Episode 109 – Acknowledging Harm

Is there a way to make a sane relationship with our bad deeds and our regrets, to learn from them and to move on from them?  •  it’s not easy to face up to all that we’ve done; it’s not easy to find a way between wallowing in guilt and evading responsibility  •  in the Buddhist monastic traditions, there is a practice that addresses this issue  •  it’s assumed that over time we can’t avoid causing harm, but this practice provides a way of directly facing and working with the harm we have caused  •  the starting point is remorse; we feel bad about what we have done, and we want to do something about it  •  remorse leads us to the second step: acknowledging our harmful actions, confessing them, and seeking to purify them  •  the third step is making amends, counteracting the harm we’ve done by doing something beneficial, which could include asking for forgiveness  •  acknowledging and working with our mistakes is so much better than just holding onto a big pool of regret  •  we can include everything, all of our experiences, to the enrichment of our journey.