Repentance prayer and repentance verse read before sleeping

Lễ sám hối (repentance ceremony). Daily, early morning or at night before sleeping; the pagoda's hồng danh sám hối (repentance of the Buddha's names) service

  • Used across Vietnam
  • Buddhist
  • Buddhist repentance text or verse (sám, kệ)

Culture and belief A record of custom.

What this prayer says

Prayer of repentance and verses of repentance read before sleeping, directed to the Buddhas of the ten directions, Bodhisattvas, and the Three Jewels, to acknowledge faults committed by body, speech, and mind and vow not to repeat them. Read during the whole rite, with a bell at several points.

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

Fill in before the rite

The prayer below is ready to read.

Your regional custom

Showing the version used across Vietnam.

How it differs from the common version

This text differs from the original: six-character verse, words of repentance about anger, blame, and loss of mindfulness in daily life; vowing to water good seeds, practice the breath, and loving speech; after it there are two short verses.

The common version: Daily recitation prayer of vow and repentance

Other texts for Lễ sám hối (repentance ceremony)

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

Part of the open dataset Vietnamese offering prayers (văn cúng), licensed CC BY 4.0.

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