After saying this, the practitioner must again humbly pay homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas, and reflect on the comprehensive principle over the course of one to three-times-seven days. Whether renunciant or layperson, the practitioner will not need a mentor, will not need stewards, and will not need to take vows in a ceremony because of the power of accepting, keeping faith with, reciting, and internalizing the Great Vehicle sutras, and because of Universal Sage Bodhisattva’s encouragement to engage in this practice. This is the core of the true Way of the buddhas in the ten directions. By means and reason of this Way, the practitioner will naturally attain the five attributes of an enlightened one: perfection in behavioral principles, perfection in concentration, perfection in wisdom, perfection in emancipation, and perfection in the perspective that pertains to emancipation. Buddha tathāgatas become so by following this Way; the promise of their buddhahood is obtained in the Great Vehicle sutras.

The sixfold laws are the following six Buddhist precepts: not to take life, not to steal, to refrain from wrong sexual activity, not to lie, not to drink intoxicants, and not to speak of other people’s faults. The eightfold laws are the preceding six precepts plus two others: not to conceal one’s faults and not to emphasize other people’s shortcomings rather than their good points. Jñapti-karman is a compound word having two meanings; Jñapti signifies announcement or declaration, while karman means the proceedings at a meeting of a Buddhist assembly. This is part of the Buddhist ordination ceremony, in which the candidate confesses his past sins and vows to follow the Buddha’s teachings.

The Buddha said to Ānanda:

“When followers of Buddha undertake to amend themselves of unwholesome and harmful karmic acts after the Buddha has passed away, they must resolutely internalize and recite the Great Vehicle sutras. This comprehensive teaching is the buddha eye of the buddhas, it is the means by which buddhas perfect the five kinds of vision, and, from it, the Buddha’s three manifestations arise.

The five kinds of eyes are (1) the eye of those who have a material body; (2) the divine eye of celestial beings in the realm of form; (3) the eye of wisdom, by which the followers of the two vehicles perceive the nonsubstantiality of things; (4) the eye of the Law, by which the bodhisattvas perceive all teachings in order to lead human beings to enlightenment; and (5) the Buddha’s eye, the four kinds of eyes enumerated above existing in the Buddha’s body.

An ethereal voice will again fill the air, intoning thus:

“You must now amend both body and mind! The body, by killing, stealing, and behaving licentiously, and the mind, by conceiving various unwholesome things, produce the ten harmful karmic actions as well as the five grievous acts. Moreover, their monkey-like and glue-like attachments to things everywhere thoroughly permeate all of the six sense faculties. All of the karmic actions of these six faculties – their branches, twigs, flowers, and leaves – extend fully throughout the three realms, the twenty-five states of existence, and all places where beings take birth, and they function to facilitate ignorance, aging, death, and others of the twelve factors that cause suffering. You cannot but be immersed in the eight improper practices and the eight conditions in which it is difficult to see a buddha. You must now amend yourself of unwholesome and harmful karmic acts such as these!”

The five deadly sins are killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, killing an arhat, injuring the body of a buddha, and causing disunity in the community of monks. Those who commit these five sins will fall into the Avici hell. The twenty-five abodes of living beings are the four evil worlds (the hells, animals, hungry spirits, and asuras), the four continents of the world of men, the six heavens of the world of desire, the seven heavens of the world of form, and the four heavens of the formless world. The eight circumstances indicate the eight conditions in which one is unable to see the Buddha or hear the Law. These are hell, animals, hungry spirits, the heaven of long life, remote places, the state of being blind or deaf, secular prejudice, and the period of the Buddha’s absence.

“At this time the buddhas will send forth rays of bright light that illuminate the practitioner’s body, causing the practitioner to become spontaneously joyful in body and mind and to bring forth great mercy and compassion pervasively in thoughts of all things. The buddhas will then extensively expound ways of great compassion and benevolence for the practitioner’s benefit. Furthermore, they will teach the practitioner to use kind words and to follow the six ways of harmony and respect. Hearing these teachings and commands, the practitioner’s heart will overflow with joy, and he or she will then fully internalize and master them without laziness or pause.”

Joy and indifference are two of the four infinite virtues. The infinite virtue of joy means enjoying the sight of those who have obtained happiness. That of indifference signifies abandoning attachment to the benefits one gives to others and even to the harm he receives from his enemies. Taken together, the words “joy and indifference” indicate a mental attitude in which one abandons attachment to himself and thinks only of the benefit of others.

The expression “kind words” means affectionate words, one of the four virtues of the bodhisattva. The six ways of harmony and reverence are the six kinds of practices through which believers harmonize with and respect each other in the course of seeking enlightenment.

“You must now face the buddhas of the ten directions and praise and give voice to the Great Vehicle! Before the buddhas, relate your faults yourself! The buddha tathāgatas are your compassionate fathers.

The words “the buddhas, the tathāgatas, are your merciful fathers” are very important. Because the follower has repeatedly practiced repentance to the point of being extremely severe with himself, some people, taking a superficial view of such repentance, may feel oppressed. Other people may regard the repenting follower as a pitiable person who trembles with fear and prostrates himself before a ruler sternly scrutinizing his sins, confesses them, and begs the ruler’s pardon. However, such an idea is greatly mistaken. The buddhas are our merciful fathers, who think only of the salvation of all living beings. Therefore the buddhas praise us because through our repentance we remove defilements from our mind little by little. We do not practice repentance because we fear the buddhas but rather with the hope of being extolled by the buddhas, for whom we cherish a longing desire and a thirsting heart. The expression “the buddhas, the tathāgatas, are your merciful fathers” has this profound significance.

