Chapter 1

Preliminary Admonition

1. Get your act together; muster up as much as you can of love, respect, and of faith! Remove your obstructions and anything that is holding you back! Listen to this Perfect Wisdom, (this Sutra) taught for the weal of the world, intended for the pure of heart indeed!

The Source of Subhuti’s Authority

2. Just like a river that flows and stems out, then giving life to all kinds of trees, plants, and vegetation across the land; so all the power and teachings of the pupils of the Buddha stem out from his power, and not their own power.

The Basic Teachings

3. There is no wisdom can we get a hold of, no highest perfection, no bodhisattva, and no thought of enlightenment either. When told of this, some get discouraged, some quit the path, but a bodhisattva on hearing this finds the path to the Buddha’s wisdom.

4. No form, no feeling, no will, no perception, no awareness; nowhere in them do these things find a foothold to latch on to. Without a home they wander, nothing has a hold on them, not even the dharmas, nor do they grasp for them.

5. They search and test everything in the pursuit of wisdom, and then finds that all the dharmas are empty—when fearless in the face of this discovery, they are not far from Buddhahood.

6. With no attachments to any of the Five Skandhas they now dwell tranquilly in themselves; absorbed in a trance (jhana or deep level of meditative concentration) or outside of it, it makes no difference to them for they know the true nature of all things.

7. What is this true nature? That what doesn’t exist, the foolish imagine, and what does exist they have also fashioned—existence and non-existence are both not real.

8. If they know the Five Skandhas as an illusion, but do make the illusion one thing and the Skandhas another; freed from the notion of multiple, separate things, they walk the path in peace, in the highest perfection of wisdom.

9. Those who have had good teachers will not be frightened by these teachings; those with poor teachers will be easily led astray, easily frightened away, and easily ruined.

Three Key Terms Defined

10. Why is it that we speak of the bodhisattvas so much? Because they are the example for us all, “Beings who strive for enlightenment”, desiring to extinguish all attachments.

11. Why is it that we think of them as “Great Beings”? Because they have cut off mistaken views, seeing all beings as a great illusion—like watching a magician work a large crowd, they know this whole living world as a mock show, and yet does not get discouraged by this knowing.

12. What is “the vessel that leads to enlightenment”? Walking in it one guides all beings to Nirvana; great is this vessel, vast like the vastness of space; those who travel upon it find safety, delight, and ease.

The Transcendental Nature of the Bodhisattva

13. The bodhisattva transcends the world, transcends and eludes our grasping and comprehensions. A fire has been extinguished, but where, do we ever ask, has it gone to? Likewise, how can we find those who have found Nirvana?

14. Pure, free from conditions, unimpeded, they reflect on non-production, but while doing so, produce such great acts of compassion. Thereby they are practicing the highest perfection of wisdom.

15. But when the notion of the suffering of beings leads them to think: “I will end this suffering. I will work to help these people.” Beings are now imagined, a self is imagined, and the highest perfection of wisdom is lacking.

16. They must know that all that “is” is no more real than they are, and that they are an illusion. The real and the illusion are no longer distinguishes, all words for things in use in this world are left behind, all things produced and which can be held must be transcended.

17. When free from doubts the bodhisattva carries on the path, skilled in this wisdom, knowing all dharmas as not really there, that their original nature is empty.