{"id":5790,"date":"2010-04-16T00:11:07","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T16:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=5790"},"modified":"2010-04-16T00:11:07","modified_gmt":"2010-04-15T16:11:07","slug":"can-i-uncommit-a-spiritual-commitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/04\/can-i-uncommit-a-spiritual-commitment\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I Uncommit a Spiritual Commitment?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5791\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/127.jpg?resize=101%2C131\" alt=\"\" width=\"101\" height=\"131\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/127.jpg?w=101&amp;ssl=1 101w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/127.jpg?resize=74%2C96&amp;ssl=1 74w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 101px) 100vw, 101px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Question:<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #993300;\">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?<\/span> Can I simply give it up myself? I  heard that this creates heavy negative karma?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Answer:<\/strong> 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. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Your spiritual commitment to the guru\u2019s  expectations is loosely similar to commitment to a life partner\u2019s  expectations of loyalty.<\/span> 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.<\/p>\n<p>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. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Were you aware of the need to meet the  commitments when you were at the initiation(s)?<\/span> 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.<\/p>\n<p>Only if you  really can\u2019t 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 \u2018nothing\u2019 else \u2013 as in, becoming idle instead. <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Dharma  commitments should be given up only for other Dharma commitments. If  not, it would be similar to \u2018giving up the Dharma\u2019 to some extent.<\/span> 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) &#8211; but it must be done sincerely and with the right understanding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: If I had committed to a regular sadhana practice after an initiation, must I ask the guru for permission&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-5790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mix","tag-repentance","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}