Washing Away One’s Sin or Demerit by Observing
the Precepts, Practicing Meditation, and Attaining Insight.
The Lord Buddha's Teachings are contained in 84,000 Scriptures as recorded in the Tripitaka. These Teachings can be summarized as the Noble Eightfold Path which consists of the following eight components:
1. Right View (Samma-ditthi): It means having right understanding about reality such as the facts that we owe our parents a great depth of gratitude; a good deed gives good consequences and a bad deed gives bad consequences; the Celestial Realm and the Hell Realm exist; this world and the hereafter exist; the higher truth about suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the means of ending suffering exist.
2. Right Thought (Samma-sankappa): It means not thinking about sensual pleasures; it means thinking about having no ill-will; thinking about not harming others; thinking about not causing trouble for others.
3. Right Speech (Samma-vaca): It means not lying; not practicing divisive speech; not practicing offensive speech; not practicing nonsensical speech; not being boastful.
4. Right Action (Samma-kammanta): It means not killing; not stealing; practicing chastity.
5. Right Livelihood (Samma-ajiva): It means earning one's living by engaging in honest work.
6. Right Effort (Samma-vayama): It means preventing unwholesome deeds from occurring; abandoning current unwholesome deeds; making new forms of merit; continuing to perform existing wholesome deeds.
7. Right Mindfulness (Samma-sati): It means not allowing one's mind to wander aimlessly. It means that one is constantly aware of the inner physical form which resides within another inner physical form, each inner thought which exists within another inner thought, each inner Dhamma which exists within another inner Dhamma.
8. Right Concentration (Samma-samadhi): It means keeping one's concentration at the center of one's body in order to follow each inner physical form which exists within another inner physical form, each inner thought which exists within another inner thought, each inner Dhamma which exists within another inner Dhamma until one can respectively attain different levels of meditative absorption and proceeds from the mundane to the supramundane level of meditative attainments.
The practice of the Noble Eightfold Path leads one out of suffering. It is the principle method for washing away one's sin or demerit and can be summarized into the threefold training which includes morality, concentration, and wisdom as follows:
* Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood: Precepts
* Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration: Concentration
* Right View and Right Thought: Wisdom
The Teachings of the Lord Buddha can also be summarized as abstaining from misdeeds, performing good deeds, and keeping the mind bright and clear. This threefold training can be considered the heart of Buddhism. The Lord Buddha stressed this threefold training to the Buddhist monks very often because its earnest practice can lead to the destruction of defilements, hence, the washing away of one's sin.
