New Year’s Virtuous Resolutions

New Year’s Virtuous Resolutions
of The Buddha Path

(From The Buddha Path, Dharma Activity section, chapter 10 – Virtuous Worldly Activities,
section 4 – Annual Planning, part G – Self Empowering)

Dzogchen Buddha Path®
༄༅། །སྔ་འགྱུར་མཐོ་སློབ་རྫོགས་ཆེན་ཤྲཱི་སིངྷ་ལུང་རྟོགས་ཆོས་གླིང་།
NGAGYUR DZOGCHEN SHRI SINGHA TRANSMISSION
AND ACTUALIZATION DHARMA MANDALA UNIVERSITY

རྫོགས་ཆེན་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རབ་འབྱམས་ནས་བསྒྲིགས་ཅིང་རྩོམ་པར་མཛད།

Compiled, translated, and composed by
His Eminence Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche
and assisted by the Dzogchen Sangha members from around the world.

This work was begun on the auspicious day of the 28th of July 1993
at Boudhanath Stupa in Nepal and culminated on the auspicious day
of the 21st of December 2015 at the Dzogchen Retreat Center USA.

©2015 Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche and Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation.
All Rights Reserved. For free distribution only.
No part of the content shall be changed, altered, or modified in any way except
as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing by the publisher.

Fairly Reviewing the Past Year
1. How to Purify the Past Year’s Misdeeds
2. How to be Grateful for the Past Year’s Good Deeds
Realistically Making Strong Resolutions
1. Taking the Vow of Abandoning Harmful Conduct
2. Taking the Vow of Engaging in Beneficial Conduct
Wisely Aspiring for Virtuous Goals
1. Aspiration for Virtuous Temporary Goals
2. Aspiration for Virtuous Ultimate Goals

Fairly Reviewing the Past Year

1. First, How to Purify the Past Year’s Misdeeds

Before New Year arrives, review the past year thoroughly.

Mindfully think for at least 45 minutes. At the beginning of the new year, it is very important to reflect on the past, especially the past year. For any faults that you did not recognize in yourself or purify at that time, for any of your mistakes that you have denied, or for any time you blamefully accused someone, it is time to regretfully confess, reconcile, and purify.

If you had negative thinking or negative actions, then regret, renounce, seek forgiveness, and take a vow to never do again. In this way, your haunting memory, evil energy, and bad karma of the past year will decrease and you will prevent future suffering for yourself and others.

Also, it is important to request apologies from those who harmed you or who owe you an apology, and urge them to purify their misdeeds. If they apologize and purify, then you must forgive them accordingly. However, in any case, you must let go of resentment because holding resentment fulfills the aspirations of enemies and maras. Therefore, you must rationally forgive yourself and others.

All Buddhas and enlightened beings and all root and lineage masters, please heed me!
Before the eyes of the wisdom ones, I who am known as ________________________,
sincerely and wholeheartedly confess and purify the following:

What negative thinking and actions did you have toward yourself?

I confess and purify…____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________
What negative thinking and actions did you have toward your teacher?
I confess and purify…____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________
What negative thinking and actions did you have toward your parents?

I confess and purify…____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________
What negative thinking and actions did you have toward your Sangha?
I confess and purify…____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________
What negative thinking and actions did you have toward your Dharma Organization?
I confess and purify…____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________
What negative thinking and actions did you have toward your community?
I confess and purify…____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________
What negative thinking and actions did you have toward animals?
I confess and purify…____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________
What negative thinking and actions did you have toward the world?
I confess and purify…____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________
What negative thinking and actions did you have toward nonhumans?
I confess and purify…____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________
What negative thinking and actions did you have toward other specific objects?
I confess and purify…____________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

I, ____________________________,
honestly confess all my harmful intentions and misdeeds.
I sincerely regret all my harmful intentions and misdeeds.
I wholeheartedly renounce all my harmful intentions and misdeeds.
I profoundly purify all my harmful intentions and misdeeds.
I promise to not repeat any such negative thinking and negative conduct.
All enlightened and sentient beings,
please be patient with me. Please forgive me.

I will not hold negative feelings toward any being.
I will not hold resentment toward any being.
I will not hold vengeful feelings toward any being.
I will forgive according to their apologies and purification.
All Buddhas and enlightened beings and root and lineage masters,
please bless me to overcome all obstacles and challenges.

B. Second, How to be Grateful for the Past Year’s Good Deeds

All Buddhas and enlightened beings and all root and lineage masters, please heed me!
Before the eyes of the wisdom ones, I who am known as ________________________,
am sincerely and wholeheartedly grateful for and rejoice in the following:

What virtuous goals and activities did you or others do for yourself?