Prayer for Petitioning a Child (Cầu Tự)

Namo Amitābha Buddha! Prepare offerings: - 13 paper bills - 13 different kinds of fruit - 13 children's toys. The rite: Namo Amitābha Buddha! I bow to the nine directions of Heaven, the ten directions of Buddhas, the Buddhas of the ten directions. I bow to the Heavenly Mandarin and the local spirit-deities of this region. The disciple is …………………………………………born on ………………………….... Together with husband/wife……………………………………….born on ………………………….. Residing at: ……………………………………………………………………………………........ Today, on this auspicious day and month of the year ……… with the high sky shining with grace, husband and wife sincerely set up the rite and present this petition, respectfully bowing to the Middle-Heaven Master of Destiny, Bắc Cực Tử Vi, the Jade Emperor's Heavenly Lord — descend to the mortal realm and look upon our family's happiness so that we may have a son/daughter. Joyful togetherness passing into future generations. I bow to the Sun Palace Thái Dương, the Moon Palace Thái Âm — the Eastern Cyan Emperor, the Northern Black Emperor, the Western White Emperor — respectfully reporting to the venerable deities, the spirit-deities, descend to the mortal realm and look upon the moral order of marriage, that our home may be wide and tall with abundant wealth, that we may have an intelligent and diligent son/daughter, devoted to virtue. I bow to the Mandarins of Nam Tào and Bắc Đẩu, Thái Bạch Thái Tuế, Văn Xương, Văn Khúc, the Twenty-Eight Mansions and the Five-Element Star Deities. Before the seat of the venerable spirit-deities, the Tản Viên Great Saint, the Trần dynasty's Hưng Đạo Quốc Tảng Great King, together with the Immortals, Buddhas, Saints, and Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva of supreme virtue — manifest in sacred power and grant us a son/daughter so that filial life and family happiness may be complete, warm within and tranquil without, that grandparents and spouses may genuinely love and care for one another. Doing good is repaid by yin and yang; trees bear flowers and bear new fruit. Before the seat of the venerable spirit-deities, distant or near, we ask you to dispel ill fortune, drive away evil spirits and calamities that delay the path to a son/daughter. We mortal humans of fleshly eyes know little; mortal matters not yet clear, the underworld not yet revealed. Born in the mortal world with destiny in the heavenly palace, we ask the Buddhas and the Spirits of high virtue to descend and grant us good things, the happiness of having a son/daughter, of having means, prosperous in family and in wealth — to bear above the work of the holy and below the work of the world; that the blessed land may bless the blessed person, that both lineages may rejoice in the words of family-founding and pass into future generations. May our family have its names added in the vermillion-brush book and years added in the jade ledger — prosperous in family, prosperous in wealth, more people and more means. The happiness of our family and of our two lineages, like our own lives, will then come like the rising tide. The whole house joyful, songbirds singing rich and sweet, peach-pink and willow-green deeply colored. We thus respectfully report to the venerable deities and present this Cầu Tự petition, that our small heart may be made known, asking that a hundred blessings descend upon us. A hundred bows to the venerable spirits. We humbly receive your kindness. May our wish be granted with sincere heart. We give thanks. Ten thousand bows of devotion to the Buddhas and Spirits of the ten directions. Bestow on us your great blessings, that our wish for children may be fulfilled.