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The Great Sutra Treasury – Southern Transmission 11
In the Vietnamese tradition, on every full moon and the first day of the lunar month, there is often the Recitation of the Buddha’s Names ceremony: 108 prostrations according to the names of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to purify the mind. In addition, there are many other repentance practices such as the Water Repentance, Great Compassion Water Repentance, Medicine Buddha Repentance, Liang Huang Repentance, and so on. Especially, the Six Times Repentance Practice composed by King Tran Thai Tong—which consists of six repentance sessions each day (at dawn, at 10 o’clock, etc.), each session taking only 20–25 minutes—has been preserved as a masterpiece of Buddhist literature.
The teachings revolve around three mental factors:
- Shame (feeling embarrassed before oneself) and conscience (feeling embarrassed before others) are “spiritual ornaments.”
- Regret can be wholesome if it leads to a determination to transform; but it can also hinder practice if we remain caught in remorse.
- The principle “wrongdoing arises from the mind, and is transformed by the mind” affirms that wrongdoing is born and ceases from the mind, so only by transforming the mind—through repentance, upholding the precepts, and giving rise to our aspiration—can we truly resolve resentment and hatred. The past is already dead, but its roots still lie in the present: instead of trying to return to the past, let us dwell peacefully and transform right in this very moment (citing the example of an American veteran).
The final part of the talk reviews 20 suttas (71–90) from the Middle Length Discourses and the Samyukta Agama:
• Three Knowledges (71) on the three kinds of wisdom;
• Aggivacchasutta (72) using fire as a metaphor for arising and ceasing;
• Mahāvacchasutta (73), Dīghanakhasutta (74) responding to various philosophical views;
• Māgandiyasutta (75) emphasizing the Four Establishments of Mindfulness,
…and other sutras on the Noble Eightfold Path, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, previous lives such as Angulimala, Ghatikāra, Raṭṭhapāla, the Adornment of the Dharma by King Pasenadi, etc.—all aiming to strengthen right view, dispel wrong views, and establish the practice of the true Dharma.