INCENSE OFFERING
(Kneeling)

Still water and meditating forest has been perfumed with Dharma,
Mindful wisdom is spreading all around as sandal scent.
The sword of Precepts has shaped up tall as a mountain,
With heart sincere and earnest, we are taking refuse.
Homage to the Enlightened Beings and Bodhisattvas.

(3 times and standing up).

BUDDHA PRAISE

To the great kind, compassionate ones who rescue living beings.

The ones of great giving joys, who rescue conscious beings.

The ones adorned with the light of hallmark and fine characteristics.

We, the assemblies, are gathering here with heart in respect and utmost sincerity:

- Namo to all Buddha from the three periods of time to the end of empty space, we take refuge. (1 bow)

- Namo to all venerable Dharma from the three periods of time to the end of empty space, we take refuge. (1 bow)

- Namo to all Sage, Enlightened Ones (Sangha) from the three periods of time to the end of empty space, we take refuge. (1 bow)

DHARMA PRAISE

The Dharma is deep and lovely,
Not everyone can encounter it even through million lives.
We now have the chance to see it,
We vow to study, understand and pracice the real meaning of our Honored Ones' words.
We appreciate all Buddha, Bhodisattvas in the Prajnas Realm. (3 times).

REPENTANCE OF THE SIX FALSE SENSES
(Kneeling)

With sincere and earnest heart, we are repenting;
For our loss of basic true senses since the days of no-beginning,
For our ignorance to the Right Path, then consequently we fall to three ways of suffering.
We are mislead ourselves due to our six false senses;
Without repenting the past mistakes, it is hard to avoid the coming problems.

1.- The Karmas of Eyes are:
Interesting in evil things, diregarding the good deeds,
Accepting false flowers, forgetting looking at the real moon.
When love hate interfere, incapable to the conflict of the good and the bad,
Closing eye to the cheating, vague in the right ways.
Thus, white and green, red, and yellow, no differences at all,
View distorted similar to a blind.
Upon a sensuous beauty, the eyes are rolling,
and becoming useless in looking things.
Upon a wealthy man, gluing the eyes at,
but blinding the eye before the poor.
No tear at stranger's death,
but relative's deepening with sorrow.
Not having a look at all to Buddha statue,
while loitering in temple or worship scene.
Dating and eye courting everywhere,
even in a monk's quarter.
No bowing or being respectful at all,
when seeing a Dharma Protector.
These karmas all come from eyes,
resulting being locked in hell.
The offender would spend millions lives there,
before being born again to human.
Even so, he would be blind by the committed karmas.

2.- The Karmas of Ears are:
Hatred to listen to Dharma, but evil saying,
Forgetting the voice of basic conscience, pursuing to the outside forms.
Deepening with music and singing,
Considering mindful bell as the sound of frogs.
Learning by the heart every songs around,
Shutting up the ears to any Dharma talk.
Wishing only to even false praise words,
Rejecting every even recognized good advises.
Wasting time in alcohol and whores,
Enjoying and have fun with gossiping.
Covering ears to any teache's advice,
in parental and national loyalty.
Exploding in sexual desire wherever sounds a women coming,
but the hearing turns bad wheen a sutra explanation voiced.
Such karmas are uncountable, filled-up the space,
After the death, the offender will be pulled to three ways of suffering,
When serving up the terms, he would still deaf.

3.- The Karmas of Nose are:
Like smell only stranger and good odors,
Never paying any attention to pure and decent fragrant.
Searching continuously to the odors of onion and garlic,
Never having a single sniff to pure scent of sandal.
No matter what is the result, just pursuing the bad taste,
all the life long never being tired.
Getting stuck with sex appeal, unable to reject,
but turning away the wisdom and mindfulness.
Eating every thing available in the kitchen or at the market,
regardless it is dirty or rotten.
No matter the smell is sting, just swallow junky food,
as messy as pigs in a stable.
Spitting yellow sputum to anywhere,
Sneezing running nose fluid to clean surface.
Sleeping drunk at Buddha altar or monk quarter,
The bad breath pollutes everything, including Buddha statue.
The false nose confuses the sense,
making the bad to the good, the elegant to the ugly.
These ignorance cause innumerable effects,
drawing the offender into three ways of suffering after death.
Spending millions of hard lives before being reborn to human
Even so, the offender still has disease nose.

