Encountering the Eighty-Eight Buddhas - Illuminating Our Lives Every Day

By reciting the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance Text, we take the Buddhas—perfected in awakening and practice—as our model, and see clearly our own afflictions and habitual tendencies.
Through bringing forth aspiration, taking refuge, bowing, repenting, making vows, and dedicating merit in accordance with the text, we make vows to correct our faults and purify body and mind with utmost sincerity. In doing so, we let the light of the Buddha’s wisdom shine through our each coming day.

■ Huang Jia-ching (黃佳卿)

Encountering the Eighty-Eight Buddhas: Awakening the Motivation to Learn the Buddha’s Teachings
During the New Year Chanting Services, the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance Text often forms the main liturgy. Across many scriptures, repentance rites, and Dharma services, we find opportunities to pay homage to these Eighty-Eight Buddhas. From the Ming and Qing dynasties onward, this text became one of the five daily practices in Chinese Buddhist monasteries, and is regarded as an essential daily repentance ritual for Buddhist disciples. In the evening service, the gentle cadence of the Buddhist chanting helps gather and settle the mind after a busy day. Monastics and lay practitioners alike kneel and recite the names of the Buddhas, contemplating their virtues and vows, bringing forth the aspiration to learn from them. The later portion of the liturgy—reciting the repentance verses and the Ten Great Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva—guides practitioners to reflect on the actions of body, speech, and mind throughout the day, and to make vows to follow the Buddha in all circumstances.

The Qing-dynasty Master Shu Yu (書玉法師) noted in his “Brief Explanation of the Great Repentance Text” that this text is concise yet complete. It encompasses the five methods of repentance: confession, entreaty, rejoicing, dedication, and vows. It’s a well-known method of repentance for many Chinese Buddhist practitioners.

Venerable Yu Yin (育因法師), director of Lianyin Temple (蓮因寺) and a long-time practitioner of the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance Text, observes that this text weaves repentance and vow-making throughout. It begins by leading the assembly to unfold the fundamental aspiration for learning the Buddha’s Teachings: “I now bring forth the Bodhi-mind—not merely seeking blessings in this world or the heavens for my own sake, not for attaining the paths of the Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, or even the provisional teachings of the Bodhisattvas. I rely solely on the Supreme Vehicle and bring forth the mind of awakening, vowing that all beings in the Dharma-realm may together realize Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi.” By teaching disciples to harbor a mind of compassion for all beings and bring forth the Bodhi-mind, the text leads practitioners to confess the Five Heinous Crimes and all unwholesome deeds of this life and past lives. The text guides one not only to repent one’s faults but also to vow to realize Buddhahood together with all beings. From bringing forth the initial aspiration, the motivation for becoming a Buddha naturally unfolds.

Before ordination, Venerable Chang Jian (常健法師), director of DDM’s Social Care Department, recited the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance Text daily. He notes that it carries the benefits of repentance, vow-making, and dedication of merit. With long-term cultivation, one gradually eliminates personal obstacles and is fully supplied with all the requisites needed for practice. For this reason, bowing and reciting the Eighty-Eight Buddhas’ names is especially suitable as a foundational daily practice for new lay Buddhists and newly ordained monastics, thereby nurturing good karmic roots and preventing one’s resolution to walk the path from retreating.

“Even if at first one does not fully understand the text or know exactly what to repent, simply following the bowing and chanting of the Eighty-Eight Buddhas’ names will already nurture wholesome karmic roots.” Venerable Guo Shiuh (果旭法師), director of  DDM Anhe Branch Monastery in Taipei, who introduces many urbanites to Buddhism, notes that the text is concise yet rich with meaning—a condensed repentance manual that integrates the essence of multiple scriptures. It is well suited for beginners to read carefully as an entry point into deeper Buddhist teachings. 

Venerable Guo Kae (果慨法師), lecturer at Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts and longtime researcher on repentance practice, observes that wrongdoing arises from self-centeredness. Since karma is created by the mind, repentance must also begin from the mind: “For ordinary beings, making mistakes is natural. Truly practicing means recognizing one’s faults. When we know our faults and correct them, the power to transform our lives arises.” She explained that as long as the mind is sincerely remorseful for past wrongdoings and wholeheartedly aspires toward a wholesome future, the accumulated negative karma is diminished moment by moment.

“Repentance is only complete when followed by vow-making. This is what is truly called repentance.” Venerable Guo Kae emphasizes that repentance is not just about bowing before an image of the Buddha. One must reflect on one’s past wrongdoings and make vows for the future. From the Buddhist perspective, ordinary beings come into this life to undergo karmic results and repay old debts, whereas Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to fulfill their vows. Undergoing karmic results and repaying old debts are passive and often accompanied by fear, worry, and afflictions. Making vows and fulfilling them, however, is  an active practice that not only seizes the present causes and conditions, but also brings joy within. Even when facing hardships, one bears them with a steady and joyful heart.

Thus the latter portion of the Great Repentance Text concludes with Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s Practices and Vows. The meaning of practices and vows is: “Guide one’s conduct through vows, and realize one’s vows through conduct.” It echoes the initial aspiration to arouse the Bodhi-mind for the sake of all beings. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, in the causal stage, courageously made great vows to benefit all beings and dare to carry them out, thereby accomplishing Buddhahood.

Venerable Chang Jian, who often accompanies practitioners dealing with aging, illness, and death, has realized through this text a method for practicing altruism: “Repentance is self-reflection and dissolving the self; vow-making is self-expectation; dedication of merit is offering blessings. The Eighty-Eight Buddhas Great Repentance Text is truly a treasury of daily wisdom.” For him, the daily chanting of this text has become the foundation of meditative practice. It helps him first settle his own mind when caring for others so he can discern their needs clearly and offer the most appropriate support, thereby bringing them peace.

Learning from the Eighty-Eight Buddhas: Establishing the Direction of Our Lives

On the path of learning the Buddha’s teachings, we have already heard of the Eighty-Eight Buddhas; we must further understand them and learn from them, thereby striving to become their equal. We aspire to model ourselves after the breadth of vision and spirit of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, actively put positive life values into practice, grow and transform ourselves, and let our lives shine—thereby illuminating others along the way.
Today, which Buddha do you wish to learn from?


Related articles:

Welcoming the New Year with the Eighty-Eight Buddhas

Encountering the Eighty-Eight Buddhas - Illuminating Our Lives Every Day

Majestic Virtues – The Ten Epithets of the Buddha

Mindfully Reciting the Eighty-Eight Buddhas is a Good Spiritual Practice

Q&As on the Great Repentance Text

How to Practice the Great Repentance Text at Home?



Resource: Issue 378 of Humanity Magazine, Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation
Photo: 劉建志，江思賢
Translation: Anne Yeow (姚麗萍)
Editing: Keith Brown, Patricia Yang