金光明最勝王經 夢見金鼓懺悔品
一個人怎樣才能把過去的罪，真正放下？
金光明會上，妙幢菩薩做了一個夢。夢裡一面大金鼓，光明如日，照見十方諸佛；一位婆羅門桴擊金鼓，聲中演出一整部懺悔的法。他醒來，把夢中所聞當眾複誦——這一品幾乎就是那一大篇懺悔的偈。金光明懺一系的行法，正是依它而立。
偈裡的懺悔，關鍵只在兩個字：發露。把罪一條一條、老老實實對著佛說出來，「不敢覆藏」——不信諸佛、不敬尊親、貪瞋邪念、謗法不孝，全都攤開。說出來，罪才鬆動；藏起來，罪就結住。把罪說出口，這件事本身，就是懺。
而最動人的是懺罪盡處那一片天地：發露既盡，妙幢的願忽然向外舒展——願盲者得視、聾者得聞、貧者得寶、臨刑者得命全，願一切眾生離苦得樂。原來這一品的懺悔不是自了的贖罪：發露懺罪在前，願一切眾生離苦得樂的大願在後，一品之中前後相續。
且入此品，隨這金鼓的夢，把自己積壓已久的那些，對著十方佛，一次說個乾淨。
How can a person truly release the offenses of the past?
In the assembly of Golden Light, the bodhisattva Wonderful Banner had a dream. A great golden drum shone like the sun, revealing the buddhas of the ten directions. A brahmin struck it with a mallet, and within its sound an entire practice of repentance unfolded. Wonderful Banner awoke and recited before the assembly everything he had heard in the dream. Nearly the whole chapter is that great gāthā of repentance. The Golden Light tradition of repentance practice was established on its basis.
The repentance taught in the gāthā turns on one act: open disclosure. State each offense honestly before the Buddha, 「不敢覆藏」—“not daring to conceal it.” Not believing in the buddhas, failing to honor elders and parents, greed and anger, wrong thoughts, maligning the Dharma, being unfilial—lay it all open. Spoken aloud, the offense begins to loosen; hidden away, it hardens into a knot. To speak the offense is itself the beginning of repentance.
What moves us most is the world that opens when the confession is complete. Once Wonderful Banner has disclosed every offense, his vow suddenly extends outward: may the blind see, the deaf hear, the poor obtain treasure, those facing execution keep their lives; may every sentient being leave suffering and attain happiness. The chapter’s repentance is not a private act of atonement. Disclosure and repentance come first; the great vow that every sentient being leave suffering and attain happiness follows, in one continuous movement.
Enter this chapter. Follow the dream of the golden drum and, before the buddhas of the ten directions, speak cleanly through whatever you have carried for too long.
唐義淨譯《金光明最勝王經》卷二〈夢見金鼓懺悔品第四〉· 大正藏 T16n0665〔起 T16 0411a18〕。段/行首〔T16 …〕＝大正藏頁·欄·行錨。
〔T16 0411a18〕爾時，妙幢菩薩親於佛前聞妙法已，歡喜踊躍，一心思惟，還至本處。於夜夢中見大金鼓，光明晃耀猶如日輪，於此光中得見十方無量諸佛，於寶樹下坐琉璃座，無量百千大眾圍遶而為說法。見一婆羅門桴擊金鼓，出大音聲，聲中演說微妙伽他明懺悔法。妙幢聞已，皆悉憶持，繫念而住。至天曉已與無量百千大眾圍遶，將諸供具出王舍城，詣鷲峯山，至世尊所，禮佛足已布設香花，右遶三匝，退坐一面，合掌恭敬，瞻仰尊顏，白佛言：「世尊！我於夢中見婆羅門以手執桴，擊妙金鼓，出大音聲，聲中演說微妙伽他明懺悔法，我皆憶持。惟願世尊降大慈悲，聽我所說。」即於佛前，而說頌曰：
「我於昨夜中，夢見大金鼓；
其形極姝妙，周遍有金光。
猶如盛日輪，光明皆普耀，
充滿十方界，咸見於諸佛。
在於寶樹下，各處琉璃座；
無量百千眾，恭敬而圍遶。
有一婆羅門，以桴擊金鼓；
於其鼓聲內，說此妙伽他。
金光明鼓出妙聲，遍至三千大千界；
能滅三塗極重罪，及以人中諸苦厄。
由此金鼓聲威力，永滅一切煩惱障，
斷除怖畏令安隱，譬如自在牟尼尊。
佛於生死大海中，積行修成一切智；
能令眾生覺品具，究竟咸歸功德海。
由此金鼓出妙聲，普令聞者獲梵響，
證得無上菩提果，常轉清淨妙法輪。
住壽不可思議劫，隨機說法利群生；
能斷煩惱眾苦流，貪瞋癡等皆除滅。
若有眾生處惡趣，大火猛焰周遍身；
若得聞是妙鼓音，即能離苦歸依佛。
皆得成就宿命智，能憶過去百千生；
悉皆正念牟尼尊，得聞如來甚深教。
由聞金鼓勝妙音，常得親近於諸佛；
悉能捨離諸惡業，純修清淨諸善品。
一切天人有情類，殷重至誠祈願者；
得聞金鼓妙音聲，能令所求皆滿足。
眾生墮在無間獄，猛火炎熾苦焚身；
無有救護處輪迴，聞者能令苦除滅。
人天餓鬼傍生中，所有現受諸苦難；
得聞金鼓發妙響，皆蒙離苦得解脫。
現在十方界，常住兩足尊；
願以大悲心，哀愍憶念我。
眾生無歸依，亦無有救護；
為如是等類，能作大歸依。
我先所作罪，極重諸惡業；
今對十力前，至心皆懺悔。
我不信諸佛，亦不敬尊親，
不務修眾善，常造諸惡業。
或自恃尊高，種姓及財位，
盛年行放逸，常造諸惡業。
心恒起邪念，口陳於惡言，
不見於過罪，常造諸惡業。
恒作愚夫行，無明闇覆心，
隨順不善友，常造諸惡業。
或因諸戲樂，或復懷憂惱，
為貪瞋所纏，故我造諸惡。
親近不善人，及由慳嫉意，
貧窮行諂誑，故我造諸惡。
雖不樂眾過，由有怖畏故，
及不得自在，故我造諸惡。
或為躁動心，或因瞋恚恨，
及以飢渴惱，故我造諸惡。
由飲食衣服，及貪愛女人，
煩惱火所燒，故我造諸惡。
於佛法僧眾，不生恭敬心，
〔T16 0412a01〕 作如是眾罪，我今悉懺悔。
於獨覺菩薩，亦無恭敬心，
作如是眾罪，我今悉懺悔。
無知謗正法，不孝於父母，
作如是眾罪，我今悉懺悔。
由愚癡憍慢，及以貪瞋力，
作如是眾罪，我今悉懺悔。
我於十方界，供養無數佛；
當願拔眾生，令離諸苦難。
願一切有情，皆令住十地；
福智圓滿已，成佛導群迷。
我為諸眾生，苦行百千劫；
以大智慧力，皆令出苦海。
我為諸含識，演說甚深經，
最勝金光明，能除諸惡業。
若人百千劫，造諸極重罪；
暫時能發露，眾惡盡消除。
依此金光明，作如是懺悔；
由斯能速盡，一切諸苦業。
勝定百千種，不思議總持，
根力覺道支，修習常無倦。
我當至十地，具足珍寶處，
圓滿佛功德，濟渡生死流。
我於諸佛海，甚深功德藏，
妙智難思議，皆令得具足。
唯願十方佛，觀察護念我；
皆以大悲心，哀受我懺悔。
我於多劫中，所造諸惡業；
由斯生苦惱，哀愍願消除。
我造諸惡業，常生憂怖心；
於四威儀中，曾無歡樂想。
諸佛具大悲，能除眾生怖；
願受我懺悔，令得離憂苦。
我有煩惱障，及以諸報業；
願以大悲水，洗濯令清淨。
我先作諸罪，及現造惡業；
至心皆發露，咸願得蠲除。
未來諸惡業，防護令不起；
設令有違者，終不敢覆藏。
身三語四種，意業復有三；
繫縛諸有情，無始恒相續。
由斯三種行，造作十惡業，
如是眾多罪，我今皆懺悔。
我造諸惡業，苦報當自受；
今於諸佛前，至誠皆懺悔。
於此贍部洲，及他方世界；
所有諸善業，今我皆隨喜。
願離十惡業，修行十善道；
安住十地中，常見十方佛。
我以身語意，所修福智業；
願以此善根，速成無上慧。
我今親對十力前，發露眾多苦難事；
凡愚迷惑三有難，恒造極重惡業難，
我所積集欲邪難，常起貪愛流轉難，
於此世間耽著難，一切愚夫煩惱難，
狂心散動顛倒難，及以親近惡友難，
於生死中貪染難，瞋癡闇鈍造罪難，
生八無暇惡處難，未曾積集功德難，
我今皆於最勝前，懺悔無邊罪惡業。
我今歸依諸善逝，我禮德海無上尊；
如大金山照十方，唯願慈悲哀攝受。
身色金光淨無垢，目如清淨紺琉璃；
吉祥威德名稱尊，大悲慧日除眾闇。
佛日光明常普遍，善淨無垢離諸塵；
牟尼月照極清涼，能除眾生煩惱熱。
三十二相遍莊嚴，八十隨好皆圓滿；
福德難思無與等，如日流光照世間。
色如琉璃淨無垢，猶如滿月處虛空；
妙頗梨網映金軀，種種光明以嚴飾。
於生死苦瀑流內，老病憂愁水所漂；
如是苦海難堪忍，佛日舒光令永竭。
我今稽首一切智，三千世界希有尊，
光明晃耀紫金身，種種妙好皆嚴飾。
如大海水量難知，大地微塵不可數，
如妙高山叵稱量，亦如虛空無有際。
諸佛功德亦如是，一切有情不能知，
於無量劫諦思惟，無有能知德海岸。
盡此大地諸山岳，析如微塵能算知，
毛端渧海尚可量，佛之功德無能數。
一切有情皆共讚，世尊名稱諸功德，
清淨相好妙莊嚴，不可稱量知分齊。
我之所有眾善業，願得速成無上尊，
廣說正法利群生，悉令解脫於眾苦。
降伏大力魔軍眾，當轉無上正法輪；
久住劫數難思議，充足眾生甘露味。
猶如過去諸最勝，六波羅蜜皆圓滿；
滅諸貪欲及瞋癡，降伏煩惱除眾苦。
〔T16 0413a01〕 願我常得宿命智，能憶過去百千生；
亦常憶念牟尼尊，得聞諸佛甚深法。
願我以斯諸善業，奉事無邊最勝尊；
遠離一切不善因，恒得修行真妙法。
一切世界諸眾生，悉皆離苦得安樂；
所有諸根不具足，令彼身相皆圓滿。
若有眾生遭病苦，身形羸瘦無所依；
咸令病苦得消除，諸根色力皆充滿。
若犯王法當刑戮，眾苦逼迫生憂惱；
彼受如斯極苦時，無有歸依能救護。
若受鞭杖枷鎖繫，種種苦具切其身；
無量百千憂惱時，逼迫身心無暫樂。
皆令得免於繫縛，及以鞭杖苦楚事；
將臨刑者得命全，眾苦皆令永除盡。
若有眾生飢渴逼，令得種種殊勝味；
盲者得視聾者聞，跛者能行瘂能語。
貧窮眾生獲寶藏，倉庫盈溢無所乏；
皆令得受上妙樂，無一眾生受苦惱。
一切人天皆樂見，容儀溫雅甚端嚴；
悉皆現受無量樂，受用豐饒福德具。
隨彼眾生念伎樂，眾妙音聲皆現前；
念水即現清涼池，金色蓮花汎其上。
隨彼眾生心所念，飲食衣服及床敷；
金銀珍寶妙琉璃，瓔珞莊嚴皆具足。
勿令眾生聞惡響，亦復不見有相違；
所受容貌悉端嚴，各各慈心相愛樂。
世間資生諸樂具，隨心念時皆滿足；
所得珍財無悋惜，分布施與諸眾生。
燒香末香及塗香，眾妙雜花非一色；
每日三時從樹墮，隨心受用生歡喜。
普願眾生咸供養，十方一切最勝尊；
三乘清淨妙法門，菩薩獨覺聲聞眾。
常願勿處於卑賤，不墮無暇八難中；
生在有暇人中尊，恒得親承十方佛。
願得常生富貴家，財寶倉庫皆盈滿；
顏貌名稱無與等，壽命延長經劫數。
悉願女人變為男，勇健聰明多智慧；
一切常行菩薩道，勤修六度到彼岸。
常見十方無量佛，寶王樹下而安處；
處妙琉璃師子座，恒得親承轉法輪。
若於過去及現在，輪迴三有造諸業；
能招可厭不善趣，願得消滅永無餘。
一切眾生於有海，生死羂網堅牢縛；
願以智劍為斷除，離苦速證菩提處。
眾生於此贍部內，或於他方世界中；
所作種種勝福因，我今皆悉生隨喜。
以此隨喜福德事，及身語意造眾善；
願此勝業常增長，速證無上大菩提。
所有禮讚佛功德，深心清淨無瑕穢；
迴向發願福無邊，當超惡趣六十劫。
若有男子及女人，婆羅門等諸勝族；
合掌一心讚歎佛，生生常憶宿世事。
諸根清淨身圓滿，殊勝功德皆成就；
願於未來所生處，常得人天共瞻仰。
非於一佛十佛所，修諸善根今得聞；
百千佛所種善根，方得聞斯懺悔法。」
爾時世尊聞此說已，讚妙幢菩薩言：「善哉！善哉！善男子！如汝所夢，金鼓出聲讚歎如來真實功德，并懺悔法；若有聞者，獲福甚多，廣利有情，滅除罪障。汝今應知此之勝業，皆是過去讚歎發願，宿習因緣，及由諸佛威力加護，此之因緣，當為汝說。」時諸大眾聞是法已，咸皆歡喜，信受奉行。
The canonical text stands in Chinese only. This edition renders the essence, the plain reading, the exposition and the apparatus into English — never the sūtra itself. Switch to 漢讀本 or 並行雙語 above to read it.
