Our sutras are expressions of the Buddha Way gathered from the earliest layers of our tradition to the most modern. We chant some, sing some, say some. Some days they may seem obscure and foreign; some days they light up as exactly the expression of our heart’s own truth, or of a truth our heart longs to hear.
These are some of the sutras that are recited during our Monday night meetings at Shove Chapel.
Copies of our full sutra book can be borrowed; just ask a leader when you are at Shove Chapel for one of our meetings.
Refuge
I take refuge in awakening
I take refuge in the way
I take refuge in my companions
Buddham saranam gacchami
Dhammam saranam gacchami
Sangham saranam gacchami
The Four Boundless Vows
I vow to wake the beings of the world
I vow to set endless heartache to rest
I vow to walk through every wisdom gate
I vow to live the great Buddha way
The Great Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, practicing deep Prajna paramita
clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty,
transforming all suffering and distress.
Shariputra, form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than
form;
form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form;
sensation, perception, mental reaction, consciousness are also like this.
Shariputra, all things are essentially empty –
not born, not destroyed; not stained, not pure; without loss, without gain.
Therefore in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, perception,
mental reaction, consciousness;
no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
no color, sound, smell, taste, touch, object of thought;
no seeing and so on to no thinking;
no ignorance and also no ending of ignorance,
and so on to no old age and death and also no ending of old age and death;
no suffering, cause of suffering, cessation, path, no wisdom, and no attainment.
Since there is nothing to attain, the bodhisattva lives by Prajna Paramita,
with no hindrance in the mind; no hindrance, and therefore no fear;
far beyond delusive thinking, right here is Nirvana.
All Buddhas of past, present and future live by Prajna Paramita,
attaining Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
Therefore know that Prajna Paramita
is the great sacred mantra, the great vivid mantra,
the unsurpassed mantra, the supreme mantra,
which completely removes all suffering.
This is truth, not mere formality.
Therefore set forth the Prajna Paramita mantra.
Set forth this mantra and proclaim:
Gaté Gaté Paragaté
Parasamgaté
Bodhi Svaha!
(Gone, gone, gone beyond
to the other shore,
awakening, fulfilled. Oh great joy!)
Other online resources:
(Refuge and Boundless Vows translated by Joan Sutherland and John Tarrant. Heart Sutra translated by Yamada Koun and Robert Aitken.) 