New Year Aspirations - Confession

Medicine Buddha’s Confession Prayers

DIK TUNG KUN SHAK GE WA JANG CHUB NGO

NE DON DUK NGELDREL WAY TRASHI SHOK

JIK TEN PA NAM RANG NE BENZA MU

YE SHE DAM TSHIK LHA NAM DAK LA THIM

KA DAKKUN ZANG LONG DU. E MA HO.

English translation - Medicine Buddha’s Confession Prayers

I confess all wrong and downfalls and dedicate all virtue to awakening.

May there be the most auspicious of freedom from sickness, harmful spirits and suffering.

The worldly ones return to their own places, BENZA MU.

The Jnana and Samaya Sattvas dissolve into me.

I dissolve into the expanse of all goodness, primordial purity. E MA HO.

Purifying negativity is a basic theme of Buddhist philosophy and practice. According to the teachings of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha of our era, each being has a mind, the basic nature of which is purity, goodness, compassion and wisdom. This basic nature, often called “Buddha Nature,” is the basis for the experience of perfect compassion and wisdom called enlightenment.

But while all beings possess this “seed of awakening, it is often obscured by negativity such as; conflicting, emotions, habitual tendencies, and the belief in a solid, permanent and 

unchanging “self ” and environment. 

These obscurations lead us to commit negative actions, which (according to the Buddha’s teachings on karma) bear fruit as the suffering of cyclic existence (called “Samsara.”). To uncover our basic nature and to stop accumulating negative karma, the Buddha taught that we should:

1. Do away with negative actions;

2. Practice virtuous actions; and

3. Tame the mind (through meditation).

On a daily basis, Buddhists strive to become more aware of their thoughts and actions and to see how those thoughts and actions shape their experience and their world. They also strive to stop performing negative actions and to purify negative actions they have already done, while at the same time strengthening positive actions, and expanding the positive actions they already are performing. 

By doing this, they eliminate negative karma (and its attendant suffering) and increase positive karma (and its attendant happiness). They also remove obscurations, allowing the Buddha nature to become more manifest.

The Practice of Confession

One of the most powerful means of purifying past negative actions and eliminating future negative actions is the practice of Confession. Shakyamuni gave teachings to his followers on the power of confession, and confession was a regular feature of the daily prayer life of his followers.

We can practice confession ourselves on a daily basis. Daily confession helps us confront our faults, become more aware of how our actions affect others, and short-circuit our habitual tendencies. As we do this, negative habits, lose their grip on us, our obscurations 

slowly lift, and we become more “in touch” with our Buddha Nature and our potential for spiritual awakening.

We make confession by reciting a confession liturgy, such as reciting the sacred Sadhanas, Sutras and Mantras.  A Special Means of Purification is to recite the Vajrasattva Mantra. In addition, the Vajrayana teachings of the Buddha contain a special means for purifying negativity is the 100-syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva.

The Mantra is composed of seed syllables that are the embodiment of 100 “families”—all of the deities of the Vajrayana. Vajrasattva (Dorje Sempa in Tibetan) has vowed that his mantra would have the power to purify even the most terrible misdeeds, it is among the most powerful means we have for purifying negative karma and obscurations. 

The Tibetan word for mantra is “ngak,” implies power, meaning that the words themselves are powerful. But our attitude and intention in saying them is crucial, as well. Any mantra can bring about purification, if you think it will. But Vajrasattva’s mantra is especially powerful and prominent.

The 100-Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva

OM VAJRASATTVA SAMAYA, 

MANUPALAYA VAJRASATTVA,

TENOPA TISHTHA DRIDHO ME BHAWA,

SUTOKHAYO ME BHAWA, SUPOKHAYO ME BHAWA,

ANURAKTO ME BHAWA, SARWA SIDDHI ME PRAYACCHA,

SARWA KARMA SU TSA ME, TSITTAM SHREYANG KURU, HUNG,

HA HA HA HA HO, BHAGAWAN SARWA TATHAGATA,

VAJRA MA ME MUNCA, VAJRI BHAWA, MAHA SAMAYASATTVA, HA.

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Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

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