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
