Repentance Prostration to Wash Away Vexation: Joint Water Repentance Dharma Assembly Organized by Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area Centers

From August 10 (Sat.) to August 11 (Sun.), 2024, Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) Los Angeles Center and DDM San Francisco Bay Area Center jointly organized the Compassionate Samadhi Water Repentance Dharma Assembly. A total of six Venerables from the San Francisco Bay Area Center, Dharma Drum Retreat Center in New York, and Taiwan participated in the Dharma assembly. More than 160 followers joined in this group practice at the Los Angeles Center to perform repentance prostrations with reverence and respect.

The Compassionate Samadhi Water Repentance is a highly valued liturgy in Chinese Buddhism. As the officiant of this assembly, Ven. Chang Xing (常興法師) gave a Dharma talk on the origin of Water Repentance to the participants. By following the liturgy of Compassionate Samadhi Water Repentance, everyone practiced repentance prostration to eliminate sins and sufferings, thereby praying for peace, blessings, and wisdom. As Ven. Chang Xing explained, the scripture of Water Repentance comprises three sections. It revolves around the repentance of the three hindrances of affliction, karma, and retribution, enumerating various sins and hindrances. The afflictive hindrances noted in the scriptures mainly derive from afflictions, such as greed, aversion, and delusion that arise in our mind. To deal with greed, we can use the Fivefold Spiritual Renaissance Campaign's Four Guidelines for Dealing with Desires (examining our needs, wants, abilities, and propriety). To deal with aversion, apply our compassion. To deal with delusion, correct our erroneous views about the world.

Ven. Chang Xing further explained that karmic hindrances come from physical, verbal, and mental activities. The former two can be categorized into three physical activities and four verbal activities. The three physical activities are killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, while the four verbal activities are false speech, idle talk, harsh words, and divisive speech. According to the scripture, karmic retribution can be categorized into immediate retribution, retribution in the next life, and retribution in future lives. As stated in the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra, "Even after hundreds or thousands of kalpas, one's karma will not fade away. When the causes meet the right conditions, one will receive their karmic retribution." This means that without clearing the negative karma created in the past through repentance, the karmic hindrances will always exist. Therefore, Master Wu Da (悟達國師), a national consultant of Tang Dynasty who compiled the Compassionate Samadhi Water Repentance, advised us to sincerely repent for the sins we have created.

Before the Dharma assembly began, Ven. Chang Tong (常統法師), the Director of the Los Angeles Center, kindly reminded the participants to stay relaxed and focused, keeping clear awareness while practicing the repentance prostration. Ven. Chang Xing shared with everyone the tips to stay focused during the group practice – look at the text with their eyes, listen to the chanting with their ears, and recite along with their mouths, thereby blending their own voices into the congregation's chanting.
 
Dharma Drum Mountain hopes that everyone can sincerely practice the Dharma approach of repentance prostration, not concealing or running away from our own vexation and faults. Rather, we should have the courage to take the responsibilities for our own mistakes, try our best to make amends, and vow to dedicate the merit of our repentance to all sentient beings.



Original Chinese text / Chang Yan-huei (張演慧)
Photos / DDM Los Angeles Center, DDM San Francisco Bay Area Center
Translation / Li Siang-ling
Editing / Keith Brown, Freya Chang (可馨)