The Four Opponent Powers
Photo by Dave Ragusa
Taking responsibility for our harmful actions is essential to Buddhist practice. How can we take this up, consistently and with compassion? In this fusatsu talk, Zuisei offers insight into the process through a teaching called The Four Opponent Powers, as well as the surprising roles of shame and fear in the practice of atonement.
This talk was given during Ocean Mind Sangha’s in-person sesshin during Fusatsu, a renewal of vows ceremony grounded in the recognition of the effect of our actions on ourselves and others.
This talk was given by Zuisei Goddard.
Transcript
This transcript is based on Zuisei's talk notes and may differ slightly from the final talk.
The Four Opponent Powers
Good afternoon. Today I’d like to speak a little about repentance. The root of the word is the Latin re (for again) and paenitere (to cause to regret). So, to repent is to “feel sorrow again” or to “repent again.”
In Buddhism, repentance or atonement is central to the taking of responsibility for our actions and/or the karma that we create through the three karma doors of body, speech, and mind—our actions, our words, and our thoughts. Because in the Buddhadharma we acknowledge that even our thoughts have power; they have power to shape the world around us, and the world in us. And so it’s important to guard all three doors. This is part of the process of repentance. Repentance is not unique to Buddhism of course.
Christianity has the practice of confession. Judaism has teshuva—returning, having gone astray, we return to the path, return to righteousness. Islam has tawbah, an asking of forgiveness through prayer. Hinduism has prayascitta, rituals of atonement. In Buddhism, uposatha or fusatsu is the acknowledgment of our harmful actions and the commitment to realign ourselves with a path of wisdom and compassion. In this sense, it’s also a kind of return.
All of our religious traditions acknowledge that as human beings, we stray, we falter, we get confused, we become self-involved. Even with the best of intentions, even when we want to do good, we sometimes don’t, because we get caught. We get caught in our ignorance, in our delusion, our self-conceit, and then we don’t see others, or we forget that we want to wake up, and in our self-involvement, we act in a confused way, creating harm. But, when we notice this has happened, we acknowledge it, we take responsibility, and we recommit to our vows. The point is not to feel guilty or bad about ourselves. The point is not to make another feel bad. The point, always, is to see more clearly, and to return to that which will benefit everyone. The point is to alleviate the suffering so prevalent in our lives, and to not add to it.
There is no penance in Buddhism, no punishment. There’s definitely no diminishing of our worth when we do something we shouldn’t have. Remember that Buddhism’s starting point is our perfection, and a misdeed doesn’t change that. There is simply the recognition of that misdeed and the resolve to repair and move on. So there’s no guilt, but there is shame in Buddhism, which, paired with fear of wrongdoing, is what the Buddha called a “bright principle of the world.” Hiri, shame, and ottappa, fear of wrongdoing, protect us and others from harm. Hiri is the internal shame we feel at losing our sense of honor or self-respect. It’s that cringey feeling when we do something we know we shouldn’t have done, the pain that arises in the gap between who we are and who we know we can be. Ottappa is the external fear of the consequences of our unskillful or hurtful actions and the effect they might have on others. It’s a relational emotion; we toe the line because we don’t want to be cast out from the tribe. They’re both relational, actually. Shame is what we feel in the relationship with ourselves. Fear of wrongdoing we feel in relationship with others.
Buddhaghosa, a fifth-century Theravada monk, used a colorful analogy to illustrate these two guardians. He said that when we commit a harmful action, it’s like grabbing an iron rod to hit another, but on one end, the rod is smeared with excrement, and on the other it’s heated to a red-hot glow. Shame, Buddhaghosa said, is the disgust we feel at grabbing the side of the rod covered with excrement. Fear of wrongdoing is the pain and distress we feel at holding the hot side of the rod. Both feelings cause us pain or discomfort, but it’s that very discomfort that alerts us to the fact that there’s something we need to attend to, something we need to rectify. And the question, of course, is how? How do we atone for that harm?
