Buddhist confession

Confession is a big thing in Buddhist practice. But there is no priest to forgive your sins on God's behalf. It is more nuanced than that. 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Confess, child, or die a thousand deaths!
Is that what Buddhists think?
Let's see.
Hello all you kind listeners, thank you for clicking play.
Please feel welcome whether you are new or returning.
This is the Double Dorje Podcast Series 2, amazingly anough, Episode 6, just as amazing, and I'm Alex

(00:27):
Wilding, which is not amazing.
Episode 5 was not at all profound, just a little attempt at a traveller's tale.
A sketch, if you like.
The topic of this episode is a much more serious matter for the practitioner, and it's one that runs
through every level of practice, having something in common in all of them, but changing its colour

(00:49):
significantly at different levels.
That topic is confession.
First of all, the thing I say in every episode.
If you like this Double Dorje Podcast, please take a few seconds out to share, like, follow, subscribe,
tell your friends, or whatever.

(01:09):
Thank you in advance.
As often happens, I think it's best if we start by deflecting some of the ways it would be very
easy to misunderstand confession.
To jump to a conclusion, that it is very similar to something else, and in this case the obvious something

(01:32):
else, is the sense of confession as understood and practised in the Roman Catholic Church.
There, the member of the flock goes to the priest to confess in the dark privacy of a confessional box.
In theory, this confession is anonymous, although I can only imagine that in most cases the congregant

(01:57):
knows full well who the priest is, and the priest knows full well who the congregant is.
This is not something I've ever experienced myself, but I have seen enough films to believe that the
congregant first says something like. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned, and the conversation proceeds from that.

(02:19):
If I let my imagination run on with that, I suppose the priest could say something like, And tell me, my son, in what way have you sinned?
The congregant might then answer, I have had lustful thoughts about Mrs McIntosh who works in the bakery. The priest next says, And tell me my son, what exactly was the nature of these lustful thoughts?

(02:45):
I think I should stop embroidering at this point.
I have heard that people who go to confession regularly, but without an awful lot of enthusiasm, say
youngsters being brought up in the church, may often confess to generalities, things that were perhaps not
very nice, they get forgiven and told to do something in particular, like saying Hail Marys to atone for

(03:12):
their sin.
Well, that's as may be, but what interests me much more to think about is cases in which the communicant
is either much more serious in the first place, or has something much more serious on their mind of which

(03:36):
they want to unburden themselves.
Here, and again I'm speaking from a general understanding picked up mostly from fiction and film, it gets
much more personal.
The churchgoer will describe in rather more detail exactly what it is they have done or thought or said.

(03:56):
I guess that something more like a real conversation will take place, and the priest will have a presumably
difficult job figuring out what to tell the congregant to do.
The feature I want to emphasise here is that this is individual.
It's personal.
It goes into detail.

(04:17):
It is expected that every believer goes to confession on some kind of regular basis.
If they don't do this, they will not receive the benefit of the communion, and the results, particularly in
the afterlife, will be disastrous, or so I have heard.

(04:39):
Most of this is not true of the quite considerable variety of things that go on in Buddhism under the
name of confession.
I have been led to believe that celibates, which is to say monks and or nuns, do, at least on
some occasions, talk in personal detail with the person responsible for seeing that the monks or nuns keep

(05:04):
their vows.
But the fact is that I have no personal experience at all about that, so I can't really comment.
I can only tell you that a key part of the cycle of performances in Buddhist monastic communities is that
twice in every lunar month, the Sojong ceremony is held, and in that ceremony, all the monastic vows are

(05:30):
recited, and some kind of confession takes place.
And indeed, a lay practitioner who has a teacher or guru with whom they are in close personal contact,
whether or not that teacher is ordained, might talk to the said teacher about the specific things that they
are doing that are unskilful.

(05:51):
This, nevertheless, is an exception.
Buddhism is not therapy, and it's a mistake that is in fact made often enough to treat a guru as
some kind of therapist.
I've certainly seen this quite often in Western Buddhist circles, extending to what frankly appears to me

(06:11):
as the spectacle of people who have, let's say, relationship or sexual problems, taking those problems to a
teacher who is a lifelong celibate, in the hope of getting some kind of help.
Well, who knows, the teacher might be able to help by stressing patience and compassion, or maybe is not in

(06:33):
a position to do that, but fundamentally this idea is nothing other than daft.
It's rather like asking your PE teacher for advice on A-level chemistry.
In any case, that's an aberration.
Confession here puts more emphasis on acknowledging the unskilful thoughts or actions, perhaps deeds that

(06:54):
conflict with the teachings of karma that we have received, in the context of the four revolting thoughts.
Acknowledging these unskilful acts to yourself, that is, rather than necessarily going out and telling
somebody.
In the special preliminary practices that a lot of relatively keen practitioners will be doing or will have

(07:19):
done, one of the main sections, usually the second, is that of the Vajrasattva meditation and recitation.

