What the Water Repentance contains
In scroll 1 the text says that wrongdoings, though countless, come down to three: afflictions, karmic obstacles and their results — which the sūtras call the three obstacles, because they block the good path. The whole liturgy follows that order: scroll 1 confesses the afflictions, scroll 2 notes that «the obstacles of affliction have been briefly confessed» and turns to karmic obstacles, and scroll 3 lays out «the remaining obstacles of results» and closes with vows of dedication.
Every scroll opens «All Buddhas, out of compassion for beings…», followed by bowing to the names of Buddhas and bodhisattvas — Vairocana, Śākyamuni, Amitābha, Maitreya and many more — before the words of repentance. After the word «We» the text leaves a blank, usually where those chanting say their own names.
What each scroll says
Scroll 1 names the roots of wrongdoing — the three poisons, three outflows, three kinds of suffering, three distortions and craving for the three realms — asks to repent them, and closes with the aspiration to follow the thirty-seven aids to awakening and the ten perfections before bowing to the Three Jewels. Scroll 2 repents each kind of karma in turn, such as stealing and lying, and distinguishes faults shared by body, speech and mind from those of a single sense faculty.
Scroll 3 quotes the Buddha — «A human birth is hard to gain, the Dharma hard to hear, the Saṅgha hard to meet, faith hard to arise, the six faculties hard to have whole, a good friend hard to find» — repents the obstacles of results in the six paths and four kinds of birth, and moves into the vows of dedication: offering the merit of repentance for the good of all beings.
Chanting it at home
Many people chant one scroll in a session and all three over three days. Open the scroll, press «Chant» and choose a comfortable speed; tap the screen when you stop to bow. The library holds the Vietnamese translation only, with no Sino-Vietnamese transliteration or recording.
Repentance in the liturgy is not endless self-blame: the text moves from admitting faults and not repeating them to vows of doing good and dedicating it to all beings. Those chanting at home can follow the session with something concrete — an apology, a habit corrected — so the vow takes root in daily life.
