Question asked by Gigi
Hi Pastors!!
I really want to be a Buddhist and practice the dharma correctly but I am not a Buddhist yet and due to my negative karma, now I don't have the best conditions to take refuge or go to a guru, is there any purification practice that I, a non-Buddhist who doesn't have a guru, can you do it?
Thanks.
Dear Gigi,
Of course. You can engage in any of the purification practices, even if you are not “technically” a Buddhist as you have not taken Refuge. Actually, even for the formal ceremony of Refuge, it’s not the ceremony itself that makes you a Buddhist, but taking Refuge from your heart that matters.
You can engage in any purification practice, for example:
Vajrasattva: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/prayers-and-sadhanas/an-important-purification-practice.html
[please note since you don’t have initiation, you visualise Vajrasattva by himself, and not with his consort]
35 Confessional Buddhas: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/the-35-confessional-buddhas.html
Either of these practices are very good. You can choose whichever one that feel more of an affinity with. I hope this helps. Thank you.