Types and Methods of Repentance

Wherever one creates karma, one must sincerely repent in that very place and vow never to commit the offense again; before however many people one created the karma, before that many people one must sincerely repent. If the influence of the evil karma is very great and one's study of the Dharma has already reached a considerable level, one may adopt repentance through ultimate reality. Repentance through ultimate reality is divided into two kinds. One is repentance through the principle of non-arising according to the Hīnayāna: in meditative concentration, one contemplates the unreality of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and the unreality of the bodily, verbal, and mental actions created by the five aggregates; upon attaining the first fruit (srotāpanna) or the direction of the first fruit, and obtaining the pure Dharma eye, one's karma can be purified through repentance.

The other is repentance through the principle of non-arising of the tathāgatagarbha according to the Mahāyāna Dharma: one contemplates how the bodily, verbal, and mental actions just performed arose, and finally realizes that one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions are all bit by bit brought forth by the tathāgatagarbha, that there is no reality to bodily, verbal, and mental actions, that the five aggregates are illusory, and that the bodily, verbal, and mental actions that exist in dependence on the five aggregates are therefore also illusory—and thus the karma is dissolved. Of course, one must be fully endowed with preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) before there is any hope of directly realizing the tathāgatagarbha, and only afterward can one discern exactly how bodily, verbal, and mental actions are brought forth by the tathāgatagarbha. Once one realizes the Buddha's Dharma, all karma leading to the three evil destinies is eliminated, including the karmic offenses of the three evil destinies accumulated over beginningless kalpas. However, this is extremely difficult, requiring quite good roots of goodness, merit, meditative concentration, wisdom, and the proper conditions.