REPENTANCE
AND PRECEPT RECITATION
Translator: Tam Tinh (Sydney, NSW)
INCENSE OFFEREING
(Kneeling)
Still water ad meditating forest has been
perfumed with Dharma,
Mindful wisdom is spreading all around as
sandal scent.
The sword of Precepts has shaped up tall
as a mountain,
With heart sincere and earnest, we are
taking refuge.
Homage to the Enlightened Beings and
Bodhisattvas.
(3 times and standing up)
BUDDHA PRAISE
To the great kind, compassionate ones who
rescue living beings,
The ones of great giving joys, who rescue
conscious beings,
The ones adorned with the light of
hallmark and fine characteristics,
We, the assemblies, are gathering here
with heart in respect and utmost sincerity.
- Namo to all Buddha from the three periods of time to the
end of empty space, we take refuge.
- Namo to all venerable Dharma from the three periods to the
end of empty space, we take refuge
- Namo to all Sages, Enlightened ones (Sangha) from the three
periods of time to the end of empty space, we take refuge.
(1 bow)
DHARMA PRAISE
The Dharma is deep and lovely,
Not everyone can encounter it even through
million lives.
We now have the chance to see it,
We vow to study, understand and practice
the real meaning of our Honoured Ones' words.
We appreciate all Buddha, Bodhisattvas in
the Prajnas Realm.
THE HEART OF THE PRAJNAPARAMITA
The Bodhisattva Avalokita,
While moving in the deep course of perfect
understanding,
Shed light on the five skandhas and found
them equally empty.
After this penetration,
He overcame ill being.
(bell)
Listen, Shariputra,
Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
Form is not other than emptiness.
Emptiness in not other than form.
The same is true with feelings,
Perception, mental formations, and
consciousness.
(bell)
Hear, Shariputra,
All dharmas are marked with emptiness.
They are neither produced not destroyed,
Neither defiled nor immaculate,
Neither increasing nor decreasing.
Therefore in emptiness there is neither
form,
Nor feelings, nor perceptions,
Nor mental formations, nor consciousness;
No eyes, or ear, or nose, or tongue, or
body, or mind;
No form, no sound, no smell, no taste, no
touch, no object of mind;
No realms of elements (from eyes to mind
consciousness);
No interdependent origins and no
extinction of them (from ignorance to death and decay);
No ill-being, no cause of ill-being;
No end of ill-being, and no path;
No understanding, no attainment.
(bell)
Because there is no attainment,
The bodhisattvas, grounded in perfect
understanding,
Find no obstacles, they overcome fear,
Liberation themselves forever from
illusion,
And realising perfect Nirvana.
All Buddhas in the past, present and
future.
Thanks to this perfect understanding,
Arrive at full, right, and universal
enlightenment.
(bell)
Therefore one should know that perfect
understanding
Is the highest mantra, the unequalled
mantra,
The destroyer of all ill being, the
incorruptible truth.
A mantra of prajnaparamita should
therefore be proclaimed,
This is the mantra:
Gate gate paragate
Parasamgate
Bodhi Svaha
(three sounds of bell)
BOWING TO THE PATRIARCHES
We bow to the Past Buddha TI SIKKHI.
We bow to the Present Buddha SAKYA MUNI.
We bow to the Future Buddha MAITREYA.
We bow to the Patriarch MAUDGALYANA.
We bow to the Patriarch ANANDA.
We bow to the Patriarch BODHIDHARMA.
We bow to the Patriarch HUI KO.
We bow to the Patriarch HUI NANG.
We bow to the Patriarch TRUC LAM DAI DAU
DA.
We bow to the Patriarch PHAP LOA.
We bow to the Patriarch HUYEN QUANG.
We bow ALL SAGES, PATRIARCHES OF INDIA,
CHINA AND VIETNAM.
REPENTENCE OF THE SIX FALSE SENSES
With sincere and earnest heart, we are repenting;
For our loss of basic true senses since the days of no
beginning;
For our ignorance to the Right Path, then consequently we
fall to three ways of suffering.
We mislead ourselves due to our six false senses;
Without repenting the past mistakes, it is hard to avoid
the coming problems.
The karmas of eyes are:
Interesting in evil things, disregarding
the good deeds
Accepting false flowers, forgetting
looking at the real moon.
When love hate interfere, incapable to the
conflict of the good and the bad.
Closing eye to the cheating, vague in the
right ways,
Thus, white and green, red and yellow, no
differences at all,
View distorted similar to a blind.
Upon a sensuous beauty, the eyes are
rolling,
And becoming useless in looking things.
Upon a wealthy man, gluing the eyes at,
But blinding the eyes before the poor.
No tear at stranger's death,
But relative's deepening with sorrow.
Not having a look at all the Buddha statue
While loitering in temple or worship
scene.
