【Cultivating Ethical Behaviour】- confess what? We do not know 

So, when we regularly say this, "I confess, I confess!" What are you confessing? You do not even know! You just go in front of the Buddha and recite the four phrases. Have you really confessed? This is very simple. What is called a confession is that you feel what you have done in the past is wrong. How do you know that it is not right? There has to be something correct there in which you can check against. You must have aeasure that tells you what is right and wrong. Only then will you be able to tell whether you are right or wrong. But currently, you do not even know what is right and what is wrong. So, when you talk about confession, what are you confessing? You can [try to] confess. But without knowing what you are confessing, will you be able to clear [the sin] away? 

This is much like us saying, "Hey, you go and pull some weeds out." You do not even know what weeds are! That is why people will tell this joke, "We asked him to pull out the weeds. After much time has passed, all the vegetables were pulled out. But the weeds still remain." Why? The vegetables are taller. The grass is shorter. So. he relentlessly pulled the vegetables out. 

SOURCE 来源 :

63A 01’22” Vol 8 of Master Jih-Chang’s Discourse P220 L3
English Lamrim Vol 1 P252

日常师父法语📡63A 01’22” 手抄稿第8册P220 L3

业果 : 忏悔什么？不知道

所以平常我们说：“哎呀，我忏悔呀、忏悔呀！”你忏些什么？不知道！你跑到佛前面说我念它个四句，你真的忏了吗？这个很简单哪，所谓忏悔的话，对你以前所做的觉得不对。你怎么晓得它不对？有一个对的东西摆在那里衡量，你一定是对跟不对衡量出来了以后，那个时候你才衡量出来对跟不对。现在你根本不晓得哪一个是对，哪一个是不对，你说的忏悔，忏些什么？你能忏，这连它忏些什么都不知道，就能忏得干净了吗？

就像我们就说，哎，你去拔拔草—什么是草不知道！所以人家说那个笑话：叫他去拔草，结果拔了半天，那个菜都拔掉了，草还在那里。为什么？菜长得高嘛，那个草小小的在那里，他就拼命去拔，拔了半天。