Thirty-five Buddhas of Confession: 4 definitions

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Introduction:

Thirty-five Buddhas of Confession means something in Buddhism, Pali. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.

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In Buddhism

Mahayana (major branch of Buddhism)

Source: Google Books: Path of the Bodhisattva Warrior

Either the thirty-five Buddhas are used as a merit field in themselves, or else one first generates one’s usual merit field [as we described in the fourth preliminary] and then emanates the thirty-five Buddhas from it. In the latter process one first generates the standard merit field. Then from the heart of the central figure, who is in actual nature a symbol of one’s personal guru, there radiates forth thirty-five beams of light. These come from the guru’s heart and open out, like the strands of a whisk. On the tip of each ray is one of the thirty-five Buddhas. These take up their paces in the space in front of you.

context information

Mahayana (महायान, mahāyāna) is a major branch of Buddhism focusing on the path of a Bodhisattva (spiritual aspirants/ enlightened beings). Extant literature is vast and primarely composed in the Sanskrit language. There are many sūtras of which some of the earliest are the various Prajñāpāramitā sūtras.

Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana or tantric Buddhism)

Source: Google Books: The Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Systems

The Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas are known (ltung bshags kyi sangs rgyas so lnga).

Amoghadārśin,
Anantaujas,
Aśokaśrī,
Bhadraṛṣi,
Brahman,
Brahmadatta,
Brahmajyotis,
Candanaśrī,
Dhānaśrī,
Indraketudhvaja,
Kusumaśrī,
Nāgeśvararāja,
Nārāyaṇa,
Padmajyotis,
Parikīrtitanāmaśrī,
Prabhāsari,
Ratnacandra,
Ratnacandraprabhā,
Ratnāgni,
Ratnārcis,
Ratnapadma,
Śailendrarāja,
Samantāvabhāsa,
Śākyamuni,
Smṛtiśrī,
Suradatta,
Suvikrānta,
Vajragarbha,
Varuṇa,
Varuṇadeva,
Vikrānta,
Vimala,
Vīrānanda,
Vīrasena,
Yuddhajaya.

Source: WikiPedia: Tibetan Buddhism

The Thirty-Five Confession Buddhas (Wylie: gsheg lha so lnga) are known from the Sutra of the Three Heaps (Sanskrit: Triskandhadharmasutra; Tib. phung po gsum pa'i mdo), popular in Tibetan Buddhism. This Mahayana Sutra actually describes the practice of purification by confession and making prostrations to these Buddhas, and is part of the larger Stack of Jewels Sutra (Sanskrit: Ratnakutasutra; Tibetan: dkon mchog brtsegs pa'i mdo).

The names of the 35 Buddhas of confession differ depending on the Sutra. A common classification in Tibetan Buddhism is as follows:

Śākyamuni (Tibetan: ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་);
Vajrapramardī (Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་སྙིང་པོས་རབ་ཏུ་འཇོམས་པ);
Ratnārcis (Tibetan: རིན་ཆེན་འོད་འཕྲོ);
Nāgeśvararāja (Tibetan: ཀླུ་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ);
Vīrasena (Tibetan: དཔའ་བོའི་སྡེ);
Vīranandī (Tibetan: དཔའ་བོ་དགྱེས);
Ratnāgni (Tibetan: རིན་ཆེན་མེ);
Ratnacandraprabha (Tibetan: རིན་ཆེན་ཟླ་འོད);
Amoghadarśi (Tibetan: མཐོང་བ་དོན་ཡོད);
Ratnacandra (Tibetan: རིན་ཆེན་ཟླ་བ);
Vimala (Tibetan: དྲི་མ་མེད་པ);
Śūradatta (Tibetan: དཔའ་སྦྱིན);
Brahma (Tibetan: ཚངས་པ);
Brahmadatta (Tibetan: ཚངས་པས་སྦྱིན་);
Varuṇa (Tibetan: ཆུ་ལྷ);
Varuṇadeva (Tibetan: ཆུ་ལྷའི་ལྷ);
Bhadraśrī (Tibetan: དཔལ་བཟང);
Candanaśrī (Tibetan: ཙན་དན་དཔལ);
Anantatejas (Tibetan: གཟི་བརྗིད་མཐའ་ཡས);
Prabhāśrī (Tibetan: འོད་དཔལ);
Aśokaśrī (Tibetan: མྱ་ངན་མེད་པའི་དཔལ་);
Nārāyaṇa (Tibetan: སྲེད་མེད་ཀྱི་བུ);
Kusumaśrī (Tibetan: མེ་ཏོག་དཔལ);
Tathāgata Brahmajyotirvikrīḍitābhijña (Tibetan: དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཚངས་པའི་འོད་ཟེར་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པ་མངོན་པར་མཁྱེན་པ);
Tathāgata Padmajyotirvikrīḍitābhijña (Tibetan: དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་པདྨའི་འོད་ཟེར་རྣམ་པར་རོལ་པས་མངོན་པར་མཁྱེན་པ);
Dhanaśrī (Tibetan: ནོར་དཔལ);
Smṛtiśrī (Tibetan: དྲན་པའི་དཔལ);
Suparikīrtitanāmadheyaśrī (Tibetan: མཚན་དཔལ་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཡོངས་སུ་གྲགས་པ);
Indraketudhvajarāja (Tibetan: དབང་པོའི་ཏོག་གི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ);
Suvikrāntaśrī (Tibetan: ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་གནོན་པའི་དཔལ);
Yuddhajaya (Tibetan: གཡུལ་ལས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ);
Vikrāntagāmī (Tibetan: རྣམ་པར་གནོན་པའི་གཤེགས་པའི་དཔལ);
Samantāvabhāsavyūhaśrī (Tibetan: ཀུན་ནས་སྣང་བ་བཀོད་པའི་དཔལ);
Ratnapadmavikramī (Tibetan: རིན་ཆེན་པདྨའི་རྣམ་པར་གནོན་པ);
Ratnapadmasupraṭiṣṭhita-śailendrarāja (Tibetan: དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དང་པདྨ་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་བཞུགས་པའི་རི་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ);

