Tag Archives: buddha

Enough is Enough- The cause of Social Suffering is not a Mystery

26 Jul

Enough is Enough- The cause of Suffering is not a Social Mystery

Author Rodger R Ricketts, Psy.D.

Copyright Rodger Ricketts Psy.D.,2025. All rights reserved. Protected by international copyright conventions. Reproduction is availble in case of brief quotations with due acknowledgement.

Decapitations, mass killings, enslavement, enforced starvation, abductions, sexual assaults, and the persistent plight of poverty and conflict are tragedies that have plagued humanity throughout history. Now, with the advent of modern mass communication, these heinous acts are revealed in their complete brutality as never before, making it impossible for anyone to ignore how critical the state of human suffering can be. This heightened awareness now provides a powerful motivation to put an end to such suffering.

Although the abuse of war and the inhuman attitude exhibited by people to fellow living beings is not new, the causes of such actions are revealing themselves more clearly. With the use of teachings offered by the Buddha we are now better able to remedy this and eventually stamp out these negative urges. The teachings of the Buddha, which are over 2,500 years, are increasingly applicable in the modern times, especially with the help of contemporary scientific discoveries. Through these teachings, a highly detailed model has been laid down which incorporates the use of moral and psychological understandings giving a clear and rational way to stop the suffering of ourselves, other people and living beings because of our ignorant and harmful intentions/actions.

This is a moment of excitement in humanity as we have a clear platform to develop a civilization with a harmonious relationship with the earth and its inhabitants. As opposed to the promises made in the past by different religious and philosophical movements, that favored one group and disadvantaged another, the vision advanced by the teachings of the Buddha and supported by modern science is not that at all. The new vision eliminates fixed identities and addresses the causes of conflict. What Buddha offers is a nonviolent, radical, yet functional way out of all that: a peaceful way out that can reduce and eventually remove the sufferings that has haunted humanity since its dawn. That misery contains a lot of distress that is caused by the ignorance of existence in human lives which creates a separation with reality. It is an important realization to help us cure the pain we both inflict and endure. This view can be summed up by a quote from the well-known physicist Albert Einstein: The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description.

It’s worth noting that not all people who suffer from violence experience it directly. This also impacts on the perpetrators of such acts. According to the Buddha, a person who chooses to commit violence out of anger, greed, ignorance, and selfishness has a deluded mindset. This is what lies behind the destructive behavior we witness in the world today and in the past. When this kind of mindset ignorance disappears, violence, greed, hostility, and selfishness will also disappear. The greatest benefit of the Buddha’s teachings is that when we learn and apply them in our lives, we will achieve happiness, compassion, dignity, and wisdom.

The time has come when the world needs to understand these doctrines, (not mystical, not esoteric doctrines), but Truths which are guidelines about human suffering and their solution, in a practical and factual manner. The Buddha never engaged in Esotericism, nor did he offer a metaphysical explanation of the suffering. Rather, by observing himself and others, he concluded that ignorance, a misperception of reality, was the true source of suffering. By eliminating this misunderstanding through Awakening, people can relieve themselves and others from suffering. The result of Awakening is peace, happiness and compassion with oneself and all living beings. We must recognize that we are all interconnected and interrelated.

The teachings of Buddha present to us an immense opportunity of overcoming our ignorance and living compatibly with a harmonious life. We are ready now to have a Renaissance- a new Renaissance that would incorporate contemporary insights including of psychology, ecology, neurology, biology, physics, etc. that would hold up the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha. This is the opportunity to make a remarkably positive future for humanity, it is the time to motivate a reformation, resulting in everyone being content and wise and suffering will no longer darken the face of this planet.