底本：唐義淨譯《金光明最勝王經》卷二〈夢見金鼓懺悔品第四〉。白話依原文逐句今譯，述而不作。
妙幢夜夢金鼓，詣鷲峯以聞
那時，妙幢菩薩親自在佛前聽聞了妙法之後，歡喜踊躍，一心思惟，便回到自己本來的住處。在夜裡的夢中，他見到一面大金鼓，光明晃耀，猶如日輪；在這光明之中，得以見到十方無量的諸佛，在寶樹之下坐於琉璃寶座，有無量百千的大眾圍繞著，佛為他們說法。他又見到一位婆羅門，用鼓桴敲擊金鼓，發出巨大的音聲，聲音之中演說微妙的伽他，闡明懺悔之法。妙幢聽了之後，全都記憶受持，繫念安住。到天亮之後，他與無量百千的大眾圍繞在一起，帶著種種供養之具，走出王舍城，前往鷲峯山，來到世尊的住所；頂禮佛足之後，布設香花，向右繞佛三圈，退坐一旁，合掌恭敬，瞻仰尊貴的容顏，稟白佛說：「世尊！我在夢中見到一位婆羅門，用手拿著鼓桴，敲擊微妙的金鼓，發出巨大的音聲，聲音之中演說微妙的伽他，闡明懺悔之法，我全都記憶受持。惟願世尊降下大慈悲，聽我把它說出來。」隨即在佛前說頌道：
『我在昨天夜裡，夢見一面大金鼓；它的形貌極其美妙，周遍散發著金色的光明。』
『那光明猶如熾盛的日輪，處處普遍照耀，充滿了十方世界，使人在其中都見到了諸佛。』
『諸佛在寶樹之下，各自安坐於琉璃寶座；有無量百千的大眾，恭敬地圍繞著。』
『有一位婆羅門，用鼓桴敲擊金鼓；在那鼓聲之中，演說了這首微妙的伽他。』
金光明鼓出妙聲，滅罪離苦
『金光明鼓發出微妙的聲音，遍及三千大千世界；能滅除三惡道中極重的罪業，以及人間種種的苦難危厄。』
『由於這金鼓聲的威力，永遠滅除一切煩惱的障礙，斷除種種怖畏，使人安穩，就像自在的牟尼世尊一樣。』
『佛在生死的大海之中，累積修行，成就了一切智；能使眾生具足種種覺悟的道品，最終全都歸入功德的大海。』
『由於這金鼓發出微妙的聲音，普遍使聽聞的人獲得梵天般清淨的音聲，證得無上的菩提之果，常常轉動清淨微妙的法輪。』
『安住壽命達不可思議的劫數，隨順眾生的根機說法，利益群生；能斷除煩惱與眾苦的流轉，貪、瞋、癡等全都除滅。』
『若有眾生身處惡道，大火猛烈的火焰遍燒全身；若能聽到這微妙的鼓音，就能離苦，歸依於佛。』
『他們都能成就宿命之智，能憶起過去百千世的事；全都正念著牟尼世尊，得以聽聞如來甚深的教法。』
『由於聽聞金鼓殊勝微妙的音聲，常常得以親近諸佛；全都能捨離種種惡業，純一地修習清淨的種種善法。』
『一切天、人等有情之類，凡是殷重至誠地祈求發願的；得以聽聞金鼓微妙的音聲，就能使他們所求的都得到滿足。』
『眾生墮落在無間地獄之中，猛火熾盛，痛苦地焚燒著身體；沒有救護，在輪迴中流轉；聽聞鼓聲的，能使這苦得以除滅。』
『在人、天、餓鬼、傍生之中，一切正在領受的種種苦難；得以聽聞金鼓發出的微妙聲響，都蒙受離苦而得到解脫。』
歸敬十方兩足尊，願作大歸依
『現在十方世界之中，常住不滅的兩足至尊；願您以大悲之心，哀愍憶念著我。』
『眾生沒有歸依之處，也沒有救護；為了這樣的一類眾生，願您能作大的歸依。』
今對十力前，至心發露眾罪
『我從前所造的罪，那些極重的種種惡業；如今對著具足十力的佛前，至心一一懺悔。』
『我不信諸佛，也不敬重尊長父母，不致力修習眾善，常常造作種種惡業。』
『或者自恃身分尊貴高上，仗著種姓與財富地位，在盛壯之年放縱逸樂，常常造作種種惡業。』
『心中常起邪念，口裡說出惡言，看不見自己的過失罪愆，常常造作種種惡業。』
『常做愚夫的行為，無明的黑暗覆蓋著心，隨順不善的朋友，常常造作種種惡業。』
『或者因為種種嬉戲娛樂，或者又懷著憂愁苦惱，被貪與瞋所纏縛，所以我造作了種種惡業。』
『親近不善的人，又由於慳吝嫉妒的心意，因貧窮而行諂媚欺誑，所以我造作了種種惡業。』
『雖然並不喜好眾多的過失，卻由於有所怖畏的緣故，又因為身不由己、不得自在，所以我造作了種種惡業。』
『或者因為心躁動不安，或者因為瞋恚怨恨，以及被飢渴所惱，所以我造作了種種惡業。』
『由於貪求飲食衣服，以及貪愛女色，被煩惱之火所燒，所以我造作了種種惡業。』
『對於佛、法、僧三寶大眾，不生恭敬之心，造下這樣的種種罪，我如今全都懺悔。』
『對於獨覺與菩薩，也沒有恭敬之心，造下這樣的種種罪，我如今全都懺悔。』
『因無知而毀謗正法，不孝順父母，造下這樣的種種罪，我如今全都懺悔。』
『由於愚癡與憍慢，以及貪與瞋之力，造下這樣的種種罪，我如今全都懺悔。』
供佛發願，演說金光明滅諸惡業
『我在十方世界之中，供養無數的佛；並願拔濟眾生，使他們遠離種種苦難。』
『願一切有情，都能安住於十地；福德與智慧圓滿之後，成就佛道，引導群迷。』
『我為了眾生，苦行百千劫；以大智慧之力，使他們都能出離苦海。』
『我為了眾含識，演說這甚深的經典——最為殊勝的《金光明》，能除滅種種惡業。』
『若有人在百千劫中，造了種種極重的罪；只要能一時發露懺悔，眾惡便都消除。』
『依著這《金光明》，作這樣的懺悔；由此便能迅速滅盡一切的苦業。』
『百千種殊勝的禪定，不可思議的總持，五根、五力、七覺支、八道支，修習起來常不疲倦。』
『我當要到達十地，具足眾珍寶的境地，圓滿佛的功德，濟渡生死的流轉。』
『我對於諸佛的大海、甚深的功德寶藏、難以思議的微妙智慧，都願得以具足。』
唯願十方佛哀受懺悔，防護未來
『唯願十方諸佛，觀察護念著我；都以大悲之心，哀愍地接受我的懺悔。』
『我在多劫之中所造的種種惡業；由此生起苦惱，願您哀愍，使它消除。』
『我造作了種種惡業，常常生起憂愁怖畏之心；在行、住、坐、臥四威儀之中，不曾有過歡樂之想。』
『諸佛具足大悲，能除去眾生的怖畏；願您接受我的懺悔，使我得以離開憂苦。』
『我有煩惱的障礙，以及種種果報之業；願您以大悲的淨水，將它洗滌乾淨。』
『我從前所作的種種罪，以及現在所造的惡業；都至心發露出來，全都願能得以除去。』
『未來的種種惡業，我防護著使它不生起；假使有所違犯的，也終究不敢隱瞞覆藏。』
三業造十惡，我今皆懺悔
『身業有三種、語業有四種，意業又有三種；這些繫縛著眾有情，從無始以來恆常相續。』
『由這身、語、意三種行為，造作了十種惡業；這樣眾多的罪，我如今全都懺悔。』
『我造了種種惡業，苦的果報終當自己承受；如今在諸佛之前，至誠地一一懺悔。』
所有諸善業，今我皆隨喜
『在這贍部洲，以及其他方的世界；一切所有的善業，如今我都隨喜。』
『願離開十種惡業，修行十善之道；安住在十地之中，常常得見十方諸佛。』
『我以身、語、意所修的福德與智慧之業；願以這善根，迅速成就無上的智慧。』
親對十力前，發露眾多苦難
『我如今親自對著具足十力的佛前，發露種種苦難之事：凡夫愚癡、迷惑於三有的患難，恆常造作極重惡業的患難。』
『由計執我所而積集、欲邪染著的患難，常起貪愛而流轉生死的患難，對這世間耽著的患難，一切愚夫煩惱的患難。』
『狂亂之心散動顛倒的患難，以及親近惡友的患難，在生死之中貪染的患難，因瞋、癡、闇鈍而造罪的患難。』
『生於八無暇惡處的患難，不曾積聚功德的患難——我如今全都在最勝的佛前，懺悔這無邊的罪惡之業。』
稽首一切智，讚佛功德海
『我如今歸依諸位善逝，我禮敬功德如海的無上至尊；您如同巨大的金山照耀十方，唯願您以慈悲哀愍地攝受我。』
『您身體的色相是金色的光明，清淨而無垢；眼目如同清淨的紺色琉璃；具吉祥威德、名稱遠揚的至尊，大悲的智慧之日除去眾生的黑暗。』
『佛的日光明亮，常常普遍照耀，善能清淨、無垢，遠離種種塵染；牟尼的明月照下極其清涼，能除去眾生煩惱的熱惱。』
『三十二種大人相遍身莊嚴，八十種隨形好全都圓滿；福德難以思量，無與倫比，如同太陽流布光明，照耀世間。』
『色相如琉璃般清淨無垢，猶如滿月處於虛空之中；微妙的頗梨寶網映照著金色的身軀，以種種光明作為莊嚴裝飾。』
『在生死苦難的瀑流之中，被老、病、憂、愁之水所漂蕩；這樣的苦海難以堪忍，佛的日輪舒展光明，使它永遠枯竭。』
『我如今稽首禮敬一切智者，三千世界中希有的至尊，光明晃耀的紫金之身，種種微妙的相好全都莊嚴裝飾。』
『如同大海之水難以測知它的量，如同大地的微塵不可計數，如同妙高山難以稱量，也如同虛空沒有邊際。』
『諸佛的功德也是這樣：一切有情都不能知曉，即使在無量劫中仔細思惟，也沒有誰能知道這功德大海的彼岸。』
『縱使把這大地所有的山岳都析碎如微塵而能算知其數，縱使用毛端沾取海水的滴數尚且可以量度，佛的功德卻無人能數。』
『一切有情共同讚歎世尊的名稱與種種功德，清淨的相好微妙莊嚴，無法稱量、無法知道它的分限際限。』
『我所有的眾多善業，願能迅速成就無上的至尊，廣說正法，利益群生，使他們全都從眾苦中解脫。』
『降伏大力的魔軍眾，當轉動無上的正法輪；久住於難以思議的劫數之中，以甘露的法味充足眾生。』
『猶如過去的諸位最勝之尊，六波羅蜜都已圓滿；滅除種種貪欲以及瞋、癡，降伏煩惱，除去眾苦。』
願得宿命智，普願眾生離苦得樂
『願我常得宿命之智，能憶起過去百千世；也常憶念牟尼世尊，得以聽聞諸佛甚深的法。』
『願我以這種種善業，奉事無邊的最勝之尊；遠離一切不善的因，恆常得以修行真實微妙的法。』
『願一切世界的眾生，全都離苦而得安樂；所有身根不具足的，都使他們的身相圓滿。』
『若有眾生遭受病苦，身形瘦弱、無所依靠；都使他們的病苦得以消除，諸根與氣色體力全都充滿。』
『若有人觸犯王法、將被刑戮，眾苦逼迫而生憂惱；他們在領受這樣極苦的時候，沒有歸依、沒有救護。』
『若有人受鞭打、杖責、枷鎖繫縛，種種苦刑之具切割其身；在無量百千的憂惱之時，逼迫身心，沒有片刻的安樂。』
『都使他們得以免於繫縛，以及鞭打杖責的苦楚之事；將要臨刑的人得以保全性命，眾苦全都使它永遠除盡。』
『若有眾生被飢渴所逼，使他們得到種種殊勝的美味；眼盲的能看見，耳聾的能聽聞，跛腳的能行走，喑瘂的能言語。』
『貧窮的眾生獲得寶藏，倉庫盈滿溢出，沒有匱乏；都使他們得以領受上妙的安樂，沒有一個眾生再受苦惱。』
『一切人、天都樂於見到，容貌儀態溫和文雅、十分端正莊嚴；全都現世領受無量的安樂，受用豐饒，福德具足。』
『隨著那眾生想念伎樂，種種微妙的音聲都現於面前；想念水，就現出清涼的水池，金色的蓮花浮泛在水面之上。』
『隨著那眾生心中所想念的，飲食、衣服以及床褥，金、銀、珍寶、微妙的琉璃，瓔珞莊嚴之具，全都具足。』
『不使眾生聽到惡的聲響，也不使他們見到相違逆的事；所受的容貌全都端正莊嚴，彼此各懷慈心，相親相愛。』
『世間資養生活的種種樂具，隨心想念時都得滿足；所得的珍財毫不吝惜，分布施與眾生。』
『燒香、末香以及塗香，種種微妙的雜花，不只一種顏色；每日三時從樹上飄落，隨心受用而生歡喜。』
『普願眾生都能供養十方一切最勝的至尊，供養三乘清淨微妙的法門，以及菩薩、獨覺、聲聞的聖眾。』
『常願不處於卑賤，不墮入無暇的八難之中；生在有閒暇修行的人中，為人所尊，恆常得以親近承事十方諸佛。』
『願能常生於富貴之家，財寶倉庫都盈滿；容貌與名聲無與倫比，壽命延長，經歷劫數。』
『都願女人轉為男身，勇健聰明、多有智慧；一切人常行菩薩之道，勤修六度而到達彼岸。』
『常見到十方無量的佛，安處在寶王樹下；坐在微妙琉璃的師子座上，恆常得以親近承事、聽其轉動法輪。』
消業隨喜，禮讚迴向
『若在過去以及現在，於輪迴三有之中所造的種種業，能招感可厭的不善之趣的，願能消滅，永遠沒有殘餘。』
『一切眾生在三有的大海之中，被生死的羅網堅牢地繫縛；願以智慧之劍為他們斷除，使他們離苦，迅速證得菩提之處。』
『眾生在這贍部洲內，或者在其他方的世界之中，所作的種種殊勝的福因，我如今全都生起隨喜。』
『以這隨喜的福德之事，以及身、語、意所造的眾善；願這殊勝之業常常增長，迅速證得無上的大菩提。』
『所有禮讚佛功德的，深心清淨、沒有瑕穢；以此迴向發願，福德無邊，當能超越六十劫惡趣之罪。』
『若有男子及女人，婆羅門等種種殊勝的族類，合掌一心讚歎佛的，就能世世常憶起宿世的事。』
『諸根清淨、身相圓滿，殊勝的功德都得成就；願在未來所生之處，常得人、天共同瞻仰。』
『不是只在一佛、十佛之處修習諸善根，如今才得以聽聞；而是在百千佛之處種下善根，方才得以聽聞這懺悔之法。』
世尊讚妙幢，宿習因緣
那時，世尊聽了這番話之後，讚歎妙幢菩薩說：「善哉！善哉！善男子！正如你夢中所見，金鼓發出音聲，讚歎如來真實的功德，並宣說懺悔之法；若有聽聞的人，獲得的福報極多，廣泛地利益有情，滅除罪障。你如今應當知道：這樣的殊勝之業，都是你過去讚歎發願、宿世修習的因緣，以及由於諸佛威神之力的加被護持；這其中的因緣，我當為你解說。」那時，諸位大眾聽了這法之後，全都歡喜，信受奉行。
Base text: Yijing’s Tang translation of The Sūtra of Golden Light, the Supreme King, fascicle two, “The Dream of the Golden Drum and Repentance,” Chapter 4. This vernacular rendering follows the source sentence by sentence, transmitting without adding.
Wonderful Banner Dreams of the Golden Drum and Goes to Vulture Peak to Recount What He Heard
At that time, after the bodhisattva Wonderful Banner personally heard the wondrous Dharma before the Buddha, he leapt with joy, contemplated it single-mindedly, and returned to his dwelling. During the night, he dreamed of a great golden drum whose brilliant light shone like the disk of the sun. Within this light, he saw immeasurable buddhas of the ten directions seated on lapis-lazuli thrones beneath jeweled trees, surrounded by immeasurable hundreds of thousands in great assemblies to whom they taught the Dharma. He also saw a brahmin striking the golden drum with a mallet. It produced a great sound, and within that sound a wondrous gāthā explaining the practice of repentance was proclaimed. After Wonderful Banner heard it, he remembered and retained it all, remaining collected upon it. At daybreak, surrounded by immeasurable hundreds of thousands, he took many offerings, left Rājagṛha, and went to Vulture Peak, where he approached the World-Honored One. Having bowed at the Buddha’s feet, arranged incense and flowers, circumambulated him three times to the right, and withdrawn to sit at one side, he respectfully joined his palms, gazed up at the honored countenance, and addressed the Buddha: “World-Honored One, in a dream I saw a brahmin holding a mallet in his hand and striking a wondrous golden drum. It produced a great sound, and within that sound a wondrous gāthā explaining the practice of repentance was proclaimed. I remember and retain it all. I pray that the World-Honored One, moved by great compassion, will listen as I recite it.” Thereupon, before the Buddha, he spoke these verses:
“During the night just past, I dreamed of a great golden drum. Its form was exceedingly beautiful, and golden light spread all around it.”
“That light was like the blazing disk of the sun, shining everywhere. It filled the worlds of the ten directions, and within it all the buddhas could be seen.”
“Beneath jeweled trees, the buddhas each sat upon a lapis-lazuli throne. Immeasurable hundreds of thousands respectfully surrounded them.”
“A brahmin struck the golden drum with a mallet, and within its sound proclaimed this wondrous gāthā.”
The Drum of Golden Light Sends Forth a Wondrous Sound, Extinguishing Offenses and Relieving Suffering
“The drum of Golden Light sends forth a wondrous sound that pervades the trichiliocosm. It extinguishes the gravest offenses of the three evil destinies and all the ordeals of suffering among humans.”
“Through the awesome power of this golden drum’s sound, every afflictive obstruction is forever extinguished. It severs every fear and brings security, like the sovereign Honored Sage.”
“In the great ocean of birth and death, the Buddha accumulated practices and cultivated until he accomplished omniscience. He enables sentient beings to complete the factors of awakening and ultimately enter the ocean of virtues.”
“Through the wondrous sound sent forth by this golden drum, all who hear it attain a Brahmā-like voice, realize the fruit of unsurpassed awakening, and constantly turn the pure and wondrous wheel of Dharma.”
“They abide for inconceivable eons and teach the Dharma according to beings’ capacities, benefiting every living being. They sever the current of afflictions and suffering, extinguishing greed, anger, delusion, and the rest.”
“If sentient beings dwell in evil destinies, with fierce flames of great fire burning all around their bodies, hearing this wondrous drumbeat enables them to leave suffering and take refuge in the Buddha.”
“They all attain knowledge of past lives and can remember hundreds of thousands of former births. They recollect the Honored Sage with right mindfulness and come to hear the Tathāgata’s profound teaching.”
“Through hearing the golden drum’s excellent, wondrous sound, they constantly draw near to the buddhas. They can abandon every unwholesome deed and cultivate only pure and wholesome qualities.”
“Among all classes of sentient beings, gods and humans alike, those who pray with profound and utmost sincerity hear the golden drum’s wondrous sound and have every wish fulfilled.”
“Sentient beings who have fallen into the Uninterrupted Hell are burned in suffering by fierce, blazing fire. With no refuge or protection, they wander in saṃsāra; hearing the drum enables their suffering to be extinguished.”
“Whatever suffering is now endured among humans, gods, hungry ghosts, or animals, those who hear the golden drum’s wondrous resonance are released from suffering and attain liberation.”
Homage to the Supreme Ones of the Ten Directions, Who Become the Great Refuge
“To the Supreme Ones among Two-Footed Beings, ever abiding in the worlds of the ten directions: with minds of great compassion, please pity and remember me.”
“Sentient beings have no refuge and no one to protect them. For all beings such as these, please become their great refuge.”
Before the Ten-Powered Ones, I Sincerely Disclose and Repent of Every Offense
“For the offenses I committed before, all those extremely grave unwholesome deeds, now before the Ten-Powered Ones I repent of them all with utmost sincerity.”
