Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna

Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna. (T. Bzang po spyod pa’i smon lam; C. Puxian pusa xingyuan zan 普賢菩薩行願讚), or "Prayer for Completely Good Conduct,” is a Mahayana aspiration prayer that is found in the last chapter of the Gandavyuha, which is the final section of the Avatamsaka Sutra.

Title

Also known is Sanskrit as

• Samantabhadracaryāpraṇidhāna ("Samantabhadra's Prayer for Good Conduct" or "Samantabhadra's Aspiration Prayer")
• Samantabhadracaryāpraṇidhānarāja ("Samantabhadra's King of Prayers for Good Conduct")
• Ārya-Bhadracaryā-Praṇidhāna-Rāja ("King of Prayers for Good Conduct")

Ten great vows

The core of the prayer are the ten great vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. These are:

1. to pay homage to all the buddhas;
2. to glorify the qualities of all the tathāgatas;
3. to make ample offerings to all the buddhas;
4. to confess and repent of all one's misdeeds;
5. to rejoice in the merits of others;
6. always to request the preaching of the dharma;
7. to entreat enlightened beings to remain in the world;
8. to always to study the teachings of the buddha;
9. to always to respond to sentient beings according to their various needs;
10. to dedicate all merits to sentient beings that they may achieve buddhahood.

Translations

• Peter Alan Roberts, "The Prayer for Completely Good Conduct" in The Stem Array
• The King of Aspiration Prayers, Lotsawa House
• The Aspiration of Samantabhadra: The Activities of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, Nalanda Institute

Further reading

• The Significance of Aspiration of Samantabhadra Prayer (King of Prayers), by Lama Choedak Rinpoche
• Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna