I.4, Confess to the crime of slandering Bodhisattvas:

The crime of slandering Bodhisattvas is more serious, 

than killing all sentient beings in the three realms.

The misdeeds I commited unknowingly,

I now Confess.(?)

Confess to the crime of slandering Bodhisattvas. It is already stated how serious the misdeed of killing one sentient being is. Here, it is said that slandering Bodhisattvas with malicious intentions is more serious than killing all sentient beings in the three realms at the same time. Because Bodhisattvas are the cause of attaining Buddhahood, which is equivalent to the parents of all sentient beings. The sutra also says: "If one opposes a bodhisattva with malicious intent, it is a more seroius crime than putting all sentient beings in prison; if one slanders a bodhisattva, it is a more serious crime than killing the sentient beings of Jambudvipa; if with malicious intent, one curses a bodhisattva of the first 40 stages, or says displeasing words, it is a more serious crime than destroying as many stupas as the sands of the Ganges." It also says: "If one slanders a bodhisattva, it is a more serious crime than killing all sentient beings and taking away all their property." Therefore, confess to and repent of these heinous crimes commited meaninglessly (before Amitabha and his retinue).

As the saying goes: "one doesn't know where the thieves and bodhisattvas are." One must never judge a person as virtuous or unvirtuous based on his appearance and slander him casually. We don't understand the true condition (of ordinary people or saints) at all. The unrevealed yogis are like a fire pit covered with ashes. As stated in "The Training Anthology of Santideva": "If one is not certain, and slights the Bodhisattvas, who are like a fire covered with ashes, he will burn in hell." Bodhisattvas who have gained freedom (of birth and death) can be reborn in various definite or indefinite forms to benefit sentient beings. Therefore, Mahabodhisattvas can be found even among beggars, butchers, and animals, so there must be some among monks.

Originally, Tibet the land of snow is Avalokitesvara's area of activites for benefiting sentient beings, and most people are followers of Mahayana Buddhism. The Jewel Box Sutra says, "Anyone who can say the Avalokitesvara mantra is of the Mahayana type." There are almost no monks who have not developed bodhichitta. Therefore, if one does not criticize anyone and observe the pure mind, there will be no faults and it is the basis for the perfection of everything.

If one has faith, then even if there are inferior objects (he can accomplish by it). Just like an old woman who attained Buddhahood by a dog's tooth. As Shantideva said, "Since sentient beings and Buddhas are of the same nature, why doesn't one respect sentient beings?" For example, if one clings to the thought that a fake person is a real person, one will see it running towards him. Similarly, if one sees everyone as a bad person, he will also see faults in the Buddha; if one sees everyone as a good person, he will also see a butcher as a person with merits. This is entirely related to whether one's mind is pure or not. Therefore, we should have kind thoughts towards all sentient beings. In the past, when the Sakya Pandita Kunga Nyingpo saw many young monks playing archery with their robes taken off by the stream, he said, "Put on your robes, monks. I, an old layman, want to prostrate to you." 

How can we judge whether this person is good or bad like we evaluate the quality of wheat and barley? The Buddha once said, "Except for me and those who are like me, no one can fathom the minds of others. One commits a serious crime if he does." (Most ordinary people) cannot see the very obvious faults in their own mind continuum and observe the hidden faults in the mind continuum of others. They are really like crazy people. As the Supreme Bodhisattva Maitreya said: "one should not have aversion to any phenomena, let alone to the Dharma that he is in doubt with?"

Hiding all of one's own faults while criticizing others' mistakes will be ridiculed by the devas and other beings. The Ratnakuta Sutra says: "Hiding one's own faults, noting others' misdeeds, these two are like poisonous fire, the wise abandon these faults." It also says: "Whoever find faults with the Bodhisattvas, we should know that this is a madman."