“I did not believe in the buddhas or honor elders and parents. I did not strive to cultivate wholesome qualities and constantly committed unwholesome deeds.”
“At times I relied arrogantly on rank and honor, lineage, wealth, and position. In the prime of life, I indulged in heedlessness and constantly committed unwholesome deeds.”
“My mind constantly gave rise to wrong thoughts, and my mouth uttered harmful words. I did not see my own faults and offenses and constantly committed unwholesome deeds.”
“I constantly acted as a fool. The darkness of ignorance covered my mind, and I followed unwholesome friends, constantly committing unwholesome deeds.”
“At times through play and amusement, at times by harboring worry and distress, entangled by greed and anger, I committed unwholesome deeds.”
“Drawing near to unwholesome people, moved by stinginess and jealousy, poor and practicing flattery and deceit, I committed unwholesome deeds.”
“Although I did not delight in such many faults, because I was afraid and had no freedom to act for myself, I committed unwholesome deeds.”
“At times because my mind was agitated, at times through anger and resentment, and when afflicted by hunger and thirst, I committed unwholesome deeds.”
“Because of food and clothing, through craving for women, burned by the fire of affliction, I committed unwholesome deeds.”
“Toward the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha I did not give rise to a respectful mind. For the many offenses committed in this way, I now repent of them all.”
“Toward solitary realizers and bodhisattvas, I likewise had no respectful mind. For the many offenses committed in this way, I now repent of them all.”
“Through not-knowing, I maligned the True Dharma and was unfilial toward my parents. For the many offenses committed in this way, I now repent of them all.”
“Through folly and arrogance and through the power of greed and anger, I committed the many offenses of this kind. I now repent of them all.”
Making Offerings and Vows, I Teach Golden Light to Extinguish Unwholesome Deeds
“Throughout the worlds of the ten directions, I make offerings to countless buddhas. I vow to rescue sentient beings and free them from every suffering and ordeal.”
“May every sentient being be enabled to abide on the ten grounds. When merit and wisdom are complete, may they attain buddhahood and guide the deluded multitude.”
“For the sake of sentient beings, I practice austerities for hundreds of thousands of eons. With the power of great wisdom, may I enable them all to leave the ocean of suffering.”
“For all conscious beings, I proclaim this profound scripture—the supremely excellent Golden Light, which can extinguish every unwholesome deed.”
“If, for hundreds of thousands of eons, a person has committed extremely grave offenses, but for even a moment can disclose and repent of them, all those evils are extinguished.”
“In dependence on this Golden Light, one practices repentance in this way. Through it, every karma of suffering can swiftly be exhausted.”
“Hundreds of thousands of excellent concentrations, inconceivable dhāraṇīs, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of awakening, and the eight branches of the path—may I cultivate them without ever tiring.”
“I will reach the ten grounds, the place complete with precious treasures, perfect the Buddha’s virtues, and ferry beings across the current of birth and death.”
“May I become complete in the ocean of the buddhas, their profound treasury of virtues, and their wondrous, inconceivable wisdom.”
May the Buddhas of the Ten Directions Compassionately Accept My Repentance and Guard the Future
“I pray that the buddhas of the ten directions will observe, protect, and remember me and, with minds of great compassion, mercifully accept my repentance.”
“For all the unwholesome deeds I committed through many eons, through which suffering and distress arose, please take pity and cause them to be extinguished.”
“Because I have committed unwholesome deeds, my mind constantly gives rise to worry and fear. In the four modes of conduct—walking, standing, sitting, and lying down—I have never felt joy.”
“The buddhas possess great compassion and can remove sentient beings’ fears. Please accept my repentance and enable me to leave worry and suffering.”
“I have the afflictive obstruction, as well as the karma of retribution. With the pure water of great compassion, please wash them clean.”
“All the offenses I committed in the past and the unwholesome deeds I commit now, I disclose with utmost sincerity, praying that every one may be removed.”
“I will guard against future unwholesome deeds and prevent them from arising. If I should transgress, I will never dare conceal it.”
The Three Actions Produce the Ten Unwholesome Actions; I Now Repent of Them All
“Bodily action has three forms, verbal action four, and mental action another three. They bind sentient beings and have continued constantly since beginningless time.”
“Through these three modes of body, speech, and mind, the ten unwholesome actions are performed. For these many offenses, I now repent of them all.”
“For the unwholesome deeds I committed, I must personally undergo their painful retribution. Now before the buddhas, I repent of them all with utmost sincerity.”
For Every Wholesome Deed, I Now Rejoice
“In this Jambudvīpa and in worlds of other directions, for every wholesome deed there is, I now rejoice.”
“May I leave the ten unwholesome actions and practice the path of the ten wholesome actions, abide on the ten grounds, and constantly see the buddhas of the ten directions.”
“For the deeds of merit and wisdom I cultivate through body, speech, and mind, I dedicate these roots of goodness to swift attainment of unsurpassed wisdom.”
Before the Ten-Powered Ones, I Disclose the Many Difficult Conditions of Suffering
“Now personally before the Ten-Powered Ones, I disclose the many difficult conditions of suffering: the difficulty of being a foolish ordinary being deluded within the three existences, and the difficulty of constantly committing extremely grave unwholesome deeds.”
“The difficulty of accumulating craving and wrong attachment through grasping what I call mine; the difficulty of constantly giving rise to craving and revolving in birth and death; the difficulty of clinging to this world; and all the difficulties of a fool’s afflictions.”
“The difficulty of a deranged mind, scattered, agitated, and inverted; the difficulty of drawing near to harmful friends; the difficulty of greed and defilement in birth and death; and the difficulty of committing offenses through anger, delusion, darkness, and dullness.”
“The difficulty of birth in the eight adverse conditions without leisure, and the difficulty of never having accumulated virtue—for all these boundless offenses and unwholesome deeds, I now repent before the Supreme One.”
I Bow to the Omniscient Ones and Praise the Ocean of the Buddha’s Virtues
“I now take refuge in the Sugatas and bow to the unsurpassed Honored Ones whose virtues are an ocean. Like a great golden mountain illuminating the ten directions, please mercifully embrace me with compassion.”
“Your bodily color is golden light, pure and stainless; your eyes are like pure, dark-blue lapis lazuli. Honored One of auspicious majesty and renowned name, the wisdom-sun of your great compassion removes the darkness of beings.”
“The radiance of the Buddha-sun constantly shines everywhere, well purified, stainless, and free from every dust. The Sage-moon shines with perfect coolness and removes the heat of sentient beings’ afflictions.”
“The thirty-two marks adorn the whole body, and the eighty excellent characteristics are complete. Your merit is inconceivable and without equal, like sunlight streaming forth to illuminate the world.”
“Your form is pure and stainless like lapis lazuli, like the full moon in empty space. A wondrous net of crystal reflects your golden body, adorned with many kinds of light.”
“Within the torrent of suffering in birth and death, beings are swept away by the waters of aging, illness, worry, and sorrow. This ocean of suffering is hard to bear; the Buddha-sun extends its light and dries it up forever.”
“I now bow my head to the Omniscient One, the rare Honored One of the trichiliocosm, whose radiant purple-gold body is adorned by every wondrous mark and excellent characteristic.”
“The quantity of ocean water is hard to know, the dust motes of the earth cannot be counted, Mount Sumeru cannot be weighed, and empty space has no boundary.”
“The virtues of the buddhas are the same. No sentient being can know them; even contemplating them carefully for immeasurable eons, no one can reach the far shore of that ocean of virtues.”
“Even if all the mountains of this great earth were broken into dust and their particles counted, even if the drops of the ocean touched by a hair-tip could be measured, no one could count the Buddha’s virtues.”
“All sentient beings together praise the World-Honored One’s name and virtues, his pure marks and excellent characteristics and wondrous adornments. They cannot be measured or their limits known.”
“Through all my many wholesome deeds, may I swiftly become an unsurpassed Honored One, teach the True Dharma extensively for the benefit of living beings, and free them all from every suffering.”
“May I subdue Māra’s mighty armies and turn the unsurpassed wheel of the True Dharma. May I abide for inconceivable eons and satisfy sentient beings with the ambrosial taste of Dharma.”
“Like the Supreme Ones of the past, may I perfect the six perfections, extinguish greed, anger, and delusion, subdue the afflictions, and remove every suffering.”
May I Attain Knowledge of Past Lives; May All Sentient Beings Leave Suffering and Find Happiness
“May I always attain knowledge of past lives and remember hundreds of thousands of former births. May I always recollect the Honored Sage and come to hear the buddhas’ profound Dharma.”
“Through all these wholesome deeds, may I serve boundlessly many Supreme Ones, leave every unwholesome cause far behind, and constantly cultivate the true, wondrous Dharma.”
“May every sentient being in every world be freed from suffering and attain peace and happiness. For all whose faculties are incomplete, may their bodily form become complete.”
“If sentient beings encounter the suffering of illness, their bodies emaciated and without support, may all their illness and suffering be removed and their faculties, complexion, and strength become complete.”
“If people violate the king’s law and face execution, oppressed by many sufferings and overcome by distress, then, when they undergo this extreme suffering, they have no refuge and no one to protect them.”
“If they suffer beatings, blows, cangues, and fetters, the many implements of torment cutting their bodies, during immeasurable hundreds of thousands of moments of distress their bodies and minds are oppressed without an instant of ease.”
“May they all be freed from bondage and the pain of beatings and blows. May those about to be executed have their lives preserved, and may all their sufferings be forever exhausted.”
“If sentient beings are oppressed by hunger and thirst, may they obtain every excellent flavor. May the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the speechless speak.”
“May poor sentient beings obtain treasuries, their storehouses overflowing without lack. May they all experience supreme, wondrous happiness, and may not a single sentient being undergo distress.”
“May all humans and gods be pleasing to behold, their bearing gentle, elegant, upright, and dignified. May they all experience immeasurable happiness in this life, abundant in enjoyments and complete in merit.”
“Whenever sentient beings think of music, may many wondrous sounds appear before them. Whenever they think of water, may a cool pool appear, with golden lotuses floating upon it.”
“Whatever sentient beings think of—food, clothing, beds and bedding, gold, silver, precious jewels, wondrous lapis lazuli, necklaces and ornaments—may all be complete.”
“May sentient beings never hear harmful sounds or see conflict. May every countenance they receive be upright and dignified, and may they cherish one another with loving hearts.”
“May every pleasurable requisite that sustains life in the world be fulfilled whenever they think of it. May they never be stingy with the precious wealth they obtain, but distribute it as gifts to sentient beings.”
“May incense for burning, powdered incense, ointments, and wondrous flowers of many colors fall from the trees three times each day, bringing joy as they are used according to each being’s wish.”
“May sentient beings everywhere make offerings to all the Supreme Ones of the ten directions, to the pure and wondrous Dharma gates of the three vehicles, and to the assemblies of bodhisattvas, solitary realizers, and śrāvakas.”
“May they never dwell in a lowly station or fall among the eight difficult conditions without leisure. May they be born as honored human beings with leisure for practice and constantly draw near to and serve the buddhas of the ten directions.”
“May they always be born in wealthy and noble families, their treasure houses and storehouses full. May their appearance and renown be without equal, and their lives extend through eons.”
“May all women be transformed into men, courageous, strong, intelligent, and rich in wisdom. May all constantly practice the bodhisattva path and diligently cultivate the six perfections to reach the farther shore.”
“May they constantly see immeasurable buddhas of the ten directions seated beneath royal jeweled trees upon wondrous lapis-lazuli lion thrones, and constantly draw near, serve them, and hear them turn the wheel of Dharma.”
Extinguishing Karma, Rejoicing, Praising, and Dedicating
“Whatever karma was committed in past or present while revolving through the three existences, if it can bring about a repellent unwholesome destiny, may it be extinguished forever without remainder.”
“All sentient beings in the ocean of existence are firmly bound by the nets and snares of birth and death. With the sword of wisdom, may I sever them, free beings from suffering, and bring them swiftly to the place of awakening.”
“For every excellent cause of merit made by sentient beings in this Jambudvīpa or in worlds of other directions, I now rejoice.”
“Through the merit of this rejoicing and every wholesome deed performed by body, speech, and mind, may this excellent karma constantly increase and swiftly realize unsurpassed, great awakening.”
“Through all the praises offered to the Buddha’s virtues with a profound mind, pure and undefiled, and through the boundless merit of dedication and vows, may one transcend the offenses of sixty eons that lead to evil destinies.”
“If men or women, brahmins or members of other excellent lineages, join their palms and praise the Buddha single-mindedly, life after life they will constantly remember former existences.”
“Their faculties will be purified, their bodies complete, and every excellent virtue accomplished. Wherever they are born in the future, may humans and gods constantly look up to them.”
“It is not by cultivating roots of goodness before only one or ten buddhas that one now comes to hear this. Only after planting roots of goodness before hundreds of thousands of buddhas can one hear this practice of repentance.”
The World-Honored One Praises Wonderful Banner and Reveals Causes and Conditions from Past Cultivation
At that time, after hearing these words, the World-Honored One praised the bodhisattva Wonderful Banner: “Excellent! Excellent, good man! Just as you saw in your dream, the golden drum sent forth a sound that praised the Tathāgata’s true virtues and proclaimed the practice of repentance. Those who hear it obtain immense merit, benefit sentient beings extensively, and extinguish the obstructions of offense. You should now know that this excellent deed is entirely due to the causes and conditions of your praises and vows cultivated in the past, as well as the empowering protection of the buddhas. I will explain these causes and conditions to you.” When the great assembly heard this Dharma, they all rejoiced, faithfully received it, and practiced it.
