The 35 Buddhas for Confession of Moral Downfalls
Bodhisattva’s Confession of Moral Downfalls being one of the most popular. We all have done actions that we now feel badly about doing, and we have aspects of ourselves that we do not like and wish to change. Purification practices are excellent means to remove emotional burdens such as guilt, as well as to pacify the obstacles to our happiness and self-improvement created by the imprints of our destructive actions. Guilt over past actions is useless, only leaving us feeling helpless and hopeless. On the other hand, acting to purify negative imprints and afflictions is very productive. It helps us to change our bad habits and subdues obstacles to long life and success in our spiritual practice.
| Sanskrit | Tibetan | Tibetan pronunciation | English |
| Śākyamuni | ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་ | shakya tup-pa | Shakyamuni |
| Vajrapramardī | རྡོ་རྗེ་སྙིང་པོས་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པ | dorjé nyingpö raptu jompa | Thoroughly Conquered with Vajra Essence |
| Ratnārśiṣ | རིན་ཆེན་འོད་འཕྲོ | rinchen ö-tro | Radiant Jewel |
| Nāgeśvararāja | ཀླུ་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ | luwang gi gyelpo | King, Lord of the Nagas |
| Vīrasena | དཔའ་བོའི་སྡེ | pawö-dé | Army of Heroes |
| Vīranandī | དཔའ་བོ་དགྱེས | pawö-gyé | Delighted Hero |
| Ratnāgni | རིན་ཆེན་མེ | rinchen-mé | Jewel Fire |
| Ratnacandraprabha | རིན་ཆེན་ཟླ་འོད | rinchen da-ö | Jewel Moonlight |
| Amoghadarśi | མཐོང་བ་དོན་ཡོད | tongwa dönyö | Meaningful Vision |
| Ratnacandra | རིན་ཆེན་ཟླ་བ | rinchen dawa | Jewel Moon |
| Vimala | དྲི་མ་མེད་པ | drima mépa | Stainless One |
| Śūradatta | དཔའ་སྦྱིན | pa-jin | Glorious Giving |
| Brahma | ཚངས་པ | tsangpa | Pure One |
| Brahmadatta | ཚངས་པས་སྦྱིན་ | tsangpé jin | Giving of Purity |
| Varuṇa | ཆུ་ལྷ | chu lha | Water God |
| Varuṇadeva | ཆུ་ལྷའི་ལྷ | chu lhaé lha | Deity of the Water Gods |
| Bhadraśrī | དཔལ་བཟང | pel-zang | Glorious Goodness |
| Candanaśrī | ཙན་དན་དཔལ | tsenden pel | Glorious Sandalwood |
| Anantaujas | གཟི་བརྗིད་མཐའ་ཡས | ziji tayé | Infinite Splendour |
| Prabhāśrī | འོད་དཔལ | ö pel | Glorious Light |
| Aśokaśrī | མྱ་ངན་མེད་པའི་དཔལ་ | nyangen mépé pel | Sorrowless Glory |
| Nārāyaṇa | སྲེད་མེད་ཀྱི་བུ | sémé-kyi bu | Son of Non-craving |
| Kusumaśrī | མེ་ཏོག་དཔལ | métok pel | Glorious Flower |
| Tathāgata Brahmajyotivikrīḍitābhijña | དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཚངས་པའི་འོད་ཟེར་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པ་མངོན་པར་མཁྱེན་པ | dézhin shekpa tsangpé özer nampar rölpa ngönpar khyenpa | Pure Light Rays Clearly Knowing by Play |
| Tathāgata Padmajyotirvikrīditābhijña | དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་པདྨའི་འོད་ཟེར་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པས་མངོན་པར་མཁྱེན་པ | dézhin shekpa pémé özer nampar rölpé ngönpar khyenpa | Lotus light Rays Clearly knowing by Play |
| Dhanaśrī | ནོར་དཔལ | norpel | Glorious Wealth |
| Smṛtiśrī | དྲན་པའི་དཔལ | drenpé pel | Glorious Mindfulness |
| Suparikīrtitanāmagheyaśrī | མཚན་དཔལ་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཡོངས་སུ་གྲགས་པ | tsenpel shintu yongsu drakpa | Renowned Glorious Name |
| Indraketudhvajarāja | དབང་པོའི་ཏོག་གི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ | wangpö tok-gi gyeltsen-gyi gyelpo | King of the Victory Banner that Crowns the Sovereign |
| Suvikrāntaśrī | ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་གནོན་པའི་དཔལ | shintu nampar nönpé pel | Glorious One Who Fully Subdues |
| Yuddhajaya | གཡུལ་ལས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ | yül lé nampar gyelwa | Utterly Victorious in Battle |
| Vikrāntagāmī | རྣམ་པར་གནོན་པའི་གཤེགས་པའི་དཔལ | nampar nönpé shekpé pel | Glorious Transcendence Through Subduing |
| Samantāvabhāsavyūhaśrī | ཀུན་ནས་སྣང་བ་བཀོད་པའི་དཔལ | kün-né nangwa köpé pel | Glorious Manifestations Illuminating All |
| Ratnapadmavikramī | རིན་ཆེན་པདྨའི་རྣམ་པར་གནོན་པ | Rinchen padmé nampar nönpa | Jewel Lotus who Subdues All |
| Ratnapadmasupraṭiṣṭhita-śailendrarāja | དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དང་པདྨ་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་བཞུགས་པའི་རི་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ | Dézhin shekpa drachompa yangdakpar dzokpé sanggyé rinpoché dang padama la raptu zhukpé riwang gi gyelpo | All-subduing Jewel Lotus, Arhat, Perfectly Completed Buddha, King of the Lord of the Mountains Firmly Seated on Jewel |
MANTRA.
