Dear All,
It is said that we study certain texts such as the Heart Sutra for their pointers on Wisdom and Emptiness, then place the text down to throw our "self" into the sound and movement of reciting the Heart Sutra in order to embody this Wisdom and Emptiness, losing and finding oneself again.
My Dharma Brother, Peter Rocca, relates this story about Nishijima Roshi, our Teacher:
Gudo Nishijima didn't do any chanting at his meetings or retreats. He preferred to just stick to zazen and afterwards give a talk and answer questions. Sometimes someone would ask why there was no chanting. Nishijima usually answered that he liked to follow Master Dogen’s ideas on Buddhism, and he felt Dogen didn’t particularly recommend us to chant as part of Buddhist practice. If he was pressed a bit on the subject, Nishijima would quote something or other Dogen wrote about chanting that indicated his preference for zazen. If you've read the Shobogenzo a bit you might have come across one or two passages on the subject.
But there are always exceptions. In Nishijima’s case, the exception to his chanting policy was the Heart Sutra. He used to chant this once each day after early morning zazen at his dojo. I was a bit surprised the first time I heard him chanting the Heart Sutra, because I'd listened to his opinion about chanting before. So afterwards I asked why he'd started to chant it. He told me that one time some Buddhist nuns stayed at his dojo for a while and they asked him if it would be okay to chant the Heart Sutra in the morning. He agreed, and so they started to chant it together at his dojo each morning after zazen. After the nuns left, Nishijima decided to keep chanting it each morning.
Scholars generally believe that the Heart Sutra was first composed in China in Chinese, not in India, although as a short summary of the "Heart" and core Teachings of various longer "Perfection of Wisdom" Sutras found in India. The Japanese version we chant is actually in mixed Chinese-Japanese, i.e., in Chinese but with each Kanji character pronounced the Japanese, not Chinese, way. All the versions in English and other Western languages are translations, interpretations, of this Chinese-Japanese original, all correct in their way based on the stylistic sense and phrasing of the translators. In other words, there is no one "correct" English translation, and many fine ways to phrase the original to convey the same meanings.
Our Treeleaf version in English is based on a translation from the Maezumi Roshi Lineage which I adapted from one of my mentors, the late Rev. Doshin Cantor. However, I made a few changes, primarily to explain the meaning of several untranslated terms in the original. For example, I added that Kannon Bodhisattva is the "Awakened One of Compassion," and that Prajna Paramita is the "Deep Practice of Perfect Wisdom." I also considered to change into English, as some Zen groups do, the phrases at the end, "Gate! Gate! Paragate! Parasamgate! Bodhi! Svaha!" These are sometimes wrongly taken to be a Mantra or Dharani, a kind of magical intonation or incantation which contains the power of the Heart Sutra. That is a mistake, for the actual "power" of the Heart Sutra, its true Mantra, is Prajna Paramita, i.e., realizing Emptiness, the Emptiness of division and self-nature, which is that which truly cures all human suffering. After some consideration, I decided to leave the "Gate Gate" portion in simple homage to our Indian roots, and because it is such a well known phrase in the Heart Sutra that many chanters appreciate to hear it in so many languages and versions. However, the most widely accepted meaning in English is the following, and I take the "Gate Gate" phrase to mean so, not anything more mysterious:
Gate! Gate! (Already Gone, Gone)
Paragate! (Already Gone Beyond)
Parasamgate! (Already Fully Beyond)
Bodhi! Svaha! (Awakening, Rejoice)
I added "Already" to the above to convey the sense that, in the Perfection of Wisdom literature and the realization of Emptiness, all of us are already Enlightened, already "arrived at the other shore" of Enlightenment since the beginningless beginning, all along, although we may fail to realize so and, most importantly, fail to act accordingly. Likewise, question was raised to me about why our version states that Prajna Paramita (the realization of the Wisdom of Emptiness) is the "incomparable Mantra" by which all suffering is "clear," rather than "cleared" (or similar wordings, "relieved, removed, healed" or the like) as found in many other English translations. The reason is, again, as a reminder that in Emptiness, in truth, there has never been anything to "clear, relieve, remove or heal," no suffering from the startless start, and all is already "clear," even though we may not realize so in our ignorance right now. The realization of this Truth that has always been so, and is always present, is precisely what "clears, relieves, removes and heals" suffering.
Here is a traditional, formal recitation of the Heart Sutra (Hannya Shingyo 般若心経) in Japanese in the Soto Zen way:
A small point: I am sometimes asked why our chant of the Hannya Shingyo at Treeleaf begins with ...
Maka hannya haramitta shingyō
... rather than ...
Bussetsu Maka hannya haramitta shingyō
... as recited in some traditions. "Bussetsu" (仏説) literally means "As expounded by the Buddha." As you can hear at the 30 second mark of the video immediately above, in Soto-shu there is no "Bussetsu." As far as I know, only certain sects ... Shingon for one ... add the Bussetsu. You can hear that at the very start of this Shingon Buddhist version ...
Another small difference, in the first line, some recite ... "Kan ji zai bo SA gyo jin ..." and some recite "Kan ji zai bo SATSU gyo jin ... " (The Shingon version, above, clearly has "SA" at the 10 second mark.) As far as I know, even within Soto-shu, this varies lineage by lineage. The official Soto-shu chant book in phonetic "romaji" says "SA" (https://www.sotozen.com/eng/practice.../pdf/04/04.pdf) but this other official Soto-shu page (https://www.soto-kinki.net/sp/okyo/list_shingyo.php), in Hiragana, says "SATSU."
This gathering of 108 Soto-shu affiliated priests clearly "SATSU" at the 30 second mark, even though the subtitles clearly say "SA!!!" 
At Treeleaf, well, I think we are also SATSU folks, with no BUSSETSU. 
We've had a few Talks during Zazenkai looking at the Heart Sutra closely:
We sometimes dance the Heart Sutra during our Ceremonies (here, a great version by Gary Dyson, with his kind permission: https://garyazukx.bandcamp.com/track/heart-sutra
... and there are a variety of wonderful pop versions of the Heart Sutra in English and Japanese (here is a sample if you scroll down these two threads):
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...l=1#post262542
and
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...Shin-Gyo-J-pop
Here are a few that I love (in an equanimious sort of way):
Amida meets Eminem:
The Hannya Tribal:
Beatbox Buddha:
The "Extreme Slap Bass Japanese Heart Sutra" ...
... and, of course, the classic Vocaloid Synth-Shingyo by Hatsune Miku:
My favorite traditional style for chanting has to be the Korean way:
Shakyo (Sutra Tracing) of the Heart Sutra in Japanese is a wonderful, calming and centering practice, even for folks who cannot read or write Chinese characters:
The Heart Sutra can be chanted in ANY language (after all, it's meaning is beyond all words and in all words too). Washin regularly chants in Ukrainian and Russian in his sitting for peace (for example, in Russian from the 2:00 mark here):
More to come ...
Gassho, J
stlah
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), 
They stand for those sounds in the Sutra. Yes, the sacred is truly mundane, the ordinary just sacred. 
which I like, for example, another reason that you should make your own version for memorization which means something to you if not a Trekkie etc.). 