Repentance is the only essential to ending suffering (Issue 308)

What is repentance? Repentance is feeling remorse and a sense of shame, to know that we have failed Heaven and Earth, ourselves and others. We should feel humbled and ashamed before Heaven and Earth, before ourselves and others. We should have a heart of humility. Then, we must truly acknowledge our faults. If we don’t even recognize our faults, how do we begin to cultivate?

A parent gave me a very big enlightenment. While a monastic was talking to her about official matters, she kept reciting Buddha’s name aloud the whole time. The monastic – the principal, was supposed to diligently recite the Buddha’s name, but instead, it was that parent who kept reciting non-stop. I am really concerned that nowadays some people study and practice Buddhism either too laxly or too diligently. Just as the Venerable Master once scolded us, saying, “You Tom, Dick and Harry all came to me talking about going into seclusion. You don’t even know what seclusion is.”

We were ambitious when we first became monastics. Dharma Master Shr told us about a novice nun who was extremely diligent when she first became a monastic. She said that in this lifetime, she must attain at least the level of Arhatship of Fourth Fruition. When I heard that, I felt humbled. I didn’t have this kind of ambition. How could I possibly teach them? Later we learned from Venerable Master that the “Fruit Monk” in Taiwan achieved the state of Srotāpanna, the Arhatship of First Fruition. Dharma Master Shr and others were surprised and said, “Only Srotāpanna?” Venerable Master replied, “Do you think it was easy to attain the state of a Srotāpanna?”

We are naive and, quite frankly, ignorant. We don’t understand what it means to cultivate the mind. We either go too far or fall short. We are either too lax, or overly diligent, hoping to gain some kind of spiritual power. In fact, these are all wrong. Venerable Master had already said, “Pull too tight, it snaps; too slow, it slackens. When it’s neither too tight nor too slow you will succeed.” Don’t use impulse and enthusiasm to cultivate. Instead, use an ordinary mind. Can we eat a month’s worth of food all at once? No! In short, we can only succeed when our practice is neither too rushed nor too slow. In the Dharma-Ending age, true good advisors are scarce. We need to be constantly watchful of our mind. As the saying goes, “A cat that doesn’t crave food won’t steal a bite.” If you do not have greed, you will not be interested in anything presented to you. However, once you open a small door, cravings will pour in without end.