菩薩五法懺悔文

The Buddhas of the three times and the ten directions, with the five eyes, illumine and behold the world, knowing fully the three periods of time and seeing clearly the marks of transgression and merit. We, your disciples, named…, from countless kalpas until now, have not met good spiritual friends, and so have committed every transgression: breaking the precepts, perpetrating the four grave offenses, the six grave offenses, and the eight grave offenses, slandering the True Dharma, severing our roots of goodness, and becoming icchantikas.

Today, by our good fortune, we have the blessed conditions to meet the Tathāgatas, the Dharma, and the assembly of Worthies and Saints, by which all transgressions can be extinguished. Your disciples bow our heads and pay homage, praying that all our transgressions be wholly dispelled, and that supreme wisdom may arise. Having confessed and repented, we prostrate the five limbs to the ground in homage.

When the Buddhas first ascended the place of enlightenment, gazing upon the tree where they walked in meditation, before they had yet turned the wheel of the Dharma, they saw sentient beings sunk in the long night of ignorance, with aging and death truly pitiable; therefore they vowed to reveal the medicines of the Dharma, to heal the sicknesses of suffering, and to let the rain of the Dharma fall everywhere, rescuing sentient beings who had withered, that they might attain the radiant Path.

The Buddhas now present in the ten directions, having delivered all those with whom they had affinity, yet because sentient beings are for the most part given to indolence, have all, through skillful means, entered Nirvāṇa. Your disciples with sincere hearts pay homage and entreat the Buddhas to abide long in the world. May all Bodhisattvas, having already given rise to the supreme aspiration, be yet more diligent, manifesting the attainment of Perfect, Right Enlightenment in worlds where there is no Buddha, and delivering all the multitude of beings.

Since no one surpasses the Buddha in loving-kindness, we therefore, with utmost sincerity, reverently entreat. Having entreated the Buddhas, we bow our heads and faces in homage.

We, throughout many lifetimes, have constantly harbored jealousy, arrogance, anger, and delusion: seeing others gain benefit, we ached as though an arrow had pierced our hearts; hearing that others had found joy, we smarted as though a nail had been driven into our eyes. Because of these obstructions of transgression we have had to fall into the three evil paths, and have constantly been unable to meet the Buddhas. Today, as our minds have just awakened, we give rise to great sympathetic joy.

The Buddhas of the three times and the ten directions, and those assemblies of their disciples, immeasurable in number, from the first arising of a single thought until they sat at the place of enlightenment, cultivated the great equanimity of the four boundless minds, upheld the pure observance of the precepts, and possessed concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the immeasurable knowledge and vision—in all of these your disciples rejoice with sympathetic joy.

When the mind of wisdom is bright and clear, the darkness of delusion is destroyed; when a single thought of sympathetic joy arises, its merit fills all ten directions, and one attains wisdom like that of the Buddhas. Having rejoiced with sympathetic joy, we prostrate the five limbs in homage.

Coming and going within birth and death, from birth until death, now wealthy and noble, now poor and lowly, though we have not yet attained Nirvāṇa, yet the Dharma-body is ever pure, and prajñā is always wondrous liberation. Now, seeking these benefits, all those deeds that can give rise to meritorious karma we harmoniously dedicate to all sentient beings, that together they may accomplish the supreme Path—vast as empty space, markless as true wisdom, ultimately reaching to the very end throughout the Dharma-realm, the adamantine wisdom of emptiness ever made manifest, supernatural powers without striving, where wherever there is a responsive feeling there is a response. Having dedicated the merit, we bow our heads in homage.

We further, with sincere hearts, give rise to a great vow: to practice the Path as we have vowed, our mind of wisdom like a mighty wind, our power of concentration like the adamantine. After dedicating the merit in this way, thought after thought we are transformed into compassion, departing far from any thought of clinging attachment, and joyfully delivering all. When we come to relinquish this body, may we meet a Buddha who emits radiant light, dispelling all obstacles and calamities, and be born by transformation in the Tuṣita Heaven, where we shall meet the Venerable Maitreya, complete in all the marks, our six faculties wholly penetrating and clear.

Hearing the Buddha expound the wondrous Dharma, we shall at once realize the Forbearance of the Non-arising of Dharmas, dwell in the stage of Non-retrogression, wield the power of great supernatural faculties, roam the Buddha-lands throughout the ten directions, make offerings to all Buddhas, and with immeasurable wondrous sounds praise the merit of the Buddhas, at all times manifesting our bodies throughout the twenty-five realms of existence—like the sun shining upon the world, its light illumining all ten directions, becoming a bright lamp for every place of darkness.

Though we attain the Buddha-Path, turn the wheel of the Dharma, and manifest Nirvāṇa, yet so long as sentient beings have not all fully accomplished Buddhahood, we shall leave none behind, giving rise to a vow as vast as those of Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī. Having made the vow, we cleanse our hearts and pay homage.