Question: If I had committed to a regular sadhana practice after an initiation, must I ask the guru for permission if I want to give it up? Can I simply give it up myself? I heard that this creates heavy negative karma?
Answer: It is best to ask the guru for permission and forgiveness. If he is hard to contact, you can email to those who can contact him. You can think of the situation in this way. Your spiritual commitment to the guru’s expectations is loosely similar to commitment to a life partner’s expectations of loyalty. As such, it is best to discuss on changes in meeting these expectations. If there is no sincere discussion, the commitment might be not sincere in the first place.
It is good to state the reasons for giving up too. For example, perhaps you were searching for a key Dharma practice in your life and have found it, and wish to focus. Were you aware of the need to meet the commitments when you were at the initiation(s)? If you were not really aware and thus did not really prepare yourself for them, I think there is good ground to apologise for not being ready to commit all the way on second thought. But there will still be the need to repent for having committed to something out of uncertainty.
Only if you really can’t contact the guru, should you consider announcing your wish to dissolve the commitments and repent before the Buddha. Most importantly, to resolve guilt for forgoing the commitments, it is good to do equivalent quantity of practice (and study) of the Dharma methods you now prefer. This can serve both as repentance and for making up for the other practices given up. If not, it would be giving up Dharma commitments for ‘nothing’ else – as in, becoming idle instead. Dharma commitments should be given up only for other Dharma commitments. If not, it would be similar to ‘giving up the Dharma’ to some extent. Plus the doing of more good deeds in general, this will help to dilute any negative karma incurred. Mindfulness of Buddha (Amituofo) is the simplest (hassle-free) yet most efficient way (in terms of generating merits) – but it must be done sincerely and with the right understanding.