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When we learnt about the Vajrasattva method, we will have learnt about the four powers that are to be
applied here.
As a mnemonic, we can remember these not as the three Rs, but as the four Rs, regret, resolve, remedy
and reliance.
Regret is pretty obvious.

(08:01):
We realise that we have done a bad thing.
We are unhappy about it.
Resolve means that it's not enough just to say, Oh, that was bad, but let's move on.
We need to make a resolution not to repeat those unskilful acts as far as possible.

(08:21):
Remedy can be more tricky.
In some cases, it might be possible actually to put right the thing that we did wrong, to put new
glass in the window we broke.
Most often, however, in real life, the unskilful act is water under the bridge.
But what we can try to do is some sort of balancing action.

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If we have stolen, we can give to charity.
If we have been cruel, we can get involved in work to help and rescue people or animals,
and so on.
These three powers are perhaps the hard work, but even if we have striven mightily with those, there is
still likely to be something like a bad taste left in our mind stream.

(09:09):
So the power of reliance refers particularly to what we might think of as religious techniques, which is
precisely what the Vajrasattva recitation and visualisation is for.
People who've taken the preliminary practices as part of their life will often be in the habit of doing

(09:30):
some Vajrasattva recitation every day, saying the long mantra with its approximately 100 syllables.
I do have to count that sometime.
Doing it 21 times, followed by the short six-syllable mantra 108 times.
That would be a typical pattern.

(09:56):
Confession is one of the main bones in the body of the tsok practices.
Like sadhanas in general, the length varies enormously and the details vary widely, but the underlying
skeletons of these practices do have an awful lot in common.
So let's take a quick look at the main parts of a typical sadhana with tsok.

(10:21):
The whole ceremony will begin with the practice of the deity concerned, very much in the same form as when
tsok is not being included.
The tsok is an important extra section which may be added to this.
The whole thing will undoubtedly begin with a range of preliminary prayers.
In this opening phase, the prayers may well be directed generally at the founding figures of the lineage or

(10:47):
school that is involved, including at least some lamas in the line of descent to the present day.
That is to say, associated more generally with the transmission and tradition of the school rather than
with figures associated very specifically with the practice that we are now revving up.

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A section for expelling or dismissing negative forces, very likely including throwing out a ritual cake,
that is to say a torma, as an offering to those problematic forces, might come next.
Since we're talking here about a torma for obstacles, it is called a gektor.

(11:32):
This could be followed directly by visualising and setting up a kind of protective circle.
This is the sacred space where the ritual will take place.
Once that has been said, we are ready to begin properly.
So, refuge prayers and bodhicitta prayers are in order at this point.

(11:52):
Do I hear somebody out there saying, Of course? Every and any Buddhist practice will start with these,
refuge and bodhicitta.
Some purification of ourselves might now be in order, recognising that we may well be tarnished in one way
or another, and that could well be enacted through Vajrasattva recitation.

(12:16):
As I mentioned above, Vajrasattva is closely connected with the four powers of purification, of which
confession, in the sense of acknowledging our unskilful deeds, words and thoughts, plays a vital part.
If we're going to perform this ritual, we need to have enough merit to do the job.

(12:38):
One ritual way of accumulating merit is done through the framework of what is sometimes called the
sevenfold service, or the seven-branch prayer.
I will do no more here than briefly name the branches.
Number one is prostration, followed by offering, and then confession.

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Fourthly, we rejoice in the merit of others, then request the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to turn the wheel of
Dharma.
We also ask them not to leave samsara, but to stay and teach, rather than entering into an ultimate
nirvana.
If you've been counting, that was six.
The seventh branch is to dedicate the merit that has been accumulated in this way, to the benefit of

(13:25):
sentient beings.
You'll have noticed, of course, that number three was confession.
If you are picturing a group of people working through this liturgy, you will not be surprised to know that
this confession probably simply takes the form of reading through a line, or two, or a few lines.
The practitioners are expected to acknowledge their wrongdoing, and that is that.

