On account of the prayers it contains, this booklet should be tr If you should wish to dispose of it, please burn it rather than thr www.rigpa.org . eated with respect. eated with respect. ow it away. A Pract A RECONCILIATION: ice of Communication ow it away. eated with respect. eated with respect. www.rigpa.org If you should wish to dispose of it, please burn it rather than thr On account of the prayers it contains, this booklet should be tr 30 Running-order for confession practice Running-order View Confession Prayer Practice Texts T B ackground he Practice Dam drip nyepa kunsel Prayer for the Long Life of Sogyal Rinpoche The Dedication of Merit The Meditation and Recitation of The Generation of Bodhichitta: Invoking the Lama ‘Resolution’ ‘Confession’ E Purpose The Four Powers Being a ‘Nangpa’ Responsibility, not guilt Responsibility, Dedication from ‘Samantabhadra’s Aspiration’ ‘Samantabhadra’s Dedication from The Heart of Vajrasattva Refuge Taking ‘Appreciation’ Preliminaries Ru Ground Aspects of Transformation Three Noble Principles The Three nvironment ________________________________________________ which Purifies Obscurations of the Awakened Mind Awakened the ___________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ ________________________________________ les ______________________________________ ______________________________________ _________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ________________________________ Contents ____________________________ ____________________________ _____________________________ ___________________________ __________________________ __________________________ the Heart _____________________ _____________________ Vajrasattva Vajrasattva __________________ __________ ________ 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 7 6 9 9 3 1 5 4 4 2 1 0 0 9 7 6 5 4 3 1 9 8 6 4 4 3 29 ) ) group practices loving-kindness during ( group practices tonglen during each ( Confession prayer (individual) 100-syll. mantra 1x (group) Confession prayer (group) or simply the heart of Vajrasattva, Purification prayer from 100 syll. mantra 3x if time is short (group) Dam Drip Nyepa Kunsel 3x, last line 21x (group) close Vajrasattva 1st Noble Principle; a moment’s quiet contemplation of this follows. & others’ or ‘self-tonglen’) & 4 powers for purification Confession Running-order for confession practice Facilitator welcomes, reminds of the purpose of the practice, and of the Motivation prayer Invoking the Lama Taking Refuge (from LNN) 3x Prostrations 21x Generation of Bodhicitta (from LNN) 3x Silent or guided Mahayana practice (usually ‘exchanging self after all confessions completed:- Tea! Resolution Dedication & SR long-life prayer Generation of Bodhicitta 3x Open Vajrasattva 100 syl 21x 6 syl 100x Facilitator reminds everyone of 2nd or 3rd Noble Principles after each confession:- Appreciation 28 BACKGROUND teachings are not authentic, or the students are not applying not authentic, or the students are teachings are arising means that the people worry that such problems communities all over the world. and developed in lay monastic Buddhist applied, refined with such situations was developed which continues to be transformation. Over time, a tradition of how to work skilfully arising, and their potential for both confusion the inevitability of such situations have always recognised Buddhist communities, particularly monastic for transformation. authentic self-confidence - a fertile ground and lack of work with their own patterns of self-centredness such situations can become a powerful basis for students to acknowledged and worked with, if recognised, However, nowhere. pattern that continuously feeds back upon itself, leading confusion, & exhaustion is generated; a classic samsaric grasping, projection, & territoriality, further aggression for - a fertile ground someone else ‘losing’/being ‘wrong’ - usually in terms of ourselves ‘winning’/being ‘right’ and the situation ‘locked up’ in unskilful attempts to ‘resolve’ becomes energy and more As more individuals concerned. of the and the spiritual progress both the work of group and worked with, these tensions can block If not recognised dealt with. are how such problems community is, rather, to experiences, what characterises a genuine spiritual react Just as what distinguishes a practitioner is how they nakedly. causes all our samsaric patterns to be exposed ever more & Dzogchen practice, that it and especially of Vajrayana of authentic practice, characteristic of the deep healing process them. The latter is often the case but not always, since it this; in fact, they are be immune from people imagine that spiritual communities will somehow experience tensions due to miscommunication. Sometimes Any community living and/or working together will A Practice of Comm A RECONCILI ATION: unication particularly prone. Or prone. 