Dating and eye counting everywhere
Even in a monk's quarter
No bowing or being respectful at all
When seeing a dharma protector.
These karmas all come from eyes,
Resulting being locked in hell.
The offender would spend million lives
there
Before being born again to human.
Even so, he would be blind by the
committed karmas.
The karmas of ears are:
Hatred to listen to dharma, but evil saying,
Forgetting the voice of basic conscience, pursuing to the
outside forms.
Deepening with music and singing
Considering mindful bell as the sound of frogs.
Learning by heart every song around
Shutting up the ears to any dharma talk.
Wishing only to ven false praise words,
Rejecting every even recognised good advises.
Wasting time in alcohol and whores,
Enjoying and having fun with gossiping.
Covering ears to any teacher's advice,
In parental and national loyalty.
Exploding in sexual desire wherever sounds a woman coming,
But the hearing turns bad when sutra explanation voiced.
Such karmas are uncountable, filled up the space
After death, the offender will be pulled to three ways of
suffering,
When serving up the terms, he would still be deaf.
The karmas of nose are:
Like smell only stranger and good odors,
Never paying any attention to pure and decent fragrant,
Searching continuously to the odors of onion and garlic,
Never having a single sniff to pure scent of sandal
No matter what is the result, just pursuing the bad taste,
All the life long never being tired.
Getting stuck with sex appeal, unable to reject,
But turning away the wisdom and mindfulness.
Eating everything available in the kitchen or at the
market,
Regardless it is dirty or rotten,
No matter the smell is sting, just swallow junky food
As messy as pig in a stable.
Spitting yellow sputum to everywhere.
Sneezing running nose fluid to clean surface,
Sleeping drunk at Buddha altar or monk quarter,
The bad breath pollutes everything, including Buddha
statue.
The false nose confuses the sense,
Making the bad to the good, the elegant to the ugly.
These ignorance case innumerable effects,
Drawing the offender into three ways of suffering after
death.
Spending millions of hard lives before being reborn to
human,
Even so, the offender still has disease at nose.
The karmas of tongue are:
Greedy in eating, tasting all types of food.
Enjoying the bad as well as the good.
Killing animals just to satisfy the eating habit,
Roasting and boiling of the all types,
Fat meat marinated with onion and garlic,
Unable to saturate the eating desire
At praying ceremony, trying to abstain from meat,
Even being vegetarian for one day,
Eating as a sick consuming medicine
After that devoting again to the eating habit,
Laughing, speaking joyfully with meat,
Drinking abundantly with various dishes,
On excuse of wedding, killing many animals,
To satisfy the greedy sense of tongue,
Telling lie, gossiping
Two tongues and bad mouth are always come up with,
Cursing the Tree jewels and blaming parents,
Disrespecting Sages and cheating everyone,
Accusing others but hiding ones' ignorance,
Discussing history and commenting everything.
Boasting wealth, insulting the poor,
Scaring away monks, cursing servants,
Backbiting as poison, flattering as music,
Altering the bad, mixing up the bad to good,
Hatred to everyone, insulting the country.
Indulging in the waste talk at Buddha altar or monk
quarter,
These ignorances are as much as sand, unable to count,
After death the offender's tongue will be pulled out,
Tilled by machine, and filled with melting copper.
After paying up the debt, spending thousand lives of
Suffering before reborn to human.
Even so, the offender will be mute.
The karmas of body are:
The body was from parents and made of innumerable of
sentiment beings,
Thus ignoring this origin and assuming wrongly it exist
forever;
Then hooking up with three karmas of body: adultery,
killing and stealing.
The karmas of killing are:
Obsessing with cruelty and never being
nice,
Killing every living being, ignoring the
fact that they and we are of the same origin.
Knowing killing is wrong, still trying to
teach other people,
Using bewitched talismans or poison to
harm others.
Keeping killing not loving,
By burning down jungle or obstructing
waterways,
Netting fishes or using hunting hounds,
Just for fun and loving to do it.
The karmas of stealing are:
Wanting to possess the wealth of others,
By breaking door locks or cutting off
their pockets,
Flooded with greed when seeing public
properties,
Committing to stealing, even in temple,
without sense of guilt.
These are the karmas of stealing,
No matter a big thing as gold or silver,
Or a little thing as a needle.
The karmas of adultery are:
Disregarding the sense of austerity,
Involving in sexual expression when
encountering beauties.
Boys and girls indulging in courting and
dating,
Even at sacred place or monk quarters.
Such ignorance are karmas of adultery.
After death, the offender will be
inundated with suffering,
By being grilled on an iron bed, or being
roasted by hot bronze pillars.
These karmas will follow and effect them
for thousands lives.
