法苑珠林 86.5

86.5

Respectfully reflecting: The sun of the Buddha has hidden its brilliance, and the true and semblance [Dharma] have declined and degenerated. Human sentiments are treacherous and strange, and the times are depraved and shallow. Looking back, we are separated from the Great Master by one thousand seven hundred [years]. Sentient beings are stubborn and blind; their roots of goodness are frail and weak. As the saddharma has decayed, wrong views have proliferated. Internally devoid of superior understanding, they are constantly entangled in the five hindrances; externally deprived of salutary conditions, the four Māras easily find their opportunity. Thus, giving rein to the three poisons, they gallop after the six dusts. Day and night forming attachments, there is nothing that does not stir up calamity; in incurring blame and offense, their accumulated sins are exceedingly manifold. Now that one has awakened, one should confess with utmost sincerity. Yet the rites of confession must rely upon the sacred teachings. The teachings have Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna; sins have light and heavy; unobstructed and obstructed differ; permission and prohibition are distinct. Therefore, the first section broadly cites the sacred teachings to clarify whether confession is successful or not. For instance, among persons of the seven assemblies, those who have received the five, eight, ten, or full precepts, or the three clusters of precepts: if one commits the initial four gravest offenses of the Hīnayāna without concealing them, the Vinaya permits one to train in repentance for the rest of one’s life, without temporal limit. If one conceals them, even if one confesses, the Vinaya does not permit it. From the second category downward, depending on the lightness or gravity of the offense, whether concealed or not, as long as one recognizes its name and class, it can be eradicated according to the Vinaya; these are fully preserved in the great teachings and are not what is explained here. If one violates the Mahāyāna precepts of the three clusters and the like, except for slandering the Vaipulya scriptures, holding wrong views, or having exceedingly heavy mental volitions and conditions of karma where the precept-body is incomplete—where even if one has a good mind it is extremely difficult to repent of the transgression, requiring that one apply one’s mind with the utmost sincerity and thoroughness—for the remaining lighter offenses, confession is permissible. Now, relying on the Vaipulya and the Names of the Buddhas scriptures and the like, without distinguishing between householders and renunciants, or Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna precepts, if there are violators, their names and classes are not individually enumerated, and thus confession is opened to them. This confession is solely for eradicating sinful hindrances, hoping to avoid karmic faults, longing for pure ascent, and seeking the Great Sage from afar. Pondering such an ultimate, grand matter, it cannot be treated lightly. Unless one is thoroughly versed in the sacred teachings, sins will not be extinguished. Knowing sins to be both real and unreal, defilement and purity to be empty and fused, the mind and its objects to be opening and closing, one must constantly apply attention and not give rise to attachments; only then will sins be subdued and eliminated.