DooDoot wrote: ↑Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:56 am
Sam Vara wrote: ↑Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:42 amMy impression is that he has some muddled thinking around this particular episode, but that he wishes to distinguish between a resolve to refrain from committing certain acts again, and falling into regret (i.e. wishing that they hadn't happened in the first place).
Personally, I sensed he was getting both lost in & attached to certain words (terminology). He tried to distinguish between the hindrance of "remorse" and the skilful dhamma of "hiri" ("moral dread/moral shame/conscience"). His attempt to define "hiri" as only applicable to
before acting was unconvincing to me. This said, I personally fully empathize with what David attempted to say. Its not Dhamma practise to wallow in the past. The purpose of Dhamma is happiness & liberation.
Yes, I think you are probably right. Unless we have the sting of knowing that we have done wrong, then "hiri" would be a bit of an empty concept, and have zero ability to change our actions. Hence my interest...
As an example of where fruitless wallowing in remorse leads, someone just sent me this:
When the loud day for men who sow and reap
Grows still, and on the silence of the town
The unsubstantial veils of night and sleep,
The meed of the day's labour, settle down,
Then for me in the stillness of the night
The wasting, watchful hours drag on their course,
And in the idle darkness comes the bite
Of all the burning serpents of remorse;
Dreams seethe; and fretful infelicities
Are swarming in my over-burdened soul,
And Memory before my wakeful eyes
With noiseless hand unwinds her lengthy scroll.
Then, as with loathing I peruse the years,
I tremble, and I curse my natal day,
Wail bitterly, and bitterly shed tears,
But cannot wash the woeful script away.
(Pushkin, Tr. Maurice Baring.)