慈悲道場懺法 5.2

5.2

Today, assembly sharing this karmic endeavor in the bodhimaṇḍa! All sentient beings have enmity and grievances. How do we know this? If there were no enmity and grievances, there would be no evil destinies. Now, the evil destinies do not cease, and the three wretched paths seethe unceasingly; thus we know that enmity and grievances are without end. The sūtra states: all sentient beings possess mind; those who possess mind can all become Buddhas. Yet all sentient beings have inverted mental thoughts; they sleep long in birth and death and are unable to awaken; they are greedily attached to the world and do not know the essentials for emergence, establishing the root of suffering and fostering the root of enmity. For this reason, they transmigrate through the three realms of existence and travel back and forth among the six destinies, relinquishing bodies and receiving bodies without a moment's rest. Why is this so? From the beginningless past, all sentient beings have transmitted dark consciousness from one to another, covered by ignorance and drowned in the water of craving, giving rise to the roots of the three poisons and giving rise to the four inversions. From the roots of the three poisons they give rise to the ten afflictions; relying on the view of self, they give rise to the five views; relying on the five views, they give rise to the sixty-two views; relying on body, speech, and mind, they give rise to the ten unwholesome deeds: body killing, stealing, and committing sexual misconduct; speech speaking falsely, uttering frivolous speech, using divisive speech, and speaking malicious abuse; mind having greed, anger, and delusion. Committing the ten unwholesome deeds oneself, instructing others to commit the ten unwholesome deeds, praising the dharmas of the ten unwholesome deeds, and praising those who commit the ten unwholesome deeds—in this way, relying on body, speech, and mind, they give rise to forty kinds of unwholesome deeds. Furthermore, relying on the six sense faculties, they greedily cling to the six sense objects, even widely opening the eighty-four thousand gates of defilement. In a single thought-moment they give rise to sixty-two views; in the instant of a single thought they commit forty kinds of unwholesome deeds; in a single thought-moment they open the eighty-four thousand gates of defilement. How much more so the multiple sins produced in a single day, the multiple sins produced in a month, a year, throughout a lifetime, and traversing kalpas! Such sins and evils are measureless and boundless, with enmities and grievances pursuing one another without end. Yet sentient beings are accompanied by folly; ignorance obscures wisdom, and afflictions obscure their minds, so that they are not consciously aware. With inverted mental thoughts, they do not believe what the sūtras explain and do not rely on the Buddha's words; they do not know how to untie enmities and do not hope for liberation. When enmity repays enmity, when will there ever be liberation? Throwing themselves into the evil destinies like moths plunging into fire, through kalpas of long nights they endure immeasurable suffering. Even when their karma is exhausted and at last they manage to return to the human destiny, such evil persons never reform. Therefore, the multitude of sages give rise to great compassion and loving-kindness precisely for the sake of such sentient beings bound by enmity and grievances. We together generate the bodhicitta and practice the bodhisattva path; bodhisattva-mahāsattvas take rescuing from suffering as their provision, untying enmity as their essential practice, and not abandoning sentient beings as their foundation. Today we also act likewise: giving rise to a courageous mind, giving rise to a mind of compassion and loving-kindness, and equalling the Tathāgata's mind; relying on the power of all Buddhas, we erect the banner of the bodhimaṇḍa, strike the drum of amṛta, hold the bow of wisdom, and grasp the firm arrow, universally untying enmities and releasing knots on behalf of the multitude of enemies across the three times among the four modes of birth and six destinies, parents, teachers, elders, and the six relations of kin; all sins already committed are entirely relinquished, and enmities not yet arisen will never be created. We look up and pray that all Buddhas and all great bodhisattvas, through the power of compassion and loving-kindness, the power of original vows, and the power of spiritual penetrations, will together provide cover and protection, subdue, and embrace them, causing the immeasurable multitude of enemies across the three times, from this day forth until bodhi, to untie enmities and release knots with no further grievances or enmities, bringing all suffering to an absolute end. Let us together, with utmost sincerity and an equal degree of acute anguish, make prostration with the five limbs touching the ground, and on behalf of the multitude of enemies across the three times among devas, humans, and the six destinies, as well as parents, teachers, elders, and all kin, take refuge in the Great Compassionate Father of the World.