Mìyányuàn fālù chànhuǐ wén 密嚴院發露懺悔文
Mitsugon-in Confession-Repentance Text by 覺鑁 (撰)
About the work
A short, single-fascicle liturgical confession-text in regular four-character verse by 覺鑁 Kakuban (1095–1144) — possibly his single most enduring composition, recited liturgically to the present day in the Shingi-Shingon sub-schools (Chizan-ha 智山派 and Buzan-ha 豐山派) and in many Kogi-Shingon temples. The work is named for the Mitsugon-in 密嚴院 — the Mitsugon Cloister on Mount Kōya — Kakuban’s own meditation hermitage and the spiritual center of his late-Kōyasan period.
Abstract
Dating: composed at the Mitsugon-in on Mount Kōya, conventionally placed in his late Kōyasan period — after the founding of the Daidenpō-in in 1132 and before the Kōya-Negoro schism of 1140 (when he was forced from Kōyasan and removed to Negoro-ji). The most usual dating is ca. 1130–1143.
Structure: a single sustained chant-text in four-character lines, opening: “We confess: from beginningless time, ensnared by deluded thoughts we have committed many sins. Body-mouth-mind activities ever inverted, we have erringly committed measureless unwholesome karma…” The repentance enumerates the breach of the six perfections (六度) — greedily holding precious goods and not practicing dāna; indulgently following our desires and not upholding sīla; repeatedly arousing anger and not practicing kṣānti; producing torpor and not practicing vīrya; the mind-thoughts scattered, not practicing dhyāna; turning the back on the true-aspect and not practicing prajñā — by which retrograde practice we have returned to compose the karma of the three evil-paths.
The confession then turns specifically to the monastic vows: “Borrowing the name of bhikṣu we have defiled the saṃghārāma; mimicking the form of śramaṇa we have accepted faithful-offerings. The precept-categories received we have forgotten and not held; the rules-and-regulations to be studied we have abandoned and not loved. Without shame for what the Buddhas detest, without fear for what the Bodhisattvas would suffer…” — covering trivial amusement (遊戲笑語), flattery and deceit (諂誑詐僞), envy of the virtuous (見勝徳者懷嫉妬), arrogance to the lowly (見卑賤人生憍慢), longing for the wealthy (聞富饒所起悕望), aversion to the poor (聞貧乏類兼厭離), murder both intentional and accidental, theft both overt and covert, sexual misconduct, and the four lying speech-faults; the body-three, speech-four, mind-three (身三口四意三 — the ten unwholesome karma-paths) producing each other; the failure of Buddha-recollection contemplation by reason of distracted attachment; the misreading of sūtra-passages in recitation; the seeking of merit-with-attachment that becomes a cause of saṃsāra. The text closes with the universal-confession formula: “All the unmeasured offenses thus committed, today before the Three Treasures I disclose. May they by mercy and pity be erased; all disclosed and exhausted in repentance. And for the various sentient beings throughout the dharma-realm whose three-activities have produced such offenses — I substitute myself, repenting on their behalf, that they not endure those retributions.”
Significance: one of the most widely-used confession texts in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism. The text is recited at makashibu (摩賀紙部 / makaji-bu) liturgical occasions, daily confession-services, and at major Shingon services. It is also revered as a profound piece of Kakuban’s literary corpus, displaying a personal-confessional sincerity unusual in medieval Buddhist liturgy.
Translations and research
- Partial English translation: van der Veere, Henny, A Study into the Thought of Kōgyō Daishi Kakuban, Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000.
- Inaya Yūsen, Kakuban no kenkyū (1969).
- The text is also frequently anthologized in modern Japanese Buddhist devotional collections (the Shingon-shū jōyō kyōten and similar).
Other points of interest
The repentance-formula at the close — “For sentient beings throughout the dharma-realm… I substitute myself, repenting on their behalf” — embodies the Mahāyāna bodhisattva substitution-doctrine in its purest liturgical form. The text remains liturgically alive in Shingon temples today, possibly the most-recited Kakuban composition.
Links
- CBETA: T79n2527