sof (infinite without limit). The insight that things lack fixed independent existence connects to Ibn Arabi's Wahdat al-Wujud and to the Tao Te Ching's unnamed Tao. The library keeps finding the same clearing from different paths.