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The Confessional Samadhi of the Lotus Sutra, page 16
6. Confession of the Thinking Mind
"I confess with all my heart - along with all living beings everywhere, I have had a thinking mind that has not been good from before the beginning of time. Greedily attached to many things, it has been wild, foolish, and without understanding. I have followed after and been attached to objects with greed, anger, and stupidity. Like this, my false thoughts have been able to produce all of the adulterated deeds that make up the ten evils and five acts of iniquity1. And like a foolish monkey with a pot of glue, I have had greedy attachments here there and everywhere among the feelings of the six sensess. The karmic deeds of these six senses have been the branches, flowers and leaves that have completely filled up everything in the threefold realm and the 25-fold realm of existence2. These deeds have been able to augment ignorance, old age, death, and the twelve phenomena of suffering3. Being on the Eight Improper Paths4 and in the Eight Difficult Situations5 these things do not just go away. A measureless and boundless retribution of evil has been produced from my thinking mind. It is the root source of all of Life & Death and is the font of a host of sufferings, as taught in the Sutra."
"Sakyamuni is called Vairocana who is Everywhere in All Places”6. One must know that all things everywhere are in the Buddha’s Enlightenment. In distinguishing them with false thoughts, one will receive much fevered distress, and it follows that one will see impurity in Bodhi and binds in liberation."
"Now, upon first awakening, I bear deep shame and fear. Chanting and embracing the Sutra of the Great Vehicle and cultivating my practice as the Sutra teaches, I turn my life over to the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue as well as all the World Honored Ones. Burning incense and scattering flowers, I expound upon the errors and sins of my thinking mind in a tearful confession, without daring to hide them or cover them up. Because of this, along with all living beings everywhere in the Spiritual Realm, may the heavy sins of my thinking mind and all the evil karmic deeds of my six senses be once and for all washed clean, confessed, and ultimately purified."
Having confessed, one worships the Three Treasures. One uses this method six times a day. If one thinks that there are too many words, one may abbreviate them as long as one holds on to the intent.
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Footnotes:
1. The Ten Evils: Three of the body: killing, stealing, sexual immorality Four of the mouth: lying, double tongue, harsh language, flowery/evasive language & Three of the mind: envy, anger, perverted views The five acts of iniquity: #1 Killing one’s mother #2 Killing one’s father #3 Killing an Arhat #4 Disrupting the Sangha #5 Harming the Buddha
2. The Threefold Realm and The 25-fold Realm of Spiritual Existence: The Spiritual Realm of Life & Death, Samsara, mortal self-existence. The Brahmanic scheme of the 25 states of existence elaborates on and helps clarify this spiritual realm in terms of the six spiritual realms and the threefold realm of sensory desire, form & formlessness.
3. Twelve phenomena of ignorance: The Twelvefold Wheel of Causality & Conditions, the origin of suffering:
4. The Eight Improper Paths: The opposite of the Noble Eightfold Path - #1 Improper Views #2 Improper Intent #3 Improper Speech #4 Improper Conduct #5 Improper Livelihood #6 Improper Diligence #7 Improper Remembrance #8 Improper Concentration
5. The Eight Difficult Situations: The Eight Difficulties in Seeing the Buddha and Hearing the Dharma: Being in #1 Hell #2 Hunger #3 Brutality #4 Uttarakuru (the northern continent where life is always pleasant) #5 One of the long-life heavens (where life is long & easy) #6 Being deaf, dumb & blind #7 Being a worldly philosopher (a materialist) #8 Being between Buddhas in time
6. “Sakyamuni is called Vairocana that is Everywhere in All Places”: From The Sutra on the Observation of the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue - Vairocana (The Illuminator or The Great Sun) is a name to given to the Buddha as the cosmic all pervading Spiritual Body (Dharmakaya) that illuminates all. This name is featured in the Flower Garland (Avatamsaka) Sutra & later esoteric sutras, like the Maha Vairocana Sutra.
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Since July 9, 2001