Explore/Chapter 2 - Confession of Negativity: Difference between revisions
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|quote-text=In the sky in front of himself, Shantideva visualizes the object of confession: all the perfect Buddhas, victorious, virtuous and transcendent, together with all the great Bodhisattvas, who reside in the infinite buddhafields in the ten directions and who are the sovereigns of great compassion. He prays to them with his palms pressed together.<ref>Fletcher and Blankleder, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 95.</ref> | |quote-text=In the sky in front of himself, Shantideva visualizes the object of confession: all the perfect Buddhas, victorious, virtuous and transcendent, together with all the great Bodhisattvas, who reside in the infinite buddhafields in the ten directions and who are the sovereigns of great compassion. He prays to them with his palms pressed together.<ref>Fletcher and Blankleder, ''Nectar of Manjushri's Speech'', 95.</ref> | ||
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We fold our hands together and we make sincere supplications to the fully enlightened buddhas and the bodhisattvas who abide in all directions, requesting them to pay heed to us. Filled with regret, we confess the negative deeds we have committed. | |||
Since we have been bound to the wheel of samsaric existence since beginningless time, we confess every negative action that we have done in this and all other lives, actions which we did through lack of knowledge about the ripening results of karma. | |||
Gyaltsab Je Dharma Rinchen [LINK to the text] also points out that all karma can be overcome with confession: | |||
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|quote-text=If the created and accumulated karmas are karmas definitely to be experienced then, since they can be cleared away, what need is there to say about those that are not definite.<ref>Fedor Stracke, trans., ''The Entrance for the Children of the Conquerors - A Commentary on the Introduction to the Actions of Bodhisattvas. Chapter Two: Purifying Negativities'' (N.p.: HappyMonksPublication, 2016), 15. https://happymonkspublication.org/product/bodhisattvacharyavatara-chapter-1-10-commentary/</ref> | |||
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Confession does not mean just simply absolving ourselves of the bad actions we have done. It involves a full understanding of why what we did was negative and the heartfelt promise to not engage in these actions in the future. We put them aside but at the same time continue to improve by trying to prevent them from occurring again. Confession is also not done in the way of wallowing in self-absorption of past actions. It is a practical acceptance that we did wrong, but this is turned into a positive process which has an element of encouraging us to improve in the future. | Confession does not mean just simply absolving ourselves of the bad actions we have done. It involves a full understanding of why what we did was negative and the heartfelt promise to not engage in these actions in the future. We put them aside but at the same time continue to improve by trying to prevent them from occurring again. Confession is also not done in the way of wallowing in self-absorption of past actions. It is a practical acceptance that we did wrong, but this is turned into a positive process which has an element of encouraging us to improve in the future. | ||
