Within Zen and other Mahayana traditions, the Heart Sutra functions simultaneously as liturgy, meditation, and doctrinal compass. In Zen monasteries and lay centers, it is chanted regularly—often daily—as part of morning or evening services, with practitioners using its rhythm and sound to steady attention and internalize the teaching of emptiness. This recitation is not merely vocal; it is treated as a meditative act that links breath, awareness, and the famous line “form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” The text is also memorized and revisited in dharma talks and formal lectures, where teachers draw on it to point directly to non-dual awareness and to challenge clinging to fixed views.

Beyond formal services, the Heart Sutra serves as a central object of contemplation. Practitioners meditate on its core themes—emptiness, non-self, and dependent origination—to deepen insight into impermanence and the interconnectedness of all phenomena. Specific phrases such as “no eye, ear, nose…” or “no attainment and nothing to attain” are sometimes taken up almost like living koans, used to undermine habitual conceptual thinking and invite a more intuitive understanding. In this way, the sutra becomes both a concise summary of Prajñāpāramitā wisdom and a practical tool for loosening the grip of dualistic perception during sitting practice.

Ritually, the Heart Sutra is woven into the life passages and communal rites of Mahayana communities. It is frequently recited at funerals, memorials, and ancestor ceremonies, where its vision of emptiness and non-self frames death and loss within a wider field of wisdom and compassion. The recitation is understood to generate merit, purify negative karma, and offer support to the deceased and the living alike. In many East Asian settings, it also appears in blessing and protection rituals—house blessings, difficult circumstances, and other occasions where the power of the sutra and its concluding mantra are invoked for safeguarding and benefit.

Across Mahayana schools, the text is a shared touchstone, even where primary emphases differ. In Pure Land practice, it may be chanted alongside nembutsu to balance devotion with insight, reminding practitioners that even the Pure Land and Amitābha are empty of inherent self. In Tibetan traditions, it is an essential part of the monastic curriculum, recited for protection and merit and studied in tandem with Madhyamaka philosophy to ground analytical meditation on emptiness. Whether in Zen, Pure Land, or Tibetan contexts, the Heart Sutra thus operates as both a philosophical distillation and a living practice form, uniting chanting, study, and contemplation in the service of realizing wisdom.