Julian of Norwich and Other Tibetan Lamas

In medieval English spirituality, “contrition” was of a piece with both sacramental confession, which was frequently referred to as “shrift,” and penance. In “The Parson’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer writes of this three-step process: “Now shalt thou understand what is suitable and necessary to true, perfect Penitence. And this consists of three things: Contrition of Heart, Confession of Mouth, and Satisfaction.” ₁ The value of confession as a particular element in this process can be discerned in a tender prayer uttered by the 14^th century hermit, Richard Rolle, in one of his meditations on the Passion:

Now here, sweet Jesu, I implore you, grant me grace to offer myself to you with my whole intent, in heartfelt sorrow for my sins and calling out for mercy to reform myself in my motivation, by admitting my sins to you and doing penance for them, by perseverance in virtuous living, by total love of you who made me; and allow me to turn to you through frequent confession in every difficulty, in every temptation of my body, of the world around me, or the devil; and bestow on me the grace that every thought, word or act which emanates from me may reveal that I am converted to you; and give me the grace gladly to turn with full inclination to [those] activities which you have appointed for me. Sweet Jesu, lord, I implore you, hear my prayer. ₂ 

Identifying and acknowledging one’s short-comings and sins is also a practice within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, although it is practiced somewhat differently than in Christianity. ₃ The 7th to 8^th century Indian Buddhist scholar, Shantideva, in a deeply influential text, The Way of the Bodhisattva, dedicates an entire chapter to this practice. Here, after making a series of tender homages, reverential offerings, and prostrations uttered in words, Shantideva begins his actual confession:

To perfect Buddhas and to Bodhisattvas, / In all directions which they may reside, / To they who are the sovereigns of great mercy, / I press my palms together, praying thus: / ‘In this and all my other lives, / While turning in the round without beginning, / Blindly I have brought forth evil, / And incited others to commit the same. / Deceived and overmastered by my ignorance, / I have taken pleasure in such sin, / And seeing now the blame of it, / O great protectors, I confess it earnestly!’ ₄

As he continues his teaching and reflection in this chapter, Shantideva confesses all those actions that he has done through the ignorance and the momentum of habit and to whose existential echo and energy he remains bound:  “Whatever I have done … / Through the force of my defilements, / In my body, speech, and mind, / All the evil I, a sinner, have committed, / All the wicked deeds that cling to me, / The frightful things that I contrived / I openly declare to you, the teachers of the world.” ₅ It is thoughts of impermanence that further and deepen this confessional meditation, as the Indian Buddhist struggles for vision beyond that which fuels the mindless cycle of everyday existence: “The thought came never to my mind / That I too am a brief and passing thing. And so, through hatred, lust, and ignorance, / I have committed many sins.” ₆

In a journal entry of November 3, 1968, when he was in Dharamsala, TM writes of his encounter with a lama he describes as “the Dalai Lama’s private chaplain, Khempo of Namgyal Tra-Tsang”: “He spoke of Santi Deva and I replied that I liked Santi Deva very much, had reread him this summer. He said the compassion of Santi Deva was so great that his teaching touched the heart very deeply and awakened a spiritual response.” ₇ In a journal entry of Saturday, June 28, 1968, the Trappist reflects on this rereading, with his own death invisibly only months away. He is quite brutal in his confessional self-assessment, and yet, not without a gracious hope:

I am spending the afternoon reading Santi Deva in the woods near the hermitage – the oak grove to the SW. A cool, breezy spot on a hot afternoon …. Thinking deeply of Santi Deva and my own need for discipline. What a fool I have been, in the literal and biblical sense of the word: thoughtless, impulsive, lazy, self-interested, yet alien to myself, untrue to myself, following the most stupid fantasies, guided by the most idiotic emotions and needs. Yes, I know, it is partly unavoidable. But I know too that in spite of all contradictions there is a center and a strength to which I always have access if I ever desire it. And the grace to desire it is surely there. ₈