It is difficult to see one's own faults even if they are as high as a mountain, while one sees easily the faults of others even if they are just like mustard seeds. As "Chapter on Causes and Conditions" says: "Comparing one's own faults with others, is like winnowing chaff. It is easy to see others' faults, but difficult to see one's own faults." It also says: "Do not try to find faults in others, whether they have done it or not, but examine yourself, are you reasonable or not."

Now is an age where many barbarians from border areas pretend to be accomplished people and deceive sentient beings with various means. Therefore, when you see a virtuous person, do not immediately believe in him carelessly. And when you see a base person, you should not slander him rashly, but maintain a neutral attitude and do not comment. If one takes refuge in and follow a monk he has known for a long time, who has faith and genuine aspiration, is honest and reliable, and has pure precepts, then not only will he not be deceived, but the guru will also not change easily. If one initially seeks the Dharma with faith and establishes a Dharma connection with the guru, it means that one has taken refuge in the guru. Even if he sees that the guru has faults afterwards, he should not slander or defame him. Otherwise, he will reap the consequences and fall into hell. Venerable Atisha said: "Don't slander anyone, whoever one has faith in one should follow him." It is said in "The Way of the Bodhisattva": "It is difficult even for the Buddha to please, all the sentient beings with various mindsets, let alone someone as inferior as me?"

People in the degenerate age are extremely stubborn and difficult to transform. Some gurus cannot make people in some places or some individuals happy, so these people slander the guru. And some others just spread the sound like a startled hare crying "ka la" upon hearing something. We should not follow the crowd. If what most people say and spread in today's age is true and reliable, then this world is on the verge of destruction. Just like the demon Devadatta at the time when the Great Compassionate Teacher was present in the past, for people who are cut off from encountering anything virtuous due to bad karma, if they meet a liar who caters to their mindsets, who ignores karma cause and effect, they will follow him as their teacher; if there is a person who follows the Dharma, they will regard him as a demon. And because they are worried that he (the person who follows the Dharma) will harm their eight worldly concerns, they will curse, slander, distort the facts, ruin his name, disturb his mind and thus expel this person. 

For example, in Zada(?)(匝达), people have one foot. If a person with two feet goes there, the locals will laugh at him and say, "This is a non-human with two feet." Guru Rinpoche once said, "When an accomplished wise man has to leave (becasue no one has faith in him)# and wanders in a foreign land, hypocritical deceivers will appear to fool people. When people do not see the merits of those who uphold the precepts purely, cunning people will appear to deceive sentient beings." This is also recorded in "The Biography of Princess Gold Garland". Therefore, we must not follow blindly when others slander someone as bad, this will even cause our own meditational deities to be slandered by heretics in the border areas. If we follow unfounded hearsay, we will destroy ourselves and others.

Even if we see with our own eyes that someone is wrong and lowly, we should not scorn and slander him. In the past, there were many examples of mahabodhisattvas embodied as beggars in India.

When Atisha first came to Tibet, a great tertron went to see him. At that time, there was a grey-haired old woman holding a cane at the door of his residence. Because the tertron was very particular about pomp, his followers and monks drive away people on the road with stones and sticks. The old woman was knocked to the ground before she could dodge. Later, the tertron passed away and was reborn in the Gloriou Copper-colored Mountain. At that time, a woman blocked him and did not let him enter the ranks of the vidyadharas. He asked, "Who are you? Why are you stopping me?" The woman replied, "I am the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal. When Atisha came to Tibet to spread the Dharma, I was guarding his door to prevent him from encountering adverse conditions. You slighted me at that time, so I am stopping you now."

Thangtong Gyalpo's biography also describes that he had followed many gurus who appeared as butchers, widows, etc.

