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Book Review:

Dharma as Water (Volume 1)

Jeff Steward
Jeff Steward, Ph.D., uses satellite data to improve hurricane predictions. His interest in
Buddhism began as he sought answers for his mother’s death when he was a child.

ave you ever felt regret gnawing at you a salt crystal is
inside your stomach? Have you ever felt placed inside a
Hremorse for your inconsiderate actions? glass of water,
If so, you are not alone. Most people have done it becomes
things they now regret. Buddhism teaches the unbear ably
law of cause and effect, and the Buddha said salty to anyone
in the Upajjhatthana Sutra that each person who would
should realize, “I am the owner of my actions, try to drink it.
heir to my actions, born of my actions, related However, if
through my actions, and have my actions as that same salt
my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for crystal is placed
evil, to that will I fall heir.” Therefore, we know inside a large
that whatever negative actions we have done river, the salt
in the past will have consequences for us now, will dissolve
later in this life, and/or in the next life. Some to the point
believe a higher power can remove our sins for where it is no
us, but Buddhism begins from the principle that longer painful
the wrong actions we have committed simply to drink. In the
cannot be undone; for example, those who same way, our
were harmed by us are unlikely to ask a higher negative actions, like the salt crystal, never go
being permission before trying to get even. We away. Water represents the amount of good
are indeed the heirs of our actions, and no one merit that we have accumulated. So if our good
can take our actions (or their consequences) karma is only the amount of a single glass of
away from us. So how can we overcome these water, the negative deed we committed will
regretful feelings? How can we overcome not have unbearable consequences, while if we
only our remorse but also our fear of future widely practice good deeds, filling our mind
negative consequences as well? with great Dharma Love as wide as a river or
even an ocean, the experience of retribution for
Fortunately, throughout the years many our misdeed will be relatively minor.
Buddhist masters of the past have left us with
repentance ceremonies, powerful group rituals In the English translation of the first volume
where we face the negative deeds we have of Dharma as Water (240 pages, published
done in the past, directly come to grips with our February 2013), we learn about the powerful
regret, and vow to change for the better. Master Water Repentance ceremony developed by the
Cheng Yen’s book, Dharma as Water, teaches us Chinese master Wu-da in the ninth century.
about one such powerful repentance ceremony, According to tradition, Master Wu-da had
known as the Compassionate Samadhi Water the strong negative karma of killing another
Repentance (or Water Repentance for short). The human from many lifetimes ago. After that he
idea for repentance goes back to the Buddha, had become a Buddhist monk and practiced
who taught in the Lonaphala Sutra that when diligently for many lifetimes. It was only

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