Makahannya haramitsu 摩訶般若波羅密
Accomplishment of Great Wisdom („Heart Sutra“)
Maka corresponds to the Sanskrit maha, meaning “great.” Hannya corresponds to Sanskrit prajna, which may be translated as all-embracing intuitive wisdom. Haramitsu corresponds to Sanskrit paramita, literally “reaching the other shore” or “accomplishment of truth.” Makahannya haramitsu is therefore a rendering of mahaprajna-paramita, the paramita of great wisdom.
In this chapter Master Dogen explains the Prajnaparamita Hrdaya Sutra. Hrdaya means “heart.” This short sutra, also called the Heart Sutra, is the centre or essence of the Prajnaparamita teaching. Although it is brief, it contains one of the most important principles of the Buddha’s teaching.
This principle — Prajna or True Wisdom — is an intuitive capacity present in all people. It appears when body and mind are in harmonious balance. In the Buddha-Dharma, wise action does not rely only on intellect, but on intuition and the balanced state of body and mind. Zazen is the activity through which we can directly experience this balance.
When Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara practices deep Prajnaparamita, he clearly sees with his whole body that the five aggregates of being are completely empty. The five aggregates are form, feeling, perception, action, and consciousness. “To see clearly” is Prajna itself. When this truth is taught and realized, we say: “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” Dogen adds: “Form is form and emptiness is emptiness.”
Konshin means “the whole body.” Dogen adds this expression to show that the highest wisdom of Prajnaparamita is recognized by body and mind together. Go-un means the five aggregates: physical form, feeling, perception, mental constructions, action, and consciousness. Ku means empty. It does not mean that things do not exist, but that they are empty of fixed concepts, prejudiced views, and rigid evaluations. Through Zazen we see that things and phenomena are empty in this sense: they are just as they are.
There are twelve kinds of Prajnaparamita related to the senses and their objects, eighteen kinds connected with the six senses, and further kinds related to the Four Noble Truths, the six practices of the bodhisattva, past, present, future, and the ordinary activities of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. For Dogen, wisdom is not separate from daily life. It is realized in concrete activity in the present moment.
Juni-nyu means the six senses and their objects, traditionally called the twelve entrances. Shitai means the Four Noble Truths: suffering, accumulation, cessation, and the right path. Rokudo means the six practices of a bodhisattva: giving, discipline, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom. Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi means supreme, right, and balanced truth. 
In the order of Shakyamuni Tathagata there was a monk who secretly thought within himself.
He wished to bow constantly before profound Prajnaparamita. Even though all things and phenomena neither arise nor perish, there are still precepts, balance, wisdom, liberation, and viewpoints that may be explained and understood. The act of bowing is itself already a manifestation of Prajna.
The monk’s hidden spirit, in the very moment of respectful bowing before all Dharmas, is Prajna itself. In that moment Prajna is realized. Explanations can be given, yet the truth is deeper, subtler, and more beautiful than grasping by words alone.
The Heart Sutra says that all Dharmas are empty forms: they neither arise nor perish. A shravaka, one who has heard the Dharma, passes through stages of practice. A pratyekabuddha awakens through his own effort. These traditional categories help explain different approaches to awakening, but Prajna is realized directly in the present act.
The god Indra asked the venerable monk Subhuti how bodhisattvas and mahasattvas should understand and practice the essence of deep Prajnaparamita. Subhuti answered that they should understand it as empty space. To understand Prajna as empty space means to understand reality as boundless, open, and unobstructed.
Subhuti was one of the Buddha’s main disciples. Gaku means to study, reflect on the teaching, examine oneself, and practice. Koku means empty space. Understanding Prajna as empty space means understanding a reality that contains and surrounds all things, and through sitting in Zazen we experience this openness directly.
Recognize also that receiving, preserving, reading, reciting, and reflecting on Prajna is the same as protecting Prajna. Protecting Prajna is not separate from receiving and practicing it. Prajna is preserved through actual practice in body and mind.
This poem about the wind bell comes from Nyojo Osho Goroku, the record of the words of Master Tendo Nyojo.
This is the teaching of Prajna transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors. It is Prajna of the whole body, Prajna of the whole world, Prajna that is ourselves, and Prajna of the whole East, West, South, and North.
Shakyamuni Buddha said that beings should abide in Prajnaparamita as Buddhas. When they make offerings, bow respectfully, and reflect on Prajnaparamita, they should do so as if offering gifts to the most honoured Buddhas. Prajnaparamita is not separate from the practice of giving, bowing, and sincere reflection.
Sariputra was one of the most important younger disciples of the Buddha, known for intelligence and wisdom. Juzengodo means the ten paths of good action: not killing, not stealing, not abusing sexuality, not lying, not using abusive speech, not slandering, not speaking frivolously, not coveting, not giving space to anger, and not holding wrong views. Shijoryo means the four silent absorptions. Gojinzu means the five supernatural powers. Kuso means empty forms.
Shobogenzo Makahannya haramitsu.
Explained before an assembly at Kippo Monastery in Etsu-u, now Fukui district, on the twenty-first day of the third month in spring of the second year of the Kangen era (1244).