191: Unwholesome Mental Factors (Part 1) The Four that Darken the Mind

In this episode, we begin exploring the second group of mental factors — the unwholesome (akusala) mental factors, which consist of fourteen states that give rise to unwholesome consciousness. This talk focuses on the first subgroup of four, which always arise together with every unwholesome mind: delusion (moha), moral shamelessness (ahirika), moral fearlessness (anottappa), and restlessness (uddhacca).

We learn how delusion blinds us from seeing the truth, how shamelessness and fearlessness toward wrongdoing destroy moral integrity, and how restlessness keeps the mind unsettled and unclear. Through reflection and mindfulness, we see how these states deceive us and how understanding them is the first step toward purification, peace, and wisdom.

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Namo tasa bhagwato rahato samma sambu dasa nammo tasa bhato rahato samma sambu dasa namo tasabhagwato rahato samma sambudasa Tirabara Buddhism series Dhamma talk number fourteen. Today's topic is Unwholesome Mental Factors Part One. As we all know, there are altogether fifty-two mental factors Jadasika, and these fifty-two are divided into three groups. The first group is Anya Samanya, common to all. There are thirteen of them, and we have discussed about it. The key character is all these thirteen mental factors arise together with every kind of consciousness, jeta. Unwholesome mental factors. It consists of fourteen fourteen mental factors. And the third and final group is called Sobana Jesika. Beautiful mental factors, and it consists of the remaining twenty-five. Altogether thirteen plus, fourteen plus, twenty-five, fifty-two. These Jita Sika mental factors are the one that is giving character to the consciousness, which function is simply to be aware of the object, to be aware of an existence of an object. And these Jidasika mental factors give character to it. Okay, so today we are going to discuss about the second group fourteen akusala jetasika. Fourteen unwholesome mental factors. And itself is divided, subdivided into five groups. The first group consists of four mental factors. The first one is called Moha. Translated into English as delusion, sometime illusion, sometimes as ignorance. So any one of these English words represent Moha. M-O-H-A. Moha puts on us a blindfold so that we won't be able to know or see the true nature of an object, whether physical or mental. We still know but we know wrongly. And also it put us in a state of total ignorance of an object. That what Moha does. And also we have heard a Pali word avidja, independent origination. Avidja is translated as ignorance. This avidja is synonym to Moha. So the words delusion and ignorance. Delusion for Moha, ignorance for Vija bear the same meaning. They are one and the same. Synonym. One is knowing wrongly. Another one is total ignorance. Buddha said mind and body, the mind and body, what we call a being, a person, is impermanent, full of unsatisfactoriness and have no self or soul as a core. However, most people believe a being is a self. A being is a soul and is permanent. Because Moha put us a veil over our mind eye and make us believe in self. Make us believe in the existence of a soul and make us believe that self or soul is permanent. That's what Oh does now as an example as a person on a plane flying at thirty-five thousand feet. That person can't see or know what is in the on the ground. You do a thick layer of cloud between the plane and the ground. You look out, all that you see is a whole big blanket of clouds. Don't know what's beyond that, what's on the ground. Moha is just like the cloud. It blindfolds us, it shields from the strut. Everything we see or hear or sense. We don't know what the true nature is. Because Moha automatically and instantly shields from or cover up the true phenomenon of every object. They shield, they cover up. So the function of Moha is a non-perception of truth. You cannot perceive the truth. Or you can say concealment of truth. The truth is concealed. And Moha manifest as an absence of truth. Absence of truth is its manifestation in the wall of Mohat. Truth is absent. This mental factor Moha associated with all unwholesome consciousness. Any type of unwholesome consciousness, Moha is there. It is the main cause or it's the root cause of unwholesome consciousness arising. Without moha akusala jeta, unwholesome consciousness cannot arise. In other words, if you can eliminate Moha delusion, no unwholesome consciousness will arise in that person. So that is the first mental factor. The first mental factor of the unwholesome mental factors. The second one, entirely it sounds like this Ahirika Ahirika, moral shamelessness. Ahrika is having no shame or shyness of doing evil thing or wrong things, verbally or physically. Aharika is having no shame or shyness of doing evil things or wrong things verbally or physically. As we all know, verbal wrongdoings, or you can call it false speech, are lies, slander, rude and harsh words and frivolous talks. Four kinds under the verbal misdeed. Physical wrongdoings are killing any beings, not just only human any beings, taking what is not willingly given and sexual misconduct. Those are the physical wrongdoings. Having no disgust in doing wrongful verbal and physical actions is the characteristics of Ahrika. Moral shamelessness. But nowadays in this world it is quite different. It has become every day more and