Known as the meditation that can change one forever, the Heart Sutra is one of the most beloved practices of Buddhists all over the world. It is a chanting meditation and teaching which unravels the hidden assumptions behind the way we perceive ourselves, others, and all of reality. The Heart Sutra addresses the biggest questions of life from the Buddhist perspective including the four Extremes, god, godlessness, self, and identity. It addresses the defining perspective of Buddhism – emptiness – and its misinterpretations. Both philosophy and practice, the heart sutra awakens the vast view of a world that flows beyond reification and clinging.

“The Heart Sutra made a late appearance at a time when Tantric Buddhism had begun to flourish. The patriarch who compiled the Heart Sutra wanted to encourage followers of Tantric Buddhism to practice and recite the Heart Sutra, so that’s why he presented the Heart Sutra as a kind of mantra. This was also a skillful means. Thay has used the phrase, ‘The Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore,’ because in the mantra there is the expression pāragate which means ‘gone over to the other shore, the shore of wisdom’. Pārāyana and pāramitā have both been translated as ‘crossing over to the other shore.”

Thich Nhat Han