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Buddhist Sutras
Leader Resource 4: The Mantra
for use with Session 1, Activity 3
The Heart Sutra ends with a mantra: gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi
svaha. A mantra is group of words or sounds that are considered capable of
bringing about spiritual transformation when chanted. Although the words in this
particular mantra do not form a grammatical sentence, some attempts have
been made to translate it. The scholar Edward Conze rendered it: "Gone gone,
gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all hail!" The Dalai
Lama translates it as: “Go, go, go beyond, go thoroughly beyond, and establish
yourself in enlightenment.”
While meaning can be made from the mantra, it is important to remember that
practitioners are more concerned with what the mantra does than with what it
says. It is the vibrations of the sounds themselves that are believed to bring
about spiritual transformation. According to the Chan Buddhist monk Hsuan Hua,
“As part of the esoteric, the mantra cannot be thought about; much like the edict
of a monarch, its mandate is followed by one and all.”
Sources:
Buddhist Scriptures. Trans. Edward Conze. London: Penguin Books, 1959.
Discourse on the Heart Sutra. Dir. Kazuo Kikuchi. Perf. The Dalai Lama, Kozo
Otani. Beckmann Visual Publishing: 2006. DVD.
“The Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra with the Standless Verse Commentary of the
Venerable Master Hsüan Hua.” Trans. Ron Epstein. San Francisco State
University.
http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/VenHua/StandlessHeartVerses.html. (29
July 2011).