Download the Tibetan text from here: bit.ly/3ly6uof
ཤེས་རབ་སྙིང་པོ། The Heart Sutra (प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदय Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya)
Q. When was the Heart Sutra composed?
A. Edward Conze, an eminent scholar on Prajnaparamita literature, dates the composition around 350 CE.
Q. Who translated it from Sanskrit to Tibetan?
A. Vimalamitra (Tib. དྲི་མེད་བཤེས་གཉེན།), an 8th century Indian Buddhist master.
Q. What is the full Tibetan title for Heart Sutra?
A. བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་དུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྙིང་པོ།
Q. What other Tibetan titles does it have?
A. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ཉི་ཤུ་པ། (The 20 Verses Prajnaparamita). Its text, which is in prose form, approximately amount to 20 Sanskrit verses (ślokas) each of which has 32 syllables. It belongs to the “shorter Sutras” of the Prajnaparamita literature.
Q. When did the Buddha teach Prajnaparamita (ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།; Perfection of Wisdom)?
A. 16 years after he attained enlightenment, during “the second turning of the wheel of Dharma”, around 572 BCE.
Q. Where did the Buddha give Prajnaparamita teachings?
A. At the Vulture Peak in Rajgir. Visit bit.ly/3mXKaFE on Google map.
SOURCES OF THE TIBETAN TEXT
The Tibetan text used in this project is the result of a thorough recension using the following three sources, and has been proofed by several people.
Primary Source
Buddhist Digital Resource Center (n.d.). "shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i snying po/." In bka' 'gyur/ (dpe bsdur ma (TBRC W1PD96682). Vol. 34: 426 - 429. pe cin/: krung go'i bod rig pa'i dpe skrun khang /, 2006-2009. bit.ly/34aQtxk
Secondary Source 1
སེར་བྱེས་རིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོའི་རྩོམ་སྒྲིག་ཁང་། (2015). ཤེས་རབ་སྙིང་པོ། Retrieved from www.serajeyrigzodchenmo.org/i...
Secondary Source 2
Samdhong Rinpoche (2017, August 31). སློབ་དཔོན་ཟམ་གདོང་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཤེས་རབ་སྙིང་པོའི་སྐོར་དང་དེའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིད། [Video file]. KZfaq. • སློབ་དཔོན་ཟམ་གདོང་རིན་...
Watch the segment from 48:30-49:30, in which he suggests that the mantra should start with OM.
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
Berzin, A (n.d.). The Heart Sutra. studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-...
His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso the Dalai Lama. (2005). Essence of the heart sutra: The Dalai lama’s heart of wisdom teachings (T. Jinpa, Trans.) (pp. 65-67). Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications.
Pearcey, A (2019). Heart Sūtra. www.lotsawahouse.org/words-of...
Tibet House US Menla Online [tibethouse]. (2018, October 30). What is the Heart Sutra? Robert A.F. Thurman : Buddhism Explained [Video]. KZfaq. • What is the Heart Sutr...
THE HEART SUTRA IN SANSKRIT
Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon (n.d.). प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदयसुत्रम् [विस्तरमातृका]. www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text...
BJ Soto [enjangu1]. (2012, December 12). Heart Sutra [Video]. KZfaq. • Heart Sutra
OTHER RESOURCES
Conze, E. (1978). The Prajnaparamita literature (2nd ed.). Tokyo: The Reiyukai.
སྤྱི་ནོར་ྋགོང་ས་ྋསྐྱབས་མགོན་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག [dalailamaoffice]. (2019, April 29). ཤེས་རབ་སྙིང་པོ་དང་སྤྱོད་འཇུག་ཆེན་མོའི་བཀའ་ཆོས། ༼ཉིན་གཉིས་པ།༽[Video]. KZfaq. • ཤེས་རབ་སྙིང་པོ་དང་སྤྱོ...
Edward Conze. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_...
Global Well-Being . (2018, December 26). The heart sutra of Mahayana Buddhism as explained by the fourteenth Dalai lama of Tibet [Video]. KZfaq. • The Heart Sutra of Mah...
Gruber, J. (n.d.). Vimalamitra. Retrieved September 24, 2020, from treasuryoflives.org/biographi...
Lopez, D. S. (1988). The heart sutra explained: Indian and Tibetan commentaries. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Ricard, M. (2011, April 14). Rajgir and the Vulture Peak. www.matthieuricard.org/en/blo...
Zalmoxis Foundation. (2019, June 17). The Heart Sutra - (a word for word explanation) [Video]. KZfaq. • The Heart Sutra - (a w...
IMAGE AND MUSIC CREDITS
By Abdulsayed - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Hiart - Own work, CC0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Other images are from PIXABAY.
SPECIAL THANKS
We thank Dr Tashi Tsering of CIHTS, Varanasi and Chabdak Lhamo Kyab for their help at various stages of the project.