SAMANTABHADRA BODHISATTVA’S FOURTH GREAT VOW: REPENT ONE’S WRONGDOINGS
Master Jun Hong Lu: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s fourth great vow is to repent one’s wrongdoings. As long as we are in the human realm or in the six realms of rebirth, we will definitely be plagued by karmic obstacles.
The Chinese word (忏悔) (to repent) can be examined separately. ‘忏’ (chàn) in Mandarin means ‘to repent one’s past faults’.
When a person does something wrong, he will feel regretful. It is with this feeling of regret, he will start to ponder, “Where have I erred?” and this is when he will find the root of his mistake.
This is what it means by ‘to repent one’s past faults’. After which, an intense sense of regret over the outcome of his misconduct washes over him.
I have mentioned previously that when a person scolds another to a point that it angers the other party to death and he remorsefully says, “I regret having scolded him“. This is what it means by ‘to repent one’s past faults’.
When he goes, “I am really sorry that he is dead” – this is what it means by ‘to regret the outcome of one’s past misconduct’.
You can clearly see the law of cause and effect taking place in between. That is why those of you who are often rude and impetuous, heedless of the consequences of your speech and actions, you must recite the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Buddhism In Plain Terms, Volume 11 Chapter 13
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