Saturday, October 2, 2010

Prajanaparamita (The Heart Sutra)

In today's class Kathy offered us a new chant to learn: Prajanaparamita translated as "Heart of the Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom." Although the full sutra is much longer, the last line is the most important one, and the chant we learned today. Invoking this chant is for the eradication of attachments, or opening the heart.

gate gate para gate
para samgate
bodhisvaha

There seems to be many translations of the chant, but from what I gather, it is basically emphasizing that "beyond all that I know, beyond and all that exists, I accept to be fully awakened."

Check out Wikipedia for more details. Listen to the full sutra on YouTube...and try to keep up with the cadence!

(jaycie)