When King Songtsen Gampo was on his way to pay homage to the three great stupas in Nepal, he saw a beggar monk taking off his tattered clothes and catching lice under the scorching sun. The king thought that this was a monk, so he got off his horse and prostrated to him. The monk thought: I am really great, these great kings also prostrate to me. The king knew what he was thinking and said: "I respect and believe in the Vinaya of Buddha Shakyamuni, you have nothing to be proud of." The monk was a hidden mahasiddha, so he performed a miracle and placed the three great stupas on his fingertip. The king said: "This is nothing to be surprised about." As he said this, he opened his top knot to show him the body of Amitabha. The monk said, "There is also nothing extraordinary about this." He took a sharp knife and cut open the abdomen with it forcefully, revealing the mandala of Cakrasamvara... The sutra also said, "ugly, stupid, and poor people, those who should be despised, since it is difficult to know the activities and behavior of various spiritual states, so do not rashly accuse them."

Not only can we not judge people, but even animals are difficult to make out: In the past, a Mongolian Geshe said to one of his disciples, "Go to Mount Wutai to pay homage to and see Manjushri. I can't help you anymore." So the disciple went to Mount Wutai, but saw nothing. On the way back, he went to Mount Emei and saw many Han Chinese people eating in a big house, so he went to beg. But no one gave him anything. He sat for a while. Then an official inside gestured for him to come over. He hesitated and came to the official. The official gave him all the leftovers and asked, "Where are you from and where are you going?" He told the whole story. The official handed him a letter and said, "On your way back to your hometown, you will pass through a big city called Yaje(?)(雅杰). There is a man named Daxi(达西) there. Please give this letter to him." He also gave him some food for the journey. He took the letter to Yaje and asked everywhere where Daxi lived. But no one knew. He asked again and again, but still no one knew. Another person said, "There is an old pig named Daxi here. It is very kind to all sentient beings. There is no one else named Daxi." 

He asked the man to point out the location of the old pig. He thought: Now there is no hope of giving this letter to anyone, so I have to give it to the pig. So he came to the pig and threw the letter in front of it. The old pig opened the letter with its nose, took a quick look, and died. He felt puzzled and immediately read the contents of the letter. The letter read: "To Bodhisattva Daxi personally, your work of saving sentient beings in the form of an animal has been temporarily completed. Now you should go to the east to benefit sentient beings in a different form and with different activities! Manjushri." He realized that the official was Bodhisattva Manjushri and immediately returned to see him. But there was nothing left in the place where he was. However, this guru also attained enlightenment finally. There are many cases like this.

In addition, commenting on the depth of the guru's wisdom, the level of his views and understanding also slanders the Dharma and the guru at the same time. Saying these monks are this and that as a whole is a more seroius misdeed of slandering. In the past, when Venerable Maudgalyayana went to hell, he saw a being with a human body and a height of several yojanas. Its tongue also stretched out a yojana, and there were many cows on it being driven to plow. It felt immeasurable pain. The Venerable observed what kind of karma this was caused by, but he only knew that it had been reborn in hell for many lives. And he had no idea what karma it was. So he went to ask the Buddha. The Buddha said: "That is because it said to the monks of Buddha Kasyapa: 'These people who broke the precepts, those who are not pure in upholding the precepts...' and slandered the monks as a whole. This is the last of the five hundred lives of retribution, but it will not be liberated even as many Buddhas emerge."

Therefore, those who want to be liberated must be vigilant against the crime of slander, and whatever slander committed previously must be confessed within the same day.

I.5, Confess to the crime of wrong views:

Having heard about the benefit resulting from virtue and the

suffering resulting from non-virtue,

about the suffering of the hells and about the life spans 

of different realms, etc.,

Thinking that it is not true and just saying it, 

this crime is more serious than the five heinous crimes,

All such crimes that cut one off from any chance of liberation, 

I now confess.

