The publication of this grandiose book can be regarded as an amazing phenomenon. The publication was prepared by the Institute of Religious Science and Culture at the Seirinji Temple of the Jodoshu School. Translations and editions of the Sutra texts are supplemented by numerous essays written in three languages: Russian, English, and Japanese. This publication was the result of a working group of 15 specialists at the Institute working on a project to translate the sacred Heart Sutra into various languages. Since 1996, similar books have been published in English, French, German, Italian and other languages. Figuratively speaking, this is a noble gift of the Seirinji Temple to the Buddhists of Russia called "Heart Sutra". The actual text of the Sutra, in addition to translations, is presented photographically from a Sanskrit manuscript (siddha matrika) and from a scroll in Chinese translated by the famous Xuanzang (602-664). The palm-leaf manuscript dates from the sixth century and is part of the collection of Horyuji Books in Sanskrit, which was presented to the Horyuji Temple in 609 and brought from the continent by the monk Ono-no-Imoko, who studied in China. Both the Sutra and the entire collection are now preserved in the Horyuji Treasure Gallery, Tokyo National Museum (see T. Tanaka, pp. 40-51). Xuanzang's translation of the Heart Sutra is not the first in the Chinese Tripitaka. Experts note "a number of discrepancies" with the Sanskrit version of Horyuji (p. 42). There was already a good translation of Kumarajiva (344-413), made from a different, more complete Sanskrit version of the Sutra. But it is the text in the translation of Xuan Tsang that "sounds in Japanese temples" from those distant times to our time (p. 80). This is also explained by historical lines passed down from ancient times from generation to generation. Thus, the translation of Xuan-tsang was brought from China in 661 by his direct disciple Dose (629-700), who founded the Hosso school in ... Read more