Enough is EnoughDownload

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Preface and Chapter 1 Introduction, Of the Book, God is No-thing. The Apophatic Assertion, TheSalvation for Humankind – revised 2022

10 Feb

Preface and Chapter 1 Introduction, Of the Book, God is No-thing. The Apophatic Assertion, The
Salvation for Humankind – revised -. Copyright Rodger Ricketts Psy.D.,2022. All rights reserved.
Protected by international copyright conventions. No part of this chapter may be reproduced in any
manner whatsoever, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, without express permission of the
Author publisher, except in case of brief quotations with due acknowledgement. Publisher
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Preface
After 40 years of active study and practice on the Buddha’s teachings and
having written four books on what I call ‘Buddha-inspired psychology,’ I
recently found a very insightful perspective that expanded what I had
learned before. The perspective is that the Buddha’s teachings are a form of
Apophatic Theology, thereby; they inherently undercut any easy attempts at
codification. The revelation of Emptiness or Sunyata with the Divine is
experienced rather than defined and categorized through limited language
descriptions. With such an emphasis on first-hand, personal experience, the
insight of intrinsic nature through Awakening runs contrary to the abstract,
‘positive’ Cataphatic theology. This book is a unique and cogent perspective
that investigates and promotes the Buddha’s teachings as a ‘negative’,
Apophatic theology.
While there are scholarly books and research articles on the topic of
Apophatic theology, very few incorporate the Buddha’s teachings and
scientific thought. In this book, I aspire to show that indeed the Buddha’s
and science’s teachings and insights can be succinctly integrated into the
Apophatic spiritual tradition that spans cultures and time. Within the larger
scope of the canons of ‘via negativa’, the Buddha’s teachings of
Nothingness or Emptiness or Sunyata and recent scientific insights are
clearly a part of the Apophatic spiritual tradition.
This revised book goes beyond what was in the first edition and instructs the
reader even more deeply about the topic. From a broad, modern perspective,
my aim is to make accessible for those who are on their own spiritual path
of personal discovery the universal teachings of the Buddha.
I have always appreciated that the Buddha taught universal truths that are
applicable everywhere and throughout time. The integration of these truths
with other teachers of Apophatic theology has affirmed my belief in this
universality. Even with my forty years of research studies, attendance of
temple retreats with monks and lay lectures and meditation practice, I have
only now found this instructive link between the Buddha’s teachings with
other teachers of the Apophatic tradition. I want to share these insights with
my fellow spiritual path voyagers. I believe they too will find it as
interesting and illuminating as I have.
Chapter One
Introduction
In the past 40 years as a clinical psychologist and student of the Buddha, I
became aware of the many similarities between the two studies. This
awareness led me to successfully integrate both in my own life and clinical
practice the benefits of combining the perspectives. As a result, I have
written four books explaining my perspective on the Buddha’s psychological
benefits for wellness and happiness.
In the past year, I learned Apophatic theology or Apophaticism. This
research introduced me to Western and other Apophatic writers resulting in
my defining the Buddha’s teachings as an example of a mystical or
Apophatic perspective.
There are clear similarities between the Buddha’s writing and Angelus
Silesius and other Apophatic theology writers. While there is some
scholarship about this similarity, unfortunately, it is rarely discussed in
either mainstream Buddhist or Christian literature. This lack of discussion
prompted me to integrate relevant aspects of my previous writings on the
Buddha’s teachings with the Apophatic perspectives and highlight what I
believe are important correspondences.
In the past, I had read some works of Christian Mystics like Meister Eckhart
and the book of the Cloud of Unknowing, but I never was specifically
introduced to the Apophatic tradition. This past year as I began to read the
Apophatic works of Angelus Silesius and Anicius Manlius Severinus
Boethius, I realized that the Buddha’s teachings could be rightly considered
Apophatic. This realization opened a new dimension of comprehension and
relevance for me about what I had written in my previous books and essays
on the Buddha’s teachings.
Apophaticism wonders how to speak about the indescribable or immanent
Existence or Absolute, instead of the common use of the pronoun or noun,
like ‘God’ or an equivalent – with its language/meaning associations or
exaggerations attached to it. The Apophatic writers prefer to use the
reference of Mysterious or No-thing. Philosopher Mulla Rajab affirmed
“…an unqualifiable and attribute-less nature of ‘God’.”
Also, philosopher Maimonides explained that ‘God’ must be free of
properties and is thus unlike anything else and indescribable. At times in my
chapters, I have used the designation of (X) instead of ‘God,’ etc., to avoid
this quandary. As the reader goes through the chapters in this book, they will
soon understand further this dilemma of designation, which is a useful
lesson in Apophatic theology.
In the following chapters, the reader will notice that I have placed emphasis
on the Buddha’s teachings throughout because I have found his ancient
teachings have the most in-depth and complete analysis of an Apophatic
training and perspective. These chapters about the Buddha’s teachings and
Apophatic writings, while not encyclopedic, are not only for intellectual
curiosity but as a living testament of truth with positive consequences not
only for the wellness and well-being of the individual but for society and the
whole Gaia. When understood and incorporated into one’s life, this is
enlightening. Clearly, in this book I inform and advocate.
To conclude, with this book’s analysis of the Apophatic, the Buddha’s
teaching and modern scientific insights, one develops a cogent scientific and
modern understanding of the inherent restrictions to fully comprehend the
mysterious nature of existence or Being. The middle way is an alternative
term for the Eightfold Path, and we do not hold extreme positions in any
way. When all words collapse into silence, we resist labeling that Wonder
with another name; therefore, we realize that we can only say ‘it is what it
is.’
Everything is impermanent and interacting with all. It is all like a flame
feeding from the original source but soon to extinguish. All form is brief and
a manifestation of the great mysterious source. Rodger R Ricketts
The student asked the teacher, ‘What is the meaning of life?’ The teacher
replied, ‘Life is the meaning. Nurture the gift of life in yourself and other
sentient beings. Support the inherent will to survive and thrive within the
natural residence of the ecosystems of existence. Be kind and wise.’ Rodger
R Ricketts

