What is the mental factor of shame and conscience (hrī-apatrāpya)?

Shame and remorse mean harboring guilt, apology, and unease over the evil deeds, mistakes, omissions, and imperfect things one has done. The left side of both characters is the vertical heart radical, representing the mind; the right sides together mean "to slay the demon"—the demon represents evil. When evil is cut away from the heart, there is purity, and that is goodness. Therefore, among the fifty-one mental factors, shame and remorse belong to the wholesome mental factors, while lack of shame and lack of remorse belong to the unwholesome mental factors, i.e., evil mental factors. Many people's minds lack the mental factor of shame and remorse; they are without shame and without remorse. If one does not accord with the mental factor of shame and remorse, one's character is deficient and not yet up to standard, and one has not yet learned Buddhism well nor produced any fruits of cultivation.

To be able to give rise to the mental factor of shame and remorse is the mark of a person with wisdom, because one can introspect and see that one's actions are imperfect, not well-rounded, or have omissions, and even that one has done wrong things, bad things, and evil things, harmed people, and damaged others' interests. Being able to introspect in this way is having wisdom, and also being without afflictions. Without wisdom, one does not have such recognition; no matter how many wrong or bad things one does, one will not introspect—unaware and unknowing, without shame or remorse, remaining the same as ever. When karma eventually catches up, one must endure evil retribution a thousandfold, ten-thousandfold. To incur such great evil retribution is of course an extremely unwise course of action. A Buddhist practitioner, in the course of cultivation, should understand causes and recognize effects, frequently introspect on one's own mind, promptly discover one's own afflictions, give rise to a sense of shame and remorse, promptly correct one's faults, rectify one's bad habits, perfect one's character, and become endowed with wisdom—only then is one qualified to see the Path and attain realization, thereby transforming from ordinary being to sage and obtaining great benefit and bliss. Being endowed with the mental factor of shame and remorse is itself a fruit-virtue of cultivation.

The Huayan Sutra has a line: Bodhisattvas should don the upper garment of shame and remorse. The upper garment is the finest clothing, the most precious garment. We should all examine ourselves: have we put on the upper garment of shame and remorse? We should frequently reflect on our own minds—what afflictions do we currently have, and what unwholesome mental actions? Cultivation is about cultivating oneself, changing one's own unwholesome mind and afflictions, not about watching others' cultivation every day or supervising others' cultivation. If one has not cultivated oneself well, one has no way to discuss or supervise others.