“After saying these words, the practitioner will perceive Mount Vulture Peak composed of the seven precious metals and gems, monks and śrāvakas with countless others together in a great assembly, rows of jewel trees lining level jewel ground on which a magnificent jeweled lion seat has been arranged, and Śākyamuni Buddha, who emits from between his eyebrows a beam of light that passes through the innumerable worlds of the ten directions and illuminates worlds everywhere in the universe. From everywhere this light reaches in the ten directions, the buddhas that emanated from Śākyamuni gather together at one time into a great assembly, as is extensively expounded in the Dharma Flower Sutra. Each emanated buddha has a body that is purple-gold in color and boundless in size, each sits on a lion seat, and each has a retinue of countless thousands of millions of great bodhisattvas. Each bodhisattva follows the same practice as Universal Sage; it is like this as well in the bodhisattva retinues of all of the innumerable buddhas in the ten directions.”

The above paragraph contains four important descriptions. The first is that the buddhas emanated from Śākyamuni Buddha are seen through a ray of light emitted from his eyebrows. This means that if a person takes refuge in the Buddha’s teachings, his mind will communicate with the minds of all the buddhas; in other words, if he realizes the truth taught by Śākyamuni Buddha, he will come to understand the true meaning of all the teachings. The second is that the buddhas emanated from Śākyamuni Buddha preach the same Law as preached in the Lotus Sutra. This proves that all the teachings are unified in the Lotus Sutra. The third is that the practice of each one of the countless hundreds of koṭis of great bodhisattvas is equal to the practice of the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue. This means that the holiness of a bodhisattva consists before all else in his practice. The fourth is that when rays of light emitted from the eyebrows of the emanated buddhas stream onto the head of Śākyamuni Buddha, the emanated buddhas emit from all the pores of their bodies rays of light in each of which innumerable transformed buddhas abide. This signifies that the Buddha’s teachings spread limitlessly. The light of the truth reaches everywhere, and everything consonant with the truth shines by its reflected light. But anything that covers the truth with illusions and sins does not shine even if it receives the reflected light of the truth. Therefore, so long as a person does not remove illusions and sins from his mind by the practice of repentance, he remains spiritually base.

The diamond-pounder was originally a kind of weapon used in ancient India. In Buddhism it is regarded as a symbol of the bodhi-mind because it can destroy all defilement and false views. Therefore the phrase “pointing his diamond-pounder at the six organs” indicates the believer’s power to destroy the defilement of his six organs. It bears witness to the fact that his mind is moving toward repentance. The expression “the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue will preach to the follower the law of repentance to obtain the purity of the six organs” means that through his practice of repentance the believer can gain the awareness of being purified in body and mind.

Another noteworthy expression is: “When these words are spoken, the follower sees all the innumerable worlds in the eastern quarter. …”

This indicates that if everyone deeply understands the holiness of the Buddha’s teachings and the preaching of them (jewel trees and jewel thrones), and if the Buddha’s teachings spread universally, all people, society, and the whole world will become beautiful.

A very important expression occurs in the above paragraph: “In his dreams, he will also see constantly the Seven Buddhas of the past, among whom only Śākyamuni Buddha will preach the Law to him.” It is true that all the buddhas of the past are sacred, but among them only Śākyamuni Buddha preaches his teachings to us in the sahā-world. Through these teachings we can know the truth that has existed unchanged since the infinite past. Therefore, we have only to take refuge in Śākyamuni Buddha; through doing so we also take refuge in the other buddhas (the various manifestations of the truth).

To see the buddhas in one’s dreams means that one gains a vague awareness of existing together with the buddhas. Gaining such an indistinct awareness, one feels still more spiritual joy and universally salutes the buddhas in all directions. Then the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue will appear before the believer and will teach him that he has been unable to see the buddhas because of all the karmas and environments of his former lives and will cause him to confess his sins. This means that the believer awakens to his own sins through the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue. This is the repentance that one practices before the buddhas. The expression “he should confess his sins with his own mouth” implies the repentance that he performs mentally.

The three kinds of stability in contemplation mean the attitudes that the Buddha assumes toward all living beings by dividing them into three types: the first stability in contemplation (sho-nenjo), the second stability in contemplation (ni-nenjo), and the third stability in contemplation (san-nenjo).

When living beings praise the virtue of the Buddha, he applauds their praising him rather than the fact that he is being praised. This attitude is the first stability in contemplation. When anyone blasphemes or curses the Buddha, the Buddha never feels sorrowful toward such a person or becomes angry with him because he is being reviled. With his deep compassion, he instead feels pity for such a person. This attitude is the second stability in contemplation. Among the many living beings, some take refuge in the Buddha’s teachings, but others do not. The Buddha never discriminates between these two kinds of living beings but has compassion equally for all of them because they all possess the buddha-nature. This attitude, with which the Buddha treats all living beings without discrimination, is the third stability in contemplation. These three attitudes are attributed only to the Buddha, but we must follow the Buddha’s example when we spread his teachings.