Encyclopedia of Buddhism

The Heart Su
traopens with the statement that
Avalokites ́vara understood the emptiness of all things
and was thus liberated from all suffering. Addressing
S ́A
RIPUTRA, the stand-in for the ABHIDHARMAunder-
standing of Buddhism in this scriptural genre,
Avalokites ́vara then describes the perfect equivalence
of emptiness and form; that is, emptiness is not a sep-
arate realm underlying or transcending the mundane
world, but a different aspect of that same world, or a
transcendent realm entirely identical with mundane
reality. With concise but systematic thoroughness, the
text denies the ultimate reality of virtually all aspects
of that mundane world, including such quintessential
Buddhist teachings as the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHSof
DUHKHA(SUFFERING), its cause, its elimination, and
the PATHto that end. With a wordplay on attainment,
taken first as sensory apprehension and then as the
achievement of spiritual goals, the Heart Su
trade-
scribes the perfection of wisdom as the source of the
enlightenment of all the buddhas. Finally, it identifies
the perfection of wisdom with a mantra: gate gate
pa
ragate pa
rasamgate bodhi sva
ha
.The grammar of
this phrase is obscure (as is the case for mantras in
general), even more so for East Asian users of the text,
but it is usually understood to mean roughly “gone,
gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond; enlight-
enment; hail!”

See also:Prajña
pa
ramita
Literature

Bibliography

Lopez, Donald S., Jr. The Heart Su
tra Explained: Indian and Ti-
betan Commentaries.Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1988.

Lopez, Donald S., Jr. Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart
Su
tra.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.

McRae, John R. “Ch’an Commentaries on the Heart Su
tra.”
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
11, no. 2 (1988): 87–115.

Nattier, Jan. “The Heart Su
tra: A Chinese Apocryphal Text?”
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
15, no. 2 (1992): 153–223.

JOHNR. MCRAE

HEAVENS

Buddhist COSMOLOGYrecognizes a hierarchy of heav-
ens (svarga) comprising the six heaven realms of the
“world of the senses” (ka
maloka) inhabited by their re-

spective gods, and the various heavens of the pure form

and formless worlds inhabited by the various classes of

higher gods known as brahma
s.These heavens are

places where any being can potentially be reborn. Ex-

istence in these heavens is essentially the fruit of whole-

some (kus ́ala) or meritorious (punya) KARMA(ACTION),

and is exceedingly pleasant. Indeed, in the higher heav-

ens there is a complete absence of physical and men-

tal pain.

REBIRTHin the heaven realms of the world of the

senses is a result of the practice of generosity (da
na)

and good conduct (s ́
lla), while rebirth in the higher

brahma
heavens is a result of the development of sub-

lime peace and wisdom through the practice of calm

and insight MEDITATION. While life in these heaven

realms is long and happy, it must eventually come to

an end with the exhaustion of the good karma of which

it is the fruit. Rebirth in a lower and less pleasant realm

is then a distinct possibility. To this extent, heavenly

existence is not entirely free of DUHKHA(SUFFERING)

and falls short of the ultimate Buddhist goal of NIR-

VA
NA, which constitutes a complete and final freedom

from the sufferings of the round of rebirth. Nonethe-

less, to be reborn in one of these heaven realms has of-

ten been presented and viewed, even in some of the

earliest Buddhist texts (such as the Siga
lova
da-sutta),

as forming a step in the right direction and an inter-

mediate goal on the way to nirva
na. The goal of rebirth

in heaven has thus been considered anappropriate as-

piration of especially the Buddhist LAITY, but also any-

one else who finds the demands of the practice that

leads to nirva
na daunting. The underlying outlook

here is connected with the notion of the gradual and

inevitable decline of the Buddha’s teaching, which

means that the further removed we are in time from

the Buddha himself, the harder it becomes to reach the

ultimate goal. Thus, even the great fifth-century monas-

tic commentator of the THERAVA
DAtradition, BUD-

DHAGHOSA, writes at the conclusion of his manual of

Buddhist theory and practice, Visuddhimagga(The

Path of Purification), that he hopes not for nirva
na in

his lifetime but to experience the joys of rebirth in the

Heaven of the Thirty Three and subsequently to attain

nirva
na having seen and been taught by the next bud-

dha, MAITREYA(Pa
li, Metteyya).

In certain MAHA
YA
NAsources the PURE LANDSof

buddhas, while technically distinct from the heavens

described above, perform a religiously analogous func-

tion. Rather than struggle for enlightenment here and

now, far removed from the Buddha in time and space,

and in circumstances that are somewhat unpropitious,

HEAVENS