Two

"Thereupon, through the Buddha's inspiration, the venerable Shariputra spoke to the noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva, the great being, and said, 'How should any noble son or noble daughter who wishes to engage in the practice of the profound perfection of wisdomw train?'

When this had been said, the holy Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva, the great being, spoke to the venerable Shariputra and said, 'Shariputra, any noble son or noble daughter who so wishes to engage in the practice of the profound perfection of wisdom should clearly see this way: they should see perfectly that even the five aggregates are empty of intrinisic existence.' "



The five aggregates or skandhas are ways of viewing the self. They are form, sensation, perception, volition and cognition, although some translators say form, perception, conception, impulse, and consciousness. So Avalokiteshvara is saying that one who wishes to practice prajnaparamita should see the components of self-existence as empty, which is not the same as non-existent.

I think it's interesting that this sutra is mostly comprised of the words of Avalokiteshvara and not Shakyamuni Buddha. Buddha gives his approval at the end, of course. Still it points to the fact, that Buddha himself is not special. Others are capable of understanding and transmitting his ideas. Indeed, we all have the same inherent Buddha-nature, which, on the one hand could mean, that we have the same underlying nature as the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, which is true, but unnecessarily singles out one person. The term "buddha" can also mean awakened, or enlightened. And so the fact that we all have Buddha-nature also means that we all have that same aware kernel which we can choose to cultivate.

It's also interesting that the initial summary of the teaching, as given here, is simply to recognize that we are a coming together of different phenomena and circumstance, but do not have an existence separate from the rest of the world.