What Are the Mental Factors of Shame and Remorse?

Shame and remorse mean feeling guilty, apologetic, and uneasy about the evil deeds, mistakes, and omissions or imperfect things one has done. The left side of both Chinese characters is the "vertical heart" radical, representing the mind; the right sides together mean "to cut down the ghost/demon," where the ghost represents evil. When evil is cut away from the mind, 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 factors of shame and remorse; they are without shame and without remorse. If one does not accord with the mental factors of shame and remorse, one's character as a person is deficient and not yet up to standard, and one has not yet learned Buddhism well nor achieved results in practice.

To be able to give rise to the mental factors of shame and remorse is the mark of a person with wisdom, because one can introspectively observe that one's actions are imperfect, not well-rounded, or have omissions, or even that one has done wrong, bad, and evil things, harmed people, and damaged others' interests. Being able to introspectively observe these things 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 introspectively examine oneself—one is unaware and unknowing, without shame or remorse, remaining the same as ever. When the results of karma come knocking, one must then endure evil retribution a thousand or ten thousand times over. To incur such great evil retribution is of course an extremely unwise course of action. A Buddhist practitioner, in the course of practice, should understand causes and recognize effects, frequently introspect on his own mind, promptly discover his own afflictions, give rise to a sense of shame and remorse, promptly correct his faults, rectify his bad habits, perfect his character, and become endowed with wisdom; only then is he qualified to see the Path and attain realization, thereby transforming from an ordinary person into a sage and obtaining great benefit and bliss. Being endowed with the mental factors of shame and remorse is also a fruit-virtue of practice.

There is a saying in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra: 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 do we have? Practice is about cultivating oneself, changing one's own unwholesome mind and afflictions; it is not about watching others' practice every day or supervising others' practice. If one has not cultivated oneself well, one has no way to discuss or supervise others.