忏悔

Purification Practice

今天是元宵节，也正值藏历的神变月期间。很多藏地的修行人都在此月修习善法，如持八关斋戒、转绕、顶礼、放生等等。汉地的人则在今天放鞭炮、点灯笼、舞狮子等，十分热闹开心。

Today is the Lantern Festival. It also falls in the Month of Miracles in the Tibetan calendar. Many Tibetan practitioners are performing virtuous deeds this month, such as nyungne fasting, circumambulation, prostration, releasing live beings, and so on. In Han Chinese, on the other hand, people are enjoying themselves setting off firecrackers, lighting lanterns and performing lion dances in festive ways.

但是，愚痴的人们为了使亲朋好友的团聚更加“多姿多彩”，常常不惜以众生的生命作为代价。无数生灵在今天惨遭涂炭，被无情地判处死刑。它们惨遭被刀割、油煎、烹煮等等残酷刑法，使欢庆的背后演出了一幕幕人间炼狱的血腥场景。

However, some fools, in order to make their reunions with friends and relatives “more cheerful”, choose to entertain at the expense of other beings’ lives. Behind the facade of joyful celebration, many beings today are executed mercilessly. The cruel punishment inflicted upon them––shearing with knives, frying in oil, or cooking in boiling water––is the playing out of bloody purgatory right here in the human realm.

Like humans, animals feel pain when suffering;
Unlike humans, they can only weep silent tears.

“畜生哀痛尽如人，只差有泪不能哭。”让我们为那些惨遭不幸的众生，也为那些造作恶业的众生忏悔吧！

Let us, then, do the purification practice for the woeful slaughtered beings as well as for the evil perpetrators!

乔美仁波切的《善法集》中有一简单方便的窍诀：“将金刚萨埵观想于头顶，自金刚萨埵发出无量金刚萨埵，位于死去的或活着的众生头顶。尽力念诵百字明后，自金刚萨埵身体降下甘露，自他一切有情罪障得以清净，再念108遍百字明后，金刚萨埵化光融入自他一切众生。于忏悔对境、忏悔者无缘之境界中修习空性，于空性中片刻入定。此乃世俗谛和胜义谛忏悔之法。依此，前世无量罪障也可得以清净。”

In Collection of Good Deeds, Chagme Rinpoche imparts a simple pith instruction: “Visualize Vajrasattva at the crown of your head, and from him emanating numerous Vajrasattvas, each sitting on the top of other beings, either alive or dead. Recite the Hundred Syllable Mantra as many times as you can and visualize that the nectar, flowing down from Vajrasattva’s body, cleanses the obscuration of yourself and all others. Recite the mantra another 108 times, and then visualize that Vajrasattva dissolves into light and melts into yourself and all beings. Recognize emptiness while seeing that neither the support for purification nor the one who does the purification has any real existence. Remain unmoved in the state of emptiness momentarily. This is the way for confession in the context of both absolute and relative truths. By this practice, even incalculable downfalls in previous lives can be purified.”

这种修法不仅仅适用于今天，即使在平时，如果能以此修法为家人、为他人所造恶业进行忏悔，不但很有必要，而且非常方便。

This practice suits well for today’s occasion, however, it does not stop here. In everyday life, we should use it to purify the non-virtues of our family members and others. It is not only necessary, but also very convenient.

壬午年正月十四日 　
2002年2月26日 　

14th of January, Year of RenWu
February 26, 2002