The Mental Factor of Remorse (kaukṛtya)

The mental factor of remorse (kaukṛtya) is regret, repentance, self-reproach, and disgust with what one has done in the past; at times it belongs to wholesome mental factors, and at times it belongs to unwholesome mental factors. In ordinary beings and those at the stages of the three grades of worthies, the manas has remorse—sometimes wholesome, sometimes unwholesome. The sage whose afflictions have been eliminated and whose mind is pure also has remorse in the manas, but it is always wholesome; if someone regrets having done a wholesome deed, that is an unwholesome dharma. For bodhisattvas of the eighth bhūmi and above, whose afflictive habits have been completely eradicated, the manas has no remorse, because they no longer commit wrong deeds; and the Buddha's manas has even less the mental factor of remorse, due to His great wisdom. When the manas of a hell-being comes to regret the evil karma it has done, this is wholesome, and the evil karma is thereby extinguished, so the being will immediately emerge from hell. The mind consciousness of hell-beings, being preoccupied with undergoing suffering, has no mind to repent; and even if the mind consciousness could repent, it could not extinguish the evil karma and bring the being out of hell, because the mind consciousness does not hold the position of decision-maker.