Honor to the sublime, noble perfection of wisdom!
[Compassionate] Avalokiteshvara, the noble being-bent-on-perfect-enlightenment, was moving in the deep course of transcendent wisdom which has gone beyond.
He looked down from on high and [knowing-and-seeing] beheld nothing more than these Five Aggregates.
And he saw that they were empty [devoid of ”self”]
Here, O [wise] Sariputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, and form does not differ from emptiness.
Whatever is form, that is emptiness, and whatever is emptiness, that is form.
The same is true of [the other four aggregates:] feelings [sensations], perceptions, volitions, and consciousness.
Here, O Sariputra, all phenomena bear this universal mark of emptiness. They are neither produced nor annihilated, neither defiled nor pure, neither deficient nor complete. [That is to say, there is no duality, no opposites.]
Therefore, O Sariputra, in emptiness there is no form, feeling, perception, volition, or consciousness.
There is no [contact as a consequence of three things coming together to form what in brief is called] eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind.
There are no [external] forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, or objects of mind.
Thre is no [sense-base consisting of] sight-organ element, and so forth… no mind-consciousness element.
There is no ignorance, cessation of ignorance, and so forth… There is no decay and death, no cessation of decay and death.
There is no suffering, no origination, no cessation, no path.
There is no knowing, no attaining, and no non-attaining.
Therefore, O Sariputra, it is because of his non-attainmentness that a being-bent-on-perfect-enlightenment, through having relied on the perfection of wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings.
In the absence of thought-coverings one does not tremble, having overcome what can upset, and in the end one abides in nirvana [the unconditioned ultimate reality that is even beyond beyond].
All those whose who appear as perfectly-enlightened-beings in the past, present and future fully awake to the utmost enlightenment because they have relied on the perfection of wisdom.
Therefore, one should know the perfection of wisdom by this great mantra, the mantra of great wisdom, the utmost mantra, the unequalled mantra, the allayer of all suffering, in truth for how else could it be?
By the perfection of wisdom is this mantra arrived as thus: — Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening.