I don’t know if this is the right category, so please correct me if I’m in the wrong place.
I was going through the cttbusa website to look for a sutra to read with commentaries of master Nan Hsua, I stumbled upon this page about handling buddhist texts.
I came upon something that worried me.
They should ensure that they do not carelessly mishandle, malign or otherwise slander the scriptures as the karmic retribution from such offenses are extremely serious.
In the past I ordered the Diamond Sutra from Amazon, and by unskillfully (and carelessly) trying to remove the mildew from the book it became a little misshapen. I regret that immensely.
Keep in mind that scriptures written in old days were written on ink, paper and human resources that had costs higher than a modern day car. It takes years to make ink, paper, they cost a hefty fortune for the benefactors or monasteries, due to how precious a resource they are. It’s likewise very hard to train new scribes that you can effort to make mistakes all the time. All of these are hand written in a meticulous process, and when the medium is a poor one (like bamboo leaves, animal skin, etc) they need to be repeatedly written again and again to always keep a fresh copy of sutras available.
Spilling coffee on such a scroll of sutra is like throwing out a bar of gold (potentially much worse).
This is a far cry from the ease with which a book gets printed today.
Basic hygiene and proper care is good, of course, but if it had happened to me, I’d chuckle at my clumsiness and vow to be more mindful of my agitation the next time around. Accidents happen, though we strive our best. Does it serve to be always agitated with such karmic retributions beyond what is necessary for basic proper attention?
Also I think Master Hsua is talking about slander, misrepresentation and such miscommunication of the sutras, not just slightly bending the book. But who knows?
The suttas were not written down in the time of the Buddha, so he made no such pronouncement.
No one can tell you what the results of any action would be, but I find it hard to imagine that unintentionally damaging a book while trying to clean it would create any unwholesome karma.
I agree. “Atone for my offense” is such a heavy term to be related with a clumsy act. It is important to be mindful of course, and take care of your books (preference to any book). The books that we care, if we care, should have more attention on them but none of this “atone for my offense”
I will go as far as to say that this feeling of anxiety, guilty and remorse on this act might have generated more kamma than just the misshapen of the book rs
There is no offense. The book is completely empty.
All conditioned phenomena
Are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow,
Like dew or a flash of lightning;
Thus we shall perceive them.
"The Diamond of Perfect Wisdom Sutra". Chung Tai
Emperor Wu asked the great teacher Bodhidharma,
“What is the first principle of the holy teaching?”
Bodhidharma said, “Vast emptiness, nothing holy.”
Deshan brought his sutra commentaries and notes to the front of the hall, held up a torch and said, “Even if you have exhausted abstruse doctrine, it is like placing a hair in vast space. Even if you have learned the vital points of all the truths in the world, it is like a drop of water thrown into a big ravine.”
He then burned all his commentaries and notes. After making his bows, he left.
Don’t forget that the quality of kamma depends on intention. Your intention in that moment was to restore the book in some way. By damaging it, you didn’t generate demerit—the result is just that the merit you gained from the action was reduced.
That’s not the same as intentionally damaging the book out of anger or out of disrespect for the Buddha and the Dhamma. That could be a cause for demerit.
In the case of Master Hua I doubt it’s limited to just that. The man seems to have had an enormous repertoire of quaint beliefs.
I recall in one of his books he states that when placing a sutra on a table it should always be in the middle, with no part of it overhanging the table’s edge. Why? Because if you don’t, then Wei Tuo Pú sà[*] has to come along and sit under the table with his palms stretched upwards to protect the sutra from falling onto the floor. By inconveniencing the Bodhisattva in this way one supposedly acquires much demerit.
[*] = Bodhisattva Skanda in Sanskrit; Phraya Mahā Chomphoo in Thai. Many years back his image graced a Thai postage stamp.
Thanks for your reassurances everyone, in hindsight I was still careless (by my own standard) so I will take that lesson (I prefer to be clean in the future) and move on.
Then the Blessed One said to the bodhisattva mahāsattva Maitreya, “O Maitreya, bodhisattva mahāsattva, if you possess four factors, the misdeeds you have committed and accumulated will be overcome.
“What are these four? The action of repentance, antidotal action, the power of restraint, and the power of support.
“The action of repentance is to feel intense remorse for any non-virtuous action you have committed.
“Antidotal action is to put great effort into virtuous actions once you have committed a non-virtuous action.
“The power of restraint is to make a pledge and thereby refrain from any similar action.
“The power of support is to take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha, and not to forsake the mind of awakening. By relying on such powerful forces, you will be immune to misdeeds.