Endnotes

1. A fuller quotation: “Now shalt thou understand what is suitable and necessary to true, perfect Penitence. And this consists of three things: Contrition of Heart, Confession of Mouth, and Satisfaction. For which says Saint John Crisostom, ‘Penitence compels a man to accept patiently every pain that to him is enjoined, with contrition of heart, and shrift of mouth, with satisfaction, and in working of all sorts of humility.’” (Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Parson’s Tale,” The Canterbury Tales (lines 107-109). Modern English translation retrieved from Harvard’s Geoffrey Chaucer Website: https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/parsons-prologue-and-tale) Middle English: “Now schalt þou vnderstonde what bihoueth and is necessarie to verray parfyt penitence. and þis stondith in þre þinges ¶ Contricioun of hert ¶ Con|fessioun of mouth ¶ And satisfaccion. ¶ For whiche saith seint Iohan Crisostom ¶ penitence distreyneth a man to accepte benignely euery peyne þat him is enioyned with contricioun of herte and schrift of mouth with satis|faccioun and in werking of alle maner humblete” (The Harleian ms. 7334 of Chaucer’s Canterbury tales. Ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall. Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400., Furnivall, Frederick James, ed. 1825-1910. Lines 107-109, page 601. Retrieved from the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/AGZ8246.0001.001/1:12?rgn=div1;view=fulltext ) The canonical teachings of The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 focused attention of the practice of confession, stipulating: “All the faithful of both sexes shall after they reached the age of the discretion faithfully confess all their sins at least once a year to their priest and perform to the best of their ability the penance imposed.” (“Canon 21.” The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215. Medieval Sourcebook: Twelfth Ecumenical Council: Lateran IV 1215: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/lateran4.asp )
2. “Meditations on the Passion,” Richard Rolle: The English Writings. Translated, Edited, and Introduced by Rosamund  S. Allen. New York: Paulist Press, 1988 page 107. Middle English: “Now here, swete Ihesu, I beseche þe, graunt me grace to profite to þe with all good wille and sorow of hert for my synnys, and criynge mercy and wil to amend me in shift and penance for my synnys, in good continuance of good lyvynge, in hool loue to þe þat made me; and graunt me to turne to þe in oft shrift in euche temptacioun and tribulacioun of my fleshe, world, or enmy: graunt me grace þat euch tht of me, word or werk, shew þat I am turned to þe; and yeve me grace fayne to turne to þo dedes with ful wille þat þou hast ordeynyd for me. Swete Ihesu, lord, I beseche þe, hyre my prayere.” (Richard Rolle: Prose and Verse, edited from MS Langleat 29 and related manuscripts. Edited by S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, lines 37-45, page 70). In his, The Form of Living, a text written for a newly enclosed anchorite by the name of Margaret Kirby, Richard Rolle counts contrition and confession as among those things which purify: “The first in heartfelt contrition, to counteract the sins of the inward intentions. And for that it is essential to be perfect, so that you have no intention of ever sinning again, and are sorry for all your sins …The second is oral confession, to counteract the sins of speech, and this must be prompt without delay, frank without any excuses, complete without separating, such as telling one sin to one priest and another to another: say everything you are conscious of to one, or the whole confession will be useless.” (“The Form of Living,” Richard Rolle: The English Writings. Translated, Edited, and Introduced by Rosamund S. Allen. New York: Paulist Press, 1988 page 166.) Middle English: “Þe first is sorowe of hert ayeyns þe synnes of thoght; and þat behoueth to be perfite, þa þou wolt neuer syn moor, and þat þou haue sorrow of al þi synnes … The tother is shrift of mouth again þe syn of mouth; and þat shal be hasted withouten delayynge, naked withouten excusynge, and entier without departynge, as for to tel a syn to oon prest, and anoþer to anoþer: set al þat þou wost to oon, or al is nat worth.” (“The Form of Living,” Richard Rolle: Prose and Verse, edited from MS Langleat 29 and related manuscripts. Edited by S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, lines 37-45, page 13).
3.  Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche (1955-2012) writes: “Confession (Tib. shags pa) has a unique meaning in Buddhism. Instead of confessing to someone else, such as a lama or a teacher, we acknowledge to ourselves what we feel ashamed about or that has been gnawing away in the back of our minds.” Traleg Kyabgon then quotes the great 19^th century contemplative teacher and author, Patrul Rinpiche: “’The power of regret comes from a feeling of remorse for all the negative actions you have done in the past. There can be no purification if you do not see your misdeeds as something wrong and confess them with fierce regret, without concealing anything.’” And finally, Traleg Kyabgon affirms: “It is also important to bring a witness to the whole process of our acknowledgement of regret. For this we invoke the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas, imagining them to be present, and confess to them, ‘I did this and that and I fully acknowledge my actions. I’m trying not to hide from it, and I’m not trying to deny I did it. I’m not trying to make any excuses for it.”  (Traleg Kyabgon, The Practice of Lojong: Cultivating Compassion through Training the Mind. Boulder: Shambhala Publications, 2007, pages 111-112).
4. Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva. A Translation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Translated from the Tibetan by the Padmakara Translation Group. Revised Edition. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006, verses 27-29, page 41. Another rendering of these verses reads: “With folded hands I beseech the Fully Awakened Ones present in all directions and the greatly compassionate Bodhisattvas. / Whatever sin I, a brute, have committed or caused others to commit in this life and others throughout the beginningless cycle of existence, / And anything in which I have deludedly rejoiced, thereby harming myself – that transgression I confess, overcome with remorse.” (Santideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life (Bodhicaryāvatāra). Translated from the Sanskrit and the Tibetan by Vasna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1997, verses 27-29, pages 26 and 27). Translators Vesna and Alan Wallace offer a note on the translation of the Sanskrit word papa and the Tibetan word sdig pa: “Throughout this text, Santideva addresses the issue of sin (papa, sdig pa) on many occasions. Modern Western readers commonly reject the introduction of the word sin into Buddhist translations on the grounds that it is too heavily laden with theological and psychological nuances from the history of Western religions and society. The word is so closely associated, they argue, with divine retribution, guilt, and fear that it should be avoided altogether in Buddhist writings …. The English terms misdeed and wrongdoing do correspond reasonably well to the meaning of papa, but considering Santideva’s emphasis on confessing and purifying papa to avoid its dire consequences, such as rebirth in hell, the English usage of sin seems to be correspond most closely to this Sanskrit term” (Ibid, note 22, page 24.) The Padmakara Group translators also address this issue: “In the case of the word sin, once associations connected with the doctrine of the Fall, divine punishment, etc., are discounted, its standard meaning (an evil act, whether by nature or by virtue of being a transgression of a vow or precept, that will provoke deadly consequences if not purified by confession) corresponds closely with the sense of sdig pa (Skt. papa) as used by Shantideva.” (Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva. A Translation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Translated from the Tibetan by the Padmakara Translation Group. Revised Edition. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006, verses 27-29, note 40, page 199).
5. Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva. A Translation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Translated from the Tibetan by the Padmakara Translation Group. Revised Edition. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006, verses 30 and 31, page 41.
6. Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva. A Translation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Translated from the Tibetan by the Padmakara Translation Group. Revised Edition. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006, verse 38, page 42.
7. Thomas Merton, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton. Edited from his original notebooks by Naomi Burton, Brother Patrick Hart & James Laughlin. Consulting Editor: Amiya Chakravarty. New York: New Directions Books, 1968, pages 93 and 94.
8. Thomas Merton, The Other Side of the Mountain: The End of Journey. Edited by Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998, page 135).