The New Heart Sutra with Commentary

Kannon Bosatsu
while practicing deeply with
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore,
suddenly discovered that
all of the five Skandhas are equally empty,
and with this realisation
he overcame all Ill-being.

Skandhas are the various aggregates which make up the human experience of the world.
These are form and sense objects, sensations, perceptions, mental activity and consciousness in the conventional individual sense.
Empty and emptiness here are in the Buddhist sense: lacking an independent, unchanging self-nature.
This is because everything is conditioned by everything else, and everything is impermanent and changing.

“Listen Sariputra,
this Body itself is Emptiness
and Emptiness itself is this Body.
This Body is not other than Emptiness
and Emptiness is not other than this Body.
The same is true of Feelings,
Perceptions, Mental Formations,
and Consciousness."

The human experience and the very body cannot be separated from the everchanging, interdependent universe at large.
Humans are in a constant process of change which according to Buddhism view transcends the perceived singular lifespan.
The human experience is constantly shaped by how the perceived individual interacts with the world.

“Listen Sariputra,
all phenomena bear the mark of Emptiness;
their true nature is the nature of
no Birth no Death,
no Being no Non-being,
no Defilement no Purity,
no Increasing no Decreasing."

Birth, death, being and non-being, defilement, purity, increasing and decreasing are human conceptual constructs.
These concepts cleave the undivided, ever-changing, interdependent reality into binaries.

“That is why in Emptiness,
Body, Feelings, Perceptions,
Mental Formations and Consciousness
are not separate self entities."

The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena
which are the six Sense Organs,
the six Sense Objects,
and the six Consciousnesses
are also not separate self entities.

The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising
and their Extinction
are also not separate self entities.
Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being,
the End of Ill-being, the Path,
insight and attainment,
are also not separate self entities.

When the world is perceived as a one, undivided, ever-changing, interdependent whole, nothing is outside of it.
Human ill-being and it's causes are are also ever-changing and interdependent and do not exist independent of the conditions shaping them.
The Buddhist path, insight and awakening are also not "out there somewhere", but ever-present as potential.

Whoever can see this
no longer needs anything to attain.

The one who can truly perceive everything as one, undivided, ever-changing, interdependent whole with nothing outside of it is awakened.

Bodhisattvas who practice
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
see no more obstacles in their mind,
and because there
are no more obstacles in their mind,
they can overcome all fear,
destroy all wrong perceptions
and realize Perfect Nirvana.

By attaining true insight of the world, one overcomes obstructions and fears stemming from ignorance and false perception of one as a separate entity.
After all, one's fears tend to revolve around the end of one's current existence, be they all of perceived life or their particular life situation.

“All Buddhas in the past, present and future
by practicing
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
are all capable of attaining
Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment."

There is a tried and true method for achieving the correct insight into nature of reality.

“Therefore Sariputra,
it should be known that
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore
is a Great Mantra,
the most illuminating mantra,
the highest mantra,
a mantra beyond compare,
the True Wisdom that has the power
to put an end to all kinds of suffering.
Therefore let us proclaim
a mantra to praise
the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore."

GYATE GYATE HARAGYATE HARASOUGYATE BOJI SOWAKA
GYATE GYATE HARAGYATE HARASOUGYATE BOJI SOWAKA
GYATE GYATE HARAGYATE HARASOUGYATE BOJI SOWAKA