Library - Tengyur - Comments on tantras

upoṣadha-vidhi

A ritual of restoration and purification

    I prostrate before the holy one!
    When you are in front of the bodily form of the Blessed One, conceive an [enlightened] attitude. Imagine that the Blessed One who is called from the Potala becomes non-dual with the bodily form. When you have performed the ablution of the five small parts [of the body], touch the feet of the Blessed One together with the retinue. Make real or mind-expressed offerings. Proclaim three times all acceptable hymns. For the satisfaction of body, speech and mind, recite the heart mantra one hundred and eight times. When you have realized the other branches of repentance for harmful things, etc., sit on the seat with the body straightened. Putting your palms together with the flower, reciting this ritual three times, receive restoration and purification yourself:
    All Enlightened Ones and bodhisattvas abiding in the ten directions! Noble Avalokiteshvara, the protector who has great compassion! Please think of me! Blessed Tara! Please think of me!
    So the Tathagatas, the arhats, the truly perfect Enlightened Ones of the past, the bodhisattva-mahasattvas that abide on the great levels and paths, that abide on the great levels and paths to fulfill the benefit for all beings, happiness, the complete completion of the accumulation of moral discipline, the accumulation of samadhi, the accumulation of wisdom, the accumulation of perfect liberation, the accumulation of the vision of the original wisdom of perfect liberation - definitely realized restoration and purification! And just as I have received true [purification and restoration], I, <name>, from this time until the tip of the umbrella [Sun] rises, for the benefit of all sentient beings, for happiness, for the realization of the complete completion of the accumulation of moral discipline, the accumulation of samadhi, the accumulation of wisdom, the accumulation of perfect liberation, the accumulation of the vision of the original wisdom of perfect liberation, will definitely [perform] restoration and purification and will truly receive it!
    Beginning today, I will not cut off life force, nor will I also take the jewelry of others, nor will I also perform perverted actions [of improper intercourse], nor will I also speak lies, nor will I completely give up wine, which is equal to many flaws. Nor will I make a high seat, nor will I give up untimely food, fragrances, garlands, ornaments, dances, songs, etc.!
    Just as the arhats did not constantly carry out the cutting off of life, etc., I will also refrain from cutting off life, etc.! May unsurpassed enlightenment be attained! May living beings who are entangled in numerous sufferings be freed from the ocean of existence!
    Say this. Make offerings to the Blessed One [who is] in the middle of the mandala of cow dung. If by doing so and realizing abiding in strict fasting, performing practices, hymns, and so forth, even if one has done the acts of five limitless [bad actions], one will definitely realize purification. One will hold boundless qualities, etc., from seeing the body, etc., and then one will definitely realize purification. The time for this is the eighth day of the waxing moon. Various kinds of [actions, such as] the small and short eating of the three whites, etc., are also acceptable.
    Thus concludes the ritual of the self-received ritual of restoration and purification composed by the siddhi Tara acharya Bhavabhata.
    Translated by the great pandita Sri Ratnarakshita and the translator Zhangdrubpa Pal Zangpo. Translated by Lama Karma Paljor (O.E. Filippov).