Sixth Patriarch Huineng's formless ch'an hui

From the Sutra of Huineng:

Learned Audience, please follow me and repeat together what I say.

May we, disciples so and so, be always free from the taints of ignorance and delusion. We repent of all our sins and evil deeds committed under delusion or in ignorance. May they be expiated at once and may they never arise again.

May we be always free from the taints of arrogance and dishonesty [asatya]. We repent of all our arrogant behaviour and dishonest dealings in the past. May they be expiated at once and may they never arise again.

May we be always free from the taints of envy and jealousy. We repent of all our sins and evil deeds committed in an envious or jealous spirit. May they be expiated at once and may they never arise again.

Learned Audience, this is what we call formless ch'an hui [repentance]. Now what is the meaning of ch'an? Ch'an refers to the repentance of past sins. To repent of all our past sins and evil deeds committed under delusion, ignorance, arrogance, dishonesty, jealousy, or envy, and so on, so as to put an end to all of them, is called ch'an. Hui refers to that part of repentance concerning our future conduct. Having realized the nature of our transgression [we make a vow] that hereafter we will put an end to all kinds of evil committed under delusion, ignorance, arrogance, dishonesty, jealousy, or envy, and that we shall never sin again. This is hui.

On account of ignorance and delusion, common people do not realize that in repentance they have no only to feel sorry for their past sins but also to refrain from sinning in the future. Since they take no heed of their future conduct they commit new sins before the past are expiated. How can we call this repentance?

Learned Audience, having repented of our sins, we will take the following four all-embracing vows.

We vow to deliver an infinite number of sentient beings of our mind.

We vow to get rid of the innumerable defilements in our own mind.

We vow to learn the countless systems in dharma of our essence of mind.

We vow to attain the supreme buddhahood of our essence of mind.

Submitted February 09, 2019 at 07:52AM by Dillon123 http://bit.ly/2GiY03n