Have you ever noticed that when a person confesses repentance, it is only the result of suffering that happened on himself (and not on others)?
And then he will go on to use moral justifications (which I consider as foolish excuses) on why what he did was wrong, and that he is now a better person, or a changed person, or a rehabilitated person.
And somehow he may even start to think he is "holier" than before.
Say whatever this man wants about himself, but he is merely committing self-delusion.
When this person (or any person for that matter, objectively including you and I) hurts / harms / violates another and causes suffering to the latter, will he ever say, "Oh, I was wrong. I should not have done that."?
Probably will never. At least I have never met such a person in my life so far. What about you?
What about the likelihood of saying the same, "Oh, I was wrong. I should not have done that."?
Maybe zero chance.
The only condition / situation whereby this person (or any person for that matter, objectively including you and I) will ever say "Oh, I was wrong. I should not have done that." is when this person suffers directly from his action of hurting / harming / violating another.
Maybe the victim fought back and / or took revenge against him, successfully.
Maybe he get caught committing the misdeed and ended up incarcerated.
From here, we can learn a few things about ourselves:
- We have little to no empathy whatsoever on others' sufferings as a result of what we do.
- We only realize our mistake when we directly suffer from it as a consequence.
Here lies a question I have for you, the reader: Do you think a person (that includes you and I) will ever realize his mistake and say "Oh, I was wrong. I should not have done that" if no matter what he does, he will never suffer the consequence?
In other words, if a person can kill / rape / cheat / steal / etc another and will never get arrested / punished, will he ever say "Oh, I was wrong. I should not have done that"?
I would say never will this person say, "Oh, I was wrong. I should not have done that".
So what is the meaning of repentance?
What do we feel repentant about?
Do we feel repentant about the sufferings of others caused by the actions we take?
Or do we feel repentant only when we directly suffer from our actions?
So if we somehow become invincible or attain immunity, will we then do whatever we like regardless of the consequence to others and we never need to feel repentant for it?
Indeed, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
If we can be repentant as a result of others' sufferings (that is empathy), then the world can be saved.
Otherwise, the world will continue to degenerate and retrogress further in this Dharma-Ending Age (claimed to last for 10,000 years according to Buddhism teachings) no matter how repentant we feel, because that is just another selfish display sold as something noble / holy / ethical / moral that we cheat ourselves with.
Humans are full of self-contradiction and hypocrisy.
Don't be such humans.
Transcend yourself beyond such falsehood.
Have empathy towards others.
If you have no empathy towards others, then no amount of suffering and repentance will ever make you a better person.