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Glossary - individual

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Verse of Repentance (Sangemon 懺悔文)

I now entirely repent
all the evil actions I have perpetrated in the past,
arising from beginningless greed, anger, and delusion,
and manifested through body, speech, and mind.
gashaku shozō shoaku go 我昔所造諸惡業
kai yu mushi ton jinchi 皆由無始貪瞋癡
ju shin kui shisho sho 從身口意之所生
is-sai gakon kai sange 一切我今皆懺悔

San 懺 means to "regret," "feel remorse," "repent," or "confess sins." Ge 悔 means to "have remorse," "regret," or "repent," but it can also mean something that one regrets, that is, a "mistake," "error," or "crime." Thus, sange can be glossed either as two verb compound meaning "to repent" or as verb object compound meaning "to repent errors." "Evil action" (akugō 惡業) is any action ( 業, S. karma) performed under the influence of greed, anger, or delusion (tonjinchi 貪瞋癡), which are the three root mental afflictions (bonnō 煩惱, S. kleśa). "Body, speech, and mind" (shinkui 身口意) are the three modes of karma (sangō 三業), i.e. the three ways in which actions may be manifested: physically, verbally, and mentally. According to the Buddhist doctrine of no-self (muga 無我, S. anātman), what we conventionally call "self," "me," or "mine" (ga 我, S. ātman) is really just a bundle of transient phenomena conditioned by past actions. The "evil actions" that one repents are not limited to things done in what is conventionally regarded as one's own "present life," but includes all actions done throughout beginningless time, in all "past lives."

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