General Confession
So be it!
O spiritual masters, great vajra holders, and all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas who abide in the ten directions, as well as all the venerable Sangha, please pay attention to me.
I, who am named ________________, circling in cyclic existence since beginningless time until the present, overpowered by disturbing attitudes such as attachment, aversion and ignorance, have created the ten negative actions by means of body, speech and mind. I have transgressed the vows of individual liberation, contradicted the trainings of a bodhisattva, broken tantric commitments. I have been disrespectful to my kind parents, spiritual masters, spiritual friends, and those following pure paths. I have committed actions harmful to the Three Jewels, avoided the holy Dharma, stolen from the Sangha, and harmed living beings. These and many other destructive actions I have done, have caused others to do, and have rejoiced in others' doing. In short, I have created many obstacles to my own higher rebirth and liberation, and have planted countless seeds for further wanderings in cyclic existence and miserable states of being.
Now in the presence of the spiritual masters, the great vajra holders, all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas who abide in the ten directions, and the venerable Sangha, I confess all of these negative actions, I will not conceal them and I accept them as negative. I promise to refrain from doing these actions again in the future. By confessing and acknowledging them, I will attain and abide in happiness, while by not confessing and acknowledging them, true happiness will not come.
From Pearl of Wisdom - Book I compiled by Ven. Thubten Chodron.
