195: Beautiful Mental Factors 'Sobhana Cetasika' (Part 2) The Seven Guardians of the Mind

In this episode, we continue exploring the beautiful mental factors with a focus on the next five: moral shame (hiri), moral dread (ottappa), non-greed (alobha), non-anger (adosa), and equanimity (tatra-majjhattatā). These qualities serve as the guardians of the world, protecting us and society from moral decay and imbalance.

We learn how moral shame and dread guide ethical behavior, how non-greed and non-anger nurture generosity and loving-kindness, and how equanimity brings balance and peace to the mind. Together with faith and mindfulness from the previous talk, these seven factors form the foundation of a wholesome, harmonious life — both individually and collectively.

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Namo tasabhagavato rahato samma sambu dasa nammo tasabhagato rahato samasambudasa nammo tasabhavat rahato samasambudassa Tirabara Buddhism series Dhamma talk number eighteen Beautiful Mental Factors Part two Sobana Jidasiga and the last talk we cover the first two mental factors Sadda faith and confidence and sati mindfulness today we will talk about the third and the fourth together as they are a pair. This third and fourth beautiful mental factor is hiri and utapa hiri and utapa these two are opposite of ahirika and anortapa which is unwholesome mental states. We have discussed that before under the heading of unwholesome mental factors. This is opposite to those pair. In English is called moral shame and moral dread. Moral shame has the characteristics of disgust at verbal and physical misconducts. The characteristic is disgust at verbal and physical misconducts. Its function is not to do evils or wrongdoings and it manifests as shrinking away from wrongdoings because of self-respect. When one with moral shame wants to do evil things, it always reflects as oh this is not worth doing it. No, it's not what a good person would do. Or it is not what a practicing yogi myself would do. Etc. etc. You always find a rhyme and reason not to do whenever an urge arises. Because remember this is just verbal and physical, not mental. In the mind you might still think about doing evil things, tempting by wrongdoings, but that reflection will erase it. So one always finds a reason not to do evil. And the characteristics of moral dread is having fear of doing evil. Its function is not to engage with wrongdoings. It manifests as shrinking away from doing evil things. And its proximate cause is respect for others. Something like, oh, if I do this, I will disgrace my family, my family name. If I do this, I will disgrace the name of my teacher, my society, it is thinking about others what and how it would affect by your doing evil things, respect for others. If one is familiar with moral shamelessness and moral fearfulness, and it is very easy to understand what moral shame and moral dread is. It's simply the opposite. This hiri and uttapa, moral shame and moral dread, is also known as the guardian dharma of the world. Because these two Dharma protect the world from falling into widespread immorality, chaos, and destruction, uncontrolled destruction. It protects. That's why it's called guardian dharma. Loka pala dhamak and pali. It is also called or known as white dharma. White means pure, clean, clear, spotless. That's what white represents. Verbal and physical actions. That's why it is called white dhamak. Only Kusalakama, wholesome actions, can and will arise in a yogi who observe this pair of dhamma. That is number three and four. Hiri and Utapa, moral shame and moral dread. The fifth beautiful mental factor is called at-lobak. We are all familiar with the word lobak and it added a in front. It's called a lobak. R is the negation of whatever what that follow. It is translated as non-greed. So it is the opposite of lobba, opposite of greed. It is the non-adhesion or having no desire or non-desire, non-adhesion or non-desire of the mind to an object. The mind doesn't have any adhesion to the object, doesn't want it, have no desire for it. Like something like that one has no desire or wants to have a disposed excrement. Or like water, droplets do not adhere to a lotus leaf. If the water falls on it, it rolls off. It couldn't stick just like that. Even though one is in contact with many objects, which is natural. One has no desire to belong. Any of those objects. That's it. Just a simple small amount so that you can keep on living. That's our law. Once you have true and full Allah. That's how a person becomes. Does not need or want anything more than what is needed to exist. Its function is not to have hold of something. Or in other words, letting go. You cannot give. You cannot let go of it. It manifests as a lack of selfishness and detachment. Manifests as detachment. That means you have no selfishness. But be careful. A loba, non-greed, is not an absence of greed. It's not simply an absence of greed. Actually, at loba is a virtuous state of mind. Like something like generosity. That's at loba. Something like renunciation. That's al-loba. And it is conducive to health. If you have a loba, those people usually have good health. And also it is conducive to be reborn in the divine realm, Dewa Rams. Seeing impermanence in mind and matter is the cause of our lobba. So if one is doing a totally unconditioned without any expectation, a generous, a generous act. That is the presentation of Alobha. When one totally renounced the world, that is the presentation of Alobha Nangri. And the sixth beautiful mental factor is Adosa. It is translated as non-anger. Again here, it is not simply the absence of anger. It is actually the opposite of anger and hatred. It is a virtuous quality, virtuous state of mind. Anger cannot coexist. If one is there, the other one is absent. Its characteristics are not having rough and tough edges of mind. The mind doesn't have rough and tough edges. Smooth. Polished. Or