慈悲水懺法 3.5

3.5

Having paid homage to the Buddhas, next we repent again. Hitherto we have repented the obstacle of afflictions and the obstacle of karma; the remaining obstacle of retribution must now be disclosed and repented in due order. The sūtras say: “When karmic retribution arrives, it is neither in the air nor in the sea, nor entering into mountain rocks; there is no place on earth where one can escape it without receiving retribution. Only the power of repentance can eliminate and extinguish it.” How do we know this is so? When Śakra Devānām Indra saw the five signs of decay, filled with acute dread he took refuge with sincere faith in the Triratna; the five signs immediately vanished, and his heavenly lifespan was extended. Similar examples made clear in the sūtras and teachings are not solitary occurrences; thus we know that repentance can indeed extinguish disaster. Yet ordinary worldlings, if not guided and encouraged by good friends, will commit every evil imaginable, so that when their great life is ending and they face their final extremity, all the evil signs of hell appear before them. At that very moment, remorse and terror arrive together; not having cultivated good in advance, they only regret at the brink of death—having regretted it afterwards, how can it avail? Calamities and disasters await in another realm, having long been prepared in advance; one must journey alone to the place of hell, only able to advance forward into the caldron of fire, body and mind shattered, the spirit suffering agony. At such a time, even if one wished to perform a single bow or a single repentance, how could it be obtained again? Let all of you not rely complacently on youth, wealth, and power, falling into laziness, negligence, and wanton indulgence. Once the suffering of death arrives, regardless of old or young, poor or rich, noble or base, all are obliterated; it arrives suddenly without letting people know. Human life is impermanent, likened to morning dew; though the out-breath remains, the in-breath is hard to guarantee—how can one neglect this and not repent? Once the five heavenly messengers have come and the murderous ghost of impermanence arrives abruptly, none in their prime of youth and robust complexion can escape. At that moment, what do magnificent halls and deep chambers have to do with human affairs? How could tall chariots and grand horses accompany oneself? Wives, children, and kin are no longer dear to me; the seven precious gems and ornaments become playthings for others. Speaking from this, worldly retributions are all illusory transformations. Although heavenly realms are pleasurable, they inevitably decay; when lifespan ends and the spirit departs, one falls into the three paths. Therefore, the Buddha said to Subhadra: “Your teacher Udraka Rāmaputra had sharp faculties and was clever, able to subdue afflictions up to the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception. When his life ended, he returned to be reborn in the realm of animals with the body of a flying fox—how much more so for others!” Hence we know that before ascending to the holy fruit, all must cycle through the rounds of existence, undergoing the evil destinies in full. If one is not circumspect, and suddenly one morning personally incurs these things, will one not regret it? Even now, to be convicted of a crime and dragged to the public court is already a minor suffering, yet the mind is panic-stricken, and relatives are terrified, seeking relief in a hundred ways. Compared to this, the myriad sufferings of hell are a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand times greater, beyond any analogy. From dust-mote eons onward, our sins have been like Mount Sumeru; how can we, upon hearing this, remain at ease, neither fearing, startled, nor terrified, allowing this spirit once again to undergo such suffering? It is truly lamentable. Therefore, with sincere devotion we seek compassion and repent. The retributions that have obstructed us, [so-and-so] and the rest, from beginningless time down to the present day—among the gravest of them, Avīci Hell is foremost. As explained in the sūtras, its features shall now be briefly described: around this hell there are sevenfold iron walls, and sevenfold iron nets covering it from above; below there are sevenfold iron knife forests, and boundless ferocious fire eighty-four thousand yojanas in extent. The bodies of the sinners fill it completely, yet through the conditions of sinful karma they do not obstruct one another. The fire above penetrates below, and the fire below penetrates above; from east, west, south, and north it thoroughly interpenetrates, like fish in a frying pan whose fat is entirely burnt away. The sinful suffering within it is also like this. At the four