龙门心法
Dragon Gate: Law of the Heart
CHAPTER #2
忏悔罪业
REPENTANCE FOR SINS
既是大众，皈依三宝已毕，当依妙行，忏悔罪业。如今修行之士，自昧良知，自欺本性，只见他人之过，不知自己之非。即此不知自己之非，罪已深，业已重矣。瞒心昧己，岂能入道？忏悔须用真心，痛改前非，方能上进。
Nowadays, people who cultivate darken their own conscience; they deceive themselves about their own original nature by looking only at the faults in others and not at their own errors. It is because they don’t know how to stop their misdeeds that their sins are deep and their karma is heavy. Masking the Heart and the obscuring the self, how can one achieve the Way? To repent, one must use true Heart to correct mistakes of the past, only after which can one progress.
我今不使嗔责，将世间人，瞒心昧己，讲个分明。大众听之，便自明了.
Nowadays, I find it unsuitable to be frustrated and displeased with the people of this world. Their hearts are masked and their selves are obscured. Through giving distinct explanations, everyone is able to listen and therefore may come to find understanding themselves.
且说如何是瞒心之事？行浊言清，口明心暗是也。受戒不遵戒法，阳为戒子，阴作邪人。发愿不能行愿，出言不能信服。闻道不行，自谓已行。知法故犯，以智术欺愚痴，以无明为火性，以嗔怒为血气；以假为真，以无为有；指鹿为马，卖狗悬羊；暗室亏心，腹中暗算。种种不善，未有自己不知者。不知者，谓之痴人、迷人、愚人。知而故犯者，岂非瞒心昧己？此谓之奸人、恶人、邪人、小人，比前愚痴之人，其罪不同。何以故？痴愚之人，无有智慧，无知误作，止能害己，不能害人，纵使害人，亦终为人所害。惟有奸恶之人，阴险狡猾，既损他以利己，复昧己以瞒心，要使天地不知其奸，鬼神为知其恶。巧机关而行掩饰，逞聪明而肆弥缝。设网待人，人不知其纲从何设；推人下井，人不知井是谁开。如此之人，世间极多。惟修行却使不得。
Meanwhile how should one go about the business of correcting the masked Heart? Acting impurely, but using pure words is to have a bright mouth but a dark heart. One may take vows, but not honor the method. The Yang is a precept and the Yin is an evil person; one who is vowing honesty but not being honest. The spoken word cannot be a replication of truth. Hearing about the Way isn’t good enough. When a person acts with self-interest, knows the method yet violates it, uses trickery to take advantage of the ignorant, takes the false for the real, the empty for the full, calls a deer a horse and sells a dog for the price of a sheep than this is a dark place; a polluted conscience. In one’s core they plot against others and go through all sorts of unvirtuous acts. If one doesn’t know this oneself, that not knowing makes than an idiot, a lost person and a fool. To know but to violate that reason, is that not to mask Heart and obscure the self? A person who does this is called a villain, an evil person, a demon and a vile person. Comparing this person to the idiot is to compare two different sins, is it not? An idiot has no wisdom. In their ignorance they make mistakes. They can harm only themselves, but cannot be considered virtuous. Even were they to hurt another person it would be on account of their behavior. Evil people are only those who are sinister and crafty, who have already lost their own worth, who have darkened themselves by masking their Hearts, who wish to conceal their wickedness from all of Heaven and Earth and conceal their evil from all spirits, who use all opportunities and strategies to hide themselves, flaunt their cleverness, cover their evils. They catch others in nets, and those people cannot see from where the net was established. They push others down wells, and those people do not know who opened the well. Only the people in this class of the world are unable to cultivate.
如于未曾皈依三宝之先，有此心者，速求忏悔。近日受戒之人，屡有犯律违条，弃衣败道者，但当自己速行忏悔，将暗中心念，打扫干净。一切不正的妄心，一切纤微的妄念，俱要忏其前非，悔其后过，方是戒子。不然，罪业如山，安能解脱？若求大道，掩耳偷铃，我今慈念大众，作一忏悔文，早晚长跪圣前，哀求赦宥，众等听受。要心上惭愧，发大志气，猛勇精进，誓必坚固身心，惟存戒定，自有前程。
If one has not yet taken refuge in the three treasures, but they have this intention and rush to beg repentance, hurry to take precepts, though they have repeatedly broken laws and disobeyed orders, if they throw away their clothes and succumb to the Way, one may hastily find repentance. Within the darkness of their own heart and thoughts if they clean away all of their bad intentions, all the miniscule traces of their fantasies, by having complete remorse for their wrong doings, regretting all past mistakes, following precepts, and not allowing sins to be as a mountain, through peace one can free themselves. One seeks for the way, morning and night kneeling at the altar, pleading for forgiveness. The heart must feel shame, yet bring forth great determination to forge ahead bravely and vigorously, holding tightly to one’s oath with mind and body and always keep precepts and stability, to keep hope for the future.