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Siddhartha’s Existential Crisis/ The Buddha’s Resolution

16 Mar

Siddhartha’s Existential Crisis/ The Buddha’s Resolution
All copyrights are held by the author Rodger R Ricketts, Psy.D.
“He, who injures living beings, is not Noble. He is called Noble, because he is
gentle and kind towards all living beings.” Buddha.
“In the past, monks, and also now, I teach Dukkha and the cessation of Dukkha.”
Buddha
Introduction
This book examines relevant factors, as different from the Traditional texts’
stories, regarding Siddhartha Gautama’s psychological crisis causing him to
leave his home and renounce the secular life at age 29. A primary assertion of
this paper is that the traditional story of the ‘Four Sights’ is allegorical and the
description of Siddhartha’s psychological and emotional response to them is
better understood what modern psychology calls an existential crisis or crisis in
understanding life. An apparent significant factor in his renunciation is that
Siddhartha Gautama and his family were members of the Kshatriya or
warrior/leader caste, and it is a fact which is usually not elaborated on in many
Traditional texts.
Dukkha, or often translated as suffering, was the key element of Siddhartha’s
crisis and is the focus of all Buddhist doctrine in the Four Noble Truths. The
Buddha put suffering as the focus of his inquiry and he taught the doctrine of
The Four Noble Truths; the truth of suffering (Dukkha), the truth of the origin
of suffering (Samudāya), the truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha), and
the truth of the Path to the cessation of suffering (Magga). However, in
Buddhist thought there is a wide discussion about the meaning of suffering. In
this book, a definition of Dukkha with its variations will be
provided. Siddhartha’s response to suffering became the impetus for him to
seek a life of renunciation to answer his perplexity about Dukkha and its
cessation.
Finally, Gautama Siddhartha’s original crisis, told in the symbolic story of the
Four Sights, strongly brought the problem of Dukkha to the forefront of his
awareness. This is the significance of the legend from the Four Sights. Their
lesson is that besides ordinary physical and emotional pain, there is a deeper
existential grief and discontent resulting from one’s awareness of life’s inherent
impermanence and groundlessness. Awakening or Enlightenment became the
basis of the resolution of his personal crisis leading to the formulation of the
Four Noble Truths.
Since most people try to understand the Buddha’s teachings from the common
perspective based on duality, substantialism and egotism, suffering is
understood as physical or emotional pain- unhappiness in the sensual,
material, egotistical sense of aversion and disappointments in life. In the past,
when this perspective was used, the Buddha’s teachings were interpreted as a
pessimistic theory due to the impossibility that one can always have or keep
what he/she wants; therefore, the interpretation was ‘Life is Suffering’.
Nonetheless, this is not the teaching of the Buddha.
This paper advocates that instead the Buddha found a solution to existential
sorrow and alienation and the greed and hatred created through being
ignorant of the true nature of life.

