受五戒八戒文

TEXT OF THE EIGHT PRECEPTS

1_ Chapter of Bowing Down to Invite Witness and Verification:

We, your disciples, bow our heads and reverently pay homage to the Supreme Universal Wisdom of the Empty Space and the Dharma Realm, to the One who, relying upon form, accomplished all that pertained to the body and thereby attained Perfect Enlightenment, to Mahāprajñā, to the Vaipulya One Vehicle, to the Sages of the Ten Grounds, to the Great Beings (Mahāsattva) of the Three Worthies, to the Spirits who govern the manifest and the hidden of Empty Space, to the Devas of the Realm of Form and the Realm of Formlessness, to King Brahmā together with his retinue, to the World-Protector Śakra together with his attending officials, to the officers and functionaries of the Path of Darkness (the officials of the Realm of Gloom), and to Yama, the Lord.

We pray that on this day, with your pure Heavenly Eye, you may behold all these people who, with reverence and utmost sincerity, single-mindedly pay homage with bowed heads.

2_ Chapter of Washing Away and Repenting Past Karma: (Washing away and repenting the karmic offenses of former times)

We, your disciples, together with all the people of this Place of the Way (Bodhimaṇḍa), from beginningless time until now have amassed and accumulated immeasurable offenses, hard to reckon their farther shore; we have committed faults that bind our lives, and rarely can the limit of these offenses be found. Toward the Three Jewels we have given rise to a mind without faith; toward the Honored Ones of the ten directions we have constantly practiced impure conduct (conduct that is not pure).

We have given the body free rein to follow killing, stealing, and depravity. We have given the mouth free rein to follow lying, frivolous speech, and harsh cursing. We have given the mind free rein to follow Greed and Desire, anger, and delusion.

From this there arose, widely, boundless evil karma, revolving within the three Existences, sinking and drowning within the four Floods; the five Hindrances cover over the mind, the ten Bonds confound the Nature, and we have dwelt long within the rank of ordinary beings with no fixed term for liberation.

In Sanskrit it is said Kṣama, which means to repent and reform one's faults. From now on, we pray to sever the mind of continuance. May all the offenses amassed and accumulated of old be utterly extinguished, we pray.

3_ Chapter of Receiving the Precepts, the Threefold Refuge

We, your disciples, together with all the people of this Place of the Way, pray:

We take refuge in the Buddha, the One perfect in Merit and Wisdom (the Doubly Perfect Honored One). We take refuge in the Dharma, the One who has departed from desire (the Honored One Free of Desire). We take refuge in the Saṃgha, the foremost among practitioners (the Honored One Among the Assembly). We pray that the Three Jewels, with compassion, bear witness and verify, and out of pity take us in and embrace us (said three times). We, your disciples, together with all the people of this Place of the Way, have taken refuge in the Buddha,

have taken refuge in the Dharma, have taken refuge in the Saṃgha. We pray to receive the Eight Precepts, the Vinaya discipline of the Dwelling-Near Observance (Upavāsa). We pray that the Honored Ones keep in mind their Compassion and protect us with mindfulness (said three times).

4_ Chapter of Asking, Upholding, and Proclaiming

Let all you Buddhist disciples listen attentively to the proclamation of the Eight Precepts. The first is not to kill; the second is not to steal; the third is not to be tainted by Desire; the fourth is not to lie; the fifth is not to drink liquor or eat meat; the sixth is not to anoint the body with fragrant oils nor to adorn it with garlands of flowers; the seventh is not to sing, perform music, or habitually look upon and listen to such; the eighth is not to lie upon high and large beds, and not to eat past the noon hour (after the hour of Noon).

Beginning from this moment until tomorrow's early dawn, for one day and one night, constantly following the Buddha in leaving the home life, in the interval between you may not transgress. Are you able to uphold this? (Translator's note: Answer: Yes! It can be upheld.)

5_ Chapter of Dedication and Making Vows:

We, your disciples, together with all the people of this Place of the Way, having received the Precepts, have obtained a wholesome condition. We pray to take all of it and dedicate it to the sentient beings within the Dharma Realm. We pray to depart far from the deluded clinging of the emotions, to cut off forever the obstruction of delusion, here and now to clearly understand the Wisdom that does not discriminate, ardently to cultivate and study the Gate of Practice with Marks, to roam everywhere throughout the Flower-Treasury World, to be in accord with the profound root and source of the Mind of the Tathāgatagarbha, to realize what has not yet been realized, to fulfill what has not yet been fulfilled, and, within the ocean of sentient beings, to vow together to accomplish Buddhahood.