What is mentioned above: the benefits of hearing the name of Amitabha, the merits of finally attaining Buddhahood by making small offerings, etc.; the harm of falling into hell due to slandering Bodhisattvas or having a moment of malicious thought towards them; the characteristics of the pain of hells: for example, in this world, the pain of stabbing a person with 300 short spears at the same time cannot even describe a part of the pain in the hell of repeated rebirth, the lightest of all hells, the pains in all the hells below are greater and greater; the pain in the Avici Hell is incomparable even with the sum of the pain in other hells, etc.; fifty years on earth is one day in the heavens of the Four Heavenly Kings, five hundred years in a Four Heavenly Kings heaven is one day in the Hell of Repeated Rebirth, the life span of beings in the Hell of Repeated Rebirth is five hundred years, etc., as (in the Abhidharma-kosha) it says: "In the six hells such as the Hell of Repeated Rebirth, one day is equal to the life span of the heavens in the desire realm." Based on this calculation, the life span of the Extremely Hot Hell is as long as half a middle kalpa, etc., as well as the life span of hells due to the karma of the individual. Although they have heard the above-mentioned teachings about the path of good and bad karma, they think that this is not true, that they are just superficial statements or legend. They have wrong views of karma cause and effect. This is a more serious misdeed than committing the five heinous crimes. Because there are opportunities to confess to and repent of the five heinous crimes, but this negative karma cuts off the roots of virtues. And there is no chance of recovery even if they confess and repent until they have developed a true faith in karma cause and effect. They will not be able to be liberated from the evil realms for incalculable kalpas. (In front of Amitabha and his retinue) Confess to and repent of the heinous crimes that does not allow chance of liberation. Sutras such as the Mahaparinirvana Sutra and the Sutra of Great Liberation declare that those with wrong views will never be liberated from the evil realms.

No matter how one teaches virtues and nonvirtues and karma cause and effect to those who were reborn in this world from the past lives of heretics or barbarians in the border areas, faith does not arise in them. Those sly Dharma practitioners who are good at teaching the Dharma, but listen to the Dharma superficially, and those who bias towards holding the view rather than acting on the teachings, disregard karma cause and effect. They say, "This Pratimoksha is the practice of the Sravakas. Our Vajrayana practice does not need to be limited like this. Afflictions are the wisdom of the path. Things that can bind do no exist. If the view is realized, there are no appearances of karma cause and effect. I learned in samadhi that doing good is of no benefit and doing evil is of no harm..." These also belong to this kind of wrong view crimes.

Of course, if one has realized the ultimate view, then this is indeed the case. However, no Buddhist sutra ever says that liberation can be achieved by separating view and practice from each other. For example, the "Tantra of Bodhisattva Subahu" says: "The Buddha said that among all the pure precepts, from Pratimoksha precepts and up, householder yogis should practice and uphold all of them, except for those related to appearances and monastic ceremonies such as the uposhadha." We must do what the Buddha said, otherwise, if there is no special need (to forgo the Pratimoksha precepts), one will break his vows. The tantra says: "Those yogis who break their vows, will encounter many obstacles in their practices." The Guhyasamaja Tantra says: "In behavior, we should practice as the Sravakas, internally, we should rejoice at the views and meanings of Vajrayana." Guru Padmasambhava also said: "In conduct, we should practice the manners of sutrayana, it is necessary to accept and abandon based on karma cause and effect." The "Cakrasamvara Tantra" says: "The practice without the view, the view without the practice, these two are demons of Vajrayana practices, that lead one to fall into the Avici Hell." As a beginner, the growth and advance of the stages and merits must rely on making decisions based on karma cause and effect. Therefore, we must carefully accept and abandon based on karma cause and effect.

Even if we will no longer be stained by the faults of karma cause and effect, if there is no special need, we should accept and abandon according to the Dharma when in front of others. We should think about the meaning of these teachings seriously. In the past, a guru taught the many faults of eating meat. After that, his disciples stopped offering him meat. The guru said, "Bring the meat!" The disciples said, "You have taught the many faults of eating meat. Do you still want to have it now?" The guru said, "That is just saying. How can it be fully realized in reality? Bring the meat quickly!" If one is only good at speaking but disdain karma cause and effect, then he is the same as the guru in this koan.