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Reflections about The Buddha’s Teaching: Seeing Without Illusion

18 Dec

Rodger R Ricketts, Psy.D.

    The Buddha placed primary importance on our thinking and volition. In fact, our difficulties arise when our thinking is unwholesome, in the past and in the present. Our citta or heart/mind is our kingdom or our own mentality. It is our private place where the swirl of thoughts continually passes across our mind. Only you can know what truly goes on there. There is both privacy and the possible control to think the thoughts you want. You can choose which thoughts to accept or refuse. Whichever thoughts you allow will shortly be expressed through your volition in the outer environment. Once you think the thoughts, you cannot take them back. Your choice lies in thinking or not thinking about them in the first place. The more you think unwholesome thoughts, it is like taking a substance that will sicken you both physically and mentally. What your mind dwells on will sooner or later become your ‘world’ and you will attract those energies to you. To entertain and encourage thoughts and feelings of anger, jealousy, resentment, greed, etc., is certain to not only damage your health in some way but also cause a lot of trouble and suffering in your life. So, the Buddha taught you to be Mindful or aware from every moment onwards, to watch even your habitual thinking with utmost care and nurture and promote only wholesome and skillful thinking. May All Beings Be Well and Happy.

The Buddha emphatically declared that the first beginning of existence is something inconceivable. “When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When
this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases, namely: dependent on ignorance, arise volitional formations … and so on … Thus is the ending of this whole mass of suffering.” There is a flux of
psychological and physiological changes, a conflux of mind and body (nāma-rūpa). Anamatagga Saṃyutta, S II 179
‘And even now in physics, they say that ‘Now’ is not something that moves forward but it is the empirically-always-present field of change which is the domain in which events are created. Therefore, the future is always indeterminate and creating new possibilities opening for genuine free will.’ Ruth E. Kastner

The young man said to the Buddha, ‘I will take up the Eightfold Path when I am older, but first I want to enjoy myself and have fun.’ Many people have this idea that by following the Eightfold Path they will be giving up things like intense sense pleasures and self-importance as well as riches and beautiful objects that they will regret not having experienced later. Instead this misses the big picture which is that what one truly comes to sacrifice by personal development through the Buddha’s teachings is selfishness, fear, alienation, insecurity, physical malady, unwholesome pleasures, pride, vanity, doubt, jealousy, self-pity, cravings, anger, hatred, etc. and, instead, what one gains through the Bhavana training includes immeasurably more happiness, peace, joy, compassion, bliss, serenity and vastly improved relationships with all sentient beings as well as oneself. So only giving up things that are not truly worth having and instead of gaining that which is, is the final ample compensation for proceeding diligently on the Eightfold Path until achieving Enlightenment.

The Buddha gave to all a practical method (Eightfold Path) for the development of the mind and heart for the shaping of our lives to eventually achieve Awakening or Enlightenment. He did not teach theology or doctrinal orthodoxy. The Buddha understood that all religious doctrines and theology are human inventions built up by the particular authors out of their own mentalities and foisted on people’s minds from the outside. Instead, The Buddha was the teacher who gave the lessons and, if we so want, we are the ones who practice sincerely what he taught and thereby develop our own insights and knowledge of especially the primary Three Universal Truths of Impermanence, No-Self and the existence of Suffering. In Buddhism, this is entirely a matter that each individual has to settle for him/herself. But if one makes the effort sincerely- the benefits appear immediately.

A wonderful and powerful practice is with especially people we have difficulty with but also all people- when you see or interact with that difficult person imagine seeing their living Buddha Nature and then you will see the layers and type of ignorance with which you are interacting. This practice is good for not only maintaining our own composure but also helps in our judgment of the difficulty of the situation. With metta.

The Realms or Worlds from ‘hell’ to ‘heaven’ are commonly described as extra-human realms but they are also instructive to us when viewed as all our ranges of mental experience created by our conscious as well as non-conscious mental or cognitive processes.

