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Filed in Mahayana, Chanting

What’s in a Mantra?

A close look at the Heart Sutra.

Donald S. Lopez

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©ISTOCKPHOTO/ JUNJI TAKEMOTOSO YOU’RE SITTING there, reciting the Heart Sutra, either the long version or the short version. Perhaps you do so every day. It has been recited millions of times over the centuries, without the person reciting it necessarily paying much attention to the meaning (whatever that might mean). But today, let’s imagine that you do. After dutifully negating each of the major categories of Buddhist philosophy (“no eye constituent up to and including no mental consciousness constituent, no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, no aging and death up to and including no extinction of aging and death.

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