context information

Tibetan Buddhism includes schools such as Nyingma, Kadampa, Kagyu and Gelug. Their primary canon of literature is divided in two broad categories: The Kangyur, which consists of Buddha’s words, and the Tengyur, which includes commentaries from various sources. Esotericism and tantra techniques (vajrayāna) are collected indepently.

General definition (in Buddhism)

Source: Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Glossary

Thirty-five Buddhas of Confession (ltung bshags kyi sangs rgyas so lnga) are identified in Tibetan Buddhism as a means of purifying transgressions of vows and downfalls of the Bodhisattva vow.

These thirty-five Buddhas are enumerated in the Sutra of the Three Heaps and cited in Shantideva’s Compendium of Training. They are:

Buddha Śākyamuni; (Tibetan: sangye shakya tubpa) [sangs rgyas shAkya thub pa]
Vajrapramardin; (Tibetan: dorjé nyingpo rabtu jompa) [rdo rje snying pos rab tu 'joms pa]
Ratnārcis; (Tibetan: rinchen ö tro) [rin chen 'od 'phro]
Nāgeśvararāja; (Tibetan: luwang gi gyalpo) [klu dbang gi rgyal po]
Vīrasena; (Tibetan: pawö dé) [dpa' bo'i sde]
Vīranandin; (Tibetan: pal gyé) [dpal dgyes]
Ratnaśrī; (Tibetan: rinchen mé) [rin chen me]
Ratnacandraprabha; (Tibetan: rinchen da ö) [rin chen zla 'od]
Amoghadarśin; (Tibetan: tongwa dön yö) [mthong ba don yod]
Ratnacandra; (Tibetan: rinchen dawa) [rin chen zla ba]
Vimala; (Tibetan: drima mepa) [dri ma med pa]
Śūradatta; (Tibetan: pal jin) [dpal sbyin]
Brahmaṇa; (Tibetan: tsangpa) [tshangs pa]
Brahmadatta; (Tibetan: tsangpé jin) [tshangs pas sbyin]
Varuṇa; (Tibetan: chu lha) [chu lha]
Varuṇadeva; (Tibetan: chulhé lha) [chu lha'i lha]
Bhadraśrī; (Tibetan: palzang) [dpal bzang]
Candanaśrī; (Tibetan: tsenden pal) [tsan dan dpal]
Anantaujas; (Tibetan: ziji tayé) [gzi brjid mtha' yas]
Prabhāsaśrī; (Tibetan: ö pal) ['od dpal]
Aśokaśrī; (Tibetan: nya ngen mepé pal) [mya ngan med pa'i dpal]
Nārāyaṇa; (Tibetan: semé kyi bu) [sred med kyi bu]
Kusumaśrī; (Tibetan: metok pal) [me tog dpal]
Brahmajyotirvikrīḍitābhijña; (Tibetan: tsangpé özer nampar rolpa ngönpar khyenpa) [tshangs pa'i 'od zer rnam par rol pa mngon par mkhyen pa]
Padmajyotirvikrīḍitābhijña; (Tibetan: pemé özer nampar rolpa ngönpar khyenpa) [pad+ma'i 'od zer rnam par rol pas mngon par mkhyen pa]
Dhanaśrī; (Tibetan: norpal) [nor dpal]
Smṛtiśrī; (Tibetan: drenpé pal) [dran pa'i dpal]
Suparikīrtitanāmadheyaśrī; (Tibetan: tsen pal shintu yong drak) [mtshan dpal shin tu yongs su grags pa]
Indraketudhvajarāja; (Tibetan: wangpö tok gi gyaltsen gyi gyalpo) [dbang po'i tog gi rgyal mtshan gyi rgyal po]
Suvikrāntaśrī; (Tibetan: shintu nampar nönpé pal) [shin tu rnam par gnon pa'i dpal]
*Vijitrasaṃgrāma; (Tibetan: yul lé shintu nampar gyalwa) [g.yul las rnam par rgyal ba]
Vikrāntagāmin; (Tibetan: nampar nönpé shekpé pal) [rnam par gnon pa'i gshegs pa'i dpal]
Samantāvabhāsavyūhaśrī; (Tibetan: künné nangwa köpé pal) [kun nas snang ba bkod pa'i dpal]
Ratnapadmavikrāmin; (Tibetan: rinchen pemé nampar nönpa) [rin chen pad+ma'i rnam par gnon pa]
Ratnapadmasupratiṣṭhitaśailendrarāja; (Tibetan: rinpoche dang pemé den la rabtu shyukpa riwang gi gyalpo) [rin po che dang pad+ma'i gdan la rab tu bzhugs pa'i ri dbang gi rgyal po)]

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