前面兩品說的是佛的果——壽量無邊、三身具足；這一品轉到會眾這一邊，從妙幢菩薩的一場夢起。妙幢在夢中見到一面金鼓，一位婆羅門桴擊出聲，聲中演出一整部懺悔的偈頌；他醒來，把這夢中所聞當眾複誦給佛聽。於是整品幾乎就是這一大篇懺悔伽他。它是金光明懺一系行法的經據——天台的金光明懺法正是依它而立。
為什麼從一場夢說起
留意這一品的入手很特別：經不從佛正面開講懺悔法起，而先讓我們看見妙幢的一場夢。夢裡有金鼓、有光、有十方佛、有婆羅門桴擊；金鼓在光明中出聲，光明遍照十方而見諸佛；妙幢聽了「皆悉憶持」，醒來詣佛複誦。
經文把這場夢寫得極細：妙幢於佛前聞法歡喜、還至本處，夜中夢見一面大金鼓，「光明晃耀猶如日輪」；就在這片光裡，見十方無量諸佛坐寶樹琉璃座、為大眾說法。一位婆羅門以桴擊金鼓，鼓聲之中，便演出一整部明懺悔法的微妙伽他。妙幢「皆悉憶持，繫念而住」，天曉便攜諸供具出王舍城、詣鷲峯山，禮佛之後把夢中所聞當眾複誦。所以整品那一大篇懺悔伽他，說到底就是這一場夢的複述。
值得留意的是這一品的命名：它不叫〈懺悔品〉那麼直白，而是〈夢見金鼓懺悔〉——夢見金鼓在前，懺悔在後。經把整部懺悔伽他，安放在一場金光遍照的夢裡；夢與懺，經文本身就繫成一事。
金鼓的聲音能做什麼
複誦一開始，先歌詠金鼓聲的威力：金光明鼓出妙聲，遍至三千大千界——能滅三惡道的極重罪、人間的苦厄，永滅一切煩惱障，斷除怖畏令人安穩。往下更說：聞此鼓音者，處惡趣的能離苦歸佛，墮無間獄的能苦滅，人天餓鬼傍生現受苦難的都蒙離苦得解脫。
這裡有一問該過問：妙幢自己夢見金鼓，別人並沒有聽到，經文怎麼能說『處惡趣者聞此鼓音即離苦』？答案，經文品末自己給了：世尊印可說「如汝所夢，金鼓出聲讚歎如來真實功德，并懺悔法；若有聞者，獲福甚多，廣利有情，滅除罪障」——夢中鼓聲所演的，正是這部懺悔之法；『聞鼓音而離苦』云云，說的即是聞此法之益。夢是一個場，把『聞法滅罪』這件事，先演成一幅金光遍照的圖。
對著十力佛，把罪一條條說出來
歌詠過金鼓之德，偈頌便轉入正題——懺悔。先歸敬：現在十方常住的兩足至尊，願以大悲哀愍憶念我，為無歸無救的眾生作大歸依。然後是全品的心臟：我先所作罪，極重諸惡業；今對十力前，至心皆懺悔。
接下來是一長串的發露，把罪一條一條攤在佛前，毫不遮掩：不信諸佛、不敬尊親、不修眾善；自恃尊貴、種姓、財位而放逸；心起邪念、口出惡言而不見己過；隨順惡友、被貪瞋所纏、因慳嫉諂誑而造惡；乃至對三寶不敬、對獨覺菩薩不敬、無知謗法、不孝父母——「作如是眾罪，我今悉懺悔」。這裡的懺悔法，關鍵在「發露」二字：懺悔不是心裡默念一句就算，是把罪如實說出來、對著佛說出來，「不敢覆藏」。說出來，罪才鬆動；藏起來，罪就結住。
障如火，大悲如水；懺與願一體
這一大篇懺悔伽他，若細看，並不雜亂。經文自己點出所懺之障的名目：「我有煩惱障，及以諸報業；願以大悲水，洗濯令清淨」——心上的煩惱之障、身口意所造之業、由業所招之報，層層都在發露之列；障如火，佛的大悲如水，一洗令淨。
而懺悔從來不是只為消極地除罪，它總連著積極的發願。每懺一段，便發一願：願拔眾生離苦、願一切有情住十地、願自己苦行百千劫令眾生出苦海、願演說《金光明》除諸惡業。更有整整一大段利生的願——願眾生離苦得樂、諸根具足，盲者得視、聾者得聞、跛者能行、瘂者能語，貧者得寶藏，臨刑者得命全，女人轉為男身，常見十方佛。發露在前，是把舊債清了；發願在後，是把新路開了。懺與願，是這一品的一體兩面。
隨喜與迴向
除了懺與願，偈中還穿插著兩件事：隨喜與迴向。隨喜——「於此贍部洲，及他方世界，所有諸善業，今我皆隨喜」；別人所修的一切善，我不嫉不慢，由衷替他歡喜，這歡喜本身就是功德。迴向——「我以身語意，所修福智業，願以此善根，速成無上慧」；把所修的一切善根，不留為自己，全數導向無上菩提、導向一切眾生。懺悔（除舊惡）、隨喜（納他善）、迴向（歸大道）、發願（開新路），在偈中交織成一體；而懺悔居其首，整品從它得名。到末後，偈頌以一句點明這法的珍貴：「非於一佛十佛所，修諸善根今得聞；百千佛所種善根，方得聞斯懺悔法。」——能聽到這部懺悔法，本身就是無量劫善根的果。
願眾生離苦：懺悔盡處是慈悲
這一品最動人的，不在懺罪之苦，而在懺罪之後那一大段向外舒展的願。發露既盡、迴向既立，妙幢的偈頌忽然轉為一幅遼闊的利生圖景：願一切世界的眾生皆離苦得樂，諸根不具者身相圓滿——盲者得視、聾者得聞、跛者能行、瘂者能語；遭病苦的病消體健，觸王法將刑戮的得命保全，受鞭杖枷鎖的得免繫縛；飢渴者得美味，貧窮者得寶藏、倉庫盈溢；乃至隨眾生心念，想伎樂則妙音現前、想水則清涼池現、金蓮浮其上，想飲食衣服床敷則金銀珍寶瓔珞皆具足。
要看清這一段的分量：一部從『認罪』起手的懺悔法，最後落腳處竟是『願天下人都好』。懺悔在這裡不是自了的贖罪，而是一副打開的心量——把自己從罪的糾纏裡鬆開之後，偈頌便由發露、懺罪，轉入願一切眾生離苦得樂的大願——懺在前，濟眾生的願在後，一品之中前後相續。偈末更以「悉願女人變為男」「願得常生富貴家」「常見十方無量佛」等願，把這慈悲一路延向究竟的成佛之路。
佛的印可：這不是偶然
長偈說盡，世尊開口讚印：善哉！正如你夢中所見，金鼓出聲讚歎如來真實功德並懺悔之法，若有聞者獲福甚多、滅除罪障。然後點出一件事——你今應知，這樁殊勝之業，「皆是過去讚歎發願，宿習因緣，及由諸佛威力加護」。
這一句是全品的收束，也是伏筆。它告訴妙幢（也告訴讀者）：你能做這樣一個夢、能聞這樣一部法，不是偶然撞上的，是你自己過去無量劫讚佛發願的宿習所感，又有諸佛威力在暗中加被。此勝業由過去讚歎發願的宿習因緣，並由諸佛威力加護而成——兩緣並陳，不論輕重。這「宿習因緣」的來歷，佛說要另為詳說——那正是下面〈蓮華喻讚品〉要接的話頭。一場夢，就這樣把過去、現在、未來接成了一條線。
以唯識之眼，再看幾處
上來順經文講了夢見金鼓懺悔品自身的義。這一系譯註另以慈恩慧沼《金光明最勝王經疏》為旁照的鏡子——鏡非經，唯識不是此經的源頭；換一副心識之學的眼看去，有幾處更細。
其一，「懺悔」二字，疏家先正其名：梵語「阿鉢底提舍那」正是「說罪」——罪要向他說出才得除，所以此品正名應作〈夢見說罪品〉，發露說罪即是懺之本義。而懺悔的「體」也判得很實：以善悔之心與所起的語業為性，兼禮敬則通身語意三業——不是空泛的情緒，是一套可修可成的心與業。
其二，那一大篇懺悔偈的三重次第，正對三障：初懺煩惱障、次懺業障、後懺報障，與經文『煩惱障、諸報業』（「我有煩惱障，及以諸報業」）大悲水洗淨之句相合。偈中的貪瞋還可再細分——『貪瞋種子·纏即現行』，以唯識的種子與現行判煩惱之潛與發；隨喜以信、欲、勝解為體，迴向以後得智為體。連看似樸素的懺、喜、向，在唯識眼裡都各有心所之體可尋；乃至懺能不能滅定業之辨（定報難轉只是「依未解脫者」而立，真入懺悔則轉為可轉），也安放得極有分寸。
末後誌一筆：此品曇無讖本原有（懺悔品第三），故天台智顗、三論吉藏皆有逐文之疏，三家並觀。三家都讀「三障」而框架各異：慧沼依偈之三復次分懺（煩惱／業／報）；智顗以三種懺悔對除（三種懺共除報障、取相除業障、無生除煩惱障），並判此經具足大乘三懺；吉藏以三段隱顯互論。三家讀法各有著眼；經自說其懺悔之法，諸師各還其位。這面唯識之鏡照見的，是此品裡『說罪即懺、三障次第』的一層心識紋理：懺悔原是一樁心地上的清理工程。
The preceding two chapters teach the Buddha’s fruit—immeasurable lifespan and completion of the three bodies. This chapter turns to the assembly and begins with a dream of the bodhisattva Wonderful Banner. In the dream, he sees a golden drum; a brahmin strikes it with a mallet, and its sound unfolds as an entire gāthā of repentance. When he awakens, he recites before the Buddha everything he heard in the dream. Nearly the whole chapter is therefore this great gāthā of repentance. It is the scriptural ground for the Golden Light tradition of repentance practice: the Tiantai Golden Light repentance rite was established on its basis. What follows explains each point in the sūtra’s own sequence; at the end, the perspective of the consciousness-only tradition provides a further reflection.
Why Begin with a Dream?
The chapter makes an unusual entrance. Instead of beginning with the Buddha directly teaching a practice of repentance, it first lets us see Wonderful Banner’s dream. The dream holds a golden drum, light, buddhas of the ten directions, and a brahmin striking with a mallet. The golden drum sounds within the light; the light illuminates the ten directions, where buddhas become visible. Wonderful Banner hears it and 「皆悉憶持」—“remembers and retains it all”; upon waking, he goes to the Buddha and recites it.
The sūtra depicts the dream with great precision. Wonderful Banner hears the Dharma before the Buddha, rejoices, and returns to his dwelling. At night, he dreams of a great golden drum, 「光明晃耀猶如日輪」—“its brilliant light shining like the disk of the sun.” Within that light, he sees immeasurable buddhas of the ten directions seated on lapis-lazuli thrones beneath jeweled trees, teaching the Dharma to great assemblies. A brahmin strikes the golden drum with a mallet, and its sound produces an entire wondrous gāthā clarifying repentance. Wonderful Banner 「皆悉憶持，繫念而住」—“remembers and retains it all, remaining collected upon it.” At daybreak, he takes offerings, leaves Rājagṛha, goes to Vulture Peak, and, after bowing to the Buddha, recites before the assembly what he heard in the dream. Thus the chapter’s great gāthā of repentance is, at bottom, a recounting of this dream.
The title deserves notice. It is not simply Repentance, but The Dream of the Golden Drum and Repentance: the dream of the golden drum comes first, repentance second. The sūtra places the whole gāthā of repentance within a dream filled by golden light. Dream and repentance are bound together by the text itself.
What Can the Golden Drum’s Sound Do?
The recitation begins by singing the power of the golden drum. The drum of Golden Light sends forth a wondrous sound throughout the trichiliocosm. It can extinguish the gravest offenses of the three evil destinies and the ordeals of suffering among humans; forever extinguish every afflictive obstruction; sever fear; and bring security. The verses go further: those in evil destinies who hear the drum leave suffering and take refuge in the Buddha; those fallen into the Uninterrupted Hell have their suffering extinguished; and all who now suffer among humans, gods, hungry ghosts, and animals are released from suffering and attain liberation.
One question should be asked here. Wonderful Banner alone dreamed of the golden drum; others did not hear it. How, then, can the sūtra say that “those in evil destinies who hear its sound are released from suffering”? The Buddha himself supplies the answer at the chapter’s end, confirming: 「如汝所夢，金鼓出聲讚歎如來真實功德，并懺悔法；若有聞者，獲福甚多，廣利有情，滅除罪障」—“Just as you dreamed, the golden drum sent forth a sound praising the Tathāgata’s true virtues and proclaiming the practice of repentance; those who hear it gain immense merit, benefit sentient beings extensively, and extinguish the obstructions of offense.” What the drum proclaims in the dream is precisely this practice of repentance. Statements about hearing the drum and leaving suffering therefore express the benefit of hearing this Dharma. The dream is a stage on which the extinction of offenses through hearing the Dharma first appears as an image suffused with golden light.
Before the Ten-Powered Buddhas, State Every Offense One by One
After singing the golden drum’s virtue, the verses turn to their central subject: repentance. First comes homage. To the ever-abiding Supreme Ones of the ten directions, Wonderful Banner prays: with great compassion, pity and remember me; become the great refuge of sentient beings who have neither refuge nor protection. Then comes the chapter’s heart: “For the offenses I committed before, all those extremely grave unwholesome deeds, now before the Ten-Powered Ones I repent of them all with utmost sincerity.”
What follows is a long confession. Offenses are laid out before the Buddha one by one, without concealment: not believing in the buddhas; failing to honor elders and parents; failing to cultivate wholesome deeds; relying arrogantly on rank, lineage, wealth, and position; giving rise to wrong thoughts and uttering harmful words without seeing one’s own faults; following harmful friends; becoming entangled in greed and anger; acting through stinginess, jealousy, flattery, and deceit; showing no reverence for the Three Jewels, solitary realizers, or bodhisattvas; maligning the Dharma through not-knowing; and being unfilial to one’s parents. 「作如是眾罪，我今悉懺悔」—“For the many offenses committed in this way, I now repent of them all.” The decisive term in this practice is 「發露」—“open disclosure.” Repentance is not completed by silently thinking a sentence within oneself. One truthfully states the offense and speaks it before the Buddha, 「不敢覆藏」—“not daring to conceal it.” Spoken openly, the offense begins to loosen; hidden away, it hardens into a knot.
Obstruction Is Like Fire, Great Compassion Like Water; Repentance and Vow Are One
This great gāthā is not disordered. The sūtra itself names the obstructions to be repented: 「我有煩惱障，及以諸報業；願以大悲水，洗濯令清淨」—“I have the afflictive obstruction, as well as retributive karma; may the water of great compassion wash them clean.” The afflictions that burden the mind, the karma performed through body, speech, and mind, and the retribution brought by karma are all disclosed layer by layer. Obstruction is like fire, and the Buddha’s great compassion like water washing it clean.
Repentance is never only the negative removal of offenses. It is always joined to the positive making of vows. Each passage of repentance is followed by a vow: to rescue sentient beings from suffering; to bring every sentient being to abide on the ten grounds; to practice austerities for hundreds of thousands of eons so that sentient beings may emerge from the ocean of suffering; and to proclaim Golden Light so that unwholesome deeds may be removed. An entire section is devoted to vows for the benefit of beings: may sentient beings leave suffering and attain happiness; may their faculties become complete; may the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the speechless speak; may the poor obtain treasures and those facing execution keep their lives; may women become men; may beings constantly see the buddhas of the ten directions. Disclosure clears an old debt; a vow opens a new road. Repentance and vow are the two inseparable faces of this chapter.
Rejoicing and Dedication
Alongside repentance and vows, the gāthā interweaves two further practices: rejoicing and dedication. Rejoicing: 「於此贍部洲，及他方世界，所有諸善業，今我皆隨喜」—“In this Jambudvīpa and in worlds of other directions, for every wholesome deed there is, I now rejoice.” I do not envy or look down on the goodness cultivated by another; I sincerely celebrate it, and this joy is itself merit. Dedication: 「我以身語意，所修福智業，願以此善根，速成無上慧」—“For the deeds of merit and wisdom I cultivate through body, speech, and mind, I dedicate these roots of goodness to swift attainment of unsurpassed wisdom.” No root of goodness is kept for oneself; all is directed toward unsurpassed awakening and all sentient beings. Repentance removes former evil, rejoicing embraces another’s goodness, dedication returns it to the great path, and vows open a new road. They are woven into a single practice, with repentance at their head and giving the chapter its name. At the end, the gāthā names the rarity of this Dharma: 「非於一佛十佛所，修諸善根今得聞；百千佛所種善根，方得聞斯懺悔法。」—“It is not by cultivating roots of goodness before only one or ten buddhas that one now comes to hear this. Only after planting roots of goodness before hundreds of thousands of buddhas can one hear this practice of repentance.” To hear this practice at all is itself the fruit of roots of goodness cultivated through immeasurable eons.
May Sentient Beings Leave Suffering: Where Repentance Ends, Compassion Begins
The chapter is most moving not in the pain of repenting of offenses, but in the vast vow that opens outward after they have been confessed. Once disclosure is complete and dedication established, Wonderful Banner’s verses suddenly become a broad landscape of benefit for living beings. May every sentient being in every world leave suffering and find happiness; may those whose faculties are incomplete have bodies made whole—the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the speechless speak. May those afflicted by illness recover health; may those condemned under royal law retain their lives; may those suffering beatings, cangues, and fetters be freed. May the hungry and thirsty obtain excellent food; may the poor obtain treasuries and overflowing storehouses. Whatever sentient beings think of—music, cool pools, food, clothing, beds, gold, silver, jewels, lapis lazuli, and necklaces—may it all appear and be complete.
We should see the full weight of this passage. A practice of repentance that begins by “admitting offenses” finally comes to rest in the wish that everyone in the world be well. Repentance here is not a private act of atonement. Once one loosens oneself from the entanglement of offenses, the gāthā moves from disclosure and repentance into a great vow that every sentient being leave suffering and attain happiness. Repentance comes first; the vow to rescue sentient beings follows, in an unbroken sequence within the chapter. At the gāthā’s end, wishes such as 「悉願女人變為男」—“may all women be transformed into men,” 「願得常生富貴家」—“may they always be born in wealthy and noble families,” and 「常見十方無量佛」—“may they constantly see immeasurable buddhas of the ten directions” extend this compassion all the way toward the ultimate path to buddhahood.
The Buddha’s Confirmation: This Was Not an Accident
When the long gāthā is complete, the World-Honored One praises and confirms it: Excellent! Just as you saw in the dream, the golden drum sent forth a sound praising the Tathāgata’s true virtues and the practice of repentance; anyone who hears it gains immense merit and extinguishes the obstructions of offense. He then reveals one fact: you should know that this excellent deed 「皆是過去讚歎發願，宿習因緣，及由諸佛威力加護」—“is entirely due to causes and conditions from praises and vows cultivated in the past, as well as the empowering protection of the buddhas.”
This sentence closes the chapter and plants a seed for what follows. It tells Wonderful Banner—and the reader—that to dream this dream and hear this Dharma was not an accidental encounter. It arose through the force of his own praises and vows over immeasurable past eons and through the unseen empowering protection of the buddhas. The excellent deed is formed by both past cultivation as cause and condition and the buddhas’ empowering protection; both are stated, with neither ranked above the other. The Buddha promises to explain the source of these 「宿習因緣」—“causes and conditions from past cultivation” separately. That promise is taken up in the later chapter Praise through the Lotus Simile. In this way, one dream joins past, present, and future into a single line.
Through the Eye of Consciousness-Only: A Further Look
Everything above follows the meaning of The Dream of the Golden Drum and Repentance itself. This edition also uses Huizhao’s Cien Commentary on the Sūtra of Golden Light, the Supreme King as a reflecting mirror. The mirror is not the sūtra, and consciousness-only is not the sūtra’s source; but several details become more precise when seen through the discipline of mind and consciousness.
First, the commentator corrects the name 「懺悔」—“repentance.” The transmitted Sanskrit 「阿鉢底提舍那」—“āpatti-deśanā” properly means 「說罪」—“disclosing offenses.” An offense must be disclosed to another for it to be removed, and the proper title of the chapter is therefore The Dream of Disclosing Offenses. Huizhao also defines the practice’s 「體」—“nature” concretely: it is wholesome remorse together with the verbal action it produces; when reverent homage is included, it encompasses all three actions of body, speech, and mind. This is not an amorphous emotion, but a mind and a pattern of action that can be cultivated and accomplished.
Second, the three successive cycles of the great gāthā correspond to the three obstructions: first repentance for the afflictive obstruction, then the karmic obstruction, and finally the retributive obstruction. This agrees with the sūtra’s line about the afflictive obstruction and retributive karma, 「我有煩惱障，及以諸報業」—“I have the afflictive obstruction, as well as retributive karma,” which the water of great compassion washes clean. The greed and anger in the verses can be analyzed more finely: greed and anger are seeds, while their entanglement is active manifestation. The potential and the outbreak of affliction are distinguished through the consciousness-only categories of seed and active manifestation. Rejoicing has faith, aspiration, and resolute understanding as its nature; dedication has subsequently attained wisdom as its nature. Even these seemingly simple acts of repentance, joy, and dedication can each be traced to the mental factors that constitute them. The commentary also handles with care whether repentance can transform determinate karma: determinate retribution is established only 「依未解脫者」—“with reference to those not liberated”; when one truly enters the practice of repentance, what was fixed becomes capable of transformation.
