འཕགས་པ་གནས་འཇག་པའ་མད་ཞས་བྱ་བ intro.3

intro.3

At its heart, The Sūtra of Vasiṣṭha outlines the eightfold observance that laypeople are encouraged to maintain on the four sacred lunar days of the new moon, the full moon, and the two days that fall halfway in between these two lunar events. This practice is closely related to the restorative rite, known in Sanskrit as poṣadha, in which the monks and nuns gather on the new moon and full moon days to confess any faults and transgressions and to recite the monastic rules, the prātimokṣa.¹ In fact, at times the term poṣadha can also refer specifically to the eightfold observance that is adopted by some lay people on the four sacred lunar days.