Lễ sám hối (repentance ceremony)

  • Cầu an, giải hạn (prayers for peace, rites to ward off misfortune)
  • 7 prayer texts
  • Offerings and steps

Culture and belief A record of custom.

About this rite: when it is held and for whom

Also called: Sám hối hồng danh, Hồng danh bửu sám, Sám hối sáu căn, Kệ sám hối

The pagoda teaches that sám hối is admitting one's own faults committed by body, mouth, and mind before Tam Bảo and vowing not to repeat them. Laypeople recite a prayer of vow or a verse of repentance; the pagoda has the hồng danh sám hối service and the sám hối sáu căn (repentance of the six senses).

When
Daily, early morning or at night before sleeping; the pagoda's hồng danh sám hối (repentance of the Buddha's names) service
For whom
Buddhas of the ten directions, Bodhisattvas, Tam Bảo (the Three Jewels)

Daily recitation prayer of vow and repentance

  • Used across Vietnam
  • Buddhist

What this prayer says

Daily repentance prayer, recited before the Three Jewels and the Buddhas of the ten directions to acknowledge faults committed by body, speech, and mind, to pray for peace and safety for parents and relatives, and to pray for the deliverance of the spirits of ancestors of many generations and of spirits not yet reborn. Recited in the early morning or at night before sleeping.

The prayer below is kept in Vietnamese, the language it is read aloud in during the rite.

Fill in before the rite

Your name and address appear in the prayer below and are kept on this device only.

Your regional custom

Showing the version used across Vietnam.

(Ghi chú: Nhớ và ghi ra những điều, dù nhỏ, dù lớn mà mình đã gây ra trong kiếp này và thành tâm sám hối)

(Ghi chú: Nếu quý vị làm lễ Sám Hối riêng, hãy đọc lại câu “Hết thảy các tội con xin chí thành quỳ nơi đây dâng lòng Sám Hối. Xin chư Phật mười phương, chư Bồ Tát và Đức Mẹ Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát chứng minh cho lòng thành của con. (54 hoặc 108 lạy.)

Other texts for Lễ sám hối (repentance ceremony)

Versions by region, by tradition and for each part of the rite.

Offerings and how the rite is done

As commonly practised and recorded by the sources. Each family and each region may do it differently.

Used across Vietnam, Buddhist

When
Daily (early morning or at night before sleeping); the pagoda has its own hồng danh sám hối service
Where the offerings are set
Before the Buddha altar at home or at the pagoda
Who makes the offering
Buddhists recite on their own; the service has a presiding master

Offerings

OfferingQuantityNotes
Incense, lamps3 incense sticksthe presiding master holds the incense level with the forehead when reading the incense offering text

Steps

  1. Light the lamps and incense, kneel and read the incense offering text, make vows
  2. Pay homage, chant the incense burner praise, recite the Great Compassion Mantra, the verse opening the sutra
  3. Recite the Buddha's names, one prostration for each name
  4. Recite the Heart Sutra, the rebirth mantra
  5. The whole assembly kneels together and reads the repentance verse, the mantra for erasing offenses, the four lines of the sincere repentance
  6. Dedication of merit, renewal of vows, taking refuge on one's own

Where the sources differ

  • How full the ritual is: the hồng danh sám hối text is a long service with many parts; the daily prayer of vow consists only of prostrations, a repentance statement in which one writes down one's own faults, and dedication of merit; the sám hối sáu căn ritual also has a shortened form (prayer text, sutra recitation, renewal of vows) for those without enough time

Collected text. The dotted italic words are blanks for you to fill in.

Sources for the offerings and steps

  • Sám hối sáu căn (chuabavang.com)

Part of the open dataset Types of Vietnamese offering rites and Vietnamese offering procedures, licensed CC BY 4.0.

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