TEXT OF THE FIVE PRECEPTS

All ordinary beings are deluded as to the Nature of Original Enlightenment; following delusion they flow and turn within the three Existences, taking their delight in the six destinies, divided and set apart as Humans and Devas. The Buddha has five Precepts that cause people to uphold them, and by the Gate of Skillful Means to enter the Principle of True Reality.

1_ Chapter of Giving Rise to Sincerity and Bowing in Invitation:

We, your disciples, together with all the people of this Place of the Way, reverently entreat the ten directions, Empty Space and the Dharma Realm, the ones who have accomplished Perfect Enlightenment, the ones who turn the Wheel of the Dharma, the ones who have entered Parinirvāṇa—the true and good spiritual friends of our company. Because the Master who is the King of Physicians takes us in and embraces us, therefore the boundless Treasury of the Dharma, the single flavor of ghee, the perfect sound half-and-half complete (?), the Prajñā that expounds the teaching, is our excellent medicine, is our ship and vessel that ferries and delivers us across the river of birth and death.

The Sagely Hosts of the three Vehicles, the eight assemblies of Bhikṣus, the Śrāvakas who hasten toward quiescence, the Bodhisattvas of remaining outflows and compassion—toward us they give rise to a mind of pity, as though seeing a sick person they rescue and protect us. We pray that the Three Jewels, by the power of their vast Vows, by the power inconceivable within the True Nature, give rise to Compassion without conditions and, on this day, accept the entreaty of our company.

2_ Chapter of Repenting Faults and Reproaching the Offenses of Former Times

We, your disciples, together with all the people of this Place of the Way, through many kalpas deluded and benighted until this very day, because we did not clearly understand the Foremost Meaning, gave rise to the various Obstruction Gates: the afflictions and the obstruction of the known, delusion as to phenomena and delusion as to principle. Coming into contact with objects we give rise to karma, and following conditions we commit faults: the Body gives rise to three branches, the mouth transgresses in four faults, the mind has three karmas… and the practice rolls on, turning ever deeper, like sand, like dust, in numbers immeasurable.

We do not understand that the Body is a coffer holding four venomous serpents, five Caṇḍālas, six Entrances, and an empty Aggregate… we take the false to be our intimate companions, yet for the most part they are evil conditions that chase after the consciousness-mind, turning and revolving within the five destinies. From this we amass and accumulate the eighty-four thousand offenses of the human realm; there is no evil

that we have not dared to commit. Beginning from this very day, we examine our own body and mind and lay all bare before the Buddha. We pray that all of it be extinguished together.

3_ Chapter of Turning from the Wrong and Taking Refuge in Reverence

We, your disciples, together with all the people of this Place of the Way, pray:

We take refuge in the Buddha, the Unsurpassed One (the Unsurpassed Honored One).

We take refuge in the Dharma, the One who has departed from desire (the Honored One Free of Desire).

We take refuge in the Saṃgha, the foremost among practitioners (the Honored One Among the Assembly).

From this day onward, taking the Buddha as our Master, we shall not take refuge in any other deviant Māras or non-Buddhist paths.

We pray that the Three Jewels, with compassion, bear witness and verify, and out of pity take us in and embrace us (said three times).

We, your disciples, together with all the people of this Place of the Way, have taken refuge in the Buddha, have taken refuge in the Dharma, have taken refuge in the Saṃgha. The Buddha, Bhagavate-Tathāgatāya-Arhate-Samyaksaṃbuddhāya (the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata, the Worthy of Offerings, the Perfectly and Fully Enlightened One)—he is our Great Master. Now we take refuge; we pray that the Buddha take us in and embrace us (said three times).

4_ Chapter of Proclaiming Together with the Joint Cultivation

Buddhist disciples, listen attentively to the proclamation of the Precepts of the Upāsaka. The first is not to kill; the second is not to steal; the third is not to be entangled in deviant conduct; the fourth is not to lie; the fifth is not to drink liquor or eat meat. Beginning from this moment until the utmost limit of the future, in that interval you may not transgress. Are you able to uphold this? (Translator's note: Answer: Yes! It can be upheld.)

5_ Chapter of Dedication to the Ocean of Vows:

We, your disciples, together with all the people of this Place of the Way, turning toward the receiving of the Precepts, dedicate them to the ocean of the Bodhi Nature of True Suchness; and all sentient beings of the four Floods and three Existences, we vow together to give rise to the mind and to cultivate the Practice of Samantabhadra, never to sever the seed-sprout of the Buddha, to be born into the house of the Tathāgata, then to turn back and, with Great Compassion, unfold and reveal it everywhere, to obtain the precious jewel within the topknot, to obtain the round gem within the sleeve, to sit at last upon the Place of the Way, and to vow together to accomplish Buddhahood.

TEXT FOR RECEIVING THE FIVE PRECEPTS AND THE EIGHT PRECEPTS — ONE FASCICLE (The End)