Repentance Begets Peace and Bliss; Repentance Begets Serenity and Clarity (Issue 279)

The Venerable Master places great emphasis on repentance because repentance begets peace and bliss, and refreshing purity. If we do not repent, we carry a very heavy burden psychologically and mentally. The way repentance calms down the anxious, restless, and worrying mind is like a shower washing away the filth from our body, leaving the body feeling refreshed and cleansed. This is the merit and virtue of repentance.

We will be able to reap the benefits of bowing in repentance when we do so with the utmost sincerity, candor, and faith. There is no other dharma door like the repentance dharma door, which will certainly help us attain peace and bliss, and regain our refreshing purity. When we bow in repentance with true sincerity, we will certainly receive the benefits.

At the Buddhist Lecture Hall in Hong Kong, they carry on the practice of bowing the Medicine Buddha Repentance on the first and the fifteenth of each lunar month. I remember the senior bhikshuni in Hong Kong would bow the Medicine Buddha Repentance every time. She told me that in the early days the Venerable Master required them to bow in repentance twice a day. In the morning they would bow the Great Compassion Repentance, then go to plow the fields until evening. After returning from the fields they would wash their feet and hurry to the buddha hall to bow the Lotus Repentance. That’s a daily routine. She also told me that the Venerable Master was very strict with them. In addition to bowing two sessions of repentance a day, they have to complete 10,000 recitations of the Buddha’s name, and finish a great load of other homework in their daily practice. Our senior fellow cultivators from the early days had a very solid and deep foundation.

Dharma Master Shun’s group also had similarly rigorous training. The Venerable Master was also very strict with them. Dharma Master Shun said he went to Thailand in 1974 to leave the home life. Later on, he returned to the United States. In 1977, he participated in a summer session at the Gold Mountain Monastery. At that time, he had to listen to the sutra lectures and to do sitting meditation. When he first started, he could not sit in either full or half lotus position and was not able to sit for even half an hour. Later on, he trained himself with some effort for three years and was able to sit in the full lotus position for half an hour.

Dharma Master Shun said every morning he would start practicing sitting meditation at 3:30am. At that time he could not go beyond thirty minutes sitting even with both feet placed underneath both thighs, not to mention half lotus or full lotus. After practicing for three years was he able to sit full lotus, and only for five minutes at a time. This was how much suffering he had to endure to achieve his goals. So, don’t think that others have it easy because they have a good foundation. What really counts is one’s own effort. On the sixth day into the summer session, Dharma Master Shun could not take it any longer and was getting ready to leave. By chance on that day the Venerable Master was lecturing on the Four Noble Truths. Everyone knew the morning lecture was on the Four Noble Truths, in which he was interested in, so he ended up staying. He felt that, after having attended many lectures by different dharma masters, including the ones in Thailand, none were as thorough and exhaustive as the lecture given by the Venerable Master. This was the reason he stayed on.

After he stayed, he kept on practicing sitting meditation. He saw many of his senior dharma brothers very vigorously bowing to the Avatamsaka Sutra. Although he did not understand Chinese, he was very much moved by their sincerity, and he started bowing to the Avatamsaka Sutra as well. In reality, he was bowing in repentance. With every single bow, he would recite the repentance verse:

For all the evil deeds I have done in the past,
Based on beginningless greed, anger, and delusion,
And created by body, speech, and mind,
I now repent and reform of them all.

He kept on this practice of reciting the repentance verse with each bow, for six years.