Going through each of the senses and their karmic consequences – the sense faculty of sight, the sense faculty of hearing, the sense faculty of smell, the sense faculty of speech and the sense faculty of the body and mind – we begin with the heavy impurities obstruct, cloak, defile, and cloud the sense faculty of sight.

Throughout innumerable existences, the function of your sense faculty of sight has caused you to yearn for and become attached to various kinds of forms. Because of your attachments to various forms, you are passionate about the smallest of matters. Because of your passions for the smallest of matters, your body is derived from a woman.22 Wherever you take birth, in life after life, you are attracted and attached to all kinds of forms. Forms spoil your eyes, and you become a slave to emotion and passion: forms thus make you23 wander throughout the three realms. Such impairment renders you blind, so that you can perceive nothing.

Now, take the comprehensive Great Vehicle sutras to heart! In these sutras it is taught that forms and embodiments of the buddhas of the ten directions never cease to exist: you must now be able to recognize whether or not this is true! The dysfunction of your sense faculty of sight does you great harm! Heed what we are saying: Take refuge in the buddhas and in Śākyamuni Buddha! Regarding the impurities and faults in your sense faculty of sight, say this:

“May I be cleansed and be made to become pure by means of the Dharma water of the profound insight24 of buddhas and bodhisattvas!”

After saying these words, the practitioner must pay homage to the buddhas of the ten directions and, directing his or her heart and mind toward Śākyamuni Buddha and the Great Vehicle sutras, speak again, saying:

“I now recognize that heavy impurities obstruct, cloak, defile, and cloud my sense faculty of sight: I am blinded and can perceive nothing! May the Buddha, with great mercy and compassion, protect me! O Bodhisattva Universal Sage – aboard the great ship of Dharma in company with countless bodhisattvas of the ten directions, universally ferrying all living beings: Out of compassion and sympathy for me, please accept my way of amending myself of the unwholesome and harmful encumbrances of my sense faculty of sight!”

The practitioner must say this three times, prostrate him- or herself on the ground, and maintain right mindfulness of the Great Vehicle, neither forgetting nor forsaking it. This is called the method of self-amendment regarding impurities of the sense faculty of sight.

One who calls upon the buddhas by name, burns incense, scatters flowers, generates a Great Vehicle consciousness, hangs banners, flags, and canopies, speaks to the faults and afflictions of the eye, and undertakes self-amendment for his or her impurities will behold Śākyamuni Buddha in this present world and innumerable buddhas emanated from him as well. He or she will not fall into bitter conditions for countless kalpas of time. Through the affirmation and the power of the Great Vehicle, such a person will constantly be among and accompany all of the bodhisattvas that possess Dharma-grasping empowerments. Producing such a focus of mind is the effecting of right mindfulness; focusing on other things is described as aberrant thought. This is said to be the condition of the first stage with regard to the sense faculty of sight.

See Buddha Dharma