金鼓妙音能滅諸苦：試論智者大師《金光明懺》的深義=The Wonderful Sound of the Golden Drum Can Cease All Sufferings: A Discussion on the Profound Meaning of Taintai Golden Light Repentance
The Golden Light Sutra contains widely a spiritual meaning of practice. In its first chapter Introduction (序品), the Golden Light Sutra (金光明經) is nicknamed the King of Glorious Sutras (經王) to feature the aim of the Sutra and emphasize the uncountable merit of repenting practice. In the third chapter Confession (懺悔品), it is stated that Golden Light Repentance (金光明懺) not only aims to extirpate sins and obstacles, but most importantly to uproot all kinds of afflictions to attain liberation and nirvāṇa, and furthermore, lead one to vow to cultivate all good deeds in order to benefit all sentient beings. Based on Golden Light Sutra, Tiantai Master Zhiyi incorporated the teaching and meditation of Tiantai and produced Golden Light Repentance, which is characterized by an emphasis on both repentance and meditation, a combination of cultivation of deeds and contemplation of principle, and the cultivation of perfect and sudden cessation and contemplation in the face of different circumstances and various perceptual objects. The repentance spirit of Golden Light Repentance originated from the Chapter on Confession, emphasizing the practicing of repentance. Yet the focus was gradually shifted narrowly to making offerings to celestial beings afterwards. Hence, making offerings to celestial beings and requesting for wealth replaced repentance practing, and Master Zhiyi’s original intention to creat the repentance ritual was lost. With a complete 10-section liturgy, Golden Light Repentance emphasizes on both practice and contemplation, while “making offerings to celestial beings” only contains certain methods of practice in the daily short period of time before noon. Master Zhiyi made an in-depth examination of the repentance thoughts in the Golden Light Sutra, and wrote The Profound Meaning of Golden Light Sutra (Jin guangming jing xuanyi 金光明經玄義) and The Commentary on the Golden Light Sutra (Jin guangming jing wenju 金光明經文句 ). Zunshi mentioned that before practicing Golden Light Repentance, one should first read the two works aforementioned. Therefore, we know that practicing Golden Light Repentance would lead to deeper understanding of the meanings of repentance mentioned in the Golden Light Sutra. Considering dharma nature the aim of the profound meanings of the Golden Light Sutra Zhiyi clarified in his Jin guangming jing xuanyi that dharma nature is the substance (體) of the Sutra, Boddhisattvas’ inconceivable merit the principle, eliminating evil and cultivating goodness the application, and the king of the glorious sutras the doctrine. Zhiyi interpreted the profound meanings of the Golden Light by perfectly discussing dharma nature. In Jin guangming jing wenju, Zhiyi used dharma nature to explain the text of the Sutra, saying that the golden light is the dharma of dharma nature, and that the body in question is a wonderful jewel and comes with light itself. If one can practice observing the mind, ascertain that a single thought is void, phenomenal, and medial, and understand that this mental attitude is the dharma nature, one can actually erase the karmic seeds of one’s crimes, and finally remove the causes of afflictions and ignorance, that is the real repentance. One then can silently manifest such an understanding in one’s all demeanours; that is, in his daily life─such as walking, standing,