 Whatever we give our attention to is what governs our life – mentally and physically. We have freedom in our ability to choose what we direct and maintain our attention on. What we consistently pay attention to becomes our ‘world’ and habitually dominates it. If we constantly direct our attention on the ever-changing, impermanent outer world we suffer anxiety and uncertainty; if we direct our attention on nothing then nothing, in particular, is expressed in our life with uncertainty and boredom. If we direct our attention to the four divine internal states and eventually arrive at Emptiness we experience happiness/bliss, good health, compassion, wisdom and certainty in the Truth of the Four Noble Truths.

Metta (loving-kindness) is defined as follows: Loving-kindness has the mode of friendliness for its characteristic. Its natural function is to promote friendliness. It is manifested as the disappearance of ill-will. Its footing is seeing with kindness. When it succeeds it eliminates ill-will. When it fails it degenerates into selfish affectionate desire. Eventually, one can begin to practice loving-kindness towards a dearly beloved companion, and then towards a neutral person as very dear, or towards an enemy as neutral. It is when dealing with an enemy that anger can arise, and all means must be tried to get rid of it. As soon as this has succeeded, one will be able to regard an enemy without resentment and with loving-kindness in the same way as one does the admired person, the dearly loved friend and the neutral person. Then with repeated practice, jhana absorption should be attained in all cases. Loving-kindness can now be effectively maintained in being towards all beings.

Ñanamoli Thera

However, those who believe in a soul only too often override the limits set by experience and concern themselves with “something completely unknowable,” as Bertrand Russell says. Moving along these wrong tracks of thought, they readily admit that all cognizable and experiential constituents of the “personality” are subject to constant change, to an unceasing rise and fall; and for that reason, they, of course, cannot be considered as an abiding ego. But it is, so they believe, just from behind or beyond the cognizable and experiential components of the personality that the true eternal self or soul appears which, naturally, must be beyond cognition and experience. What is wrong in such a position and in these conclusions, has chiefly to be attributed to the fact that an empty concept has been raised to the dignity of man’s true essence or core—a concept obtained by mere abstract ratiocination, having nothing in common with observation and experience. The futility of such a play with words has been shown by Kant. For him, a way of thinking that transgresses the limits drawn by experience is playing with ideas, and the alleged vision of something imperceptible is “a poetic fiction transcending everything imaginable, a mere whim.” The Buddha and his monks, however, are no dreamers chasing after metaphysical phantoms. They are sober realists who will not admit such groundless speculations even to the range of their considerations or refutations. Dr. Anton Kropatsch, Vienna

I’ve looked at life from both sides now

From up and down and still somehow

It’s life’s illusions I recall

I really don’t know life at all -Joni Mitchell

This is the true question that the Buddha’s teachings really address – ‘Do I Really Know Life At All?’ And in investigating the question, the answer becomes quite clear- for the uninvestigated mind, No…I don’t. All existence is much too complex, interrelated, and deep for us prideful humans to truly comprehend and indeed mystery is the result. But this is not a defeat but an affirmation of our embeddedness and interrelatedness with All of other existence. Not the folly, alienation, and separateness of the conceit of humans being the supreme being of the universe or even earth but the authentic identification of the true ecological, co-arising nature of all things. You will hear people say, ‘I am trying to find myself.’ But if you want to find yourself, then transcend yourself. When we transcend our-self, we truly find each other and our interconnection with all. We are not alone! Just look around you, there are creatures of life everywhere. If we feel alone, that is our blindness to life all around us, our suffering of alienation created by the illusion of separateness and ‘I’.

