Heart Sutra

(from CD liner notes)

1 heart sutra

 

Tayatha Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Soha

 

Gone, gone, gone beyond!

Gone utterly beyond Oh what an awakening!

 

This mantra, pronounced Tibetan style, is the end of a longer stanza called The Heart Sutra. Most traditions recite the whole sutra which contains Boddhisattva Avalokiteshvara's profound words on dharma or correct path. He describes a state where there is no form, no emptiness, no birth, no cessation, no purity, no impurity, no decrease, no increase, no feeling, no perception, no formation, no consciousness, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no dharmas, no wisdom, no attainment, no non-attainment Because the mind is not obscured, there is no obstacle and no fear. One can leave distorted existence behind. Complete enlightenment! The buddhas have attained it. This mantra, the mantra of great insight, unequalled and unsurpassed, can remove all suffering. Thus it is said: Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Soha.

 

I believe the power of the whole sutra is contained in this last line, which is preceded by the word Tayatha or tad yatha which means thus spake or it is said.