Text of Homage to the Buddha and Repentance

Disciple so-and-so, from beginningless time until this present life, has destroyed and violated the Three Jewels and acted as an icchantika. Now, before the Three Jewels of the ten directions and before the sentient beings of the six realms, I sincerely repent the transgressions of the three periods of time. As for the ten unwholesome deeds of body, speech, and mind in the present, may they never arise again, until the end of future ages; as for the ten unwholesome deeds of body, speech, and mind in the future, may they never arise at all, until the end of future ages; as for the ten unwholesome deeds of body, speech, and mind in the past, may they never arise again, until the end of future ages.

I only pray that the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three periods of time, with great compassion, will take pity on me. I dwell in saṃsāra with nothing to rely upon; through the long night of birth-and-death I have remained ever unawakened. As an ordinary being I am bound by all fetters, my deluded mind inverted, everywhere grasping at conditions; I dwell in the burning house of the three realms, falsely defiled by the six sense objects, with no one to protect or rescue me; I was born into a poor and lowly family, without freedom, constantly enduring suffering; I was born into a family of parents holding wrong views, committing transgressions while depending upon evil companions.

I only pray that the greatly compassionate Honored Ones, the Buddhas, will take pity on me and protect and be mindful of me as their only child. With this one repentance, I will never again commit transgressions; may the Tathāgatas of the three periods of time bear witness, and bestow upon me the Bodhisattva Threefold Collection of Precepts. I vow to uphold them without regression, diligently cultivating to deliver suffering sentient beings from bondage; before I myself have been delivered, I will deliver others first, without interruption until the end of future ages.

I beg the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions and the three periods of time to bless me, that my evil karma may be eradicated and my roots of goodness increase, and to bestow upon me the Bodhisattva Threefold Collection of Precepts. I vow that from this moment on I may be able to receive and uphold the Threefold Collection of Precepts: to benefit all sentient beings, to cultivate and gather in all wholesome dharmas, and to cultivate and gather in all the disciplinary rules.