The Heart Sutra (Prajnaparamita Hridaya) ends with a very famous phrase which has been mistaken by many Vietnamese followers as some kind of mantra. The phrase actually has a proper sutra meaning, is a practical path, is a way of life and truly is proof of wisdom of all the Buddhas. Unfortunately, it has been parroted of by a majority of Vietnamese Buddhists as some mantra: “Yết đế, yết đế, ba la yết đế, ba la tăng yết đế, bồ đề tát bà ha”.

The phrase in Sankrit "Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā" carries a very powerful and pure wisdom : "Gone, gone, everyone gone to the other shore, awakening, ah!".

Gate gate means go, get going, push on, do not stand on one spot.

Para means shore, saṃ means truly, thoroughly. Pāragate pārasaṃgate means go really beyond, truly reaching the other side, the other shore or river bank, don't just stay on this side of the river, gather your courage and crossover.

All Buddha's teaching is enclosed within this one phrase of utmost and pure wisdom.

The word Viet 超 as in Vietnam 超南 means overcome, get over.

"Man is something that shall be overcome." - Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

We can only become real when we learn how to get rid of our old selves. A wise person must know how to leave his poor old self of yesterdays.

The Vietnamese proverb: "When you get lost in street - follow the dog, when you get lost in the alley - follow the buffalo." Animals always follow the same old learned path, not knowing how to find newer better paths. Humans must be different. When we were very young we hang around our mothers. As we get a bit older, we hang around the neighbourhood and the village. When we get much older, we get married, get into workforce, we move and fly in all directions, get used to different living and working environments. We rarely can and cannot afford to stay in one spot. Everyone's life history on this earth is proof that it really is like that. Likewise with religion, science and culture, no advancement can be achieved by staying in one old spot.

Try to read the life of Buddha again. We will see it is truly adhered to the phrase Gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā. Buddha always moved forward, leaving everything behind. One of his names was Sugato (Sankrit) meaning "never to return". The translated Chinese word is 逝 meaning flowing on, never turning back.

Buddha was born in the tribe Sakya. At 16, he married Yasodhara who was born on the same day as he was. Ananda was born also on the same day. He born in the open. He meditated in the open and reached enlightenment in the open, never under any roofs. That was the way of all Buddhas, no roofs means no restriction to their greatness. Buddha was beyond lay people's needs of protection. He was beyond realms of Existence vs. Non-existence, of Annihilation vs. Permanence, of Austerity vs. Indulgence. His life was a journey of letting go, of removing excess, of finding "today was better than yesterday and tomorrow will be better than today.". Buddha's life was a journey of moving forward. After getting married at 16, he left his luxury life behind at 29 to seek the truth. He achieved enlightenment at 35 and continued to teach and preach for 45 years. From childhood to adulthood, from married life to realising the meaningless of his luxurious lifestyle, from leaving his palace to going into meditation practice, all his life of 80 years was one of constantly moving forward.

It was said in suttas that Buddha achieved enlightenment in all stages in a very short time. In our case, we will stay stuck somewhere. Buddha was different from us in that he always knew there was always a better path.