In Vajrayana Buddhism there is a teaching called The Four Opponent Powers which encapsulates this process of repentance or atonement. The four powers are: Regret, Reliance, Remedy, and Resolve. The first, Regret, is that first moment of acknowledgment, the recognition of our actions and their harmful effects. Regret is like realizing we’ve swallowed a bit of poison. We drop everything and rush to the doctor to get an antidote, we don’t stand around feeling guilty about ourselves. I’ve said in the past that guilt has to be the most useless of human emotions. It gives us a sense that we’re doing something about our harmful actions, but nothing’s really happening. We’re not atoning, we’re not repairing, we just feel bad. Regret, like shame, is a kind of pain that we don’t want to feel. And not wanting to feel it, we take care to put things in place to help us not commit the same mistake.
Regret acknowledges karma and its effects, and it kicks into gear the process to clear up that karma. It also, interestingly, expands our view. Instead of being focused on ourselves, on feeling bad about something we’ve done or not done, it brings others into our view. We think about and feel the effects of our harm on others—that’s especially where that feeling of regret comes from. Not wanting to create that harm again, we vow to atone, and to change.
The second opponent power, Reliance, is called The Power of the Object. There are two main categories of objects: the first is the Three Treasures—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The second is any other being.
Having fallen on the ground, we use that same ground to get up. We use our faith in our own ability to awaken and in the example of all the many teachers, the many buddhas, who have come before us; we use our faith in the dharma, the soundness of the teachings; and we use our faith in the sangha, the community of practitioners, all the many noble friends who accompany us on the path. Then, we also rely on the very beings whom we may have harmed. Acknowledging that they want the same thing that we want, happiness and wellbeing, we develop compassion for them. And we renew our vow to not harm—them or anyone else.
Third we have the power of Remedy, which is exactly what it says. Having acknowledged our failing, having taken refuge in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and all beings, we now actively turn to a remedy for our actions. We find ways to clean up our karma, if you will, by doing prostrations, for example, or by making offerings. The practice of bowing is very effective when it comes to clearing out negative karma. You have to get out of your own way, your own head, in order to bow down. (I always think of that famous scene in the Brothers Karamazov. Dmitri, the older brother, is fighting with his father, making a scene in front of Father Zosima, Dmitri’s younger brothers, Ivan and Alyosha, and a small group, when suddenly Father Zosima gets up and bows down at Dmitri’s feet, leaving him speechless—and ashamed. He’s not able to look in the mirror that Father Zosima holds up for him, and he runs away.) Our practice is to not run away, but to face ourselves and the world.
Another very effective practice is the repetition of mantras like The Four Immeasurables (May I be safe…) or, I take refuge in the Buddha… We can also ask for forgiveness and try to make amends. If the person we’ve harmed is deceased or far away, we could write a letter to them, to acknowledge and atone for our harm. Remember the power of thought to create karma. You don’t have to have the person in front of you for the remedy to have an effect.
Finally, we have the power of Resolve. This is the determination to not make the same mistake. This isn’t a matter of control, it’s a matter of clarity. The clearer we are, the less we’ll be willing or able to harm another or ourselves. Resolve includes vow, commitment, and discipline. Maybe we vow to not speak ill of others for a day or a week, and slowly we extend our vow until we don’t have to think about it so much anymore. It’s simply the way we are. First we practice doing good, by deliberately going through this practice of the Four Opponent Powers, then we become that goodness ourselves. No, we don’t become it. We simply realize that’s who we’ve always been, and act accordingly. We realize we’re not a self walking around, a Velcro self getting stuck everywhere, but a collection of causes and conditions arising moment after moment, and because in each moment they’re new, in each moment they can shift, they can change
Maybe that can be the Fifth Opponent Power: the power of Renewal. If we forget all the other four, we can remember this one: Every single moment—every single moment—is an opportunity to begin again, no matter what we’ve done, every step along the path is the most important step, and with each step, we can fall on the ground, or we can stand. It really is our choice. It’s up to us.
Explore further
01 : Fusatsu Talk: Sacred Space with Zuisei Goddard
02 : Fusatsu Talk: Walking on the Ground of Reality with Zuisei Goddard
03 : Instructions on Not Giving Up (aka SWITCH) with Zuisei Goddard
The Four Opponent Powers a fusatsu talk by Zen Buddhist teacher Zuisei Goddard.