"Om namo manjushriye namo sushriye namo uttama shriye soha"
Note: beside each name of BUDDHA, the the type of negative action that it helps in purifying is also given. An eon is a really, really, super-long, impossible-to-measure length of time.)
The Founder, Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, perfectly completed Buddha, glorious conqueror Shakyamuni Buddha
(The ripening of effects of wrongs done over 10,000 great eons)
Tathagata Thoroughly Destroying with Vajra Essence
(The ripening of effects of wrongs done over 10,000 great eons)
Tathagata Radiant Jewel
(Non-virtue committed over 20,000 eons)
Tathagata King, Lord of the Nagas
(Non-virtue committed over 1,000 eons)
Tathagata Army of Heroes
(Non-virtue committed over 1,000 eons)
Tathagata Delighted Hero
(Non-virtue committed over 2,000 eons)
Tathagata Jewel Fire
(Non-virtue committed over 2,000 eons)
Tathagata Jewel Moonlight
(Non-virtue committed over 8,000 eons)
Tathagata Meaningful See
(Non-virtue committed over one eon)
Tathagata Jewel Moon
(The imprints of the five actions of immediate retribution)
Tathagata Stainless One
(The imprints of the five parallel actions of immediate retribution)
Tathagata Bestowed with Courage
(Negativities arising from anger)
Tathagata Pure One
(Negativities committed arising from the attachment of 10,000 eons)
Tathagata Bestowed with Purity
(General non-virtues of the 10,000 eons)
Tathagata Water God
(Non-virtue committed over 1,000 eons)
Tathagata Deity of the Water God
(Non-virtue committed over 5,000 eons)
Tathagata Glorious Goodness
(Non-virtue committed over 5,000 eons)
Tathagata Glorious Sandalwood
(Non-virtue committed over 7,000 eons)
Tathagata Infinite Splendor
(Non-virtue committed over 7,000 eons)
Tathagata Glorious Light
(Stains of previous evil actions of unlimited time)
Tathagata Sorrowless Glory
(The potencies of actions done out of ignorance)
Tathagata Son of Non-craving
(Negativities done out of the instinct of ignorance)
Tathagata Glorious Flower
(The latent traces of all physical non-virtues)
Tathagata Pure Light Rays Clearly Knowing by Play
(Verbal negativities)
Tathagata Lotus Light Rays Clearly Knowing by Play
(Mental negativities)
Tathagata Glorious Wealth
(Imprints arising from the non-virtue of stealing from monasteries)
Tathagata Glorious Mindfulness
(Negativities arising from despising others or abusing them)
Tathagata Glorious Name Widely Renowned
(Negativities arising from jealousy)
Tathagata King Holding the Victory Banner of Foremost Power
(Negativities arising from arrogance and conceit)
Tathagata Glorious One Totally Subduing
(Negativities arising out of slander)
Tathagata Utterly Victorious in Battle
(Negativities arising out of all type of
non-virtuous actions)
Tathagata Glorious Transcendence Through Subduing
(The stain of encouraging others act improperly)
Tathagata Glorious Manifestations Illuminating All
(The non-virtue of rejoicing in unwholesome deeds)
Tathagata All-Subduing Jewel Lotus
(The imprints of all forms of abandoning spirituality)
Tathagata, arhat, perfectly completed Buddha, King of the Lord of Mountains Firmly Seated on Jewel and Lotus (3x)
(Negativities arising from disparaging the Spiritual Master)
Fortunately, in 1955, when Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro came to reside at the Palace Monastery in Gangtok, Sikkim, he saw the photograph, instantly showed great reverence and made copies and distributed to his favorite students.