One final historical note: this chapter already occurs in Dharmakṣema’s recension as Chapter 3, Repentance. Zhiyi of Tiantai and Jizang of the Sanlun school therefore both have line-by-line commentaries on it, allowing all three traditions to be viewed together. All three read the 「三障」—“three obstructions,” but their frameworks differ. Huizhao distributes them across three successive cycles of the gāthā—afflictive, karmic, and retributive. Zhiyi correlates them with three kinds of repentance: all three together remove the retributive obstruction, sign-seeking repentance removes the karmic obstruction, and birthless repentance removes the afflictive obstruction; he judges that this sūtra contains all three great-vehicle forms. Jizang considers relative concealment and manifestation across three passages. Their readings differ and are recorded without adjudicating—the sūtra teaches its practice of repentance, and each master is left in his own place. What this consciousness-only mirror reveals is a pattern of mind and consciousness within the chapter: disclosing offenses is repentance, and the three obstructions are cleared in sequence. Repentance is, from the beginning, a work of clearing the ground of mind.
考據Apparatus
本品妙幢夢見金鼓，婆羅門桴擊出懺悔伽他，全品幾為此一大懺悔偈——金鼓聲滅罪、歸敬十方佛、發露懺悔、發願住十地、讚佛、利生、迴向隨喜、超劫功德，品末佛讚宿習因緣。此品為金光明懺法傳統之經據（智顗所立金光明懺法·儀軌存灌頂《國清百錄》〔T46n1934 0796a04「金光明懺法第五」〕·宋遵式《金光明懺法補助儀》T1945 承之）。本編義疏鏡＝慈恩慧沼《金光明最勝王經疏》——判懺悔正名〈夢見說罪品〉、三復次分懺煩惱障／業障／報障、懺悔以善悔及所起三業為性、隨喜體引《成唯識》。此品曇無讖本有之（懺悔品第三），天台智顗《文句》、三論吉藏《疏》皆有逐文釋品段，三家皆讀三障而配法各異，並錄不判。
一、科判定位
| 科判系統 | 此品之位 |
|---|---|
| 義淨 T665 三十一品 | 第四 夢見金鼓懺悔品（卷二；〔T16 0411a18〕起）· 承壽量／三身二果品後·開所修行五品之首 |
| 慧沼《疏》科文（主錨·慈恩） | 品題三門分別：一來意、二釋名、三釋難〔T39 0234a18〕；來意有四〔0234a19〕；品內經文大文分四〔0234c14〕 |
| 天台《文句》（旁證·所疏讖本） | 〈釋懺悔品〉·十番釋名〔T39n1785 0059a06 起〕；懺悔處／法／位三門 |
| 三論吉藏《疏》（旁證·所疏讖本） | 〈懺悔品〉·「於此品中具明五法，懺悔在初，故從初為目」〔T39n1787 0162b29〕 |
慧沼來意四重，首重承前果品、開修行之首〔T39n1788 0234a19〕：
「來意有四：一上之二品明所得果；次下五品明所修行〔……〕將修妙行先教懺悔。然懺悔心難以頓發，故託夢金鼓說法警之。」〔T39n1788 0234a19–0234b04〕
四重：一承果開行（斷惡先於修善）·二三學之戒學攝（「此懺悔者是戒學攝，修學之始」〔0234b10〕）·三佛三身斷德根本（戒滅惡為斷德因·法身斷德為根本）·四機宜（妙幢宿善根·時會宜先聞夢懺；「依真諦釋有八因緣」〔0234b17〕誌名不展）。品內大科〔0234c14〕：「大文分四：一妙幢夢聞懺悔得益、二詣佛陳說覺悟於餘、三世尊讚印示其所以、四大眾聞說皆願奉行。」
釋品名（正名〈夢見說罪品〉）〔T39n1788 0234b17–24〕：
「梵云颯拏達利舍拏阿鉢底提舍那。颯拏此云夢，達利舍拏此云見，阿鉢底此云罪，提舍那此云說。人有所犯須向他說，罪即得除，故云說罪〔……〕言懺悔者，音訛略也，正應云〈夢見說罪品〉。」〔T39n1788 0234b17–24〕
慧沼判「懺悔」為順古訛略之翻，正名應作〈夢見說罪品〉（阿鉢底提舍那＝說罪／出罪）。
二、異譯·對勘
本品三譯並存（讖本有此品·非真諦補品）：義淨 T665〈夢見金鼓懺悔品第四〉（底本）· 曇無讖 T663〈懺悔品第三〉〔0336b10〕· 寶貴合部 T664〈懺悔品第四〉〔0365b19〕。T664 與 T663 同底（曇無讖本·純漢字比對相似度 0.9863·差異皆異體通用字與極少傳寫出入·非異譯）；故對勘以 T665↔T663 為主軸。
形式總判：讖本 T663 全偈四言到底、無品末佛讚、無妙幢陳白長行；義淨本 T665 伽他五言為主（金鼓功德段、對十力前發露難段、讚佛段作七言）、增妙幢對佛陳白長行＋品末佛讚長行。骨架次第一致：金鼓滅罪 → 歸敬 → 發露懺悔（十惡·身口意）→ 發願（十地·見佛）→ 讚佛 → 迴向隨喜 → 超劫功德。大正編者註：梵本分此品為二品（大正梵註原拼 Svapan--Deṣana·正規化 Svapna-deśanā〔T16n0665 0411 品題梵註〕）。
句一 夢見金鼓緣起框·主角名
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 義淨 T665 | 爾時，妙幢菩薩親於佛前聞妙法已……於夜夢中見大金鼓 | T16n0665 0411a18 |
| 曇無讖 T663 | 爾時信相菩薩，即於其夜夢見金鼓，其狀姝大，其明普照喻如日光 | T16n0663 0336b11 |
異名同人（妙幢／信相）；婆羅門桴擊金鼓框兩本同（義淨「伽他」、讖本「偈頌」）。詣佛處：義淨「鷲峯山」、讖本「耆闍崛山」（義譯／音譯）。
句二 金鼓聲滅罪核心句（七言／四言）
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 義淨 T665 | 金光明鼓出妙聲，遍至三千大千界；能滅三塗極重罪，及以人中諸苦厄。 | T16n0665 0411b12 |
| 曇無讖 T663 | 是大金鼓，所出妙音，悉能滅除，三世諸苦，地獄餓鬼、畜生等苦，貧窮困苦、及諸有苦。 | T16n0663 0336b29 |
同義異形（義淨七言·讖本四言）。
句三 懺悔開懺句
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 義淨 T665 | 我先所作罪，極重諸惡業；今對十力前，至心皆懺悔。 | T16n0665 0411c09 |
| 曇無讖 T663 | 我本所作，惡不善業，今者懺悔：諸十力前。 | T16n0663 0337a04 |
同義異形（義淨五言四句·讖本四言句序倒置）。
句四 身三語四意三·十惡懺
義淨「身三語四種，意業復有三〔……〕由斯三種行，造作十惡業，如是眾多罪，我今皆懺悔」〔T16n0665 0412b11〕；讖本「身業三種、口業有四、意三業行，今悉懺悔」〔T16n0663 0337b28〕。義淨增「繫縛諸有情，無始恒相續」一頌。
句五 品末佛讚宿習因緣（讖本無）
義淨「爾時世尊〔……〕讚妙幢菩薩言：善哉〔……〕汝今應知此之勝業，皆是過去讚歎發願，宿習因緣，及由諸佛威力加護」〔T16n0665 0413b28〕——讖本無品末佛讚長行（讖本品終於偈末 0339a06「然後乃得，聞是懺悔」，直接下接〈讚歎品〉）。義淨此佛讚結所許之夢因（宿習因緣），至〈蓮華喻讚品〉方明說〔慧沼「許說夢因，即下蓮華喻讚品」0241a04·經「此之因緣我為汝等廣說其事」0422c01〕；品序則次接〈滅業障品〉。
用字系舉要
妙幢／信相·鷲峯山／耆闍崛山·伽他／偈頌·桴／枹·三塗／三世諸苦·智劍／智刀·善逝最勝（義淨梵註 Sugata／Jina）／敬禮佛海頂禮最勝·女變為男／女成男子。
三、唯識義之經據（眼）
此品為懺悔品，唯識義較輕（集中懺悔性相與三障，無阿賴耶／三性／五性名相——慧沼疏段機掃皆 0）；慧沼《疏》所落唯識義集中三處，逐句可徵。
（一） 懺悔性相＝善悔及所起三業為性〔T39n1788 0236b22〕：
「懺悔正云說罪，應以善悔及所起善語業為性，若兼能起亦有意業，若申禮敬亦有身業，具足應以善悔及所起三業為性。」〔T39n1788 0236b22〕
（二） 八十四頌三復次·分懺三障（懺骨幹）〔T39n1788 0236b15–21〕：
「下八十四頌別明勝利。分之為四：初二十五頌第一復次明懺願等、次『唯願十方佛』下十三頌第二復次明懺願等、次七言下四十三頌第三復次明懺願等、次『若有男子及女人』下四頌說勝勸修。然三復次懺願等中，初復次中多懺煩惱障、第二復次多懺業障、第三復次多懺報障。」〔T39n1788 0236b15–21〕
三障之滅，慧沼於經「我有煩惱障，及以諸報業」處合判〔0237c12〕：「此初一頌願懺滅三障，佛以大悲滅三障火。」
（三） 貪瞋種子·纏現行〔T39n1788 0236c27〕：「戲樂即貪，憂惱即瞋。貪嗔即種子，纏即現行，或八纏等，舉二攝餘。」——以種子／現行判貪瞋（種子）與纏（現行）。
（四） 隨喜體·引《成唯識》〔T39n1788 0238a11–13〕：
「第二隨喜。隨者順也，喜者慶悅故。隨即以信、欲、勝解三法為體，故《成唯識》云『若印順者，體即勝解。若樂順者，體即是欲。』」〔T39n1788 0238a11〕
發願以後智／欲勝解為性〔0237b06〕；迴向以後智為體·十度中第七方便〔0240c03〕。
（五） 九種懺·定不定報〔T39n1788 0237c22〕：引《十住毘婆沙》第四「三三合九種，從三煩惱起」（三業×三世×三報），並辨定業可懺與否——「若定報者，願得今身償故〔……〕《涅槃經》云『若入我法，即不決定』，又《瑜伽論》云『依未解脫者建立定報』」〔0237c28〕。
（六） 大乘五逆〔T39n1788 0237a19–21〕：懺五逆處，慧沼判為大乘五逆（非三乘通說），準《薩遮尼乾子經》五條（破塔壞寺盜三寶物·謗三乘法·惱出家人·殺父母出佛血破僧殺羅漢·謗無因果行十不善）。
四、諸家異釋（古德·標宗·誌錄不判）
此品三家皆有逐文疏（讖本有懺悔品）——三家皆讀三障而配法各異，並錄不判。
慈恩·慧沼《金光明最勝王經疏》T39n1788（鏡骨幹）
懺悔性相（善悔＋所起三業）·八十四頌三復次分懺煩惱障／業障／報障·隨喜體引《成唯識》·九種懺定不定報·大乘五逆（詳目三）。釋懺悔正名〈夢見說罪品〉（阿鉢底提舍那＝說罪）〔0234b24〕。金鼓表詮教·配釋〔0235b14〕：「夢見金鼓者，表將聞佛說懺悔音〔……〕周遍有光者，表能詮教性能顯理周故。」婆羅門桴擊引《俱舍論》〔0235b26〕：「所說沙門性，亦名婆羅門，亦名為梵輪，真梵所轉故〔……〕以大悲杖擊後得智鼓，流教法聲。」
天台·智顗《金光明經文句》T39n1785（旁證·逐文釋讖本）
十番釋名〔0059a07 起〕：「懺者首也，悔者伏也」〔0059a08〕·「懺名白法，悔名黑法」·「懺名修來，悔名改往」·「懺名披陳眾失發露過咎〔不敢隱諱〕，悔名斷相續心」·「懺者名慚，悔者名愧」等，合十番。三種懺悔（作法／取相／無生）〔0060b28〕：「懺悔有三：一作法、二取相、三無生，此三種通大小。」三懺對治〔0060c16 起〕：作法滅違戒罪·取相滅性罪·無生滅無明；配三學（作法滅違戒·取相滅犯定·無生滅犯慧）；配三障〔0060c27〕：「又三種懺共除報障，取相除業障，無生除煩惱障。」藥喻〔0061a01〕：作法如服薑桂·取相如服五石·無生如服五芝。判本經具大乘三懺〔0061a04〕：「今文具有大乘三懺，著淨潔衣，專聽是經，又七日七夜朝暮淨心等，即作法也〔……〕五陰舍宅觀悉空寂，本無有生亦無和合，即無生也。」懺悔處三諦（引《普賢觀》）〔0059b17〕：無罪相懺約空·莊嚴懺約俗·大懺悔約中道·即一而三為圓妙懺。金鼓夢＝如夢三昧·金鼓＝法性三德〔0061a16〕：「金鼓體圓空鳴，圓即法身，空即般若，鳴即解脫。」
三論·吉藏《金光明經疏》T39n1787（旁證·逐文釋讖本）
釋品名〔0162b28〕：「外國云懺摩毘，此云厭離，亦云改悔〔……〕於此品中具明五法，懺悔在初，故從初為目。」五法對翻五起罪根本〔0163b10–25〕：「離過行體不出五種。五種者何？所謂懺悔、勸請、隨喜、迴向、發願〔……〕起罪根本亦有五種：一者無慚愧心〔……〕菩薩懺悔以慚愧心為體，故對翻第一心。」慚愧三品人〔0163b16〕：慚愧師友（下品）·慚愧佛天（中品）·愧自身與諸佛同性（上品）。金鼓喻三身〔0162c06〕：「金鼓喻法身〔……〕依此法身成應身，應身遍照故言如日光。」似婆羅門＝地前未真〔0162c13〕：「信相菩薩位在地前，未得地上真解，故言似也。」三段隱顯配三障〔0164b04〕：「其三段懺悔中雖具懺三障，若隱顯互論，第一段以煩惱為宗、第二以業為宗、第三報障為宗〔……〕又五法中但有懺悔、勸請、發願、迴向四法，隨喜略無。」
宋山家·知禮二書（旁證）
桴擊金鼓證三身名義〔T39n1784 0017c07〕：「〈懺悔品〉以桴擊鼓出大音聲。鼓即法身，桴擊即報身，出聲即應身，故知三身名義不少。」金光明理起金光明事用〔0027a11〕。知禮另有《金光明經文句記》T39n1786，為《文句》之逐文記；本品所對舊本〈懺悔品〉之記釋自「釋〈懺悔品〉，二：初、釋題」〔T39n1786 0112b11〕起。《文句記》逐文層與《拾遺記》玄義層分書。
並錄（誌·不判）
三障配法三家異：慧沼以偈之三復次分懺（初懺煩惱障·次懺業障·後懺報障）〔0236b20〕；智顗以三種懺對除（三種懺共除報障·取相除業障·無生除煩惱障）〔0060c27〕；吉藏以三段懺隱顯互論（第一段煩惱為宗·第二業為宗·第三報障為宗）〔0164b04〕。同判三障，而所依框架（偈段／懺法／因緣時處）各異。五法之隨喜：吉藏判「隨喜略無」（五法實存四）〔0164b07〕；慧沼、義淨本偈則隨喜段具存。金鼓喻：慧沼表詮教（能詮教鼓）·智顗法性三德（圓法身空般若鳴解脫）·吉藏／知禮喻三身（鼓法身·桴擊報身·出聲應身）。三家異讀異判，並錄不判。時序防範：智顗（538–597）·吉藏（549–623）早於慧沼（窺基 632–682 嫡嗣）·時序語不倒置。
五、術語
| 漢 | 傳梵（羅馬字·發音輔助） | 古德所徵 | 義 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 懺悔（說罪） | āpatti-deśanā（阿鉢底提舍那·慧沼所存音寫） | 慧沼「阿鉢底此云罪，提舍那此云說〔……〕正應云〈夢見說罪品〉」〔T39n1788 0234b19〕；吉藏「懺摩毘，此云厭離」〔T39n1787 0162b28〕 | 向他發露說罪令除；正名說罪 |
| 夢見說罪 | svapna-deśanā（大正原拼 Svapan--Deṣana·梵本分此品為二品） | 〔T16n0665 0411 品題梵註〕；慧沼「颯拏此云夢，達利舍拏此云見」〔T39n1788 0234b18〕 | 本品正名 |
| 金鼓 | — | 慧沼「表將聞佛說懺悔音」〔T39n1788 0235b14〕·「能詮教性能顯理」〔0235b16〕；智顗「金鼓體圓空鳴」〔T39n1785 0061a16〕 | 夢中所見·出懺悔伽他之鼓 |
| 三復次（三障懺） | — | 慧沼「初復次中多懺煩惱障、第二復次多懺業障、第三復次多懺報障」〔T39n1788 0236b20〕 | 八十四頌別明懺之三重·分懺三障 |
| 三種懺悔（作法·取相·無生） | — | 智顗「懺悔有三：一作法、二取相、三無生」〔T39n1785 0060b28〕 | 天台懺法·通大小·除三障 |
| 五法（懺悔·勸請·隨喜·迴向·發願） | — | 吉藏「離過行體不出五種」〔T39n1787 0163b10〕 | 三論判此品離過行五支 |
| 五逆（大乘） | pañca-ānantarya（義） | 慧沼準《薩遮尼乾子經》五條〔T39n1788 0237a21〕 | 大乘五逆·非三乘通說 |
| 九種懺 | — | 慧沼引《十住毘婆沙》「三三合九種，從三煩惱起」〔T39n1788 0237c22〕 | 三業×三世×三報·從貪瞋癡起 |
| 隨喜 | anumodanā（義） | 慧沼引《成唯識》「若印順者，體即勝解。若樂順者，體即是欲」〔T39n1788 0238a13〕 | 隨順慶悅·信欲勝解為體 |
六、譬喻·修辭
（一） 金鼓夢——〔T16 0411a19「於夜夢中見大金鼓，光明晃耀猶如日輪」〕：妙幢夢中金鼓·婆羅門桴擊出懺悔伽他。慧沼表詮教（金鼓＝能詮之教·光＝顯理·日輪＝除不善闇）〔T39n1788 0235b13〕；智顗表法性三德（圓法身·空般若·鳴解脫）〔T39n1785 0061a16〕。
（二） 大海水·大地塵·妙高山·虛空喻佛德無量——〔T16 0412c14「如大海水量難知，大地微塵不可數，如妙高山叵稱量，亦如虛空無有際；諸佛功德亦如是」〕：以四種難量之極反顯佛功德不可數（承品2 海滴山芥同軛）。
（三） 大悲水洗三障——〔T16 0412a05「我有煩惱障，及以諸報業；願以大悲水，洗濯令清淨」〕：慧沼「佛以大悲滅三障火，復除罪垢，故喻如水」〔T39n1788 0237c12〕。
（四） 婆羅門桴擊金鼓——〔T16 0411a22〕：慧沼引《俱舍論》真婆羅門義（世尊以大悲杖擊後得智鼓流教法聲）〔T39n1788 0235b26〕；智顗「鼓是法身，枹鼓合是報身，擊出是應身」〔T39n1785 0061b09〕。
七、互讀·承衍
（一） 本品所依論（慧沼《疏》所引·穩定徵引·本藏諸典相涉）：
- 《成唯識論》——隨喜體（印順勝解·樂順欲）〔T39n1788 0238a13〕（本藏《成唯識論》已成編）。
- 《十住毘婆沙》第四——九種懺「三三合九種，從三煩惱起」〔0237c22〕。
- 《薩遮尼乾子經》——大乘五逆五條〔0237a21〕。
- 《俱舍論》——真婆羅門（沙門性·梵輪真梵所轉）〔0235b26〕。
- 《瑜伽師地論》九十五——轉法輪自他轉五相〔0236a02〕（本藏《瑜伽》已成編）。
- 《涅槃經》·《六門陀羅尼經》·《遺教經》·《大莊嚴論》·《法華經》·《寶雲經》·《金剛般若經論》等·皆段內實引。
（二） 經內互讀：此品承壽量／三身二果品（慧沼來意「上之二品明所得果；次下五品明所修行」〔0234a19〕）·開修行五品之首（斷惡先於修善）。品序次接〈滅業障品〉；品末佛讚所許之夢因（宿習因緣），則至〈蓮華喻讚品〉方明說〔慧沼 0241a04·經 0422c01〕。
（三） 承衍：慧沼為窺基嫡嗣；此品懺悔性相（三業為性）·隨喜體（成唯識）·迴向後智（十度第七方便）皆承窺基唯識學統。智顗所立金光明懺法（儀軌存灌頂《國清百錄》T46n1934〔0796a04「金光明懺法第五」〕·宋遵式《補助儀》T46n1945 承之——獨立儀軌，非《文句》）以此品金鼓夢懺為經據——各承其宗讀法，誌不判。
八、校本定位
- 義淨 T665（底本）：〈夢見金鼓懺悔品第四〉〔T16n0665 0411a18〕—〔0413c05〕（卷二·跨頁 0411/0412/0413）。前框長行 0411a18–b03（妙幢夢金鼓·詣佛·陳白·說頌）·大伽他 0411b04–0413b27（198 偈行·五言為主·金鼓功德/發露難/讚佛段七言）·品末佛讚長行 0413b28–c05。偈中段落：金鼓滅罪 0411b12·歸敬 0411c05·開懺 0411c09·十惡懺 0412b11·隨喜① 0412b17·發願 0412b19·迴向① 0412b21·對十力發露難 0412b23·讚佛 0412c14·利生願 0413a05·隨喜② 0413b16·迴向②超劫 0413b18。源檔：原典層（逐字校訖）。
- 曇無讖 T663：〈懺悔品第三〉〔T16n0663 0336b10〕—〔0339a06〕（卷一·四言到底·無品末佛讚·無妙幢陳白長行）。緣起 0336b11·滅罪 0336b29·開懺 0337a04·超六十劫 0338c26。
- 寶貴合部 T664：〈懺悔品第四〉〔T16n0664 0365b19〕—〔0368a14〕。＝T663 同底（相似度 0.9863·異體通用字＋極少傳寫出入：目不暫捨脫·懺悔／悔過·千萬／百千）。
- 慧沼《疏》T39n1788（義疏鏡）：〈夢見懺悔品〉〔0234a17〕—〔0241a09〕（卷三末·不跨卷）。三門 0234a18 · 來意四 0234a19 · 戒學攝 0234b10 · 釋名〈夢見說罪品〉0234b17–24 · 釋難七問答 0234b26 · 大科四段 0234c14 · 夢鼓四段 0234c24 · 金鼓表詮教 0235b13 · 婆羅門引俱舍 0235b26 · 伽他156行科99頌 0235a24–b09 · 95頌總標別明 0235c02 · 三復次三障 0236b15–21 · 懺悔性相 0236b22 · 貪瞋種子現行 0236c27 · 大乘五逆薩遮 0237a21 · 三障大悲水 0237c12 · 九種懺定不定報 0237c22–0238a04 · 隨喜體成唯識 0238a13 · 迴向後智十度第七 0240c03 · 世尊讚印三科 0240c25 · 許說夢因蓮華喻讚品 0241a04。
