While it’s a tough mantra to directly translate, when you recite it and begin to understand it, you will be able to feel what it means to you exactly.

This should give you hope as you embark on your journey to enlightenment and remind you that there is no finite end to enlightenment. The Prajna Paramita takes the idea of enlightenment and represents it as a journey instead of a destination, championing the concept that enlightenment is a constant process. With each word in the mantra having significant meaning altogether, the Prajna Paramita loosely translates to “Going, going, going on beyond, always going on beyond, always becoming Buddha.” “Prajna” means wisdom, and “Paramita” means crossing over or going beyond. This mantra, called the Prajna Paramita, is poetic and revolutionary it speaks to the idea of life’s impermanence and the importance of accepting that truth. It’s important to understand the basic concept of the Heart Sutra before diving into the closing mantra that wraps it up: “Gate Gate Para Gate Para Sam Gate Bodhi Swaha.” Prajna Paramita

In simple terms, Avalokitesvara makes the point that everything that constitutes reality is not permanent, therefore everything is empty.Īwareness of emptiness is what opens the doors to the wisdom that leads to enlightenment. The concept of emptiness is imperative to grasp in order to continue on the path to enlightenment, but it seems a bit confusing at first. In the Heart Sutra, Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, or the Buddha of Compassion, is teaching a monk some of the most important components of enlightenment. The Heart Sutra may be brief, but it contains fundamentals of Buddhist teachings, including the four noble truths, the skandhas, and the concept of emptiness, and the cycle of interdependence. The Heart Sutra is a complex and foundational Buddhist teaching, and the last line is a well-known mantra that many Buddhists recite daily.īefore getting into the meaning of the mantra, it’s important to understand a bit about the Heart Sutra, so the context of the mantra is clear. Found at the end of one of the most well-known Buddhist teachings, the Heart Sutra is the mantra “Gate Gate Para Gate Para Sam Gate Bodhi Swaha.”

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