4.- The Karmas of Tongue are:
Greedy in eating, tasting all types of food,
Enjoying the bad as well as the good.
Killing animals just to satisfy the eating habit,
Roasting and boiling of the all types.
Fat meat marinated with onion and garlic,
Unable to saturate the eating desire.
At praying ceremony, trying to abstain from meat,
Even being vegetarian for one single day.
Eating as a sick consuming medicine,
After that devoting again to the eating habit.
Laughing, speaking joyfully with meat,
Drinking abundantly with various dishes.
On excuse of wedding, killing many animals,
to satisfy the greedy sense of tongue.
Telling lie, gossiping,
Two tongues and bad mouth are always come up with.
Cursing the Three Jewels and blaming parents,
Disrespecting Sages and cheating everyone.
Accusing others but hiding ones' ignorance,
Discussing history and commenting everything.
Boasting wealth, insulting the poor,
Scaring away monks, cursing servants.
Backbiting as poison, flatering as music,
Altering the bad, mixing up the bad to good.
Hatred toeveryone, insulting the country,
Indulging in vaste talk at Buddha altar or monk quarter.
These ignorance is as much as sand, unable to count,
After death, the offender's tongue will be pulled out.
tilled by machine, and filled with melting copper,
After paying up the debt, spending thousand lives of suffering.
before reborn to human,
Even so, the offender will be mute.

5.- The Karmas of Body are:
The body was from parents and made of innumerable of sentient beings,
Thus ignoring this origin and assuming wrongly it exist forever,
Then hooking up with the three karmas of body: adultery, killing and stealing.

a.- The Karma of Killing are:
Obsessing with cruelty and never being nice,
Killing every living beings, ignoring the fact that they and we are of the same origin.
Knowing killing is wrong, still trying to teach other people,
Using bewitched talismans or poison to harm others.
Keeping killling not loving,
By burning down jungle or obstructing waterways.
Netting fishes or using hunting hounds,
Just for fun and loving to do it.

b.- The Karma of Stealing are:
Wanting to possess the wealth of others,
By breaking door locks or cutting their pockets.
Flooded with greed when seeing public properities,
Committing to stealing, even in temple, without a sense of guilt.
These are karmas of stealing,
No matter a big things as gold or silver,
or a little thing as a needle.

c.- The Karma of Adultery are:
Disregarding the sense of austerity,
Involving in sexual expression when encountering beauties.
Boys and girls indulging in courting and dating,
even at sacred places or monk quarters.
Such ignorance are karmas of adultery,
After death, the offender will be inundated with suffering.
by being grilled on an iron bed, or being roasted by hot bronze pillars,
These karmas will follow and affect them for thousands lives.

6.- The Karmas of Perception are:
Thinking restlessly with sinful joys,
Obsessing permanently with desire and being stuck with form.
Similar to a silk worm tightens itself with it silk,
Or a caterpillar jumps to a fire to be burned by the fire.
Loosing control of mind and involving in cheating,
These are the causes of three evils:

a.- Greed:
Indulging in hate and greed,
Nothing to be satisfied with, even wealth in hand.
The mind is similar to a leaking vase,
Never be filled and never be happy with.
Letting harvest be rotted, rather than feeding the hungry,
Clothes be wastefully pilled, rather than making others warm.
Gaining hundred, never filled satisfied at all,
While missing a dime, considering a big loss.
From a precious gems to a single thread,
Everything stocked, ignoring donations.
Feeling worried days and nights protecting the wealth,
Being suffered physically and mentally.
All resulting from greed.

b.- Anger:
The anger burn-up everything, including peace among people,
Not respecting anyone, even an ordained monk.
Criticizing sutras and sacred books,
Rejecting elder priest, blaming parents.
Saddening old people, spreading out bad gossips,
Harming others, disregarding compassion and breaking precepts.
Considering self as Sages, becoming dump dealing with facts.
Even living in temple, the self is still apparently gross,
Exactly like fire comes out of wood which is burned by fire in return.
These karmas are resulted from anger.

c.- Ignorance:
Due to ignorance and stupidity,
Unable to understand the difference between the good and the bad.
Criticizing Buddha and all Sages,
Ignoring blessing and disregard others.
Unable to be mindful to have a good judgment,
These are karma of ignorance.
The punislument would be spending counless lives in hell,
Even reborn as human, the ignorance is still caught up.
The consequence is unavoidable, unlees as serious repentance is offered to the Sacred altar.

THREE REFUGES and FIVE PRECEPTS:

1.- Three refuges:

We vow to take refuge in Buddha, in Dharma, and in Sangha. (Bell, 1 bow)

- Taking refuge in Buddha, we vow for the rest of our lives respecting Buddha Sakya Muni, our Enlightened Honored Ones.

- Taking refuge in Dharma, we vow for the rest of our lives practicing right Dharma revealed by the Buddha.

- Taking refuge in Sangha, we vow for the rest of our lives respecting and following instructions of monks and nuns who practice the right Dharma.

*At such, we no longer worship any bad Gods or Demons.

* At such, we no longer practice faiths other than Buddhism.

