Lessons In Practical Buddhism - Sirimangalo.Org

actually most apparent in good people; a good person will
feel acutely guilty at even the smallest unwholesomeness,
just as a fastidiously clean person will experience acute
repulsion at the smallest impurity on their body, clothing or
possessions. A person who engages in evil deeds habitually
will not likely feel much guilt for even the most heinous act.
As the Buddha says in the Dhammapada, “pāpopi passati
bhadraṃ, yāva pāpaṃ na paccati” – an evildoer may meet
with fortune for as long as the evil has not ripened.
Nonetheless, with every evil deed they perform, they will
sink deeper into depravity, and be consumed by the fires of
greed, anger and delusion, which the Buddha said burn in
the mind by day and smoulder by night. Every evil deed an
evil doer performs will reaffirm the evil tendencies in their
minds, making it less and less likely that they will be able to
reform themselves and find a way out of their depravity,
while all the while they will suffer the mental anguish that
comes from the defilements. Moreover, an evildoer will
suffer from constant fear of being caught and punished for
their deeds and will suffer great mental torment as a result.
Based on wrong views, ordinary people even feel guilty for
deeds that have no unwholesome quality, like stepping on an
insect without realizing it and thinking that one has
committed murder. Once, in the Buddha’s time, a monk sat
down on a chair that had a blanket on it and crushed a small
child that was under the blanket. He was of course seized
with remorse, but the Buddha made it clear that even this
could not be considered murder – it was rather an act of
negligence, and so he admonished the monks to look
carefully before they sit down from that point onward.
Self-blame is really a horrible curse, one that can cause
people to commit suicide, unable to face the guilt.
Sometimes people hate themselves for their physical
appearance, sometimes for failure in their life or society.
Such situations can be attributed to past karma or even just
to circumstance, and should never be a source of guilt or
self-hatred.
Worry is considered to be an unwholesome mind-state in the
Buddha’s teaching; no good can come from it, and we often
indulge in it as a substitute for real change. If we don’t make
a strong determination to set ourselves in wholesome
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