- 天台旁證：《文句》T39n1785〈釋懺悔品〉〔0059a06〕—〔0064c16〕（卷三）。十番釋名 0059a07 · 懺悔處三諦 0059b17 · 三種懺 0060b28 · 三懺配三障 0060c27 · 藥喻 0061a01 · 本經具三懺 0061a04 · 金鼓法性三德 0061a16 · 偈162行科 0061b20 · 教詔懺悔五分 0061c13 · 別懺三障 0062a11 · 金四義配四德 0064a15。《玄義》T39n1783：惡因不除果不得謝 0011c04。
- 三論旁證：吉藏《疏》T39n1787 懺悔段〔0162b28〕—〔0164c03〕。釋品名 0162b28 · 金鼓喻三身 0162c06 · 似婆羅門地前 0162c12 · 偈四分 0162c18 · 五法對翻五起罪 0163b10 · 慚愧三品人 0163b16 · 三段隱顯三障 0164b04。
- 宋山家旁證：知禮 T39n1784 桴擊三身 0017c07 · 金光明理事 0027a11。
- 成立史誌：大正編者註「梵本分此品為二品」（大正梵註原拼 Svapan--Deṣana·正規化 Svapna-deśanā〔T16n0665 0411 品題梵註〕）；品題「金鼓」二字宋元明宮西本無（作〈夢見懺悔品〉·大麗本有·校記誌）。
- 「當超惡趣六十劫」〔T665 0413b21〕：讖本作「便得超越，六十劫罪」〔T663 0338c26〕·合部同〔T664 0368a05〕——「六十劫」所超者為六十劫之「罪」，二古譯明文；白話依此取義。
- 校記誌：T665 品內大正原校 校記 十五（含梵語對音註五：品題 Svapna-deśanā／伽他 Gāthā／十力 Daśabala／最勝 Jina／善逝 Sugata）；文字異讀要者——品題「金鼓」宋元明宮西無·桴／杖（宋元明宮）·濟渡「渡」／度·頗梨／玻瓈【明】·宿習因緣「因」大本作「田」訛（今本依麗本校「因」）。正文取大正定讀。
Wonderful Banner dreams of a golden drum. Struck with a mallet by a brahmin, it resounds in a gāthā of repentance that occupies nearly the entire chapter: the drum’s sound extinguishes offenses; homage is paid to the buddhas of the ten directions; offenses are disclosed and repented; vows are made to abide on the ten grounds; the buddhas are praised; sentient beings are benefited; merit is dedicated and rejoiced in; and the merit of the practice transcends eons. At the end, the Buddha praises the causes and conditions established through past cultivation. This chapter is the scriptural ground of the Golden Light repentance tradition. Zhiyi established the Golden Light repentance rite, preserved by Guanding in the Guoqing Monastery Records 〔T46n1934 0796a04, 「金光明懺法第五」—“The Golden Light Repentance Rite, Fifth”〕 and carried forward in the Song by Zunshi’s Supplementary Ritual for the Golden Light Repentance Rite, T1945. The exegetical mirror of this edition is Huizhao’s Cien Commentary on the Sūtra of Golden Light, the Supreme King. Huizhao gives the proper title as The Dream of Disclosing Offenses, divides three successive cycles of the gāthā among repentance for the afflictive, karmic, and retributive obstructions, defines repentance by wholesome remorse together with the bodily, verbal, and mental acts that it produces, and cites the Demonstration of Consciousness-Only in defining rejoicing. This chapter occurs in Dharmakṣema’s recension as Chapter 3, Repentance. Zhiyi’s Tiantai Words and Phrases and Jizang’s Sanlun Commentary therefore both give line-by-line explanations of it. All three masters read the passage through the three obstructions, but correlate the practices differently; their accounts are recorded together without adjudicating.
I. Doctrinal-Outline Placement
| Outline system | Placement of this chapter |
|---|---|
| Yijing’s thirty-one-chapter T665 | Chapter 4, The Dream of the Golden Drum and Repentance (fascicle two; beginning at 〔T16 0411a18〕) · It follows the two fruit chapters on lifespan and the three bodies and opens the five chapters on the practices to be cultivated. |
| Huizhao’s outline in the Commentary (primary anchor · Cien) | The chapter title is treated through three approaches: (1) reason for its coming, (2) explanation of the name, and (3) explanation of difficulties 〔T39 0234a18〕. There are four reasons for its coming 〔0234a19〕. The chapter’s text is broadly divided into four parts 〔0234c14〕. |
| Tiantai’s Words and Phrases (collateral testimony · commenting on the Dharmakṣema recension) | “Explaining the Repentance chapter” · ten explanations of the title beginning at 〔T39n1785 0059a06〕; three approaches of the place, practice, and stage of repentance. |
| Jizang’s Sanlun Commentary (collateral testimony · commenting on the Dharmakṣema recension) | Repentance chapter · 「於此品中具明五法，懺悔在初，故從初為目」—“This chapter fully sets forth five practices. Repentance comes first, and therefore the chapter is named from the first” 〔T39n1787 0162b29〕. |
Huizhao gives four reasons for the chapter’s arrival. The first takes it as the passage from the preceding fruit chapters into the opening practice 〔T39n1788 0234a19〕:
「來意有四：一上之二品明所得果；次下五品明所修行〔……〕將修妙行先教懺悔。然懺悔心難以頓發，故託夢金鼓說法警之。」〔T39n1788 0234a19–0234b04〕 — “There are four reasons for its coming. First, the preceding two chapters clarify the fruits to be attained, while the following five chapters clarify the practices to be cultivated.… Before wondrous practice is cultivated, repentance is taught. Yet the mind of repentance is difficult to arouse all at once, and therefore the teaching is entrusted to the dream of the golden drum to awaken him.”
The four reasons are: first, it follows the fruits and opens the practices, because abandoning evil precedes cultivating good; second, it belongs to the training in discipline among the three trainings—「此懺悔者是戒學攝，修學之始」, “this repentance is included in the training in discipline and is the beginning of cultivation and training” 〔0234b10〕; third, it is the basis for the virtue of severance in the Buddha’s three bodies—discipline extinguishes evil and is the cause of the virtue of severance, while the dharma-body’s virtue of severance is the basis; and fourth, it accords with the capacities—Wonderful Banner possessed roots of goodness from past cultivation, and the assembly at the time should first hear the dream-repentance. Huizhao notes 「依真諦釋有八因緣」—“According to Paramārtha’s explanation, there are eight causes and conditions” 〔0234b17〕, recording the name without elaborating them. The chapter’s main outline 〔0234c14〕 is: 「大文分四：一妙幢夢聞懺悔得益、二詣佛陳說覺悟於餘、三世尊讚印示其所以、四大眾聞說皆願奉行。」—“The main text is divided into four: first, Wonderful Banner hears repentance in a dream and gains benefit; second, he goes to the Buddha and recounts it, awakening the others; third, the World-Honored One praises and confirms it, revealing the reason; fourth, the great assembly hears the teaching and all vow to receive and practice it.”
Huizhao explains the chapter title under the proper title The Dream of Disclosing Offenses 〔T39n1788 0234b17–24〕:
「梵云颯拏達利舍拏阿鉢底提舍那。颯拏此云夢，達利舍拏此云見，阿鉢底此云罪，提舍那此云說。人有所犯須向他說，罪即得除，故云說罪〔……〕言懺悔者，音訛略也，正應云〈夢見說罪品〉。」〔T39n1788 0234b17–24〕 — “In Sanskrit it is said sapṇa-darśana-āpatti-deśanā. Sapṇa here means dream; darśana here means seeing; āpatti here means offense; deśanā here means disclosure. When a person has committed an offense, it must be disclosed to another, and then the offense is removed; hence ‘disclosing offenses.’… The expression ‘repentance’ is an abbreviated form based on corrupted sounds. Properly, it should be called the Chapter on Dreaming of Disclosing Offenses.”
Huizhao judges 「懺悔」—“repentance” to be a conventional translation formed through abbreviation and phonetic corruption. The proper title is The Dream of Disclosing Offenses: āpatti-deśanā means disclosing or confessing an offense.
II. Alternate Translations · Collation of the Three Translations
This chapter survives in all three translations; it occurs in Dharmakṣema’s recension and is not one of Paramārtha’s supplemental chapters. The witnesses are Yijing’s The Dream of the Golden Drum and Repentance, Chapter 4, in T665 (the base text); Dharmakṣema’s Repentance, Chapter 3, in T663 〔0336b10〕; and Baogui’s composite T664, Repentance, Chapter 4 〔0365b19〕. T664 and T663 descend from the same base: their pure-Han textual similarity is 0.9863, and their differences consist of interchangeable graphic forms and a very small number of transmission variants, not a distinct translation. The main collation axis is therefore T665 against T663.
Overall judgment of form: Dharmakṣema’s T663 is composed entirely in four-character verse, has no closing praise by the Buddha, and has no prose account of Wonderful Banner’s report. Yijing’s T665 gāthā is predominantly in five-character lines; the section on the golden drum’s virtues, the difficult conditions disclosed before the Ten-Powered Ones, and the praise of the Buddha are in seven-character lines. It adds prose in which Wonderful Banner reports to the Buddha and a closing prose praise by the Buddha. The underlying sequence agrees: the golden drum extinguishes offenses → homage → confession and repentance (the ten unwholesome actions of body, speech, and mind) → vows (the ten grounds and seeing the buddhas) → praise of the Buddha → dedication and rejoicing → merit transcending eons. A note by the Taishō editors states that the Sanskrit text divides this material into two chapters (the original Taishō Sanskrit note spells the title Svapan--Deṣana; normalized as Svapna-deśanā 〔T16n0665 0411, Sanskrit note to the chapter title〕).
Passage 1 · Narrative Frame of the Golden-Drum Dream and the Protagonist’s Name
| Edition | Verbatim text | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Yijing T665 | 〔爾時，妙幢菩薩親於佛前聞妙法已……於夜夢中見大金鼓〕 — “At that time, after the bodhisattva Wonderful Banner personally heard the wondrous Dharma before the Buddha … during the night he dreamed of a great golden drum.” | T16n0665 0411a18 |
| Dharmakṣema T663 | 〔爾時信相菩薩，即於其夜夢見金鼓，其狀姝大，其明普照喻如日光〕 — “At that time, the bodhisattva Faith-Characteristic dreamed that very night of a golden drum, magnificent in form, whose radiance shone everywhere like sunlight.” | T16n0663 0336b11 |
The two names refer to the same figure: Wonderful Banner and Faith-Characteristic. Both versions share the narrative frame in which a brahmin strikes the golden drum and it produces a gāthā—called 「伽他」, “gāthā,” by Yijing and 「偈頌」, “verse,” by Dharmakṣema. For the place to which he goes to see the Buddha, Yijing uses 「鷲峯山」—“Vulture Peak,” a translated name, while Dharmakṣema uses 「耆闍崛山」—“Gṛdhrakūṭa,” a transcription.
