powders, vast as Meru,
Everything supreme, especially arranged,
I offer to all the Conquerors.
For all the Buddhas I visualize
A vast array of unsurpassed offerings.
By the power of my faith in their excellent deeds,
I prostrate and make offerings to them all.
Or we can make offerings mentally with the short prayer:
May all of space be filled
With offerings from gods and men,
Both set out and imagined,
Like offerings of the All Good One.
confession
The practice of confession is not just a matter of verbally or mentally admitting to negative actions we have committed. Confession includes all the practices of purification. We definitely need to purify the negative actions that we have committed because they are the main cause of all our suffering and unhappiness.
Even though we may try very hard it is difficult to develop realizations. When we draw close to gaining some experience from our Dharma practice our effort often degenerates and we do not succeed. At times we may feel strong faith in our Spiritual Guide but we can lose this feeling. It is hard to develop faith in Dharma and understand the real meaning of the teachings we receive. When we try to meditate we do not find it easy to concentrate, and when we try to put Dharma into practice in our daily lives we hardly ever maintain a pure practice even for one hour. These difficulties arise because we carry a burden of negativity within our mind, the heavy inheritance of all the non-virtuous actions that we have committed.
In Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life Shantideva says:
Who purposely creates the weapons
That harm the beings in the hells?
Who creates the blazing iron ground?
From where do the tempting hallucinations arise?
The Able One says that all such things
Come only from evil minds.
To understand how our own negative actions have caused our present difficulties and unhappiness we need to study and meditate on actions and their effects, the law of karma. This will be explained in detail below. By meditating on karma we will realize that our bad experiences have been created by our negative mind, and we will see that it is much more appropriate to develop aversion for the cause than for its effect. We will easily develop regret for all the negative actions that we have committed and we will develop the determination to engage in the practice of purification to destroy the negative potentialities that those actions have left within our mind.
If we remember all the negative actions that we have committed we may become discouraged and conclude ‘I am a hopeless case. My mind is so full of negativity that I will never be able to make it pure.’ If we start to think like this we need to recall the examples of Angulimala, Tong Den and Ajatashatru. Inspired by the perverse advice of his bad friends, Angulimala killed nine hundred and ninety-nine people. He then received Dharma teachings and realized his error, but instead of giving up hope he practised purification. As a result he purified all his negative karma and gained a direct realization of emptiness in that very life. The king Ajatashatru killed his father who was a Foe Destroyer and disrobed a nun who was also a Foe Destroyer, but when he heard Buddha expound the Confession Sutra he developed strong regret and purified all his negative karma. He gained a direct realization of emptiness and attained the state of a Stream Enterer. The Brahmin Tong Den killed his mother but later purified his mind and became a great disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni.
If it is possible for such heinous crimes to be completely purified, can we doubt that our own non-virtue can be eliminated? At present our mind is like an overcast sky, but if we purify all our negativity and keep the promise to refrain from harmful actions in the future, our mind will become like a clear and cloudless sky.
In Friendly Letter Nagarjuna says:
If anyone who has previously been extremely reckless,
Later practises conscientiousness sincerely,
That person will become pure like a stainless moon.
If we do powerful purification every day we can completely purify all our negative karma; if we do middling purification we can reduce our negative karma; and if we do a little purification we can prevent our negative karma from increasing. If we do no purification our negative karma will increase as time goes by and we will definitely experience its painful results. The degree of purification we attain depends upon the strength of the four opponent powers:
(1) The power of regret
(2) The power of reliance
(3) The power of the opponent force
(4) The power of promise
For our practice of purification to be complete, all four powers must be present.
The power of regret This is the power of our regret for the harmful actions we have committed. We develop regret by remembering all the dangers of our negativity. Indirectly regret destroys both the potentialities of our non-virtuous actions and our wish to repeat such actions in the future. For this reason it is also known as ‘the power of destruction’. The stronger our regret, the stronger our restraint. If for example we were to discover that we had swallowed deadly poison we would feel deep regret. How much greater our regret should be for our negative actions, which poison all our future lives!
The power of reliance There are two main objects of our negative actions, the Three Jewels and living beings. Most of our negative actions are committed against other living beings. Motivated by attachment, anger or ignorance, we kill, steal, lie and so forth. We have also committed many negative actions against holy beings such as Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Spiritual Guides. Driven by delusion we have created heavy negative karma by engaging in actions such as abandoning Dharma, denying the existence of enlightened beings or showing disrespect towards the Sangha. Therefore, going for refuge by relying upon the Three Jewels, and generating compassion or bodhichitta by relying upon all living beings as our object, are powerful methods for purifying the negative actions that we have committed against them. This is what is meant by the power of reliance.
The power of the opponent force This is the power of any virtuous action we perform as an opponent to whatever non-virtuous action we wish to purify. The opponent can be any virtuous action performed with sincere regret for our negativity. For example, we can make prostrations, recite mantras, recite the names of Buddhas, read the scriptures, meditate on emptiness, make offerings or practise giving. This remedial action is the actual means of directly destroying non-virtuous potentialities.
The power of promise This is the power of promising to refrain from negative actions. When we make a promise we need to know for how long we are able to keep it. We can avoid some negative actions for the rest of our life and others for only a short while. When it comes to those we cannot avoid completely, we can promise to avoid them for a short time and then gradually extend the duration as our capacity increases. Eventually we will be able to promise to refrain for the rest of our life. Even those whose livelihood depends upon negative actions such as killing animals can practise like this.
rejoicing
