2009-09-11

Heart Sutra - word for word - Sanskrit / Chinese / English

Heart Sutra - word for word - Sanskrit / Chinese / English

Hrdaya Prajnaparamita Skt-Chn-Eng Word by Word (Heart Sutra)
(Up-dated 2011-12-24)

Having a lot of people on internet Buddhist Forums look for this sort of thing, I thought I'd make a file with all the essentials.  The file has the basic Heart Sutra (the standard east asian one from Xuanzang, not the later and longer version), along with the Sanskrit version, broken down word for word, with the Chinese and Sanskrit matched up.  Each "word" has a basic English translation.  And then each section has a complete translation in English, too.

Excellent for those people who like to study the Chinese or Sanskrit versions of the sutras they commonly recite.

Happy reading!  :)

9 comments:

  1. [...] Huifeng » Heart Sutra - articulate for articulate - Indic / Asiatic / arts « [...]

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  2. PL. SEND TO MY EMAIL ACCOUNT.
    IF IT IS ALLOW TO DISCUSS WITH OTHER SCHOLOARS IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AS A OPEN SOURCE IN THE NET. I WILL ADDE IT TO THE PRESENTATION WITH THE URL.
    WITH RGDS
    SHIN IN SANTI IN INDIA...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Okay, please feel free to link to it.
    ~ Hf

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  4. Hi Huifeng, this is a bit off-topic, but I didn't know how else to contact you. I'd like to invite you to the new Buddhism board www.freesangha.com since you were such a strong and knowledgeable presence on esangha, I think we could all benefit from your renewed presence on this new board. Feel free to email me if you have any questions/concerns or just sign up! I hope to see you soon.

    With metta,
    Daphne
    (used to be Syzygy on esangha-now Ogyen Chodzom on freesangha)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Venerable,
    There seems to be a typo mistake on page# 5

    jihvā- “(no) tongue”, nom. (無)舍 (wu2)she3
    [舍 - should be 舌 instead]

    regards.
    KamLeong (some1)

    ReplyDelete
  6. To me the most difficult word to translate into English is saMskAra. I'm not satisfied with "volition" because it doesn't convey the Sanskrit meaning. Red Pine translates as "memory" which is a little better because it is included in the meaning as "the faculty of memory , mental impression or recollection , impression on the mind of acts done in a former state of existence, the faculty of reproductive imagination." However, to me memory by itself suggests the contents of menory not the structural aspect of memory which saMskAra is actually pointing at. In that regard, the two word translation of "mental formation" is among the best translations as it directly includes the meaning of saMskAra as "putting together, forming well, correct formation or use of words" etc. The most technically accurate word in English would be the psychological term "complex" as the complex is the mental formation that creates both memory and the appearance of volition and represents in Jungian psychology exactly the same function that saMskAra has as the intervening structure and organizing principle of sensation and perception that makes consciousness possible and functional. However, most people don't understand the concept of the complex and its how it is used and only know the rudimentary concepts such as "Oedipus complex" which do not include the deeper understanding of the complex as an organizing factor of the mind which makes conscousness possible. For example, it is the ego complex that is the orginizing factor of mind that makes for the conscious perception of an ego that has volition. Without the ego complex there would be no sense of volition. Thus, the saMakAras are the complexes which as the fourth bundle of the skandhas are the mental organizing factors that relate together the three bundles of form, sensation and perception and from this complex organizational pattern consciousness arises.

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  7. Thanks Gregory. At present, I'd probably use "construction" as the closest cognate to saMskAra. The word just doesn't mean "memory" at all, so I can't go with Red Pine, either. "Complex" is quite good though.

    Gombrich makes a point which I agree with, that the English suffixes "-ion" clearly indicate verbal forms expressed as nouns, and that is just what we have both here, but also for vedanA, saMjJA and vijJAna too. In my lexicon, they are "sensation, perception (or sometimes conception) and cognition", preserving the "-ion" usage. I am not sure if that is possible with "complex" or not.

    Also, because of drawing in the meanings of other related terms such as saMskRta (and also the negations asaMskAra and asaMskRta, or with prefix "avi-" as well), one can use "construction" and "deconstruction", and "constructed" and "deconstructed" and so on. Or, as "constructors" in the agent sense (what would be saMkRtR).

    This is part of the reason why I don't use "consciousness" any more, not to mention that it is an abstract (-ness) in English, but not at all in Skt or Pali. This causes a huge amount of confusion in English, because although cognitions come and go all the time, cognizance (the abstract) or consciousness does not, but there is always consciousness throughout a range of different cognitions. So it simply confuses the original terms. But this is another matter.

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  8. Leaving a word of thanks!

    It's nice to have the chinese/sanskrit/english translation put nicely into one article. I really appreciate it. With metta.

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  9. I don't understand in the verse no.2 that how is the form(our body) empty....and feeling, sensation too are hollow...??
    Please Help me out...!

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