1 27 bimalé Dam drip nyepa kunsel (Mantra for the removal of all defilements of samaya) om utsitaya torya soha uta mitaya torya soha mönta krotaya torya soha ako krotaya torya soha abhu krotaya torya soha uta shataya torya soha eling etaya torya soha lamön taya torya soha ené piné taya torya soha om bhurkur maha pranaye bhurtsi bhurku utsukma krodha hung phat torya soha Such skills are perhaps particularly necessary for Buddhist perhaps Such skills are communities trying to integrate the teachings in a Western living wisdom- context. The encounter between this great tradition and a society characterised by speed aggression As a tensions and misunderstandings. is bound to produce also be said that Westerners generalisation, it could perhaps much tend to define themselves in terms of their relationships an Oriental culture. than do practitioners coming from more tend to play out that we might more foreseeable It is therefore our confusions in the context of relationships. This practice is closely modelled on those used for in the earliest community-building and conflict-resolution It was developed Buddhist monasteries, and still in use today. into the practices used in a number of research through contmporary western Buddhist communities, of which the and work done in Thich Nhat Hanh’s and Chagdud Tulku’s, Amaravati (a Theravadin monastery in Britain) proved at also adapted from particularly valuable. Some tools were from American tradition of tribal group-meetings, the Native developed at the the ‘circle-work’ Quaker practice, and from Family Life Center in California. This model has now been used weekly by students in personal development, and a powerful working context in which to practice integrating the teachings into their lives & - an authentic taste of why ‘Sangha’ is one the relationships Jewels in which we take refuge. Three Rigpa’s one-year retreat at Dzogchen Beara for the last 3 Rigpa’s one-year retreat and years, during which time it has been further refined It has rapidly developed into one of the richest structured. its use Through and most important practices in the retreat. students have found their confidence in themselves weekly, of sense growing and the teachings deepened, a real for their the community as both a supportive environment 2 26 And grant absolution by pure self-nature, I pray! Please accept this with forebearance, not holding onto I confess with these words. theTo extent that I have not remained within a completely I have fallen from the traditional ideals and upset your minds. inYet regard to fundamental manners of pure body and pure There is no distinction of excellence or fault within the context allWe moreover have made a commitment to behave And have taken the samaya oath as disciples of the Sugatas. All of us are vajra-brothers and sisters, ah rangshin dag pé tsang pa tsal du sol dzin mé ngang du zö par shé dzö la nam dag sam pé ni né tsig di shag zhung lé nyam shing thug dang gal wa nam lu ngag nam par dag pé tsul tsam du nyam nyi dang lé ne nye yerme kyang kun kyang thun par kyö pé damtsig la dewar sheg pé lob mar dam no mé tham ché dorje dang chamdral te ho (from ‘Knowing One Liberates All’, by Jamgön Kongtrul Lödro Thaye) Confession Prayer anything, pure state of mind, speech of equanimity; harmoniously. Responsibility, not guilt VIEW active, rigorous, liberating and transformative. active, rigorous, is passive, self-indulgent and disempowering; responsibility humour and courage. Guilt is aspects with lucidity, difficult in that, we can face, work with and finally liberate our a deep confidence Arousing fundamentally sane, awake, pure. not a hopeless case, we’re not our confusion”. We’re are “We because, as Rinpoche says, can release of things’. We breast purifying, ‘making a clean Real confession is about releasing, change. powerless to the message that we are patterns by reinforcing of our personal soap-opera”, allowing us to continue old the coin of self-indulgence” and “a particularly seductive part He has called it “the other side of of egocentric perception. mechanisms is one of the subtlest and most powerful control us, guilt As Sogyal Rinpoche has so often reminded & guilt. it is connected with a sense of personal unworthiness where in the contemporary Judaeo-Christian context, interpreted not using that term in the way it is so often that we are When we speak of ‘confession’, it is vital to understand