現在賢劫千佛名經 1.17

1.17

Namo to all Buddhas of the past, present, and future, throughout the ten directions and three periods of time, exhausting the realm of empty space. Taking refuge and confessing: "With utmost sincerity, we confess! We disciples have now collectively confessed all karmic offenses in general terms, and we shall now proceed one by one to confess them individually in specific terms—whether general or specific, coarse or fine, light or heavy, spoken or unspoken, according to their classes and categories, may they all be eliminated. Concerning specific confession: we first confess the three karmas of the body, next confess the four karmas of speech, and for the rest of all obstacles, we bow our heads in sequence. Among the three karmas of the body, the first is killing. As explained in the sūtras, using oneself as an analogy: do not kill, do not use the rod. Although there is a difference between birds and beasts, in treasuring life and fearing death, the matter is one and the same. If we trace these sentient beings back through beginningless time, they may have been our parents, siblings, relatives, and kin, who, due to karmic conditions, transmigrated in the six destinies, being born and dying, changing forms and receiving different retributions, so that we no longer recognize each other. Yet now we harbor thoughts of harming them and eating their flesh, which severely wounds compassion. Therefore the Buddha said: 'Even when obtaining other food, one should view it as eating the flesh of one's own child during a famine, how much more so eating this fish and meat!' He also said: 'Killing living beings for profit, and taking in meats with money—both are evil karmas, and upon death one falls into the Screaming Hell.' Hence we know that killing and eating [meat] produces sins as deep as rivers and seas, and faults as heavy as hills and mountains. Yet we disciples, from beginningless time, did not encounter good friends and all succumbed to this karma. Therefore a sūtra states: 'The sin of killing can cause sentient beings to fall into the hells and hungry ghosts to endure suffering. If born among animals, they receive bodies of tigers, leopards, jackals, wolves, falcons, and hawks, or bodies of venomous snakes, vipers, and scorpions, constantly harboring malice; or they receive bodies of roe deer, red deer, bears, and brown bears, constantly harboring terror. If born among humans, they receive two kinds of karmic retribution: first, frequent illness; second, short lifespan.' Since killing living beings and eating [them] yields such limitless and diverse evil retributions, we disciples today, with utmost sincerity, take refuge in all the Buddhas."