Passage 2 · Core Verse on the Golden Drum’s Sound Extinguishing Offenses (Seven Characters / Four Characters)
| Edition | Verbatim text | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Yijing T665 | 〔金光明鼓出妙聲，遍至三千大千界；能滅三塗極重罪，及以人中諸苦厄。〕 — “The drum of Golden Light sends forth a wondrous sound that pervades the trichiliocosm; it can extinguish the gravest offenses of the three evil destinies and all the ordeals of suffering among humans.” | T16n0665 0411b12 |
| Dharmakṣema T663 | 〔是大金鼓，所出妙音，悉能滅除，三世諸苦，地獄餓鬼、畜生等苦，貧窮困苦、及諸有苦。〕 — “The wondrous sound sent forth by this great golden drum can extinguish all suffering of the three times: the sufferings of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals, the suffering of poverty and hardship, and every suffering of existence.” | T16n0663 0336b29 |
The meaning agrees, while the form differs: Yijing uses seven-character lines, Dharmakṣema four-character lines.
Passage 3 · Opening Formula of Repentance
| Edition | Verbatim text | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Yijing T665 | 〔我先所作罪，極重諸惡業；今對十力前，至心皆懺悔。〕 — “For the offenses I committed before, all those extremely grave unwholesome deeds, now before the Ten-Powered Ones I repent of them all with utmost sincerity.” | T16n0665 0411c09 |
| Dharmakṣema T663 | 〔我本所作，惡不善業，今者懺悔：諸十力前。〕 — “For the evil and unwholesome deeds I formerly committed, I now repent before those possessed of the ten powers.” | T16n0663 0337a04 |
The meaning agrees, while the form differs: Yijing has four five-character lines, while Dharmakṣema uses four-character lines and reverses the order of the clauses.
Passage 4 · Three Bodily, Four Verbal, and Three Mental Actions: Repentance for the Ten Unwholesome Actions
Yijing has 「身三語四種，意業復有三〔……〕由斯三種行，造作十惡業，如是眾多罪，我今皆懺悔」—“Bodily action has three forms, verbal action four, and mental action another three.… Through these three modes of action, the ten unwholesome actions are performed; for these many offenses, I now repent of them all” 〔T16n0665 0412b11〕. Dharmakṣema has 「身業三種、口業有四、意三業行，今悉懺悔」—“There are three bodily actions, four verbal actions, and three mental actions; I now repent of them all” 〔T16n0663 0337b28〕. Yijing adds the verse 「繫縛諸有情，無始恒相續」—“They bind sentient beings and have continued constantly since beginningless time.”
Passage 5 · The Buddha’s Closing Praise of Causes and Conditions from Past Cultivation (Absent from Dharmakṣema)
Yijing has 「爾時世尊〔……〕讚妙幢菩薩言：善哉〔……〕汝今應知此之勝業，皆是過去讚歎發願，宿習因緣，及由諸佛威力加護」—“At that time, the World-Honored One … praised the bodhisattva Wonderful Banner: ‘Excellent!… You should now know that this excellent deed is entirely due to causes and conditions from praises and vows cultivated in the past, as well as the empowering protection of the buddhas’” 〔T16n0665 0413b28〕. Dharmakṣema has no closing prose praise by the Buddha. Its chapter ends with the final verse at 0339a06, 「然後乃得，聞是懺悔」—“Only then does one come to hear this repentance,” and proceeds directly to the Praise chapter. In Yijing, the Buddha’s praise closes the question of the dream’s promised cause—past cultivation as cause and condition—which is explained explicitly only in Praise through the Lotus Simile 〔Huizhao: 「許說夢因，即下蓮華喻讚品」—“The promised explanation of the dream’s cause is the later Praise through the Lotus Simile chapter,” 0241a04; the sūtra: 「此之因緣我為汝等廣說其事」—“I will explain these causes and conditions to you in detail,” 0422c01〕. In chapter order, however, the next chapter is Extinguishing Karmic Obstructions.
Other Noteworthy Forms
Wonderful Banner / Faith-Characteristic; Vulture Peak / Gṛdhrakūṭa; gāthā / verse; mallet / drumstick; three evil destinies / sufferings of the three times; sword of wisdom / knife of wisdom; the Sugata and the Jina in Yijing’s Sanskrit notes / homage to the ocean-like Buddha and the Supreme One; and women transformed into men / women becoming male.
III. Scriptural Grounds for the Consciousness-Only Meaning (the Point of the Eye)
This is a chapter on repentance, and its consciousness-only content is comparatively light. It is concentrated in the nature and characteristics of repentance and in the three obstructions. A machine scan of Huizhao’s commentary on this chapter finds zero occurrences of ālaya, the three natures, or the five lineages. The consciousness-only meaning explicitly established in the Commentary is concentrated in the following six places, each textually attested.
(1) The defining nature of repentance is wholesome remorse together with the three actions it produces 〔T39n1788 0236b22〕:
「懺悔正云說罪，應以善悔及所起善語業為性，若兼能起亦有意業，若申禮敬亦有身業，具足應以善悔及所起三業為性。」〔T39n1788 0236b22〕 — “Repentance is properly called disclosing offenses. Its nature should be wholesome remorse together with the wholesome verbal action it produces. If the action that gives rise to it is included, mental action is also present; if reverence is expressed, bodily action is also present. In full, its nature should be wholesome remorse together with the three actions it produces.”
(2) Three successive cycles within eighty-four stanzas separately address repentance for the three obstructions (the backbone of the repentance) 〔T39n1788 0236b15–21〕:
「下八十四頌別明勝利。分之為四：初二十五頌第一復次明懺願等、次『唯願十方佛』下十三頌第二復次明懺願等、次七言下四十三頌第三復次明懺願等、次『若有男子及女人』下四頌說勝勸修。然三復次懺願等中，初復次中多懺煩惱障、第二復次多懺業障、第三復次多懺報障。」〔T39n1788 0236b15–21〕 — “The following eighty-four stanzas separately clarify the excellent benefits. They are divided into four: the first twenty-five stanzas form the first successive cycle, clarifying repentance, vows, and the rest; the next thirteen stanzas, beginning ‘I only pray that the buddhas of the ten directions,’ form the second successive cycle, clarifying repentance, vows, and the rest; the following forty-three stanzas in seven-character lines form the third successive cycle, clarifying repentance, vows, and the rest; and the final four stanzas, beginning ‘If there is a man or woman,’ state the excellence and encourage cultivation. Within the three successive cycles of repentance, vows, and the rest, the first cycle primarily repents of the afflictive obstruction, the second primarily repents of the karmic obstruction, and the third primarily repents of the retributive obstruction.”
At the sūtra’s line 「我有煩惱障，及以諸報業」—“I have the afflictive obstruction, as well as retributive karma,” Huizhao jointly reads the three obstructions 〔0237c12〕: 「此初一頌願懺滅三障，佛以大悲滅三障火。」—“This first stanza vows through repentance to extinguish the three obstructions; the Buddha extinguishes the fires of the three obstructions through great compassion.”
(3) Seeds of greed and anger; active manifestations as entanglements 〔T39n1788 0236c27〕: 「戲樂即貪，憂惱即瞋。貪嗔即種子，纏即現行，或八纏等，舉二攝餘。」—“Play and amusement are greed; worry and distress are anger. Greed and anger are the seeds, while entanglement is active manifestation; or it refers to the eight entanglements and the like, two being named to include the rest.” Thus Huizhao interprets greed and anger as seeds and their entanglements as active manifestations.
(4) The nature of rejoicing, with a citation from the Demonstration of Consciousness-Only 〔T39n1788 0238a11–13〕:
「第二隨喜。隨者順也，喜者慶悅故。隨即以信、欲、勝解三法為體，故《成唯識》云『若印順者，體即勝解。若樂順者，體即是欲。』」〔T39n1788 0238a11〕 — “Second is rejoicing. ‘Following’ means according with; ‘joy’ means celebrating with delight. Rejoicing thus has faith, aspiration, and resolute understanding as its nature. Therefore, the Demonstration of Consciousness-Only says, ‘If it is assent and accord, its nature is resolute understanding. If it is delight and accord, its nature is aspiration.’”
A vow has subsequently attained wisdom, aspiration, and resolute understanding as its nature 〔0237b06〕. Dedication has subsequently attained wisdom as its nature and is the seventh, skillful means, among the ten perfections 〔0240c03〕.
(5) Nine forms of repentance and determinate or indeterminate retribution 〔T39n1788 0237c22〕. Huizhao cites fascicle four of the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā: 「三三合九種，從三煩惱起」—“Three sets of three combine into nine forms, arising from the three afflictions”: three actions × three times × three kinds of retribution. He also considers whether determinate karma can be repented: 「若定報者，願得今身償故〔……〕《涅槃經》云『若入我法，即不決定』，又《瑜伽論》云『依未解脫者建立定報』」—“If the retribution is determinate, one vows to repay it in the present body.… The Nirvāṇa Sūtra says, ‘If one enters my Dharma, it is no longer determinate.’ The Yogācārabhūmi also says, ‘Determinate retribution is established with reference to those who are not liberated’” 〔0237c28〕.
(6) The five heinous acts in the great vehicle 〔T39n1788 0237a19–21〕. At the passage repenting of the five heinous acts, Huizhao interprets them as the five heinous acts of the great vehicle rather than the account common to the three vehicles, following the five items in the Satyaka-nirgrantha Sūtra: destroying stūpas and monasteries and stealing the property of the Three Jewels; maligning the Dharma of the three vehicles; afflicting renunciants; killing one’s father or mother, drawing the Buddha’s blood, splitting the saṅgha, or killing an arhat; and denying cause and effect while committing the ten unwholesome actions.
IV. Explanations of Various Masters
All three traditions have line-by-line commentaries on this chapter, because the Repentance chapter occurs in Dharmakṣema’s recension. All three read it through the three obstructions, but they correlate the practices differently. Their accounts are recorded without adjudicating.
Cien · Huizhao’s Commentary on the Sūtra of Golden Light, the Supreme King, T39n1788 (the principal mirror)
Huizhao defines the nature of repentance as wholesome remorse together with the bodily, verbal, and mental actions it produces; divides three successive cycles within eighty-four stanzas among repentance for the afflictive, karmic, and retributive obstructions; cites the Demonstration of Consciousness-Only on the nature of rejoicing; analyzes the nine forms of repentance and determinate or indeterminate retribution; and explains the five heinous acts of the great vehicle. See Topic III. He gives the proper title as The Dream of Disclosing Offenses—āpatti-deśanā means disclosing an offense 〔0234b24〕. He interprets the golden drum as representing the teaching that expresses the meaning 〔0235b14〕: 「夢見金鼓者，表將聞佛說懺悔音〔……〕周遍有光者，表能詮教性能顯理周故。」—“Dreaming of a golden drum represents that he is about to hear the Buddha teach the sound of repentance.… Its pervasive light represents that the nature of the expressing teaching can reveal principle everywhere.” For the brahmin striking the drum, he cites the Abhidharmakośa 〔0235b26〕: 「所說沙門性，亦名婆羅門，亦名為梵輪，真梵所轉故〔……〕以大悲杖擊後得智鼓，流教法聲。」—“The renunciant nature that is taught is also called brahmin and also called the Brahmā wheel, because it is turned by the true Brahmā.… With the staff of great compassion, he strikes the drum of subsequently attained wisdom and sends forth the sound of the Dharma teaching.”
Tiantai · Zhiyi’s Words and Phrases of the Sūtra of Golden Light, T39n1785 (collateral testimony · line-by-line explanation of the Dharmakṣema recension)
Zhiyi gives ten explanations of the title beginning at 〔0059a07〕. Among them: 「懺者首也，悔者伏也」—“To repent is to acknowledge; to regret is to subdue” 〔0059a08〕; 「懺名白法，悔名黑法」—“Repentance names the bright dharmas, regret the dark dharmas”; 「懺名修來，悔名改往」—“Repentance means cultivating what is to come; regret means changing what has passed”; 「懺名披陳眾失發露過咎〔不敢隱諱〕，悔名斷相續心」—“Repentance means laying open and stating every fault, disclosing transgressions and errors [not daring to conceal them]; regret means severing the mind of continuation”; and 「懺者名慚，悔者名愧」—“Repentance is called moral shame before oneself; regret is called moral shame before others.” Together they form ten explanations. Zhiyi teaches three kinds of repentance—ritual repentance, sign-seeking repentance, and birthless repentance 〔0060b28〕: 「懺悔有三：一作法、二取相、三無生，此三種通大小。」—“Repentance is threefold: first, ritual performance; second, seeking a sign; third, the birthless. These three forms apply to both the lesser and great vehicles.” Their remedies begin at 〔0060c16〕: ritual repentance extinguishes offenses against precepts; sign-seeking repentance extinguishes offenses in themselves; birthless repentance extinguishes ignorance. Correlated with the three trainings, ritual repentance removes breaches of discipline, sign-seeking repentance breaches of meditative stability, and birthless repentance breaches of wisdom. Correlated with the three obstructions 〔0060c27〕: 「又三種懺共除報障，取相除業障，無生除煩惱障。」—“Moreover, all three forms of repentance together remove the retributive obstruction; sign-seeking repentance removes the karmic obstruction; birthless repentance removes the afflictive obstruction.” His medicinal simile 〔0061a01〕 compares ritual repentance to taking ginger and cinnamon, sign-seeking repentance to taking the five mineral substances, and birthless repentance to taking the five numinous fungi. He judges that this sūtra contains all three great-vehicle forms of repentance 〔0061a04〕: 「今文具有大乘三懺，著淨潔衣，專聽是經，又七日七夜朝暮淨心等，即作法也〔……〕五陰舍宅觀悉空寂，本無有生亦無和合，即無生也。」—“The present text fully contains the three great-vehicle forms of repentance. Wearing clean garments, listening single-mindedly to this sūtra, and purifying the mind morning and evening for seven days and seven nights are ritual performance.… Contemplating the house of the five aggregates as entirely empty and quiescent, originally without arising and without combination, is the birthless.” The place of repentance as the three truths, citing the Contemplation of Samantabhadra 〔0059b17〕, treats repentance without the characteristic of offense in terms of emptiness, adorned repentance in terms of the conventional, and great repentance in terms of the middle way; the three are one, constituting perfect and wondrous repentance. The golden-drum dream is the dream-like samādhi, and the golden drum represents the three virtues of dharma-nature 〔0061a16〕: 「金鼓體圓空鳴，圓即法身，空即般若，鳴即解脫。」—“The golden drum is round, hollow, and resounding: roundness is the dharma-body, hollowness is prajñā, and resonance is liberation.”
Sanlun · Jizang’s Commentary on the Sūtra of Golden Light, T39n1787 (collateral testimony · line-by-line explanation of the Dharmakṣema recension)
In explaining the title 〔0162b28〕, Jizang writes: 「外國云懺摩毘，此云厭離，亦云改悔〔……〕於此品中具明五法，懺悔在初，故從初為目。」—“In foreign speech it is called chamopi, rendered here as revulsion and also as reform and regret.… This chapter fully sets forth five practices. Repentance comes first, and therefore the chapter is named from the first.” He explains five practices that counteract five roots from which offenses arise 〔0163b10–25〕: 「離過行體不出五種。五種者何？所謂懺悔、勸請、隨喜、迴向、發願〔……〕起罪根本亦有五種：一者無慚愧心〔……〕菩薩懺悔以慚愧心為體，故對翻第一心。」—“The substance of conduct that leaves faults does not go beyond five kinds. What are the five? Repentance, requesting, rejoicing, dedication, and making vows.… The roots from which offenses arise are also five. First is the mind without moral shame.… A bodhisattva’s repentance takes moral shame as its nature and therefore counteracts the first mind.” He distinguishes three levels of persons according to moral shame 〔0163b16〕: shame before teachers and friends is the lower level, shame before buddhas and gods the middle level, and shame that one’s own nature is the same as the buddhas’ the upper level. The golden drum illustrates the three bodies 〔0162c06〕: 「金鼓喻法身〔……〕依此法身成應身，應身遍照故言如日光。」—“The golden drum illustrates the dharma-body.… In dependence on this dharma-body, the responsive body is accomplished; because the responsive body illuminates everywhere, it is described as sunlight.” The brahmin who appears “as if” is before the grounds and not yet genuine 〔0162c13〕: 「信相菩薩位在地前，未得地上真解，故言似也。」—“The bodhisattva Faith-Characteristic is at a stage before the grounds and has not attained the true understanding above the grounds; therefore the text says ‘as if.’” He correlates the three passages of concealment and disclosure with the three obstructions 〔0164b04〕: 「其三段懺悔中雖具懺三障，若隱顯互論，第一段以煩惱為宗、第二以業為宗、第三報障為宗〔……〕又五法中但有懺悔、勸請、發願、迴向四法，隨喜略無。」—“Although each of the three repentance passages contains repentance for all three obstructions, if considered through their relative concealment and manifestation, the first passage takes affliction as its theme, the second karma, and the third the retributive obstruction.… Moreover, among the five practices there are only four—repentance, requesting, making vows, and dedication—while rejoicing is omitted.”
