Dalai Lama chanting the The Mantra of the Perfection of Wisdom, Kalachakra 2012, Bodhgaya

Excerpted from 'Essence of the Heart Sutra' by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama:

""The Mantra of the perfection of wisdom (The Unexcelled Mantra) is proclaimed:
"tadyatha gaté gaté paragaté parasamgaté bodhi svaha! Shariputra, the bodhisatvas, the great beings, should train in the perfection of widsom in this way."

In Sanskrit, tadyatha literally means "It is thus" and prepares the way for what follows; gaté gaté means "go, go; paragaté means "go beyond"; parasamgaté means "go totally beyond"; and bodhi svaha can be read as "be rooted in the ground of enlightenment". Thus, the entire mantra itself can be translated as "Go, go, go beyond, go totally beyond, be rooted in the ground of enlightenment." We can interpret this mantra metaphorically to read "Go to the other shore," which is to say, abandon this shore of samsara, unenlightened existence, which has been our home since beginning-less time, and cross to the other shore of final nirvana and complete liberation."
http://www.wisdompubs.org/book/essenc...

Commentary on the Heart Sutra given by Geshe Lama Konchog at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore on May 7, 1995:
"The subject we are going to discuss today is the most essential point of the 84,000 sets of teachings that the Buddha gave—the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra (Heart Sutra). This sutra has various levels which are called the extensive, the intermediate and the short levels. It is called the most essential point because it contains the condensed meaning of all three levels of the Prajnaparamita sutras..."
http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?se...

Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Jampa Tegchok gave this commentary on the Heart Sutra to Saraswati Buddhist Group, Somerset, England on 17 -20 August 2007:
"The title of this sutra is The Essence of Wisdom, often known as the Heart Sutra. Just as our heart is the most important part of our body, this sutra contains the heart or essence of the Prajnaparamita Sutras, the most important teachings of the Buddha. Prajnaparamita means the Perfection of Wisdom, the Wisdom Gone Beyond or the Transcendental Wisdom....."
http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?se...