The karmas of Perception
are:
Thinking restlessly with sinful joys,
Obsessing permanently with desire and
being stuck with form,
Similar to a silk worm tightens itself
with its silk,
Or a caterpillar jumps to a fire to be
burned by the fire,
Loosing control of mind and involving in
cheating,
These are the causes of three evils:
Greed
Indulging in hate and greed,
Nothing to be satisfied with, even wealth
in h and.
The mind is similar to a leaking vase,
Never be filled and never be happy with.
Letting harvest be rotted, rather than
feeding the hungry,
Clothes be wastefully piled, rather than
making others warm.
Gaining hundred, never filled satisfied at
all,
While missing a dime, considering a big
loss.
From a precious gems to a single thread,
Everything stocked, ignoring donations.
Feeling worried days and nights protecting
the wealth,
All resulting from greed.
Anger
The anger burns up everything, including
peace among people,
Not respecting anyone, even an ordained
monk,
Criticising sutras and sacred books,
Rejecting elder priest, blaming parents.
Saddening old people, spreading out bad
gossips,
Harming others, disregarding compassion
and breaking precepts.
Considering self as sages, becoming dump
dealing with facts.
Even living in temple, the self is still
apparently gross.
Exactly like fire comes out of wood which
is burned be fire in return,
These karmas are resulted from anger.
Ignorance
Due to ignorance and stupidity,
Unable to understand the difference
between the good and the bad.
Criticising Buddha and all sages,
Ignoring blessings and disregard others.
Unable to be mindful to have a good
judgement.
These are the karmas of ignorance.
The punishment would be spending countless
lives in hell,
Even reborn as human, the ignorance is
still caught up,
The consequence is offered to the Sacred
altar.
THREE REFUGES
And
FIVE PRECEPTS
THREE REFUGES
We vow to take refuge in Buddha, in
Dharma, and in Sangha.
(bell, 1 bow)
- Taking refuge in Buddha, we vow for the rest of our lives
respecting Buddha Sakya Muni, our Enlightened Honoured Ones.
- Taking refuge in Dharma, we vow for the rest of our lives
practicing right Dharma revealed by Buddha.
- Taking refuge in Sangha, we vow for the rest of our lives
respecting and following instructions of monks and nuns who practice the right Dharma.
- As such, we no longer worship and bad Gods or Demons.
- As such, we no longer practice faiths other than Buddhism.
- As such, we no longer make friends with bad people.
(bell, 1 bow)
FIVE PRECEPTS
- We vow for the rest of our lives not to commit a killing.
That means we shall not practice killing by ourselves, not to order others to kill, not to
be happy seeing, knowing a killing. We vow to protect the lives of human as well as
animals.
- We vow for the rest of our lives not to commit a stealing
nor robbery. That means we shall not take away properties of others by stealing or by
force. We vow to protect the property of others as much as ours.
- We vow for the rest of our lives not to commit adultery.
That means we shall not have any extra marital affair with others who are not our wife or
husband. We vow to practice the marital loyalty.
- We vow for the rest of our lives not to tell a lie. That
means we shall not commit cheating, saying cruel and slandering words to others. We praise
the truth and loving words.
- We vow for the rest of our lives not to drink alcohol nor
use narcotics. These substances will hinder our mindfulness, may cause sickness to our
body or make unpredictable mistakes to others.
May the Three Jewels support us in
practicing the Five Precepts and in living a good was right at our current life as well as
future ones.
With sincere and earnest heart, we go to
refuge in the Unsurpassed Three Jewels.
(3 bows)
Vow
First vow is keeping ourselves mindful.
Second vow is stopping our restless
senses.
Third vow is clearing all mind doubtless.
Fourth vow is meditating devotionally as a
full moon.
Fifth vow is preventing this world from
collapsing.
Sixth vow is escaping from sensuous
appeals.
Seventh vow is practicing the Ten Realms.
Eighth vow is listening deeply to
everything.
Ninth vow is halting the jumpy mind.
Tenth vow calming the galloping
perception.
Eleventh vow is mind opened to Buddha
instruction.
Twelfth vow is respecting all Patriarchs
of meditation.
Good Mind Dedication
We are dedicating mindful ourselves to all
Sages.
We are bowing respectfully to our Teacher.
We are promising to attain soon to the Ten
Realms.
We are pledging to keep our Bodhi faith
not recessed.
Closing Verse
May the Dharma gate always still and pure.
May all living beings be in peace.
May Buddha wisdom go further.
May our faith in Buddha be deeper.
May the blessing spread all over the
world.
May all sentient beings enjoy a decent
life and be unharmed anywhere.
May all conflicts be stopped.
May all beings become Buddha.
(stand and bow)
With sincere and earnest heart, we take
refuge to the Unsurpassed Three Jewels of the Ten Directions.
(3 bows)
Computer typesetting:
Thien An - Thanh Phi
Update: 01-04-2001