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  • Lion's Roar

    THE MAGIC OF THE HEART SUTRA

    May 18, 2021 5 minutes

    Among the various genres of Mahayana sutras, perhaps the most famous are the perfection of wisdom (prajnaparamita) texts, renowned for their exposition of emptiness. Rather than having ornate names like so many Mahayana sutras, these tend to be known by their length: the Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Stanzas, in 18,000 stanzas, in 25,000 stanzas, in 100,000 stanzas, and even the Perfection of Wisdom in One Letter (the letter a).

    Doctrinally speaking, the 8,000 stanza version was the most important in India. But across the Buddhist world, none is more renowned than the sutra that, as its name suggests, is considered to be the essence of all these texts: the Heart of the, better known in English simply as the .

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