Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya: Revised edition and translation

Abstract

This is a revised edition and English translation of the Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya, published as a stand alone supplement to the main article, "Revised Editions of the Prajnaparamitahrdaya and Xīn jīng", by Jayarava Attwood. A revision of Conze’s (1948, 1967) editions of the Heart Sutra have been long overdue because of (unnoticed) errors in his Sanskrit. In the present edition, Conze’s mistakes are repaired and his haphazard Romanisation is brought into line with modern scholarly standards. The modern student of Prajñāpāramitā can now, for the first time, read a Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya text that is fully parsable as Sanskrit. The accompanying translation eschews reading the texts in terms of mystical contradictions or Madhyamaka metaphysics. The reading here interprets the Heart Sutra as concerned with the soteriological value of deep meditative states, especially the cessation of sensory experience (nirodha) and the state of absence of sensory experience (śūnyatā). The Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya is a back-translation from Chinese and, for this reason, the Sanskrit edition should be read in combination with the Chinese.