The repentance prayer text continue thus;

五無間罪若自作。若教他作。見作隨喜。

If I had committed the five Avici misdeeds, or instructed others to commit them, or rejoice upon seeing them being committed;

Note 5： Avici misdeeds refers to bad actions that result in the offender being reborn in the Avici Hell. Avici means ceaseless sufferings. the 5 misdeeds had been introduced earlier.

十不善道。若自作。若教他作。見作隨喜。

If I had committed the ten non virtuous deeds, or instructed others to commit them, or rejoice upon seeing them being committed;

所作罪障。或有覆藏。或不覆藏。

Of all these misdeeds, whether concealed or exposed.

Note: After committing the misdeed one may be ashame of themselve and try to conceal what they had done. Alternatively, they may be proud of it and boast of their misdeeds.

應墮地獄。餓鬼畜生。諸餘惡趣。邊地下賤。及蔑戾車。如是等處。

Such misdeeds should cause rebirth in hells or rebirth as a hungry ghost or an animal or rebirth in places of sufferings or wilderness, or born with a lowly status or born as a heretic or in such similar places.

Note: There are 2 Buddhist beliefs being mentioned here. First is the belief of Karma. In that sense good deeds result in good result and the reverse is true. Second is the belief of rebirth. Putting the 2 beliefs together, a Buddhist believes that evil deeds in the current life will result in a bad rebirth in the next life or future lifes.

Born of lowly status means obtaining a life that is subjected to abuse and punishment by others. Such as becoming a slave or a minority that is being bullied etc. It happened in the animal realm too. For example some cows are being worshipped while others are being worked and slaughtered.

Herectics mean those who uphold beliefs that are counter to Buddha’s teaching. For example belief in cannibalism and violence. If one is born in such a society, it will be very difficult to progress towards Enlightenment. From a Buddhist Karmic perspective, holding wrong beliefs will cause one to fall deper into dire state of rebirth.

所作罪障。及所應遭遇一切災禍。今皆懺悔。願悉消滅。 ◎

All these offences and transgression, and all the obstacles, calamities and misfortunes that follow as a results, I now remorsefully repent everything and wish for their elimination and absolution.

Uptil this part of the prayer text, the reader is faced with all the unimaginable sufferings that results from misdeeds committed by ownself in the life, the past lifes or even countless lifetime ago. In addition, instructing or teaching others to carry out the misdeeds are equally bad. To make it worst, rejoicing or condoning such misdeeds also results in sufferings.

In a way, it build up a humble awareness of our imperfections and the high probablities that we might have committed such misdeeds in our past.

I agree that it is not the nicest thought to have. However, it is not meant to make you depress. Just be aware of possibility that we might inherently possess bad karma from our previous existence. With that awareness, we need to strengthen our faith in Buddha Dharma and practice more diligiently. Try to be a nice person immediately.

The next prayer in Part 8 will offer a glimmer of hope to balance out. Stay Tune!

End of part Seven.

Hope you enjoyed reading.

May all be auspicious, well and happy.

Please feel free to share and teach others who are interested too.