This sutra has a heart

The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, practicing the perfection of primordial wisdom, made clear through his own flesh and blood the nature and substance of all that one could take to comprise a self, breaking the illusory bonds that had caused him to suffer.

Here, Shariputra, appearances are empty radiance, clarity without substance; the substance of no-substance is mere appearance as such.

What appears is nothing but this empty radiance—that being nothing other than the appearance itself.

Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.

Feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness are likewise without substance.

Here, Shariputra, all things have the nature of no nature:

No arising, no perishing; no corruption, no purity; no deficiency, no completion.

And so, Shariputra, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no mental formations, no consciousness; no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body or mind; no sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations or thoughts; no seeing and so on to no thinking; no ignorance, no end of ignorance, and so on to no old age and death and no end of old age and death; no suffering, cause, cessation, path; no knowledge, no attainment and no lack thereof.

And so, Shariputra, since there is no thing to attain or not, the Bodhisattva trusts in the perfection of primordial wisdom, dwelling nowhere, with mind unbound, unhindered and so not holding back, unobstructed by the barriers that never were, he gives all things to themselves and ceases to ignore the inconceivable freedom that is always already so.

And all who ever are, were, and will be Buddha, through their trust in the perfection of primordial wisdom are thoroughly aligned with complete and unexcelled awakening.

The beating heart of the perfection of wisdom is a great dharani, a vast luminous mantra, each syllable unsurpassed, all-encompassing, incomparable and unmatched. This sound itself ends all suffering; though impossible to believe, it’s literally true, so listen with your whole body and hear the profound meaning in these words:

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!

Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond—beyond past, present, and future, beyond anything you can imagine—utterly awake.