* At such, we no longer make friends with bad people.

(Bell, 1 bow).

2.- Five Precepts:

1. We vow for the rest of our lives not to commit a killing. That means we shall not practice killing by ourselves, not to order others to kill, not to be happy seeing, knowing a killing. We vow to protect the lives of human as well as animals.

2. We vow for the rest of our lives not to commit a stealing nor a robbery. That means we shall not take away properties of others by stealing or by force. We vow to protect the property of others as much as ours.

3. We vow for the rest of our lives not to commit an adultery. That means we shall not have any extra marital affair with others who are not our wife or husband. We vow to practice the marital loyalty.

4. We vow for the rest of our lives not to tell a lie. That means we shall not commit a cheating, saying cruel and slandering words to others. We practice the truth and loving words.

5. We vow for the rest of our lives not to drink alcohol nor to use narcotics. These substances will hinder our mindfulness, may cause sickness to our body or make unpredictable mistakes to others.

May the Three Jewels support us in practicing the five precepts and in living a good ways right at our current life as well as future ones.

With sincere and earnest heart, we go to refuge in the Unsurpassed Three Jewels. (3 bows)

THE HEART OF THE PRAJNAPARAMITA:

The Bodhisattva Avalokita.
While moving in the deep course of perfect understanding,
Shed light on the five skandhas and found them equally empty.
After this penetration.
He overcame ill-being. (Bell)
Listen, Shariputra,
Form is emptiness, emptiness is form,
Form is not other than emptiness,
Emptiness is not other than form,
The same is true with feeling,
Perceptions, mental formations and conscousness. (Bell)
Hear, Shariputra,
All dharmas are marked with emptiness,
They are neither produced nor destroyed,
Neither defiled nor immaculated,
Neither increasing nor decreasing,
Therefore in emptiness ther is neither form,
Nor feelings, nor perceptions,
Nor mental formations, nor conscousness;
No eye,or ear, or nose, or tongue, or body, or mind;
No form, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind;
No realms of elements (from eye to mind conscousness);
No interdependent origins and no extinction of them.
(From ignorance to death and decay);
No ill-being, no cause of ill-being,
No end of ill-being, and no-path;
No understanding, no attainment. (Bell)
Because there is no attainment.
The Bodhisattvas grounded in perfect understanding.
Find no obstacles for their minds,
Having no obstacles, they overcome fear,
Liberating themselves forever from illusion.
And realizing perfect Nirvana,
All Buddha in the past, present and future.
Thanks to this perfect understanding.
Arrive at full right and universal enlightenment. (Bell)
Therefore one should know that prefect understanding,
Is the highest mantra, the unequalled mantra,
The destroyer of ill-being, the incorruptible truth.
A mantra of prajnaparamita shoud therefore be proclaimed.
This is the mantra:
Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha.

(Three sounds of bell).

BOWING TO THE PATRIARCHES:

We bow to the Past Buddha TISIKKHI.
We bow to the Present Buddha SAKYA MUNI.
We bow to the Future Buddha MAI TREYA.
We bow to the Patriarch MAUDGALYANA
We bow to the Patriarch ANANDA.
We bow to the Patriarch BODHIDHARMA.
We bow to the Patriarch HUI KIO.
We bow to the Patriarch HUI NANG.
We bow to the Patriarch TRUC LAM DAI DAU DA.
We bow to the Patriarch PHAP LOA.
We bow to the Patriarch HUYEN QUANG.
We bow to all Sages, Patriarches of INDIA, CHINA and VIETNAM.

VOWS:

First vow is keeping ourselves mindful.
Second vow is stopping our restless senses.
Third vow is clearing all mind doubtless.
Fourth vow is meditating devotionally as a full moon.
Fifth vow is preventing this world from collapsing.
Sixth vow is escaping from sensuous appeals.
Seventh vow is practicing the Ten Realms.
Eighth vow is listening deeply to everything.
Ninth vow is halting the jumpy mind.
Tenth vow is calming the galloping perception.
Eleventh vow is mind opened to Buddha instruction.
Twelfth vow is respecting all Patriarchs of Meditation

GOOD MIND DEDICATION:

We are dedicating mindfully ourselves to all Sages.
We are bowing respectfully to our loving Teacher.
We are promising to attain soon to the Ten Realms.
We are pledging to keep our Bodhi faith not recessed.

CLOSING VERSE:

May the Dharma gate always still and pure,
May all living being in peace.
May Buddha wisdom go further,
May Dharma come to everyone.
May our faith in Buddha be deeper,
May the blessing spread all over the world.
May all sentient being enjoy a decent life,
and be unharmed anywhere.
May all conflicts be stopped,
May all beings become Buddha.

(Stand and bow).