Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Gendun Gyatso presents a complete recitation and explanation of the Heart Sūtra, the cornerstone Buddhist text on emptiness. The teaching opens with the sūtra’s frame narrative—the Buddha entering meditation at Vulture’s Peak while Avalokiteśvara directly perceives emptiness—then continues with the core instruction: the identity of form and emptiness across all five aggregates, the negation of all conceptual categories, and the mantra Gate Gate Pāragate. Gendun Gyatso walks through the sūtra’s logical structure, culminating in the mantra of insight. Suitable for both newcomers encountering emptiness teaching for the first time and practitioners deepening their understanding of this foundational text.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 04 PoW.mp3
UUID: 57546fc6-27d5-4e5c-afe8-6d52c3ff1699
Teacher: Gendun Gyatso
Collection: Perfection of Wisdom (Gendun Gyatso)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~541
I bow to the blessed one, the perfection of wisdom. Thus I have heard once the blessed one was dwelling in the Jeta Grove at Vulture’s Peak together with a great gathering of monks and a great gathering of Bodhisattvas. At that time, the blessed one went into a deep meditation called profound illumination, and at the same time, noble Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva, practicing the profound perfection of wisdom, looked at it this way. He saw all five aggregates of a person to be empty of any nature of their own. Then through the power of the Buddha, Śāriputra said to noble Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva, how should any son or daughter of noble family who wishes to practice profound perfection of wisdom train?
Addressed in this way, noble Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva Mahāsattva said to venerable Śāriputra, oh Śāriputra, anyone who wishes to practice a profound perfection of wisdom should look at it this way. See all five heaps to be empty of any nature. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is no other than form.
Form is no other than emptiness. In the same way, feelings, concepts, mental formations, and consciousness are emptiness. Thus, all dharmas are emptiness. There are no characteristics. There is no birth, no cessation, no impurity, no purity, no decrease, no increase.
Therefore, Śāriputra, in emptiness, there is no form, no feelings, no concepts, no mental formations, no consciousness. No eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no dharmas. No eye element up to no mind element. No element of dharmas. No mind consciousness element.
No ignorance. No end of ignorance up to no old age and death. No end of old age and death, and no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path, no wisdom, no attainment, and no non attainment. Therefore, Śāriputra, since the Bodhisattvas have no attainment, they abide by means of the perfection of wisdom. Since there is no clouding of mind, there is no fear.
They transcend what is mistaken and attain complete nirvana. All the Buddhas of the three times, by means of the perfection of wisdom, fully awaken to unsurpassable, true, complete enlightenment. Therefore, the great mantra of the perfection of wisdom, the mantra of great insight, the unsurpassed mantra, the mantra which makes equal what is not equal, the mantra which completely calms all suffering should be known to be true since there is no deception. The mantra of the perfection of wisdom is said in this way. Om Gate Gate Pāragate Pārasamgate bodhi Svāhā.
Thus, Śāriputra, this is how all bodhisattvas, mahasattvas should train in the profound perfection of wisdom. Then the blessed one arose from his meditation and praised the noble Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva, saying, true, true, he said. Oh, son of noble family, thus it is. The profound perfection of wisdom should be practiced just as you have taught, and all the Buddhas will rejoice. When the blessed one had said this, venerable Śāriputra and the noble Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva, Mahāsattva, the whole assembly and the whole world with its gods, demi-gods, humans, and spirits too rejoiced and praise the words of the blessed one.