What to purify?

[Hazel]

Is there a handy list of sources of negative karma to purify? I am going to start purification practice soon and I want to draw a line between "things I feel bad about" and "things I should purify". I feel bad/guilty about all sorts of stuff that are not actually bad (or volitional) and I don't want to turn my purification practice into self-flagellation.

[PadmaVonSamba]

I hate the term, “purify”.
The practice has more to do with eliminating obstacles, or what is popularly referred to as mental or emotional “baggage”.

[Hazel]

I hate the term, “purify”.
The practice has more to do with eliminating obstacles, or what is popularly referred to as mental or emotional “baggage”.

Interesting. And this makes sense. So what am I declaring regret for in this light?

[coldbeer]

We are all ordinary human beings drowning in the five afflictions. Don't feel too bad about yourself.

[reiun]

Is there a handy list of sources of negative karma to purify? I am going to start purification practice soon and I want to draw a line between "things I feel bad about" and "things I should purify". I feel bad/guilty about all sorts of stuff that are not actually bad (or volitional) and I don't want to turn my purification practice into self-flagellation.

From: DAILY SUTRAS for Chanting and Recitation, The Zen Studies Society, New York

PURIFICATION
San Ge Mon

All the evil karma
ever committed by me
since of old
On account of my beginningless
greed, anger and folly
Born of my body, mouth
and thought
I now confess and
purify them all.

[SilenceMonkey]

Our emotional afflictions and our cognitive obscurations.
The latter is done through growing our wisdom through the view... prajna paramita... shunyata!

And of course there's our karma.

I hate the term, “purify”.
The practice has more to do with eliminating obstacles, or what is popularly referred to as mental or emotional “baggage”.

Interesting. And this makes sense. So what am I declaring regret for in this light?

The feeling regret is part of the process of clearing up our karma.

(We don't always have to use words like "purify."
On the other hand, once a destructive emotion, cognitive obscuration or karma is cleared away, we are that much more pure.)

[Danny]

Purification can be viewed as “gaining knowledge” or insight into our conditions and circumstances. Our actions and reactions. It’s a personal dimension exploration.
Wisdom, clarity and experience, should grow.

[Sādhaka]

...mental or emotional “baggage”.

You mean vāsanā in wylie

[PadmaVonSamba]

Also, ‘purify’ in this sense means to return something to its original condition. I’ve heard the analogy of washing stains out of a white fabric (‘stain’ is another word I don’t like to use, but this was how it’s meaning in this context was explained).
And the significant thing to keep in mind here is not so much that one is refining something, like manufacturing vodka from potatoes and trying to get it to some ‘pure’ state, where when you started all you had was dirty potatoes and now you’ve distilled it into something totally different, some totally clear liquid. Here, the potatoes are fine the way they are. All that’s needed is to remove the dirt they grew in.

Likewise, one doesn’t need to try to be someone else other than who they are. Whatever dirt has brought us to this point in our lives can be removed. It’s all in the past, and the process is just to let go of it.

[Danny]

Purifying karma is a function of being in time. Cause and effect. Since the beginning-less state is beyond time, the concepts of purifying, is mind centric.

[SilenceMonkey]

The guilt issue is a tricky one with westerners... I'm not sure really what to say about it.

I think we should actually cultivate some kind of feeling of negativity around negative things (actions). Like murder... deceiving people... breaking people's hearts... violence of any kind... putting people down... any of the misdeeds and generally nonvirtuous actions. I think developing a sense of positivity and negativity can really help our practice. (I'm sure a lot of non-dual folks would be appalled by this thought.)

We need an inner sense of morality (a moral compass). Often the moral compass in western culture is in a judeo-christian paradigm. This is a bag of worms that can take years to really sort through.

A lot of the stuff we tend to feel guilty about is really over nothing. This feeling "Oh, I've done something wrong!" "Oh, I'm a terrible person!" A lot of this stuff is just weird projections based on values we've internalized over the years. So... how do we deal with these projections?

[Danny]

Relaxation slows the winds in the channels, the mind rides the winds, relax the body, relax the winds, relax the mind,
Relax body, speech and the mind, relax the actions and reactions, relax the karma.
Meditate.
Relax

[Johnny Dangerous]

One of my main teachers has said that almost any practice is a purification practice. The intention and the four opponent powers are what direct it towards purification. Guilt is pretty worthless though, whereas regret is not.