PART 8 of Teaching on Medicine Buddha by Gyalwa Dokhampa – THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ONE’S PURIFICATION IS PROPORTIONATE TO ONE’S GENUINENESS WHEN DOING IT
It is said that there is no negative karma that cannot be purified with genuine purification practice. As said earlier, emotionally also, every time you do purification from the depth of your heart, you are accepting the situation, which makes you feel lighter.
Usually, many of us have this habit of not really doing soul searching, which means we are not accepting our fault. It is like someone with tuberculosis not accepting that he/she has that disease and refusing to eat medicines or do whatever is required to get cured.
The first step towards genuine purification is acceptance. When we do not accept our faults, it is terrifying to be alone because those are times when we have to face our true selves. When we are not alone, we are always distracted. This means we do not have to face who we indeed are, what kind of person we are, what we do, etc. When we are all by ourselves, whether it is doing meditation, it is difficult because there is no way to hide who we truly are.
Buddha Shakyamuni himself said that if we do purification practice, genuinely regretting our wrongdoings, vowing not to do it again, and doing positive deeds and taking refuge in the Buddha dharma, there is no negative karma that cannot be purified. It is said that if one’s purification is 100% genuine, one will not have to suffer the consequences; if one’s purification maybe 50% genuine, then the level of suffering will become small from enormous; basically, the level of suffering because of one’s negative karma gets reduced in proportion to our genuineness of purification.
From the emotional perspective, when we accept our faults in front of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, then commit to ourselves not to do it again, it is a way of improving ourselves. And this definitely will help lighten your mind.
To be continued…
A Short Prayer to Medicine Buddha is available for download from http://bit.ly/35K2uey
For Part 7, visit https://www.facebook.com/155584751132548/posts/4191136290910687/?d=n