Song Tiantai · Zhili’s Two Works (collateral testimony)
Zhili uses the mallet striking the golden drum to establish the names and meanings of the three bodies 〔T39n1784 0017c07〕: 「〈懺悔品〉以桴擊鼓出大音聲。鼓即法身，桴擊即報身，出聲即應身，故知三身名義不少。」—“In the Repentance chapter, a mallet strikes the drum and produces a great sound. The drum is the dharma-body, the striking mallet is the reward body, and the emitted sound is the responsive body; thus one knows that the names and meanings of the three bodies are not lacking.” He also speaks of the phenomenal functions of Golden Light arising from the principle of Golden Light 〔0027a11〕. Zhili’s separate Record of the Words and Phrases of the Sūtra of Golden Light, T39n1786, is a line-by-line subcommentary on the Words and Phrases. Its explanation of the old recension’s Repentance chapter begins 「釋〈懺悔品〉，二：初、釋題」—“Explaining the Repentance chapter, in two parts: first, explaining the title” 〔T39n1786 0112b11〕. The line-by-line level of the Record of the Words and Phrases and the topical level of the Supplementary Notes are kept distinct.
Recorded Together, without Adjudicating
The three masters correlate the three obstructions differently. Huizhao distributes repentance across three successive cycles of the gāthā: the first primarily repents of the afflictive obstruction, the second of the karmic obstruction, and the third of the retributive obstruction 〔0236b20〕. Zhiyi correlates them with the three kinds of repentance: all three together remove the retributive obstruction, sign-seeking repentance removes the karmic obstruction, and birthless repentance removes the afflictive obstruction 〔0060c27〕. Jizang considers concealment and manifestation across three repentance passages: the first takes affliction as its theme, the second karma, and the third the retributive obstruction 〔0164b04〕. All three interpret the three obstructions, but their frameworks—sections of the gāthā, kinds of repentance, or circumstances of causes and conditions—differ. Rejoicing among the five practices: Jizang judges that 「隨喜略無」—“rejoicing is omitted” (only four of the five practices are present) 〔0164b07〕, whereas Huizhao and the gāthā in Yijing’s translation contain explicit rejoicing sections. The golden-drum simile: Huizhao takes it as representing the expressing teaching; Zhiyi as the three virtues of dharma-nature—roundness as dharma-body, hollowness as prajñā, and resonance as liberation; Jizang and Zhili as the three bodies—drum as dharma-body, striking mallet as reward body, and emitted sound as responsive body. Their readings and judgments differ and are recorded without adjudicating. Chronological safeguard: Zhiyi (538–597) and Jizang (549–623) precede Huizhao, the direct successor of Kuiji (632–682); descriptions of historical sequence must not reverse that order.
V. Terminology
| Chinese | Transmitted Sanskrit (romanization as an aid to pronunciation) | Ancient attestation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 懺悔（說罪） · repentance (disclosing offenses) | āpatti-deśanā (the transcription preserved by Huizhao) | Huizhao: 「阿鉢底此云罪，提舍那此云說〔……〕正應云〈夢見說罪品〉」—“Āpatti means offense and deśanā means disclosure … properly it should be called the Chapter on Dreaming of Disclosing Offenses” 〔T39n1788 0234b19〕; Jizang: 「懺摩毘，此云厭離」—“Chamopi means revulsion” 〔T39n1787 0162b28〕. | Disclosing an offense to another so that it may be removed; the proper designation is disclosing offenses. |
| 夢見說罪 · the dream of disclosing offenses | svapna-deśanā (the Taishō note originally spells it Svapan--Deṣana and states that the Sanskrit divides this material into two chapters) | 〔T16n0665 0411, Sanskrit note to the chapter title〕; Huizhao: 「颯拏此云夢，達利舍拏此云見」—“Sapṇa means dream and darśana means seeing” 〔T39n1788 0234b18〕. | The proper title of this chapter. |
| 金鼓 · golden drum | — | Huizhao: 「表將聞佛說懺悔音」—“It represents that he is about to hear the Buddha teach the sound of repentance” 〔T39n1788 0235b14〕; 「能詮教性能顯理」—“the nature of the expressing teaching can reveal principle” 〔0235b16〕. Zhiyi: 「金鼓體圓空鳴」—“the golden drum is round, hollow, and resounding” 〔T39n1785 0061a16〕. | The drum seen in the dream, from which the gāthā of repentance resounds. |
| 三復次（三障懺） · three successive cycles (repentance for the three obstructions) | — | Huizhao: 「初復次中多懺煩惱障、第二復次多懺業障、第三復次多懺報障」—“The first cycle primarily repents of the afflictive obstruction, the second of the karmic obstruction, and the third of the retributive obstruction” 〔T39n1788 0236b20〕. | Three layers within the eighty-four stanzas that separately clarify repentance for the three obstructions. |
| 三種懺悔（作法·取相·無生） · three kinds of repentance (ritual, sign-seeking, and birthless) | — | Zhiyi: 「懺悔有三：一作法、二取相、三無生」—“Repentance is threefold: ritual performance, seeking a sign, and the birthless” 〔T39n1785 0060b28〕. | The Tiantai repentance practices, shared by lesser and great vehicles and removing the three obstructions. |
| 五法（懺悔·勸請·隨喜·迴向·發願） · five practices (repentance, requesting, rejoicing, dedication, and making vows) | — | Jizang: 「離過行體不出五種」—“The substance of conduct that leaves faults does not go beyond five kinds” 〔T39n1787 0163b10〕. | The five branches of fault-abandoning conduct identified by the Sanlun tradition in this chapter. |
| 五逆（大乘） · five heinous acts (great vehicle) | pañca-ānantarya (meaning) | Huizhao follows the five items of the Satyaka-nirgrantha Sūtra 〔T39n1788 0237a21〕. | The great-vehicle five heinous acts, not the account common to the three vehicles. |
| 九種懺 · nine forms of repentance | — | Huizhao cites the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā: 「三三合九種，從三煩惱起」—“Three sets of three combine into nine forms, arising from the three afflictions” 〔T39n1788 0237c22〕. | Three actions × three times × three kinds of retribution, arising from greed, anger, and delusion. |
| 隨喜 · rejoicing | anumodanā (meaning) | Huizhao cites the Demonstration of Consciousness-Only: 「若印順者，體即勝解。若樂順者，體即是欲」—“If it is assent and accord, its nature is resolute understanding; if it is delight and accord, its nature is aspiration” 〔T39n1788 0238a13〕. | Celebrating others’ goodness in accord with it; faith, aspiration, and resolute understanding are its nature. |
VI. Similes · Rhetoric
(1) The dream of the golden drum. 〔T16 0411a19: 「於夜夢中見大金鼓，光明晃耀猶如日輪」—“During the night he dreamed of a great golden drum whose brilliant light shone like the disk of the sun.”〕 In Wonderful Banner’s dream, a brahmin strikes the golden drum with a mallet, producing a gāthā of repentance. Huizhao reads the drum as the expressing teaching—the golden drum is the teaching, light reveals principle, and the disk of the sun dispels the darkness of the unwholesome 〔T39n1788 0235b13〕. Zhiyi reads it as the three virtues of dharma-nature: roundness as dharma-body, hollowness as prajñā, and resonance as liberation 〔T39n1785 0061a16〕.
(2) Ocean water, dust of the earth, Mount Sumeru, and empty space illustrate the immeasurability of the Buddha’s virtues. 〔T16 0412c14: 「如大海水量難知，大地微塵不可數，如妙高山叵稱量，亦如虛空無有際；諸佛功德亦如是」—“As the quantity of ocean water is hard to know, the dust motes of the earth cannot be counted, Mount Sumeru cannot be weighed, and empty space has no boundary, so are the virtues of the buddhas.”〕 Four extremes that cannot be measured reveal by contrast that the Buddha’s virtues cannot be counted, continuing the paired similes of ocean drops and mustard seeds on mountains in Chapter 2.
(3) The water of great compassion washes away the three obstructions. 〔T16 0412a05: 「我有煩惱障，及以諸報業；願以大悲水，洗濯令清淨」—“I have the afflictive obstruction, as well as retributive karma; may the water of great compassion wash them clean.”〕 Huizhao writes: 「佛以大悲滅三障火，復除罪垢，故喻如水」—“The Buddha extinguishes the fires of the three obstructions through great compassion and also removes the stains of offense; therefore it is compared to water” 〔T39n1788 0237c12〕.
(4) A brahmin strikes the golden drum with a mallet. 〔T16 0411a22〕 Huizhao cites the Abhidharmakośa on the true meaning of brahmin—the World-Honored One strikes the drum of subsequently attained wisdom with the staff of great compassion and sends forth the sound of the Dharma teaching 〔T39n1788 0235b26〕. Zhiyi writes: 「鼓是法身，枹鼓合是報身，擊出是應身」—“The drum is the dharma-body; the meeting of drumstick and drum is the reward body; the sound struck forth is the responsive body” 〔T39n1785 0061b09〕.
VII. Cross-Reading · Carrying Forward
(1) Treatises on which this chapter relies, as cited by Huizhao’s Commentary and connected with stable works in this canon:
- The Demonstration of Consciousness-Only. The nature of rejoicing—assent and accord as resolute understanding, delight and accord as aspiration 〔T39n1788 0238a13〕. The translation canon’s edition is complete.
- Fascicle four of the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā. The nine forms of repentance: 「三三合九種，從三煩惱起」—“Three sets of three combine into nine forms, arising from the three afflictions” 〔0237c22〕.
- The Satyaka-nirgrantha Sūtra. The five items of the great-vehicle account of the heinous acts 〔0237a21〕.
- The Abhidharmakośa. The true brahmin—the renunciant nature and the Brahmā wheel turned by the true Brahmā 〔0235b26〕.
- Fascicle ninety-five of the Yogācārabhūmi. Five characteristics in the turning of the wheel of Dharma by oneself and others 〔0236a02〕. The translation canon’s edition is complete.
- The Nirvāṇa Sūtra, the Six-Gate Dhāraṇī Sūtra, the Bequeathed Teaching Sūtra, the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, the Lotus Sūtra, the Ratnamegha Sūtra, and the Treatise on the Diamond Perfection of Wisdom, among others, are all actually cited within this portion of the commentary.
(2) Cross-reading within the sūtra. This chapter follows the two fruit chapters on lifespan and the three bodies—Huizhao writes, 「上之二品明所得果；次下五品明所修行」, “The preceding two chapters clarify the fruits to be attained; the following five clarify the practices to be cultivated” 〔0234a19〕—and opens the first of five chapters on practice, because abandoning evil precedes cultivating good. The next chapter is Extinguishing Karmic Obstructions. The cause of the dream promised in the Buddha’s closing praise—causes and conditions from past cultivation—is explained only in Praise through the Lotus Simile 〔Huizhao 0241a04; sūtra 0422c01〕.
(3) Carrying Forward. Huizhao was Kuiji’s direct successor. His account of the nature of repentance in the three actions, the nature of rejoicing according to the Demonstration of Consciousness-Only, and dedication as subsequently attained wisdom—the seventh perfection, skillful means—all carry forward Kuiji’s consciousness-only lineage. Zhiyi’s Golden Light repentance rite takes the golden-drum repentance dream in this chapter as its scriptural ground. Its ritual is preserved by Guanding in the Guoqing Monastery Records, T46n1934 〔0796a04, 「金光明懺法第五」—“The Golden Light Repentance Rite, Fifth”〕, and carried forward in the Song by Zunshi’s Supplementary Ritual, T46n1945. This is an independent ritual text, not part of the Words and Phrases. Each work carries forward its tradition’s reading; they are noted without adjudicating.
VIII. Placement of the Editions
- Yijing’s T665 (base text): The Dream of the Golden Drum and Repentance, Chapter 4 〔T16n0665 0411a18〕–〔0413c05〕 (fascicle two, spanning pages 0411, 0412, and 0413). Opening prose frame 0411a18–b03: Wonderful Banner dreams of the golden drum, goes to the Buddha, reports, and begins the verse. Great gāthā 0411b04–0413b27: 198 verse lines, predominantly five characters, with seven-character lines in the golden-drum virtue section, difficult conditions disclosed before the Ten-Powered Ones, and praise of the Buddha. Closing prose praise by the Buddha 0413b28–c05. Sections within the gāthā: golden drum extinguishing offenses 0411b12; homage 0411c05; opening repentance 0411c09; repentance for the ten unwholesome actions 0412b11; first rejoicing 0412b17; vows 0412b19; first dedication 0412b21; difficult conditions disclosed before the Ten-Powered Ones 0412b23; praise of the Buddha 0412c14; vows to benefit sentient beings 0413a05; second rejoicing 0413b16; second dedication and transcending eons 0413b18. Source file: the source layer, collated verbatim.
- Dharmakṣema’s T663: Repentance, Chapter 3 〔T16n0663 0336b10〕–〔0339a06〕 (fascicle one; four-character lines throughout; no closing praise by the Buddha and no prose report by Wonderful Banner). Narrative frame 0336b11; extinguishing offenses 0336b29; opening repentance 0337a04; transcending sixty eons 0338c26.
- Baogui’s composite T664: Repentance, Chapter 4 〔T16n0664 0365b19〕–〔0368a14〕. It descends from the same base as T663 (similarity 0.9863; interchangeable graphic forms and a very small number of transmission variants, including gazing without briefly looking away / liberation, repentance / regret for faults, ten million / one hundred thousand).
- Huizhao’s Commentary, T39n1788 (exegetical mirror): The Dream of Repentance 〔0234a17〕–〔0241a09〕 (end of fascicle three, without crossing a fascicle boundary). Three approaches 0234a18; four reasons for coming 0234a19; inclusion in the discipline training 0234b10; title explained as The Dream of Disclosing Offenses 0234b17–24; seven questions and answers explaining difficulties 0234b26; four-part main outline 0234c14; four sections of the dream-drum frame 0234c24; golden drum as the expressing teaching 0235b13; brahmin with the Abhidharmakośa citation 0235b26; 156 gāthā lines outlined as ninety-nine stanzas 0235a24–b09; ninety-five stanzas first marked in general and then explained separately 0235c02; three successive cycles and three obstructions 0236b15–21; nature of repentance 0236b22; greed and anger as seeds and active manifestation 0236c27; great-vehicle heinous acts following the Satyaka-nirgrantha 0237a21; water of great compassion and the three obstructions 0237c12; nine forms of repentance and determinate or indeterminate retribution 0237c22–0238a04; nature of rejoicing according to the Demonstration of Consciousness-Only 0238a13; dedication as subsequently attained wisdom and the seventh of the ten perfections 0240c03; three divisions of the Buddha’s confirming praise 0240c25; and the promised explanation of the dream’s cause in Praise through the Lotus Simile 0241a04.
- Tiantai collateral testimony: Zhiyi’s Words and Phrases, T39n1785, Explaining the Repentance Chapter 〔0059a06〕–〔0064c16〕 (fascicle three). Ten explanations of the title 0059a07; the three truths as the place of repentance 0059b17; three kinds of repentance 0060b28; three forms of repentance correlated with the three obstructions 0060c27; medicinal similes 0061a01; all three forms of repentance present in this sūtra 0061a04; golden drum and the three virtues of dharma-nature 0061a16; 162 verse lines outlined at 0061b20; five divisions of the instruction to repent 0061c13; separate repentance for the three obstructions 0062a11; and four meanings of gold correlated with the four virtues 0064a15. Zhiyi’s Profound Meaning, T39n1783: unless the evil cause is removed, the fruit cannot wither away, at 0011c04.
- Sanlun collateral testimony: Jizang’s Commentary, T39n1787, repentance section 〔0162b28〕–〔0164c03〕. Explanation of the title 0162b28; golden drum illustrating the three bodies 0162c06; the “seeming” brahmin before the grounds 0162c12; four-part outline of the verse 0162c18; five practices counteracting the five roots from which offenses arise 0163b10; three levels according to moral shame 0163b16; and relative concealment and manifestation of the three obstructions across three passages 0164b04.
- Song Tiantai collateral testimony: Zhili’s T39n1784: mallet striking the drum as the three bodies at 0017c07; principle and phenomena of Golden Light at 0027a11.
- Formation history recorded: The Taishō editors note 「梵本分此品為二品」—“The Sanskrit text divides this material into two chapters” (the Taishō note originally spells the title Svapan--Deṣana; normalized as Svapna-deśanā 〔T16n0665 0411, Sanskrit note to the chapter title〕). The two characters 「金鼓」—“golden drum” in the chapter title are absent from the Song, Yuan, Ming, Palace, and Western editions, which read The Dream of Repentance; they occur in the Korean edition and are recorded as a textual note.
- 「當超惡趣六十劫」—“will transcend sixty eons of evil destinies” 〔T665 0413b21〕: Dharmakṣema reads 「便得超越，六十劫罪」—“one then transcends the offenses of sixty eons” 〔T663 0338c26〕; the composite version agrees 〔T664 0368a05〕. Thus, in the phrase 「六十劫」—“sixty eons,” what is transcended is 「罪」—“the offenses” of sixty eons, as the two older recensions explicitly state; the vernacular follows this sense.
- Textual notes recorded: T665 has fifteen original Taishō notes within the chapter, including five Sanskrit equivalents: chapter title Svapna-deśanā, gāthā Gāthā, ten powers Daśabala, Supreme One Jina, and Sugata Sugata. Noteworthy textual variants include: the two characters 「金鼓」—“golden drum” absent from the Song, Yuan, Ming, Palace, and Western editions; mallet versus staff in the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace editions; the character 「渡」—“cross” in “ferrying across” versus “bring across”; sphaṭika versus the graphic form used in the Ming; and the character 「因」—“cause” in “causes and conditions from past cultivation,” miswritten as 「田」—“field” in the Great Edition. The present text follows the Korean correction 「因」—“cause” and otherwise follows the Taishō lemma.