more popular to promote wrongdoings. I'm not talking about criminals and gangs and terrorists only, even in the what we call the upper society, the governing society of the world is promoting wrongdoing, some segment of it. And these governing authorities, they lie through their teeth. No, no need to admit. And the key point in there, lying and not admitting, is don't get caught legally. You can get caught. You can perceive as being doing wrong.9% sure, but as long as you are not nailed legally, it's okay. The end justify the means. You discriminated other groups due to color of the skin or status or education or whatever. That discrimination is racist. And some people, if they are called racist, see, don't be shy about it. Be proud of it that you are called racist. Because that's what we are. That's what you are. We are racist. Don't hide. Be proud of it. Stand up for it. Those kind of things become popular. That is moral shamelessness, having no moral, having no shame to being immoral. The moral core has broken down from those people, from those group. And it's becoming the that group is becoming larger and larger and spreading wider. The objectives of the desires justify any means that they do. All that is important is their objective, their goal, their purpose. Regardless of who gets hurt, doesn't matter. This mental factor function is to do evil things, to fulfill self-oriented desire at the expense of hurting and harming others. That's a function. And it manifests as not shrinking away from the performing evil and wrongdoings. Lack of self-respect is its proximate cause. These people have no self-respect. That is the immediate cause, proximate cause. That is the second mental factor, ahirika. Immoral. Ahirika is you are not ashamed of that you are immoral. Moral shamelessness. The third mental factor anotapa is translated as moral fearlessness. Moral fearlessness. So anotapa is having no fear or hesitancy of doing evil and wrong verbal and physical actions. If you are not afraid of the evil actions, it means you are not afraid of the consequences that will follow from doing evil actions. And that's the characteristics of moral fearlessness and not tapa. Its function is not shrinking from doing evil actions. And again, the proximate cause is lack of self-respect. Sorry, lack of respect for others. Moral shamelessness is lack of self respect. Moral fearlessness cause is lack of respect for others. It is the moth and a flame. These moth, they always fly towards the flame. And once you get close to the flame, they are burnt and they die. But still they fly. That is a notapa. That is moral fearlessness. Those number two and three, moral shamelessness and fearlessness. Ahiriga and Otapa. They are usually presented and discussed as a pair because both mental factors leads to doing evil things. That's why they are discussed as a pair. If one is not ashamed of doing evil, one is not afraid of doing evil or afraid of its consequences. That's just a continuation of one from the other. And the same thing, if one is not afraid of doing evil things or afraid of its consequences, that person is automatically. All that we need is having shame and having fear and doing unwholesome actions in time of speech or deed. That's all that we need. And the world will be will blossom with harmony and peace. And a true world peace will be attained. That is the only way to achieve world peace, not by any other means. This Uddhia refers to the mental restlessness. The physical restlessness or the restlessness of the body is the physical expression of the mental restlessness. Physical expression of the restlessness of mind. So restlessness means it's a mental state, mental attitude. Its characteristic is disquietitude. No quietness. It manifests as turmoil. Manifests as turmoil. An example would be as if a throne is a stone is thrown into a heap of ashes. When you throw a stone into a heap of ashes. Everything flew in all directions, turmoil. That's how it manifests. In terms of meaning language translation, oddcha means hovering above. Hovering above. Oditcha. The mind is hovering above an object. Okay? What is hovering? It's the mind. Over what? Over an object. It does not go completely away from the object either. Okay. Sometimes you look at the ajab and you turn around and you are not there anymore. But this one is no, it's over. It doesn't completely leave either. Or neither it stay firmly on the object either. It doesn't go away. It doesn't say firmly with the object either. So the mind is with the object, but the mind cannot see the object clearly. It cannot grab hold of the object firmly. Its proximate cause is giving unwise attention to mental disquiet, giving attention to mental disquiet. That's a proximate cause of Udicha restlessness. These four Moha delusion, Ahriga, moral shamelessness and autapa moral feelessness and oditiya restlessness. These four mental factors. If there is an unwholesome consciousness, these four are there at the forefront. If you remember, just like the seven universal mental factors, they arise with every type. Every one of the consciousness. So these four negative mental states, it is important for us as a Buddhist to understand because it deceived us from truth. It deceived us from peace and harmony. It deceived us from self-respect and respect to others. And it deceived us from seeing and knowing an object clearly. And may you become the contributor of world peace as soon as possible. Thank you very much.