Lack of shame

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Lack of shame (Skt. āhrīkya; Tib. ངོ་ཚ་མེད་པ་, ngotsa mepa, Wyl. ngo tsha med 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 twenty subsidiary destructive emotions.

Definitions

In the Khenjuk, Mipham Rinpoche says:

  • Tib. ངོ་ཚ་མེད་པ་ནི་བདག་རྒྱུ་མཚན་དུ་བྱས་ཏེ་སྡིག་པ་ལ་མི་འཛེམ་པ་དུག་གསུམ་གྱི་ཆར་གཏོགས་པ་ཉོན་མོངས་དང་ཉེ་ཉོན་གྱི་གྲོགས་བྱེད་པའོ།
  • Lack of shame means not shunning harmful actions on account of oneself. It belongs to the categories of the three poisons and assists the destructive emotions and subsidiary destructive emotions. (Rigpa Translations)
  • Lack of conscience means not shunning evil deeds on account of oneself. It belongs to the category of the three poisons and assists the disturbing emotions and subsidiary disturbing emotions. (Erik Pema Kunsang)

Alternative Translations

  • Shamelessness (Padmakara, David Karma Choepel, and Dylan Esler for 84000)
  • Lack of conscience (Gyurme Dorje)
  • Lack of sense of shame (Tony Duff)