Practices that Lead to the Washing Away of One’s Sin
1) Value the Precepts More than One's Life: Diligently train oneself by disciplining one's body, word, and mind so as to keep them pure. One keeps the Five Precepts on regular days and the Eight Precepts on Holy Days. Novice monks must keep the Ten Precepts and the Buddhist monks must keep the 227 Precepts. One must be willing to lay down one's life for the sake of Precepts because the Precepts are like the path which leads the practitioners directly to his destination.
Precepts Has To Do with Cleanliness
According to the Lord Buddha's Teachings, cleanliness brought about by the Precepts is not at the superficial level but at the deep level. The Lord Buddha taught that "A person can bathe himself 100 times a day but if he still kills, steals, commits sexual misconduct, that person is still not considered to have a clean body. A person can brush his teeth 1,000 times a day but if he still lies, practices nonsensical speech, gossips, that person is not considered to have a clean mouth."
Therefore, in Buddhism cleanliness means physical cleanliness, verbal cleanliness, and mental cleanliness which arise from keeping the Precepts. It is the type of cleanliness that protects us from physical misdeed, verbal misdeed, and mental misdeed.
The Lord Buddha teaches that "Physical cleanliness, verbal cleanliness, and mental cleanliness are true cleanliness." Precepts allow us to abandon all unwholesomeness and to keep our life flawless. This is the first level of decency and can also be considered as the first stage in the process of washing away one's sin.
2) Train the Mind by Practicing Meditation: Discipline the mind by keeping it continuously tranquil in accordance with the Four Foundations of Mindfulness by contemplating the body, the feelings, the mind, and the mind objects until Higher Knowledge or Vijja is attained. It is crucially important to discipline the mind because every action begins with an intention. The mind is the boss. The mind is king. Everything can be accomplished because of the mind. Therefore, if the mind is properly disciplined, it can control the action of the body.
Meditation Has To Do with Brightness
If inner brightness or inner illumination does not occur then the Noble Paths, which begin with the First Path Sphere and all the way to the Dhammakaya, cannot be attained. How bright must this inner brightness be? This inner brightness can be compared to the brightness of the midday sun. But the level of brightness needed to access the details of one's past existences has to be as bright as the sky filled with hundreds, thousands, and countless number of suns. The greater the brightness, the more pronounced and the purer the insight will be. The Lord Buddha had the following to say about the brightness that occurs through meditation practice (as recorded in the Upak-kilesa Sutta).
"Behold Anuruddha, I know this. Anytime my meditation power is low, that's the time I can see only a little. When I experience only a small amount of brightness, I can see only a little. But anytime that my meditation power is immeasurable, that's the time I can see immeasurably well and the amount of brightness is also immeasurable. I can see an immeasurable number of forms all night, all day or all night and all day long."
Meditation practice is considered a medium level of decency. It enables us to better lead our lives within the framework of the Precepts. Our mind can more effectively keep our physical and verbal deeds pure. The meticulous keeping of the Precepts controls our physical and verbal acts and make them purer. Precepts are instrumental in keeping our mind still to a certain extent. The more we practice meditation, the more we can still our mind and the brighter our mind becomes. Precepts and meditation practice support each other. Meditation practice can be considered as the second stage in the process of washing away one's sin.
3) Develop True Wisdom: True wisdom leads us to the truth and controls all of our behavior. It releases the mind from the clutch of ignorance. It causes the mind to be tranquil, spacious, and free. Wisdom is developed from meditation practice. Once meditation practice gives rise to inner brightness, the higher the brightness level, the more wisdom is increased, and the more Higher Knowledge is gained.
Wisdom Has To Do with Tranquility
Tranquility in this case does not mean wisdom which comes from memorization or from thinking but from the Dhamma within us. Wisdom which comes from the Dhamma within allows the truth to be witnessed. The more truth one can witness, the more tranquil the mind will be. One realizes how limited the physical eye is and how small the world really is. In seeing with the physical eye, the vision is only 180 degrees but when we close our eyes to look inward, our mind can be expanded until it covers the entire world and much more. When we use our inner eye, the world is only the size of a gooseberry. The Lord Buddha had the following to say about inner peace (as recorded in the Pathama-rohi-tassa Sutta).
The end of the worlds cannot be reached however much time it takes. However as long as one cannot reach the end of the worlds, one cannot escape suffering. However, one who has attained insight and gained the truth about the worlds; one who has already reached the end of the worlds; one who has practiced chastity; is tranquil and no longer desires the things of the worlds.
Once one observes the Precepts more and more meticulously, one's mind will become bright and clear. One's Insight Sphere will be bright and one can see life for what it truly is. One understands suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the way to end suffering. One does not fall prey to one's inherent defilements and can abstain from all forms of misdeed. One can eventually be emancipated from defilements which are the root cause of demerit and attain Nibbana. Developing true wisdom can be considered as the final stage in the process of washing away one's sin.
The way to wash away one's sin is by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, which can be summarized into the threefold training of Precepts, meditation, and insight. Physical and verbal cleanliness reflects a clean mind and causes the practitioner to be bright both on the outside and the inside. Physical and verbal cleanliness which results from keeping the Precepts and the brightness within which results from meditation practice in turn allows one to develop tranquility as a result of insight. Insight helps one to be constantly aware of defilements which are the causes of all misdeeds. This vigilance allows defilements inherent in the mind to be scrubbed away until eventually the mind is scrubbed completely clean of them. When that happens, sin is washed away and purity of the mind becomes a permanent state as in the case of Arahats.
