A Half Year of Repentance and the Forgiving Dream of a Dharma Teacher

Late at night, the small room was utterly silent, with only an oil lamp casting shadows on the rough walls. An old book lay open, its pages yellowed and its ink faded, carrying the musty smell of a wartime library. A young man — who would later become Master Chan Quang — sat biting his lip, pulling at strands of his hair as he struggled through a difficult translation by an Indian dharma teacher.

At that time, he did not yet know the Buddha's teachings (Dharma). He read the books of Mr. Krishnamurti, but the translator clung too closely to the original words, making the Vietnamese text heavy and obscure. The young man criticized the work everywhere, calling the man useless.

One day, while debating with a friend, he snapped: "He teaches nothing but nonsense!" His friend asked, "Have you read it carefully?" The young man slammed the table: "The translation is so obscure, who could understand it!" Later, when he entered university and learned to translate by meaning, he suddenly awoke: "I have wrongly slandered a holy one."

When he encountered the Buddha's teachings (Dharma), he sat in meditation, yet his heart ached for half a year. He whispered to himself: "I have slandered an enlightened one." One night, he dreamed that the man appeared before him, his face bright as the moon, smiling and saying: "I forgive you." He woke up crying out: "My transgression is gone!" He confessed to the heavens: "I am sorry for my ignorance." And later he told his disciples: "Half a year of repentance washed clean my unwholesome mind/heart."

The turning point was that dream. The burden of half a year of remorse suddenly dissolved, and his heart felt light and at ease.

From then on, he respected every dharma teacher, using his repentant mind/heart as a bridge for his practice.

Throughout his life, whenever he learned a new teaching, he would repent his old mistakes, yet his heart always remained pure, because he understood how to cleanse transgressions through repentance.

The Meaning of the Story

A sincere and sustained mind/heart of repentance has great power to cleanse transgressions. When the one who was wronged offers forgiveness — or when forgiveness arises within one's own heart — the unwholesome karma of the past is dissolved.

Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thich Chan Quang.