In this post I’ll do the last four characters of the third line of the Heart Sutra.

But perhaps before going any further I should point out that there is no standardization (at least none that I am aware of and/or comply with) for numbering the “lines” of the Heart Sutra. So these “lines” of which I speak might seem completely arbitrary to you. But they also might seem familiar, depending on what you are used to. 

To see the whole Heart Sutra with the line numbering that I am using please see this post: Heart Sutra Text.

OK, so here, once again, are the first three lines of the Heart Sutra – and still with the characters for Prajna Paramita (般 若 波 羅 蜜 多) colored green. But now the last four characters (the subject of this post) are colored red:

1—————————————————————————————–

摩 訶 般 若 波 羅 蜜 多 心 經

ma ha ban ya ba ra mil ta shim gyong

great prajna para mita heart sutra

2—————————————————————————————–

觀   自  在  菩  薩  行   深   般  若

kwan        ja           jae          bo         sal        haeng       shim         ban       ya
avalokiteshvavra            bodhisattva       pratice      deep            prajna

3—————————————————————————————–

波 羅  蜜  多 時 照 見 五 蘊  皆  空

ba          ra         mil        ta        shi        jo      gyon      o        on         gae        gong
    para                    mita          when illuminate see    five  skhanda     all     emptiness

The first of these four characters is pretty straightforward: 五 (wǔ) which is the number five. The number five has a lot of significance in Chinese culture. There are five directions (五 方, wŭ fāng), five elements (五 行, wǔ-xíng), and so forth. And of course in Chinese Buddhism one has the five skandhas (五 蘊, wŭ yùn).

Next is the character 蘊 (yùn), which is the Chinese character used to translate the Sanskrit term स्कन्ध (skandha). It can also be used (outside of a Buddhist context) to mean “to collect”, “to contain”, “to keep in store”, and similar meanings. This single character is composed of four parts: 艹 + 糹 + 囚 + 皿. Taken individually these characters mean “grass”, “silk”, “confine”, and “vessel”. In future posts I’ll talk more about what a “skandha” actually is, and what the “five skandhas” are.

Then comes the character 皆 (jiē) which is one of the Chinese characters that can be translated into English as “all” (others include 諸, 般, and the two character combination 一切). I remember this particular character because it kind of sort of looks like a person “dabbing”.

Finally we get to the character that could be considered the very heart of the Heart Sutra: 空 (kōng). This character is used to translate the Sanskrit term शून्यता (śūnyatā). But it is also a perfectly good Chinese word in it’s own right. In a non-Buddhist context it can means things like “empty”, “hollow”, or “void”. But it can also mean “open”, “spacious”, or “vast”. The Chinese word for “outer space” is 太空 (tài-kōng). The character 太 (tài) is the superlative form of the character for “great”, 大 (dà).