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Transforming the Repentance and Taking Refuge Chant
The method of practice is very clear: when a mental formation such as sadness, anger, love, or hatred arises, we need to be aware of it. Thanks to mindful breathing, we can recognize that mental formation—anger, love, jealousy, or aversion—because we are still human beings, these mental formations are still within us and have the opportunity to manifest in our lives. Instead of blaming others, if we change ourselves even a little, life will become much more pleasant; responsibility must first be placed on ourselves. We take care of both—not only do we transform hatred, but we also take care of love, because unhealthy love will not nourish the energy of progress on the path of practice. Healthy love encourages learning and progress in practice, without discrimination, without creating obstacles in our own practice, the practice of others, or of the Sangha. In order not to be deceived by the “inner judge,” we use the energy of mindfulness and the insight from our fellow practitioners to deeply contemplate and recognize the true nature of anger and love.
Today we are learning the Repentance and Taking Refuge for Life—a Beginning Anew Chant not yet included in the English or French chanting books, which Thay translated from Chinese into Vietnamese in the lục bát poetic form, with the first four lines in seven-syllable verse followed by lục bát. The main points of the chant are as follows:
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The opening four lines praise the Three Jewels:
- Taking refuge in the Teacher who tames in the ten directions
- Proclaiming the pure and wondrous Dharma
- The Sangha of liberation, of the Three Vehicles and Four Fruits
- May the Four Immeasurable Minds of loving kindness and compassion embrace and accept us
- The image of “stretching out the golden arm,” symbolizing the deep compassion of the World-Honored One
- The six sense objects (form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas) are the source of afflictions, giving rise to the ten fetters (greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, doubt, view of self, view of extremes, wrong views, attachment to views, attachment to rites and rituals) that bind us in the realm of afflictions
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Words of repentance and the image of turning back against the current of the true nature, drifting in the ocean of sorrow, opening the way back to our pure original mind
When compared with the original Chinese text, we see Thay’s free translation: preserving the essence of the original, adding or omitting images, simplifying unnecessary details, so that each time we chant, we can feel the nourishment of the bodhi mind.
