Explore/Chapter 2 - Confession of Negativity: Difference between revisions
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This is a central part of the practice. We do not expect to say some simple words of how sorry we feel and then simply be absolved from any further consequence. Confession in the Buddhist tradition is an active process of really taking on board the bad things we have done, admitting honestly to them, confessing them to the buddhas and our teachers, and then, through confession, marking a line in the sand, promising that we will not transgress these boundaries again. | This is a central part of the practice. We do not expect to say some simple words of how sorry we feel and then simply be absolved from any further consequence. Confession in the Buddhist tradition is an active process of really taking on board the bad things we have done, admitting honestly to them, confessing them to the buddhas and our teachers, and then, through confession, marking a line in the sand, promising that we will not transgress these boundaries again. | ||
<h3>Discussion of the main terms</h3> | |||
'''Three Jewels''' (Skt. ''trīṇi ratna'' or ''triratna''; Tib. ''dkon mchog gsum'') | |||
:These are the three main places of refuge for Buddhists. In his ''White Conch Dictionary'' Dungkar Rinpoche says that, simply put, the Buddha Jewel is the one who speaks/declares the teachings, the Dharma Jewel is what he taught, and the Sangha Jewel are those who put those teachings into practice. | |||
:The Tibetan etymology uses the word "དཀོན་," which means rare or hard to find, and then "མཆོག་," meaning supreme, outstanding , or distinguished. Dungkar Rinpoche says the meaning here of being a "Jewel" is taken in terms of something which appears very rarely in this world, which we therefore can consider as more precious than any ordinary diamond or jewel. In terms of being a field of merit, they are the best of all fields and therefore supreme. | |||
:Technically, the Buddha Jewel is the place of refuge which has taken to its final limit the two aims, of oneself and others. The Dharma Jewel is considered the most important of the three because it includes both the scriptural teachings and the actual path of realizations. The scriptures are those teachings which were spoken to guide us on the path, the actual words of the Buddha. Taking those teachings to heart and practicing them, we develop in our continuum the truths of the path and then the truth of cessation, which is the result of practicing that path. The Dharma Jewel is anything which is a fully purified truth of an ''ārya'' being which is subsumed within the truth of cessation or the truth of the path. The Sangha Jewel is often taken to mean the wider community of ordained sangha members or even the wider diaspora of fellow Buddhists, whether ordained or not. But technically the Sangha Jewel means an ''ārya'' being who has the qualities of wisdom and liberation. | |||
'''Seven-limb prayer''' | |||
:The seven limbed prayer is the name of a Buddhist religious liturgy or ''puja'', which literally contains seven limbs or branches. In the Indian tradition of Mahāyāna Buddhism, a ''puja'' would not be considered complete unless it contained all of these branches. | |||
:The prayer is part of a tradition of supreme worship (Skt. ''anuttara-puja''), which seems to date back to at last the fourth century CE. This supreme worship took many forms, both extensive and more condensed, with some containing at least nine limbs. In the form of an actual prayer, the shortest form is literally seven lines. The roots of this prayer are found in the Mahāyāna Sūtra, Samantabhadra's prayer called ''The King of Prayers'' (Skt. ''[[Buddhāvataṃsakamahāvaipūlyasūtra]]''). | |||
:The seven limbs or branches of the prayer are:<br>1) the branch of prostration or homage<br>2) the branch of offering<br>3) the branch of confession or laying aside of negativity<br>4) the branch of rejoicing in merit and in particular in other's merit<br>5) the branch of requesting the teachers to turn the wheel of dharma<br>6) the branch of supplicating them not to enter nirvāṇa<br>7) the branch of dedicating virtue to the complete enlightenment of all beings | |||