In addition, in the past, wrong views arose in the Bhikkhu "Look of Death" and Samanera "With Thorn", they said, "Who has fallen into hell because of not observing the precepts of not eating after noon, not touching fire, and not cutting trees? What is the need to lay down these precepts? I really don't know what this Buddha is talking about." There are people who talk nonsense like this also. If one really can't do it, it is better to keep silent. Otherwise, one will cut off one's roots of virtue, which is very dangerous.

The same is true for lay men and women. When one hears the profound Dharma of karma cause and effect, do not say, "These teachers are all eloquent, they car say whatever they want to say,..." Just like the case of an old woman who said smilingly when a guru was teaching, something like "These teachings cannot be true. Even if they are true, we do not understand them at all." There are also such people who disregard karma cause and effect, disconnecting themselves from the conditions for liberation; or saying, "The highly accomplished masters can do this, how can we endure such pain?" and live a lazy life; or saying, "In fact, if one good deed really has such merits, then what is the difficulty for all sentient beings to attain Buddhahood? If one misdeed really has such faults, then no one can be liberated." If one believes in the sayings of these  people lightly, he may completely destroy the roots of virtue in his mind continuum and never have the chance to generate them again. The sutra says, "Karma and its effects are inconceivable." If karma cause and effect is a law that can be understood by our ignorant minds, then why is it said to be a very profound law?

In fact, unenlightened foolish people can hardly judge the soundness of the obvious worldly matters, let alone the extremely subtle and hidden karma cause and effect! If we admit that we are followers of the perfect Buddha, we must firmly believe in the Buddha's words. As the verse says: "The peacock's feathers are gorgeous, but still have differences due to cause and effect. The omniscience knows it, otherwise it is impossible to know." Karma cause and effect is seen through the power of knowing what is true and what is not true among the ten powers of the perfect Buddha, and is declared with the great sound of lion roar. So there is no possibility of deception. As the "Amitabha Sutra" says: "Therefore all wise men, believe in the Buddha's words firmly, take the wisdom of Buddha as proof, and praise the Buddha's knowledge." Therefore, we should not doubt the Buddha's wisdom. Those who say that they have faith in the Buddha but do not pay attention to karma cause and effect and like performing misdeeds are simply telling lies. If one really has faith, he will definitely pay attention to karma cause and effect, because of all of Buddha's teachings, the practice of making correct decisions on karma cause and effect is the basis for all practices. If one sincerely believes in the Buddha's words but does not work hard, then the Buddha cannot forcibly guide him. As the Buddha said in the sutra: "I have taught you the way to liberation, but you should know that liberation depends on yourself." 

In "The Way of the Bodhisattva", it is said: "To benefit all sentient beings, countless Buddhas emerged and departed, but because of my mistakes in the past, I have not been taught and liberated by a Buddha." It can be seen that among all faiths, there is no faith more superior than the faith that karma cause and effect is true and that one is happy to carefully choose between good and evil. The Buddha said in the sutra: "Manjushri, what is faith? Those who have faith believe in all the Dharma correctly and sincerely, receive it with confidence, and do not doubt it. Believe firmly in karma and the retribution fruits of karma." For example, even the words of an honest old man in the world are true and reliable, so how can the teachings of the Buddha, who is omniscient and does not lie, deceive us?

In the world, after sowing seeds and cultivating them diligently, they will definitely produce fruits. Similarly, the karma cause and effect of virtue and non-virtue must be true. It is very important to think of this and have a firm belief in karma cause and effect. If one does not believe in karma cause and effect sincerely, that means he does not believe in the Buddha and the Buddha's words. There is no more serious crime in the world than this. Therefore, it is necessary to confess to such misdeeds committed in the past. We are in an age where the turbidity of wrong views is rampant now, so we must be extra careful from now on to avoid them.