and harm in the present life. The goal was not merely
to escape the social penalties of rule breaking, but to
avoid the larger karmic consequence of wrongful ac-
tions, thoughts, and attitudes. Such a confession of
karmic wrongs is given a mythological framework in
the “Chapter on Confession” in the Mahayana SU-
VARNAPRABHASOTTAMA-SUTRA(Sutra of Golden Light).
According to this chapter, during the vision of a shin-
ing drum, verses came forth that proclaimed the power
of the drum to suppress many woes, and a confession
of all previous wrongs was uttered to supramundane,
compassionate buddhas. Even the name Survarnaprab-
hasa(Golden Light) was believed to destroy all evil
deeds done over thousands of eons. But the most
striking feature of this form of Buddhist confession
was the theistic function of the buddhas, who were
asked to give protection and to forgive all evil deeds.
This text presents an endless time span, the recogni-
tion of possible unexpiated guilt, a request for for-
giveness, supramundane compassionate buddhas as
sources for forgiveness, and the use of the name of the
Suvarnaprabhasato destroy all evil actions and their
consequences.
The worldview expressed by this ritual extends be-
yond the present social world of the monastery to in-
voke karmic history and draw on supramundane
powers, such as the force of compassionate buddhas
and the magical power of dharan, to rectify a harm-
ful situation. In this worldview, wrongs from previous
rebirths not only affect one’s present REBIRTH, but also
relate directly to the Buddha, who can intercede and
offer relief and support. Repentance is not primarily
communal, but rather devotional and directed to a cos-
mic, transhistorical figure, and thus it can be called
“metaphysical repentance.” It was this kind of repen-
tance that later evolved into large public rituals in
China.
A third form of repentance and confession is based
on the Sutra of Meditation on Bodhisattva Samantab-
hadra. In this text, the wrongs to be eliminated are
from both the remembered and the unknowable past,
but the method of repentance and confession goes
beyond pleading for mercy and help. Instead, the text
offers instruction for visualization of the Bodhisattva
Samantabhadra, and leads to instruction about all the
karma and wrongs of former lives that can then be con-
fessed. In addition, the devotee systematically reviews
the functioning of each of the sense organs, followed
by a recitation of ritual repentance (said three times)
for all inner attachment and external wrongdoing.
Samantabhadra’s “law of repentance” says that attach-
ment to phenomena perceived by the senses causes one
to fall into the cycle of birth and death.
Whereas meditative inspection of the sense-fields is
the main basis for regretting and rectifying past
wrongs, the final dimension of personal transforma-
tion is the development of a new understanding based
on contemplating the “real mark of all things,” namely,
their emptiness of enduring distinguishing attributes
(laksana). This contemplation of the emptiness and
signlessness of dharmas is the locus classicus for the
idea of “formless repentance” found in Chinese CHAN
SCHOOLtexts like the PLATFORMSUTRA OF THESIXTH
PATRIARCH(LIUZU TAN JING). Since this contempla-
tion removes bad karma and frees one from past
wrongs and present attachments based on exposure to
enlightened awareness, just as “the sun of wisdom dis-
perses dew and frost,” then this could be called insight
repentance.
Insight repentance differs from the confessional
model of early Buddhism to correct wrong actions in
the present through penance, exclusion, probation,
restitution, or confession. Instead, for Chan Buddhists,
wrongs are to be “cast aside by your own true Buddha
nature” through an inner change, and inner transfor-
mation by enlightenment corrects all “past, future, and
present” wrong actions and thoughts. As a result, many
Zen practitioners in the West daily recite: “All the evil
karma ever created by me since of old, on account of
my beginningless greed, hatred, and ignorance, I now
confess openly and fully.”Chinese Buddhism
All three forms of Indian repentance were adopted in
China. The great Chinese vinaya master DAOXUAN
(596–667) grouped the causes of repentance into three
categories: violations of monastic codes, violations of
phenomena (immoral behavior), and violations of
principle (wrong attitudes, perceptions, and under-
standing). The Tiantai monk ZHIYI(538–597) was in-
fluential in developing the metaphysical and insight
repentance methods. In his Fahua sanmei chanyi(Lotus
Samadhi Techniques), Zhiyi presents the Lotus Samadhi
ritual as a dialectic between the Meditation on Samantab-
hadra Sutraand the “Chapter on Peaceful Practices”
in the LOTUSSUTRA(SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-SUTRA).
The first text instructs practitioners to repent sins from
the six senses, whereas the second text states that bod-
hisattvas do not make distinctions, nor do they prac-
tice any dharmas. Zhiyi argues that these two texts
complement one another, and he shows how they
switch positions, with the second advocating remem-REPENTANCE ANDCONFESSION