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Buddhism - Zen Prayers

The Beauty of This Path:

For me, the beauty of the Zen Buddhist path is the focus on discovering and understanding your true self, your "pure and clear" essence that is "free" from death. In this journey, the goal is a simple one: to be "released from the cycle of transmigration (reincarnation) and to be born in the land of purity" (by ascending to the inner worlds). The means of attaining the goal is mastery of the "passions, the Dharmas, and the Buddha-truth", realizing that "all beings shall equally attain Buddhahood" eventually.

Prayer Index: Buddhism - Zen Prayers

Confession
The Four Great Vows
Prayer of Offering
Prayer of Prosperity

Confession

All the evil karma ever committed by me since of old,
On account of greed, anger, and folly, which have no beginning,
Born of my body, mouth, and thought - I now make full open confession of it.

The Four Great Vows

However innumerable beings are, I vow to save them;
However inexhaustible the passions are, I vow to extinguish them;
However immeasurable the Dharmas are, I vow to master them;
However incomparable the Buddha-truth is, I vow to attain it.

Prayer of Offering

O you hosts of spiritual beings, we make this offering to you all, which we pray will fill the ten quarters and that all beings of your kind will partake of it.

By the practice of this meritorious deed we pray that we repay what we owe to our parents, who have done all they could for our sakes. May those who are still alive continue to enjoy their happy and prosperous lives for ever, while those who are no more with us be released from suffering and born in the land of bliss.

We pray that all sentient beings in the triple world who are recipients of the fourfold benefaction, together with those beings suffering in the three evil paths of existence and tormented with the eight kinds of calamities, may repent of all their sins and be cleansed of all their sores, so that they may all be released from the cycle of transmigration and be born in the land of purity.

We pray to all the Buddhas, all the Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas in the ten quarters, of the past, present, and future, to Mahaprajna-paramita, that by virtue of this merit universally prevailing not only we but all beings shall equally attain Buddhahood.

Prayer of Prosperity

May all beings in the three evil paths of existence variously suffering the eight kinds of disasters be thereby released from the afflictions!
May all beings in the triple world who are recipients of the fourfold benefaction thereby participate in the merit!

May the state continue in peaceful prosperity with all its warlike activities stopped!
May the wind blow in time, the rain fall seasonably, and the people live happily!
May the entire congregation sharing in the exercise cherish the higher aspirations!
To go beyond the ten stages with a cap, and this without much difficulty!

May this congregation keep on its quiet life, free from disturbances.
And the patrons and devotees grow not only in faith but in wisdom and bliss!
We pray this to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas in the ten quarters, of the past, present, and future, and to Mahaprajna-paramita!