慈悲水懺法 1.13

1.13

Having paid homage to the Buddhas, next we repent. In discussing repentance: basically, it is reforming the past and cultivating the future, extinguishing evil and raising up good. Living in the world, who among humans can be without fault? Even a learner, losing mindfulness, still gives rise to kleśas; even an arhat, through residual traces of habit, moves body and speech karma—how much more so could ordinary beings be without fault? Yet the wise, becoming aware first, can promptly reform and repent, whereas fools cover and conceal, thereby allowing [evil] to branch out and spread, so that habitual accumulations [persist through] the long night, with awakening nowhere in sight. If one can feel shame and remorse, disclose and repent, how could it merely stop at extinguishing sins? It also increases immeasurable merit and establishes the Tathāgata's marvelous fruit of nirvāṇa. If one wishes to practice this teaching, one should first compose one's physical bearing externally and gaze reverently upon the venerable statues, and internally give rise to reverence and focus upon the contemplation of the Dharma, and with utmost earnestness and prayer generate two kinds of mind. What are the two? First, reflecting to oneself: 'This physical life of mine is difficult to preserve for long; once it dissolves and breaks apart, when can this body ever be regained? If I do not again encounter the Buddhas, worthies, and sages, but abruptly meet evil friends and commit myriad sinful karmas, I will fall once more into deep pits and perilous destinies.' Second, reflecting to oneself: 'Although in this life I have encountered the Tathāgata's true Dharma, I have not carried on the sacred lineage for the sake of the Buddhadharma, nor purified body, speech, and mind to abide in wholesome dharmas. Instead, we now secretly commit evil and then conceal it, saying that others do not know and thinking they do not see, hiding vice in our hearts, proud and without shame. This is truly the height of folly and delusion in the world.' Presently there are the Buddhas of the ten directions, the great bodhisattvas, and the gods, spirits, and immortals: how could they not behold the sins and evils we commit with their pure divine eyes? Moreover, the spirits and deities of the unseen and seen realms record sins and blessings without the slightest error. When a person who commits sin dies, the ox-headed hell wardens register their spirit and distinguish right from wrong before King Yama. At that time, all hostile adversaries come to bear witness, each saying: 'You previously slaughtered my body, cooked, boiled, steamed, and roasted it; or you previously plundered all my wealth and treasures, and separated me from my family. Only today have I gained an opportunity against you.' When evidence is presented before one, how could one dare deny it? One can only willingly take one's share and receive past miseries. As explained in the sūtras, in hell no one is punished unjustly. If one personally forgot the myriad sins committed in ordinary times, at the time of death all the signs of the places where evil was committed appear before one, each saying: 'In the past you committed such sins against me; how can you deny it now?' At that time, the sinner has nowhere to hide. Thereupon King Yama, gnashing his teeth, rebukes them and commits them to hell, where for immeasurable kalpas they seek escape to no avail. This matter is not distant and does not concern others; it is precisely my own body creating it and receiving it. Even between father and child, though the closest of kin, once confronted [with karma] neither can bear it for the other. We who have obtained this human body, free of myriad diseases, must each exert effort and strive against [fleeting] life, for when great dread arrives, regret will be of no avail. Therefore, with utmost sincerity we plead for compassion and repent. From beginningless time until today, we, [names], have accumulated avidyā that obscures the eyes of our minds, following the nature of kleśas to create sins in the three periods of time: either indulging in attachment to give rise to the kleśa of greed; or raging in anger to harbor the kleśa of harm; or in mental confusion and stupefaction failing to understand, generating the kleśa of delusion; or through conceit elevating oneself to generate the kleśa of arrogance; the kleśa of hesitation, doubting the right path; the kleśa of wrong views, slandering the nonexistence of cause and effect; the kleśa of grasping at self, failing to recognize provisional conditions; the kleśa of grasping at annihilation and permanence, confused about the three periods of time; the kleśa of dogmatic attachment to views, associating with evil dharmas; the kleśa of dogmatic attachment to rules and rituals, wrongly adopting deviant teachers; down to the kleśas of all such perverse calculations of the four graspings—today, with utmost sincerity, we repent all of them. Furthermore, from beginningless time until today: the kleśa of miserliness, guarding and tightly clinging; the kleśa of extravagance and unrestraint, failing to rein in the six sense faculties; the kleśa of an evil mind-state, failing to be patient; the kleśa of remissness and indulgence, failing to be diligent; the kleśa of doubt and agitation, discursive thinking; the kleśa of lacking knowledge and comprehension, bewildered upon contacting objects; the kleśa of self-and-other, following the eight worldly winds; the kleśa of a crooked mind, flattering and praising to the face; the kleśa of discord, coarse, obstinate, and prickly; the kleśa of harboring resentment, easily angered and hard to please; the kleśa of perverse obstinacy, jealousy, and caustic malice; the kleśa of vicious cruelty, ferocity, and violent harm; the kleśa of grasping at signs, contrary to the noble truths; the kleśa of upside-down thinking regarding suffering, accumulation, cessation, and the path; the kleśa of revolving in saṃsāra, following the twelve links of dependent origination; down to the Ganges-sands of kleśas in the ground of beginningless avidyā, and the kleśas of giving rise to the four grounds of abiding to construct the bitter fruits of the three realms—immeasurable and boundless, tormenting the worthies and sages, the six destinies, and the four modes of birth—today we disclose them before the Buddhas of the ten directions, the venerable Dharma, and the holy Saṅgha, and repent them all. May the merit generated by we, [names], relying on this repentance of all kleśas of greed, anger, and delusion arisen from mental karma, in lifetime after lifetime, fell the banner of pride, dry up the water of love and desire, extinguish the fire of anger, destroy the darkness of ignorance, pull out the roots of doubt, tear open the nets of views, deeply recognize that the three realms are like a prison, the four elements like poisonous snakes, the five aggregates like treacherous thieves, and the six sense entrances like an empty village where love falsely feigns friendship; may we cultivate the eightfold noble path to sever the source of avidyā, proceed directly toward nirvāṇa without rest or pause, with the thirty-seven factors [of enlightenment] succeeding thought by thought, and the ten pāramitās constantly appearing before us. Having repented, with utmost sincerity we faithfully pay homage to the ever-abiding Triratna.