Ahimsa, active harmlessness, empowers people to do 'random acts of kindness', to help people in need, out of compassion, without any expectation of reward.
Metanoia is the realization that all sentient beings are helping you to become spiritually enlightened. Thus when a person realizes other people are helping him, that is metanoia.
This is the essence of "changing your ways" and changing your mind from the path of spiritual sin to follow the spiritual path of redemption. In Christianity, baptism celebrates this change of mind symbolically.
In Buddhism, Venerable Kongmu writes that "repentance in Buddhism is acknowledging our freedom and our ability to move through and beyond our mistakes in an honest appraisal of our lives."
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, 'repentance (Ancient Greek: μετάνοια, metanoia, "changing one's mind") isn't remorse, justification, or punishment, but a continual enactment of one's freedom, deriving from renewed choice and leading to restoration (the return to man's original state).'
Thus, repentance is affirmed as that change of mind that accompanies a spiritual rebirth into the deeply spiritual realm called euphemistically by Christians "the state of Grace".
Thus, the spiritually enlightened person becomes more kindly and more helpful towards other people. Thinking good of other people, he behaves out of compassion in a manner contrary to his "old ways".
Indeed is he harmless to all, remaining nonviolent while defending other people and himself from harm.
Originally posted July 4, 2005 at 5:42 PM
Reference:
Ahimsa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa
Metanoia (theology): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metanoia_(theology)
Repentance before the 88 Buddhas - Buddha Fields: http://kongmu.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/88-buddhas/
Jesus Prayer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Prayer
No comments:
Post a Comment