(13:52):
I described these things as the bones of the practice, with the idea that the flesh may differ quite a
lot.
One good example here is the way the confession found in this seven branch prayer may, in some cases,
simply refer to the obvious things.
What are the obvious things?
Breaches of ethical codes through lying, harming others, and so forth.

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But in a practice associated with what are known as the higher methods, the confession doesn't refer so
much to regular breaches of ethics, as just mentioned, although that is included.
What we find is a confession of having failed to recognise our own mind as being the Buddha.

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This accumulation of merit is likely to be expanded by making offerings, perhaps the offering of a mandala,
and this often goes along with praise of the deities concerned, who are likely to have been invoked by this
stage.
Offering and praise is a pair of activities that comes up sometimes repeatedly.

(15:00):
There is, of course, a section of mantra recitation.
This section can range from the repeated recitation of just one single mantra, or it may involve a number
of mantras, each with its own visualisation.
These are all details that belong to particular practices. It's not up to us to mix and match them.

(15:23):
You must, must, must, learn from your own teacher in one way or another.
When it's simple, it's really, really simple, but when it's complicated, wow, it really is complicated.
Somewhere at about this stage, the ceremony can go straight to the various concluding prayers, dedications

(15:43):
and so forth.
However, on some kind of regular basis, the tsok part of the practice will now be done.
Once again, confession is likely to play a big part.
In fact, the whole tsok practice is said to have the purpose of purifying breaches of our tantric
commitments.

(16:04):
Those vows are so tricky, and so many, that it is extremely hard to keep all of them in perfect
detail all of the time.
Speaking practically, I would say it's impossible, but perhaps that's one of those things we don't quite
admit to.
Perhaps some amazing students do manage that, who knows?

(16:24):
Indeed, one of the portions of the sacred cakes, the tormas, that are offered may in particular be intended
for confession.
At some time before, during, or after the actual consumption of the food and drink by the yogis and
yoginis, more elaborate confession prayers are likely to be said.

(16:46):
A favourite of my own teacher is the Ultimate Inexpressible Confession Prayer, which is very well known
amongst the Nyingma tradition.
There is scope here for additions, and we should also expect the offering of a torma cake to the protective
deity connected with whatever the practice is.
And after all this - is there no end to this? - we

(17:08):
will confess to imperfections in our performance of this practice, to ritual errors, errors in the
recitation, failure to pay proper attention, and so forth.
One particular formula that is used at this point in tantric rituals in general, not just in tsoks, is
something that beginner students will find a little hard to memorise, because there are quite a lot of

(17:31):
syllables here, but it is well worth learning it by heart.
That's my little tip.
The formula tends to be rattled out, so you will look good, and looking good is important, isn't it,
let's be honest.
You'll look good if you can keep up.
It consists of three parts, beginning with the Sanskrit alphabet, then the long mantra of Vajrasattva, and

(17:58):
a formula said to summarise the whole of Buddhism, known as the formula of dependent origination.
My tip would be to learn these separately rather than all at once, as each of them is quite long
enough, and is also used on its own at one time or another.

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These are held to confess and thereby remedy errors in the recitation in particular.
There are two traditions about this, and I forget which one belongs where, but they are that you recite the
Sanskrit alphabet three times, then the long Vajrasattva mantra three times, then the dependent origination

(18:42):
formula three times, and the other tradition, which I have in fact come across much more often myself, is
to recite one of each, and then do that three times.
So be prepared for the circumstances you find yourself in.
Summarising, confession in various plain or subtle, short or long embodiments, and mostly in terms of a

(19:09):
personal acknowledgement of failings, is a quite crucial part of Vajrayana practice.
So here we are.
Let's pretend we've just sat through a six-hour sadhana with tsok, confessed to a lot of things, and done
that at a lot of stages, and we are now ready to face life with confidence and blessing in our

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hearts.
And with that, we are now at the end of Double Dorje Podcast, Series 2, Episode 6.
As I always say, except when I forget, and I confess to doing that sometimes, please remember, if you
appreciate this episode or podcast, to like, follow, subscribe, and tell your friends.

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And remember, we are rarely perfect, but we own up, we do what we can to put it right, and
we move on.
That in itself is a funny kind of perfect.
Bye.