慈悲道場懺法 7.7

7.7

Today, assembly sharing this karmic endeavor in the bodhimaṇḍa! It is fitting that each and every person should again mindfully attend to the Three Jewels. Why is this? If one does not know the Three Jewels, how could one give rise to a loving-kind heart that pities sentient beings? If one does not know the Three Jewels, how could one give rise to a compassionate heart that rescues and embraces all? If one does not know the Three Jewels, how could one give rise to viewing enemies and kin equally? If one does not know the Three Jewels, how could one attain wondrous wisdom to realize the unexcelled path? If one does not know the Three Jewels, how could one clearly understand that the twofold emptiness is truly signless? The Buddha said: 'A human body is difficult to obtain, yet now it has been obtained; faith is difficult to generate, yet now it has been generated.' We now each have the intention to take refuge in and rely on the Three Jewels. Our eyes do not see the forms of greed, anger, and delusion; our ears do not hear the sounds of suffering, fever, and distress of the hells and hungry ghosts; our noses do not smell the stench of tearing flesh, pus, and blood in the hells and hungry ghosts; our tongues do not taste the foul, evil, and impure flavors under heaven; our bodies do not touch the suffering of boiling cauldrons, burning coals, and freezing ice; our minds can constantly know that the Buddha is the unexcelled Father of Compassion and Loving-Kindness, know that all dharmas are good medicine for sentient beings, know that all sages and worthies are mothers nursing the sick, and our minds constantly mindfully attend to the places where the Three Jewels protecting the world are held in conscious awareness and thought, which I can constantly know. Although we today have not encountered a Buddha and were born in the Semblance and Final Dharma ages, we fully possess faith, our six sense faculties are pure without decay or distress, and we wander freely at ease, coming and going without hindrance. Is this superior retribution not due to our past karmic connections and the grace and power of the Three Jewels, which have also caused us to generate the bodhicitta in this life? Benefits such as these cannot be fully recounted.