慈悲道場懺法懺悔=The Rite of Practicing Mercy of Buddhist Mass; 《粱皇寶懺》=Liang Huang Bao Cheng; 實相懺悔=Repentance by observing the true form of reality; 禮佛懺悔=Repentance by Buddha worshipping; 懺悔=Repentance; 懺罪=Guilt repentance
The long and widely circulated Liang Huang Bao Cheng, which is also known as "the Greatest Text of Repentance," provides a systematic significance and influence on Buddhist psychiatry program and Buddhist wisdom education program. In view of this, this paper focuses on the discussion of the doctrine of repentance of this dharma, and explains the imports and significances of its dharma-gate of repentance. In addition, few works in the academic world give an analysis to the entire structure and content of this dharma of repentance. So this paper is based on the structure of the ten volumes of Liang Huang Bao Cheng, starting from venerating the Three Treasures of Buddhism, ending doubts and giving full trust to Buddha, repentance, the arousal of the earnest intention to attain enlightenment, the arousal of the vow to save all sentient beings, returning one's merits to the Buddha-nature, showing the fruits of karma, hells transcending, grudges dissolving and self-gratifying, arousal of intention to attain enlightenment and vow to save all sentient beings, receiving and transmitting advices from Buddha. The result of the analysis is that the dharma-gate of repentance in this text includes three imports: 1) Buddha worshipping, repentance, and the arousal of earnest intention to attain enlightenment; 2) guilt confessing and grudges dissolving; 3) complete trust in the fruit of repentance, the arousal of the vow to save all sentient beings, and returning one's merits to the Buddha-nature. Based on the three imports in this theme, a second theme will be brought up, which can also be summarized into four points: 1) Liang Huang Bao Cheng is an integral set of Buddhist psychiatry and Buddhist wisdom cultivating education program; 2) it emphasizes that the repentance by Buddha worshipping is more important than the repentance by observing the true form of reality; 3) start from the dharma-gate of repentance, it urges people to follow the practices of cultivation of the Great Vehicle, such as the six perfections; 4) it also stresses on the arousal, maintenance, and the completion of the intention to realize enlightenment, according to the dharma-gate of repentance. This paper will provide a comprehensive analysis on the three imports and the four points of significance in order to explain that this text of repentance is an integral set of Buddhist repentance education program, which can help one to fulfill the ultimate aim of becoming a Buddha. Finally, it is hoped that the key points and significances of the dharma-gate of repentance explained by this paper can show the necessity and the substantial meaning of studying this topic, so as to provide an outstanding introduction to the Liang Huang Bao Cheng for reference.
