法苑珠林 82.36

82.36

"You concealed your meritorious deeds / just like ashes covering a fire. / Because of my foolishness, / I burned hundreds of bodies. / You correspond exceptionally well / with the marks and signs of the Buddha. / Because of my foolishness, / I was unable to observe well, / and was burned by the fire of ignorance. / I pray you will briefly stay / and listen a little to my repentance. / Just as one who stumbles / presses against the earth and rises again: / Homage to pure practice! / Homage to the firm maintenance of precepts! / Meeting with such extreme bitter hardship, / you did not commit flawed conduct. / If one does not encounter such evil, / maintaining precepts is not rare; / it is only when one must face such suffering / that being able to maintain the prohibitive precepts / is truly called difficult! / For a goose's sake, you endured suffering on your body / without violating the prohibitive precepts; / such a matter is truly rare!" / When his repentance was finished, / he immediately released the bhikṣu to return.