Petition for the disaster-dispelling rite at a portent among the stars星變消災道場疏
如來旋敎令之輪。身現怒像。神呪熾光明之焰。威服群魔。苟結界以歸心。卽轉災而爲福。伏念乘時板蕩。託位重艱。若抱火厝薪。雖軫思危之念。如膠柱調瑟。莫知通變之機。故制度未得其中。而怨謗多興於下。况經征戰已後。多是瘡痍之餘。民亦勞止而有甚尾赬。國已病焉而幾至蹠戾。政刑所失。恠異滋彰。近承候史之言。連有彗祅之見。或大陰掩軒轅之度。或流星入羽林之庭。天譴孔明。盖欲寡人之省窹。予德不類。且將何善以鎭禳。惟玆微密之門。實是神通之印。竭帑藏而黷祀也。不若借靈丹之力。繕甲兵而嚴守也。不若仗金杵之威。玆闢禁闈。式張覺席。香泥塗地。飾淨範之莊嚴。貝葉開函。厲梵聲而宣振。精衷所格。妙力遄加。伏願六氣順時。五緯軌道。干戈載戢。內奸外侮之自消。刁斗不鳴。東鄙北陲之永靜。云云。
When the Tathagata turns the wheel of the teaching, he manifests in his body a wrathful form; and the mysterious spells make the flame of radiance blaze, so that the host of demons is subdued by his majesty. Truly, if the boundary is bound and the mind is turned, then calamity is turned about and made into blessing.
Prostrate, I consider that I came upon a time of disorder and entrusted myself to a weighty and hard seat. It is as though I held fire and set it upon brushwood: though I hold painfully to a mind mindful of danger, it is also as though I tuned a lute whose bridges had been glued fast, and I do not know the pivot by which one meets change. Therefore the institutions have not found their fitness, and resentment and slander rise up thick from below.
Still more, this is after war has been gone through, and for the most part these are people left wounded. The people too are worn out, worse than a fish whose tail has reddened, and the state is already sick and has nearly come to ruin. Where government and punishment have gone wrong, strange things show themselves the more.
Of late, hearing the words of the officers who watch the heavens, they say that uncanny signs of comets appear one after another. Now Taeeum (大陰) screens the degrees of the Heonwon (軒轅) constellation, now a falling star has entered the court of Urim (羽林). Heaven's reproof is very plain, and for the most part it is a wish that I should look and understand. My virtue is not good; with what good deed, then, shall I press the trouble down and turn it away?
Only this subtle and secret gate is truly a seal of divine power. To empty the state granaries and multiply sacrifices is not so good as borrowing the strength of the numinous elixir; to put armor and weapons in order and keep strict guard is not so good as trusting the majesty of the vajra.
Therefore I open the palace gates and spread the seat of awakening. Scented clay is smeared upon the ground to adorn the splendor of the pure ritual, and the coffer of the pattra-leaf scriptures is opened, the Brahma-sound made ready and shaken forth far and wide. Where sincere inward feeling reaches, I pray that the mysterious power be swiftly added.
Prostrate, I pray that the six breaths follow the seasons and the five planets keep their paths; that shield and spear be put away, so that treachery within and contempt from without vanish of themselves; and that the watchman's clapper not sound, so that the eastern marches and the northern frontier be still for long. What follows is abridged.