【The Meditation Session - Preparation】- Confession is to clear away the obscurations.

Through confession you clear away the obscurations, which are the unfavorable conditions.

Well, so obeisance, offering, imploring, this “supplication” is asking for the Buddha to remain in this world and so on. In addition to rejoicing, these five branches are the “favorable conditions” for “accumulating the collections of merit and sublime wisdom.” Confession is to “clear away the obscurations.” Confession must be able to stop your current obstructions and prevent them from arising again. This is what I have specifically explained just now. You need to know the purpose of confession. If you don’t, then the root of the issue will always be there, and you will never find the cause of it. Your effort will be of no avail. Just as though you are patching a leak, but you don’t know where the leak is, even after you spend so much time searching for it, that won’t work. So, we often say that this is an imposter or fake doctor. There is a joke about this, a story. There was one person who came to cure your illness. If you have a growth on your body, he might smear some cement or poultice on the wound, powder it up to make it look like skin and say, “Ok, it’s done now, it will heal!” Is this effective at all? Totally useless, the root of the cause is still there! So, our confession is the same. We only seek to look good, “Well, [medication] is applied, and it should be fine now!” But the root cause gets even worse! So, in this case, the obscurations cannot be cleared.

SOURCE 来源 :

23B 19’11” Vol 3 of Master Jih-Chang’s Discourse P245 LL7
English Lamrim Vol 1 P98

日常师父法语📡23B 19’11”手抄稿第3册P245 LL7

修持轨理-加行 : 悔者是除违缘，净治罪障。

哦，原来是礼敬、供养、劝请，这个“请白”的话，那就是请住世等等，随喜，这个五样东西，是“顺缘”，是“积聚资粮”的。忏悔是

【悔者是除违缘，净治罪障。】

忏悔一定是要把那个现行挡住，不要让它再来，这是所以刚才我特别说的，你忏悔要晓得忏些什么。假定你不晓得的话，那个病根始终在这个地方，你根本没捉到病根，你弄它没用。就像你堵那个漏洞，找了半天哪里漏了你不晓得，你说堵了半天，那不行。所以这个我们常常说的蒙古大夫，蒙古大夫，这句话，他有一个笑话、一个故事的。说这个人他跑得来给你医病，你身上生了一个疮了，他就弄点石灰涂涂，把你那个疮涂涂好，然后呢粉粉，涂得皮 (p246) 肤一样：“哦，好了，好了！”有没有用啊？一点没有用，那个病根都在这个地方啊！所以我们那个忏悔都是这样，只求表面好看，“啊，涂好了，涂好了，没有问题！”那个病根在这个地方，发作得更严重啊！所以这样的话，罪障净除不了。