Sutras

Sutras are the texts of the Buddha’s teaching. In our practice the one we meet most is the very short Heart Sutra; before and after a formal talk, two short verses are chanted. Here are the texts, talks and videos on the site about them.

• The Heart SutraThe Japanese text for chanting and the four bodhisattva vows.
• Verses at mealsThe five reflections, in praise of o-ryoki and the other verses chanted at meals on a retreat.
• KaikyogeThe verse to open a talk, a video of Gudo Nishijima.
• FuekoThe verse to close a talk, a video of Gudo Nishijima.

The Heart Sutra

• The Sutra of the Heart of the Great Practice of ZazenMichael Eido Luetchford’s interpretation of the Heart Sutra from the Sanskrit
• Mahā Prajñā Pāramitā Hṛdaya SūtraThe Sanskrit text with a word-by-word glossary and translation
• Sútra srdce skvělého cvičení zazenu CzechThe interpretation in Czech, translated by Roman Válek
• The Heart Sutra: Labels and RealityMike Luetchford’s talk from the 2013 retreat in Banský Studenec
• Maka hannya haramita shingyoThe Heart Sutra in the Japanese wording in which it is chanted, and the four bodhisattva vows, in Latin letters
• Maka-hannya-haramitsuMaster Dogen’s chapter of the Shobogenzo, a commentary on the Heart Sutra

Verses at the start and end of a talk

In Japan a formal Buddhist talk opens with the Kaikyoge and closes with the Fueko. In both videos Gudo Nishijima recites the verse himself.

• Kaikyoge: the verse to open the sutrasVideo, 1:17, with the verse in Japanese and English
• Fueko: extending merit to all beingsVideo, 1:57, with the verse in Japanese and English
• The verses before a mealVideo, 0:53. Nishijima recites the five contemplations before a meal (Gokan no ge) in Japanese

The usual wording of the two verses in Zen liturgy:

Kaikyoge
The unsurpassed, profound and wonderful Dharma
is rarely met with, even in hundreds of thousands of millions of kalpas.
Now we can see it and hear it, receive it and keep it.
May we understand the true meaning of the Tathagata.

Fueko
May this merit extend to everyone,
so that we, together with all beings,
jointly accomplish the way of the buddhas.
All buddhas of the ten directions and the three times,
all honoured bodhisattvas and mahasattvas,
the great perfection of wisdom (maha prajñā pāramitā).

The translation above helps to see what the verses say, but at the start of one talk Mike Luetchford pointed to the other side of it: most people in Japan do not know what the verses mean either. They are written in Chinese characters from medieval China and read with Japanese pronunciation, so people chant them as a group activity, and he has never heard anyone ask about the meaning. In the West we like to understand what we are doing, and we do not want to do what we disagree with. Chanting verses whose meaning we do not weigh is therefore, he says, a good way to drop for a moment the habit of always choosing what we like and dislike. The whole passage is at the start of talk 1 of the 2007 Padmafarma retreat.

Verses at meals

• Verses at mealsThe verse to open o-ryoki, the five reflections, in praise of o-ryoki and the poem of returning water: the Japanese in Latin letters with the English translation

Chanting

• Chanting sutras in BuddhismVideo, 1:31. Gudo Nishijima on the place of sutra chanting and on the Soto sect; he himself led the chanting of the Heart Sutra at his dojo in Chiba for many years

See also

• Keyword: sutras
• Keyword: Heart Sutra
• Keyword: reciting sutras and Buddhas’ names
• Keyword: meaningless chants
• All videos of Gudo Nishijima

Sutras in the keywords

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Sutras are texts of the Buddha's teaching, such as the very short Heart Sutra, which contains the most fundamental principle of Buddhism. In Bendowa, Dogen doubts the virtue of merely reading sutras; in Doshin, he urges us to copy, print and revere the Lotus Sutra, the Sutra of the Flower of Dharma.

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