..续本文上一页ted at once and may they never rise again.

　　As you will notice, there are two aspects to this repentance ritual: One refers to repentance for past sin; we ought to repent for all our past sins and evil deeds committed under delusion or ignorance, arrogance or dishonesty, jealousy or envy, so as to put an end to all of them. This is one aspect of repentance. The other aspect refers to future conduct. Having realised the

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　　evil nature of our transgression we make a vow that hereafter we will put an end to all evil deeds committed under delusion or ignorance, arrogance or dishonesty, envy or jealousy, and that we will never sin again. This is the second aspect of repentance. On account of ignorance and delusion, common people do not always appreciate that in repentance they must not only feel sorry for their past sins, but must also refrain from sinning in the future. Since they often take no heed as to their future conduct, they commit the same sins over again almost before the past ones are expiated. How can we call that repentance

　　Learned Audience: Having repented of our sins, we should take the following all-embracing vows: Listen very carefully:--

　　Our Mind-essence is potential of an infinite number of sentient beings. We vow to bring them all unto deliverance.

　　We vow to get rid of the evil passions of our minds, inexhaustible though they seem.

　　We vow to learn the countless systems of Dharma in our Mind-essence.

　　We vow to attain the Supreme Buddhahood of our Mind-essence.

　　We have now vowed to deliver an infinite number of sentient beings; but what does that mean

　　 It does not mean that I, Hui-neng is going to deliver them. And who are these sentient beings, potential within our minds

　　 They are the delusive mind, the deceitful mind, the evil mind, and such like--all these are sentient beings. Each of them has to be delivered by oneself by means of his own Essence of Mind; only by his own deliverance, is it genuine.

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　　Now, what does it mean, "delivering oneself by one”s own Essence of Mind

　　” It means the deliverance of the ignorant, delusive, and the vexatious beings that spring up within our own mind, by means of Right Views. With the aid of Right Views and Prajna, the barriers thrown up by these delusive and ignorant beings may be broken down; so that each of us will be in a position to deliver himself by his own efforts. The false will be delivered by truthfulness; the delusive by enlightenment; the ignorant by wisdom; and the malevolent by benevolence; such is genuine deliverance.

　　As to the vow; "to get rid of the inexhaustible evil passions," that refers to the transcendence of our unreliable and illusive thinking faculty by the transcendental Wisdom (Prajna) of our Mind-essence. As to the vow: "to learn the countless systems of Dharma"; there will be no true knowledge until we have been brought face to face with our Essence of Mind, by our conforming to the orthodox Dharma on all occasions. As to the vow, "to attain Supreme Buddahood"; I wish to point out that when we are able to control our mind to follow the true and orthodox Dharma on all occasions, and when Prajna always rises in our minds, so that we can hold aloof from both ignorance and enlightenment, and can do away with falsehood as well as truth, then we may consider ourselves as having realised our Buddha-nature, or, in other words, having attained Buddhahood.

　　Learned Audience: we should always bear in mind that we are following the Path for thereby strength is added to our vows. Now, since we have all taken the four-fold vows, I will teach you the Ritual of the threefold Guidance.

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　　We take "Enlightenment" as our Guide, because it is the fruit of both merit (Punya) and Wisdom (Prajna).

　　We take "Orthodoxy" as our Guide, because it is t…

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