gates of its walls there are four great bronze dogs, four thousand yojanas in size, their fangs and claws sharp and long, their eyes like flashes of lightning. There are also boundless iron-beaked birds flapping their wings, soaring and devouring the flesh of the sinners. Ox-headed hell lictors shaped like rākṣasas have nine tails, their tails like iron forks. They also have nine heads, eighteen horns upon their heads, and sixty-four eyes on each horn; from each and every eye, hot iron pellets burst forth to scorch the flesh of the sinners. When they roar in anger, the sound is like thunderpeals. There are also boundless sword-wheels falling from the sky, entering through the crowns of the sinners' heads and emerging from their feet; thereupon the sinners' pain pierces the marrow of their bones, and bitter agony cuts through their livers and hearts. Passing thus through countless years, they seek life without success, and seek death without success. All such retributions we today prostrate ourselves with shame and repent. Next, we repent the retribution of bodies and heads falling off in the hell of sword-mountains and knife-trees; we repent the retribution of being burnt and boiled in the hell of boiling caldrons and furnace-coals; we repent the retribution of being scorched and scorched in the hell of iron beds and copper pillars; we repent the retribution of being cleaved and shattered in the hell of sword-wheels and fire-carts; we repent the retribution of the bitter pain in the hell of tongue-plucking and iron-plowing; we repent the retribution of the five viscera dissolving away in the hell of swallowing iron pellets and pouring molten copper into the mouth; we repent the retribution of flesh and bone ground to powder in the hell of iron mills; we repent the retribution of limbs and joints severed in the Black Rope Hell; we repent the retribution of distress and suffocation in the hell of the river of ashes and boiling feces; we repent the retribution of skin cracking and freezing naked in the hell of salt water and cold ice; we repent the retribution of mutually harming one another in the hell of jackals, wolves, hawks, and dogs; we repent the retribution of mutually striking, clawing, hacking, and stabbing in the hell of weapons, claws, and spurs; we repent the retribution of being roasted and scorched in the fire-pit hell; we repent the retribution of skeletons shattered in the hell where two rocks smash together; we repent the retribution of dismemberment and scraping in the Saṃghāta and Black Ear Hell; we repent the retribution of chopping and mincing in the dark mountain-of-flesh hell; we repent the retribution of being cut through in the hell of sawing and nailing the body; we repent the retribution of butchering and carving in the hell of iron batons and hanging upside down; we repent the retribution of torment and resentment in the burning-heat and wailing hells; we repent the retribution of the long night of darkness without knowing the three luminaries between the great and small Iron Enclosing Mountains; we repent the Apapa Hell, the Atata Hell, the Aṭaṭa Hell, and the Alala Hell. Within all such eight cold and eight hot hells, there are also eighty-four thousand subsidiary hells as their retinue. In these, the sinful sufferings of roasting, boiling, flogging, skinning, scraping flesh, paring bone, beating marrow, drawing intestines, and plucking lungs—boundless sufferings—are unbearable to hear, unbearable to speak of! Homage to the Buddhas! Those who are presently in their midst may be our parents and all our kin across successive births from beginningless time; and after our lives end, we and they may also fall again into such hells. Today, washing our hearts, praying earnestly, knocking our heads, and bowing to the ground, we turn to the Buddhas of the ten directions and the great bodhisattvas, begging for compassion and repenting, so that all these retributions of sin may be completely extinguished. May the merit generated by relying on this repentance of hellish retributions immediately shatter the iron walls of Avīci, making it entirely a pure land without the name of the evil destinies. May all instruments of suffering in the remaining hells transform into conditions for joy: sword-mountains and knife-trees become jeweled forests; boiling caldrons and furnace-coals transform into lotuses for birth; ox-headed hell lictors abandon violence and cruelty, all giving rise to compassion without any evil thought; beings of the hells attain liberation from bitter results and no longer generate causes, equally enjoying peace and bliss like the third dhyāna, and at once generating the supreme aspiration for awakening. Having repented, with utmost sincerity we faithfully pay homage to the eternally abiding Triratna.