Explore/Chapter 2 - Confession of Negativity: Difference between revisions
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<h4>Fear of Dying Without Confession</h4> | <h4>Fear of Dying Without Confession</h4> | ||
We may feel lazy to carry out this process of confession everyday and may wonder if it is really necessary to do it regularly. We feel that since we will be alive for a long time there is nothing wrong with leaving negative actions unconfessed. Śāntideva chides us and reminds us that death can be just around the corner: | We may feel lazy to carry out this process of confession everyday and may wonder if it is really necessary to do it regularly. We feel that since we will be alive for a long time there is nothing wrong with leaving negative actions unconfessed. Śāntideva chides us and reminds us that death can be just around the corner:{{PullBcaVerses|2.32}} | ||
He reminds us that our lives are fleeting and that we do not want death to catch us unaware, sending us on to the next life with a whole mass of negative actions left unconfessed. We must be careful and attentive to make sure that whenever we commit transgressions, we must repair them and work to never repeat them. | |||
We go forth into the next life completely alone, leaving everything behind us. In these next verses Śāntideva confesses that he has been forgetful of this and instead has been engaged in many wrongdoings. | |||
{{PullBcaVerses|2.34}} | |||
{{PullBcaVerses|2.35}} | |||
He tells us that he himself has committed many negative actions such as killing, lying, and stealing, as well as encouraging others to do so. These were driven by attachment to protect his family and those close to him and by aversion to his enemies and the wish to get the better of them. But this has all been pointless. Everyone and everything will eventually disintegrate. Khenpo Kunpal expands on the theme of this last verse in his commentary. | |||
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|quote-text=For even if he has failed to overcome them, his enemies will die in any case and cease to exist. Even if he is successful in guarding and caring for his friends and loved ones, nothing is achieved; they too will vanish in death. And he himself will die and cease to be. The entire universe, with its continents and mountains, with all the beings that it contains, friendly, hostile, or indifferent—be they as high-ranking as the heavens, as strong as thunder, as rich as the nagas, as beautiful as the gods, as fascinating as rainbows —all is destined to destruction. Whatever strongholds have been built, whatever wealth has been accumulated, whatever families have come together—everything will go. How absurd to do evil for their sake!<ref> Blankleder and Fletcher, ''Nectar of Manjushri’s Speech'', 102.</ref> | |||
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Relating confession to the first cause of refuge, which is developing fear of rebirth in the saṃsāric world, we must understand the whole reach of sufferings that may befall us if we do not purify the karmic actions we have accumulated. Of particular concern is to fall into the abyss of the lower realms from where it will be extremely difficult to extricate ourselves. | Relating confession to the first cause of refuge, which is developing fear of rebirth in the saṃsāric world, we must understand the whole reach of sufferings that may befall us if we do not purify the karmic actions we have accumulated. Of particular concern is to fall into the abyss of the lower realms from where it will be extremely difficult to extricate ourselves. | ||
