Apatrāpya

Apatrāpya (P. ottappa; T. khrel yod pa; C. kui) is translated as "consideration for others," "modesty," "sense of shame," etc. It is a mental factor which is defined as shunning unwholesome actions so as to not be reproached by others of good character.

Apatrāpya (Pali: ottappa) is identified as:

• One of the twenty-five beautiful mental factors within the Pali tradition
• One of the eleven virtuous mental factors within the Abhidharma-samuccaya of the Sanskrit tradition
• One of the ten omnipresent wholesome factors within the Abhidharma-kosa of the Sanskrit tradition

Apatrāpya is often paired with the mental factor hri (self-respect). The difference between hri (self-respect) and apatrapya (decorum) is that hri means to refrain from unwholesome actions due to one's own conscious, while apatrapya means to refrain from unwholesome actions to avoid being reproached by others.

Definitions

Pali tradition

A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma describes ottappa (Pali) together with hiri (Pali) as follows:

Shame (hiri) and fear of wrongdoing (ottappa): Shame has the characteristic of disgust at bodily and verbal misconduct, fear of wrongdoing has the characteristic of dread in regard to such misconduct. They both have the function of not doing evil, and are manifested as the shrinking away from evil. Their proximate cause is respect for self and respect for others, respectively. These two states are called by the Buddha the guardians of the world because they protect the world from falling into widespread immorality.

The Visuddhimagga (XIV, 142) describes ottappati (Pali) together with hiri (Pali):

It has conscientious scruples (hiriyati) about bodily misconduct, etc., thus it is conscience (hiri). This is a term for modesty. It is ashamed (ottappati) of those same things, thus it is shame (ottappa). This is a term for anxiety about evil. Herein, conscience has the characteristic of disgust at evil, while shame (ottappa) has the characteristic of dread of it. Conscience has the function of not doing evil and that in the mode of modesty, while shame has the function of not doing it and that in the mode of dread. They are manifested as shrinking from evil in the way already stated. Their proximate causes are self-respect and respect of others (respectively)...

Nina van Gorkom states:

Moral shame and fear of blame always arise together but they are two different cetasikas with different characteristics. The Atthasalini (I, Part IV, Chapter 1, 125.127) gives a similar definition as the Visuddhimagga of moral shame and fear of blame and illustrates their difference. The Atthasalini explains that moral shame (hiri) has a subjective original, that its proximate cause is respect for oneself. Fear of blame (ottappa) has an external cause, it is influenced by the "world"; its proximate cause is respect for someone else.

The opposities of the two above factors are: ahirika (lack of consciousness) and uddhacca (lack of shame).

Sanskrit tradition

The Abhidharma-samuccaya states:

What is apatrapya? It is to avoid what is objectionable in the eyes of others.

The Necklace of Clear Understanding states:

The difference between self-respect (hri) and decorum (apatrapya) is that, despite their similarity in avoiding evil actions, when the chance of doing evil actions is close at hand, self-respect means to refrain from evil actions in view of the consideration, "This is no part of mine." Decorum means to refrain from evil action by having made others the norm in view of the consideration, "It is not appropriate to do so because others will despise inc." (19a) The primary realm of restraint is the fear that one's guru and teacher and other people deserving respect would be annoyed.

The Khenjuk states:

• Tib. ཁྲེལ་ཡོད་པ་ནི་གཞན་ནམ་འཇིག་རྟེན་རྒྱུ་མཚན་དུ་བྱས་ཏེ་ཁ་ན་མ་ཐོ་བ་ལ་འཛེམ་པའི་ལས་ཅན་ནོ།
• Propriety has the function of causing one to refrain from misdeeds, either because of being reproached by other [noble] people or by the world.
• Shame has the function of causing one to shun misdeeds, either because of being reproached by other [noble] people or by the world. (Erik Pema Kunsang)

StudyBuddhism states:

Care for how our actions reflect on others (khrel-yod) is the sense to refrain from negative behavior because of caring how our actions reflect on those connected with us. Those connected with us may be, for instance, our family, teachers, social group, ethnic group, religious order, or countrymen. For Vasubandhu, this mental factor means having scruples, and is a restraint from being brazenly negative. This and the previous mental factor accompany all constructive states of mind.

Alternate translations

• decorum- Guenther, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
• shame - Erik Pema Kunsang
• consideration, sense of shame - Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
• consideration for others - Thubten Chodron
• propriety - Rigpa wiki
• fear of blame - Nina von Gorkom
• modesty, blame - Buswell

References

• Berzin, Alexander (ed.), Primary Minds and the 51 Mental Factors, StudyBuddhism 
• Bhikkhu Bodhi, ed. (2000), A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma, Pariyatti Publishing 
• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Mipham Rinpoche (2004), Gateway to Knowledge, vol. I, translated by Kunsang, Erik Pema, Rangjung Yeshe Publications 
• van Gorkom, Nina (1999), Cetasikas, Zolog 
• Yeshe Gyeltsen (1975), Mind in Buddhist Psychology: A Translation of Ye-shes rgyal-mtshan's "The Necklace of Clear Understanding", translated by Guenther, Herbert V.; Kawamura, Leslie S., Dharma Publishing 

External links

• khrel_yod_pa, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
• Propriety, Rigpa Shedra Wiki