Comments on: On Guilt http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2009/09/23/on-guilt/ My life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile. Sat, 11 Jun 2011 01:53:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Doug http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2009/09/23/on-guilt/#comment-3346 Doug Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:35:24 +0000 http://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=5192#comment-3346 Yeah, the very same process is something I still am learning to do, and struggle with. Maybe it's pride or something, but it's hard to accept something I've done before, rather than just pretend it's not there. So much easier to just pretend it's not there, but it's not a good long-term solution. Yeah, the very same process is something I still am learning to do, and struggle with. Maybe it’s pride or something, but it’s hard to accept something I’ve done before, rather than just pretend it’s not there. So much easier to just pretend it’s not there, but it’s not a good long-term solution.

]]> By: Jeannie http://japanlifeandreligion.com/2009/09/23/on-guilt/#comment-3344 Jeannie Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:14:38 +0000 http://nihonshukyo.wordpress.com/?p=5192#comment-3344 <i>"There’s no room for personal growth until we acknowledge and reflect upon the terrible things we have committed in our lives and then awaken a resolve to not repeat them again."</i> Bingo! Thank you, Doug. When I first began practicing Buddhism many years ago, I decided a beneficial course of action would be to forgive myself for the bad choices I had made in my youth. Of course, it also meant that I actually had to recognize the things I had done. I decided to no longer look at my past actions from a third person point of view. It was me that did those things. I had to stop making excuses and to accept responsibility. It was only when I accepted the things that done that I could finally let go of the guilt. And when I did let go of the guilt, I found it incredibly easy not to repeat those same bad actions. It was an incredibly difficult thing for me to do though. It was hard to break the pattern of years of denial and it took me many, many years. But now that I am better at recognizing my actions, accepting the outcome of my decisions, and moving on from them in a positive direction, I can give Metta to myself and to others. “There’s no room for personal growth until we acknowledge and reflect upon the terrible things we have committed in our lives and then awaken a resolve to not repeat them again.”

Bingo! Thank you, Doug.

When I first began practicing Buddhism many years ago, I decided a beneficial course of action would be to forgive myself for the bad choices I had made in my youth. Of course, it also meant that I actually had to recognize the things I had done. I decided to no longer look at my past actions from a third person point of view. It was me that did those things. I had to stop making excuses and to accept responsibility. It was only when I accepted the things that done that I could finally let go of the guilt. And when I did let go of the guilt, I found it incredibly easy not to repeat those same bad actions.

It was an incredibly difficult thing for me to do though. It was hard to break the pattern of years of denial and it took me many, many years. But now that I am better at recognizing my actions, accepting the outcome of my decisions, and moving on from them in a positive direction, I can give Metta to myself and to others.

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