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梵網經懺悔行法

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Text ID
KR6k0245
Date
1620–1655
Dynasty
明

Fànwǎng jīng chànhuǐ xíngfǎ 梵網經懺悔行法

A Method of Repentance Practice Based on the Brahmā-Net Sūtra by 智旭 (Zhìxù, 述)

About the work

A single-fascicle late-Míng chànhuǐ xíngfǎ 懺悔行法 (repentance-practice method) by Ǒuyì Zhìxù (智旭, 1599–1655), specifically for one who has broken a bodhisattva precept of the Fànwǎng jīng 梵網經 (T1484 / KR6m0001) — the canonical Mahāyāna bodhisattva-precept sūtra in 10 major + 48 minor precepts. Author signature: Míng púsàjiè dìzǐ Ǒuyì Zhìxù shù 明　菩薩戒弟子　藕益智旭　述.

Opening doctrinal frame

Zhìxù opens by quoting the Fànwǎng jīng’s own confession provision: “Whoever transgresses the ten precepts is to be taught to repent. Before a Buddhaorbodhisattva image, day and night for six watches recite the ten major and fortyeight minor precepts; reach to the bitter point and prostrate before the Buddhas of the three times, the thousand Buddhas; for one week, two weeks, three weeks, up to a year — when one obtains an auspicious sign (hǎoxiàng 好相), then sin is extinguished.” He then notes that while Fǎhuá (Lotus), Fāngděng (vaipulya), Dàbēi (Mahākaruṇā) and Zhànchá (Zhànchá shànè jīng) repentance methods all have their own meritofpreceptrestoration, the Fànwǎng requires its own dedicated procedure (“just as one who has fallen on the ground rises again from the ground”).

Structural Division

Zhìxù lists ten yì 意 (sub-procedures):

  1. Yán dàochǎng 嚴道場 (sanctifying the altar);
  2. Jìng sānyè 淨三業 (purifying the three karmas);
  3. Xiānghuā gòngyǎng 香華供養 (incense-and-flower offerings);
  4. Zànlǐ guīyī 讚禮歸依 (eulogy-prostration-refuge);
  5. Chénzuì huǐchú 陳罪悔除 (declaring offences and erasing them);
  6. Lìshì sòngjiè 立誓誦戒 (vowing and reciting the precepts);
  7. Kǔdào lǐ Fó 苦到禮佛 (reaching-the-bitter-point in prostrating to the Buddhas — the canonical core);
  8. Chóng xiū yuànxíng 重修願行 (re-cultivating vows-and-conduct);
  9. Xuánrào zìguī 旋遶自歸 (circumambulation and selfrefuge);
  10. Zuòniàn shíxiàng 坐念實相 (seated contemplation of the realmark).

Abstract

The Fànwǎng jīng chànhuǐ xíngfǎ is the principal late-Míng repentance manual for breaches of the bodhisattva precepts and a standard reading at the conclusion of bodhisattva-precept ordination. Where the Buddha allows that if one has fallen, one cannot have a master at hand for a thousand-mile region, one may receive the precepts oneself before an image with a seven-day-and-vision (xiàngqián zìshòu 像前自受) cycle, the chànhuǐ xíngfǎ extends this self-conferral logic to the postviolation reattainment of the precept-substance: after the proper repentance and the hǎoxiàng, the jiètǐ 戒體 is restored and the practitioner — even if no longer fit for bhikṣu-functions in a saṅgha-setting — may resume practice as a bodhisattva-śrāmaṇera or bodhisattva-upāsaka without shame. Composition is bracketed by Zhìxù’s mature period and his death; notBefore–notAfter are 1620–1655. The work is also preserved in the expanded Zàijiā lǜyào guǎngjí (KR6k0243).

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.

Other points of interest

  • The kǔdào lǐ Fó 苦到禮佛 (“reaching-the-bitter-point in prostrations”) procedure — repeatedly prostrating until exhausted while invoking the thousand-Buddha names — is the diagnostic procedural feature of the Fànwǎng repentance and distinguishes it from the gentler Fǎhuá and Fāngděng repentances.

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