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<h4>Making Amends</h4> | <h4>Making Amends</h4> | ||
Transgressing a bodhisattva vow is considered a serious offense, as such a person loses his or her moral integrity, fails to keep one’s status, displeases the buddhas, lets down the sentient beings whom one has promised to save, and could be reborn in unhappy realms. Thus, one must make amends through confession within six hours, or one-sixth of a day. Applying the four powers for confession mentioned earlier, a bodhisattva who has committed a downfall must make confessions and amendments. Śāntideva recommends that a bodhisattva who has committed a downfall must confess by chanting ''The Sūtra of Three Heaps'' three times during day and three times during the night.<ref>See ''Trīskhandhadharmasūtra'' (''<i>'</i>Phags pa phung po gsum pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo'') D284, mdo sde, vol. 68, ya, 57a3–77a3, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW4CZ5369_0284. For an English translation, see Stefan Mang and Peter Woods (Samye Translations), trans., "The Bodhisattva's Confession of Downfalls" (Lotsawa House, 2020), https://www.lotsawahouse.org/words-of-the-buddha/confession-of-downfalls-nyingma.</ref> | Transgressing a bodhisattva vow is considered a serious offense, as such a person loses his or her moral integrity, fails to keep one’s status, displeases the buddhas, lets down the sentient beings whom one has promised to save, and could be reborn in unhappy realms. Thus, one must make amends through confession within six hours, or one-sixth of a day. Applying the four powers for confession mentioned earlier, a bodhisattva who has committed a downfall must make confessions and amendments. Śāntideva recommends that a bodhisattva who has committed a downfall must confess by chanting ''The Sūtra of Three Heaps'' three times during day and three times during the night.<ref>See ''Trīskhandhadharmasūtra'' (''<i>'</i>Phags pa phung po gsum pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo'') D284, mdo sde, vol. 68, ya, 57a3–77a3, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW4CZ5369_0284. For an English translation, see Stefan Mang and Peter Woods (Samye Translations), trans., "The Bodhisattva's Confession of Downfalls" (Lotsawa House, 2020), https://www.lotsawahouse.org/words-of-the-buddha/confession-of-downfalls-nyingma.</ref> | ||
Śāntideva also cites ''The Sūtra of Ākāśagarbha'' and advises that a bodhisattva who has committed downfalls can confess to Ākāśagarbha, who will appear in a dream in some form to help make amends by giving instructions. The bodhisattva must make the following supplication to Ākāśagarbha before twilight and sleep again: | |||
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|quote-text=Dawn! Dawn! O Compassionate and Fortunate One! As soon as you shine on the world, cover me with compassion. I also entreat Ākāśagarbha, the compassionate one to show me the means by which I can confess the downfalls and the means by which I can attain the wisdom and skillful means of the sublime Mahāyāna.<ref>Śāntideva, ''Śikṣāsamuccaya'' (''Bslab pa kun las btus pa''), in Derge Tengyur D3940, dbu ma, vol. 111, khi, fol. 42a6-42b1, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23703_3940. For the passage in the ''Ākāśagarbhasūtra'' (''<i>'</i>Phags pa nam mkha'i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo''), see Derge Kangyur D260, mdo sde, vol. 66, za, fol. 275.b, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW22084_0260. | |||
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