The Mind Base Repentance Text

I repent that from beginningless time until this present life,

I have ceaselessly stolen all treasures of the Buddha.

Foolish, deluded, and arrogant, I claimed them as my own, universally calculating,

Grasping at all things, unaware that all things are originally the Buddha.

How could there be a self? Self and what belongs to self — seeing profit, I forgot righteousness,

Unaware of kindness and nurture. Because of grasping, I have never escaped

The deep pit of karmic hindrances — impoverished life after life, suffering birth after birth.

I repent that from beginningless time until this present life,

I discriminated all things, grasping them as self — the view of self, self-conceit,

Self-love, self-delusion — constantly examining, pondering, the conception of inherent existence.

Grasping sight as self, grasping hearing as self, grasping smell as self,

Grasping taste as self, grasping touch as self, grasping consciousness as self,

Grasping "I can accomplish" all undertakings, grasping "I can distinguish"

All principles of Dharma, grasping "I can become" the unsurpassably virtuous and honored one.

Today I finally know that in truth, this self is nothing at all.

I repent that from beginningless time until this present life,

I grasped my physical body as self, grasped the material world as self, grasped spiritual powers as self,

Grasped virtues and abilities as self, grasped becoming a Buddha as self, grasped propagating the Dharma as self,

Grasped liberating beings as self. Today I finally know that in truth, this self

Is utterly incapable. From the past until now, deludedly grasping at the worldly,

Right up to the present, deludedly grasping at the transcendent — such deluded grasping

Makes me deeply perceive that the World-Honored One will not grant me the prediction of Buddhahood.

Yearning for the prediction, my thieving mind refuses to die — when will I ever ascend

The supreme precious throne? From now on, where shall I go?

Thief or noble one — I must choose one. I will cleanse my heart and reform my character,

Correct my faults and renew myself, returning all that is not mine.

Utterly naked and completely free, spontaneously at ease, I depart in non-action.