Dignity

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Dignity (Skt. hri; Tib. ངོ་ཚ་ཤེས་པ་; Wyl. ngo tsha shes pa) — one of the fifty-one mental states defined in Abhidharma literature. According to the Compendium of Abhidharma, it belongs to the subgroup of the Eleven virtuous states. It is also one of the seven noble riches.

Definitions

In the Khenjuk, Mipham Rinpoche says (Tib. ངོ་ཚ་ཤེས་པ་ནི་བདག་གམ་ཆོས་རྒྱུ་མཚན་དུ་བྱས་ཏེ་ཁ་ན་མ་ཐོ་བ་ལ་འཛེམ་པ་ཉེས་སྤྱོད་སྡོམ་པའི་རྟེན་བྱེད་པའི་ལས་ཅན་ནོ།)

  • Dignity is the attitude of refraining from unwholesome actions (or misdeeds) on account of one's own [conscience] and [trust in] the Dharma. Its function is to support one in refraining from negative actions. (▷RIGPA)
  • Dignity is shunning misdeeds either because of oneself or the Dharma. Its function is to support one in refraining from negative actions. (Erik Pema Kunsang)

Alternative Translations

Notes

  1. Tony Duff Lit. "to have a sense of embarrassment (concerning doing misdeeds)" hence "sense of shame". With the thought either of oneself or the dharma as a reason, this mental event causes one to take care concerning misdeeds and acts as a basis for keeping vows and not engaging in bad conduct. It has been translated as "conscience", "sense of shame" and "sense of propriety" all of which seem fitting; it has been translated as "conscientiousness" and "sense of self-respect" neither of which fit