its characteristics can be set as a state of non-opposing. There's no opposition. There's no confrontation. There's nothing against state of non-opposition. It's the state of adosat. Non-anger. Its function is to remove annoyances and agitation from the mind. The mind always has slight annoyances and agitation. Even if you believe and say, oh, I'm okay, I'm great, there's still a lot of little annoyances and agitations are passing on and off, on and off. But when you have adosa, these no more exist. It manifests as agreeableness. It manifests as loving kindness, gentleness, politeness, friendliness. You got the idea. The key point is agreeableness. All loving kindness is adosa non-ga. But not all adosa is loving kindness. So loving kindness is this one of the presentation of adosa. So to give an example to understand why it is. But you do have the mental state of adosa non-anger. That's why it said all adosa is not loving kindness, but loving kindness is adosa. This adosa is the path or highway to peace or peacefulness. And also it is the path to be reborn in the Brahma Ram. To get a peaceful life, to be reborn in Brahma Ram. Addosa is the key. So this is the sixth beautiful mental factor. And the seventh one is called Tatra. Mijita. Tatra. Mijita. I'm trying to split it so that you could hear clearly. It's a Pali word and it means there in the middle. There in the middle. It is a mental factor, Chitasika. As a mental factor, it means neutral, impartial, in the middle. As a mental factor, that word means neutral, impartial, in the middle. And that word is translated as aquanimity. English word aquanimity. But now when the word aquanimity comes in, we should also be aware of another word called upakka. Everybody seems to know that word upa. Aquanimity. So upakka is another Pali word which is translated as aquanimity. Tatra Mijitatta is also equanimity. Two different words. But have the same sense of the meaning. But one needs to be careful. Because the word up can also mean indifference. It can also mean neutral feeling. Vedana. Neutral feeling. Which means it is neither pleasant feeling or unpleasant feeling. Neither pleasant or unpleasant, neutral feeling. But upita is feeling. It can also mean indifference. It can also mean neutral feeling. And also it means neutrality. Impartiality of mind. Neutrality and impartiality of mind. So three different meanings can be rendered from the word up. But Tatra Mijatatta is one meaning straight right in the middle. Impersal. Nothing else. This Tatra Mijatatta is a balanced detach. An impartial state of mind. Balance, detach, and impartial state of mind. Its characteristic is said in the book. Conveying consciousness and mental factors evenly. Characteristic is conveying consciousness and mental factors evenly. That's the job of Tatramijatata. Its function is to prevent deficiency or excess. Or prevent partiality. That's its function. To prevent deficiency. To prevent excess. To prevent partiality. You can call it, it is the supervisor and regulator of consciousness and mental factors that are arising together. It supervises and regulates so that everybody is working evenly in a balanced way and an impartial way. And it manifests as neutrality. One of my teachers compared this to a car in a cruise control mode. In a cruise control mode, you don't really have to give much attention, but the car is running steadily and regularly and evenly. Steady, no faster, no slower, no excess, no deficiency. That is Tatra Mijatata, equanimity. So we have discussed so far seven beautiful mental factors. And the Buddhist mentioned right outset of the 52 mental factors, these seven beautiful out of, sorry. Twenty-five beautiful mental factors, he stated these seven firsts. Right at the opening. Without sadha, faith and confidence, no wholesome nature or wholesome actions start to flow towards the noble domain. That's where they start. Satta first and foremost. And then second one, the sati, mindfulness. Without it, one would not know how to properly navigate amid mental defilements. Wholesome, unwholesome, loba, dosa, moha. These are the roadblocks. And sati give you the power to navigate through those with skill. And also Buddha reminded us that life is not all about self-interest and self-benefit. Of course, we are all practicing to be free from all form of suffering. Sounds like a very selfish act. Sounds like. Moral shame and moral dread shows us that you are not alone. You must walk with others. You must walk for others. Self-interest and others' interest has to be one. Those two dharma. That's how Buddha taught us that we are interconnected, interrelated, one for all and all for one. Then to perfect this world, he taught us how individuals need to develop the states of adloba, non greed, states of adosa, non anger, and the Impartial state of mind. Tatra michatatta. We have to develop these three for individually because other people cannot do it for you. You must do it for yourself. Those are the seven mental factors. The first three mental factors, sata sati, hiri utapa, the first four mental factors. It affects the whole human race to keep the human race in a beautiful order. And the remaining three aloba, atosa and a moha. It affects individually. But once it affects individually, that spills over to the society. Because how you are, how you behave, whether you are greedy or whether you are angry or whether you are not greedy or angry, or whether you have prejudice and favoritism, or whether you are impartial, affects the society. Yes, the first four directly affect the whole human race. The second three is for individuals, but again, in turn, it affects the society. That's why Buddha put up these seven beautiful mental factors right at the opening onset. So may all of you be able to practice and develop these seven beautiful mental factors and keep yourself and the world in peace and harmony as soon as possible. Thank you very much.