The Heart Sutra
Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, when practicing the profound prajñāpāramitā, beheld that the five aggregates of being were all empty and passed beyond all suffering and distress.
“Śāriputra! Material form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form. Form is just emptiness; emptiness is just form. The same is true of sensations, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness [the five aggregates].
“Śāriputra! All dharmas are marked by emptiness: they are neither arising nor ceasing, are neither tainted nor pure, are neither augmented nor deficient. For this reason, in emptiness, there is:
no form, no sensations, perceptions, impulses, or consciousness [the five aggregates of existence];
no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind [the six sense bases or faculties];
no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or mental objects [the six sense objects or sensory conditions];
no visual sphere . . . up to no mental-consciousness sphere [the eighteen sense spheres or sensory elements];
no ignorance and also no extinction of ignorance . . . up to no old age and death and also no extinction of old age and death [the twelvefold chain of dependent origination];
no suffering, origination, cessation, or path [the four noble truths];
no cognition and also no attainment, for there is nothing to attain.
“Because bodhisattvas rely on the prajñāpāramitā, their minds are untrammeled. Being untrammeled, they are fearless. Leaving far behind inverted views and imaginary perceptions, finally—nirvāṇa! Because all the buddhas of the three time-periods rely on the prajñāpāramitā, they attain anuttarasamyaksambodhi.
“Therefore know that the prajñāpāramitā is the great spell; the spell of great knowledge; the unsurpassed spell, the unequaled spell, which can allay all suffering. This is true, not false. So recite the prajñāpāramitā spell, recite the spell that says:
gate gate parāgate pārasaṃgate, bodhi svāhā
[Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone utterly beyond. Enlightenment! Hail!]