The Buddha understood how humans create “conceptual proliferation”- thinking, a representational and abstracting process that they believe and attach to. This is another way to speak about that:
‘When the animals evolved the talent to produce a virtual presence, they acquired a soul.
Then there was a God to be adored.
And an Adam was created.
As the production of virtual presences increases, man’s tie to the Real decreases. Soon, he praises innovation and inhuman courage. He invents thrills and excitement. He relies on myths and mysteries. He downgrades Nature with a reckless chisel. Life becomes the Grand Illusion. With a facility in the manipulation of virtual presences, the primal Superman was born. With perfection in the art, a second Devil took charge. It was then that man came to defy the God. The interminable conflict thrusting the virtual presences against the real intensifies.’ R. G. H. Siu

Upon Awakening the Buddha realized emptiness and the illusion of duality and a substantial Self- the consequences of the ignorance of dualistic thinking is expressed well in the following quote by Professor l. k. Tong-‘And so you opted for the substantialist’s art of self-making, Cutting off all umbilical cords to the Mother of Field-Being. You first dignify yourself in the kingly robes of an independent entity, enthroning yourself in the lonely kingdom of ego-substance. Then with the projective magic of your subjective substantiality, you objectify everything on your way to Godlike rigidity. And with the pointing of the substantializing wand, a bond was broken; a shade of mutuality has withered and waned. Now everything becomes merely external and separate from everything else. External is your objective world, you objectified a God, and your objectified self. Anything you cannot safely possess and control you relegate to the dark side of the Other, the Hell, the objective pole, and condemned it as ugly, or evil. Oh, in carrying your Godlike rigidity to all eternity (as if you were in fact rigidly eternal), you, a virtuoso in dualization, have created the most unhappy situation.’

In the Kalama Sutta, the Buddha said, ‘Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in them.’ 
Many honest seekers today of the Truth, like the Kalamas, become confused and worried by the many conflicting and inconsistent sects and theologies that are pronounced daily by so many people calling themselves the ‘light to follow’. The Buddha provided a simple and direct test to guide us to know the truth of his teaching: trust yourself, your own experience, and through your experience of the correct teachings which you have found to be reliable and insightful – follow and use. Those people who are “the wise” will teach with the plan that you will see the benefit for yourself through your experience and transformation and not through blind faith and, therefore, you don’t become a slave to their wisdom, instead, you use your reason, your common sense, and your own experience as the ultimate guide and confirmation. So, you develop insights for yourself ultimately. While you can benefit from reading books and listening to teachers, etc., your true reliance is upon your real understanding created through the real work that must ultimately be done in transforming and purifying our individual mind. In the end, you know for yourself the confirmation of the Buddha’s teachings – there is suffering and the ending of suffering- and this is the only authority needed or desirable.

‘To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to purify one’s mind—this is the teaching of the Buddhas.’ (Dhammapada 183.) Throughout human history, innumerable plans and schemes and doctrines have been invented to make people happy, serene, and compassionate by making changes in human’s external conditions while leaving the quality of the mentality untouched and the result has over and over again been the same- failure. The Buddha taught that this failure is so because the very nature of our external existence is only changed by the purification of our conscious awareness. The difficulty for human history and never finding the key to happiness and compassion is that purification of one’s mind takes effort, diligence, and devoted practice to be successful. We must have constant unceasing vigilance and mindfulness to break the old unwholesome mental habits which are so troublesome. The Buddha understood this but also understood the benefits that arise when we do the Eightfold Path with the result of Nibbana. ‘This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Nibbana.’— AN 3.32

To purify our mind as the Buddha taught, we need to release any anger or resentment toward others or our self. When we experience hurt, disappointment, deception, etc, from other people, these feelings sink into our memory and cause inflamed and festering emotional/psychological wounds of anger, resentment and possibly revenge. To purify our mind, we need to forgive. Forgiveness is a conscious, willing decision to release any feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they deserve your forgiveness. Forgiveness is difficult and it does not mean condoning or excusing offenses, nor does it obligate you to reconcile with the person who harmed you or releases them from accountability. Instead, forgiveness brings the forgiver peace of mind and frees him or her from corrosive anger and resentment. Forgiveness involves letting go of deeply held negative feelings but also maintaining a feeling of at least neutral goodwill toward everyone who may have injured you in any way. In that way, you recognize the pain you suffered without letting that pain define you, enabling you to heal. By forgiveness, you set yourself free from the attachment to the link that you maintain even mentally to the past and the negativity. Setting yourself free from the attachment, releases you. This includes forgiveness of oneself for actions you did that you now understand were unwholesome and unskillful. Through purification and letting go of the guilt or resentment, happiness and peace will follow as well as increased wisdom and equanimity.

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