Which Mind is the Remorseful and Self-Reproaching Mind?

When waking up in the morning, one part of the mind wants to get up, while another part does not want to rise. In the end, one fails to get up, resulting in important matters being delayed. Consequently, one feels upset, regretful, and self-blaming. Who exactly is feeling regret? Who is blaming themselves? Who is angry?

The consciousness possesses rationality, whereas the mental faculty lacks rationality and is more attached—attached to sensations and feelings. After waking up in the morning, the rational consciousness feels that one should get up, prepare early, and go out to handle affairs. However, the mental faculty, due to its craving for sensations, appears rather lazy and indecisive about getting up, clinging to the comfort of lying in bed. Eventually, the rationality of consciousness grows stronger, continuously hinting to the mental faculty that it is time to rise. Finally, the mental faculty realizes that it must get up and prepare, no longer clinging to comfort, and thus reluctantly decides to get up and get dressed. This decision is executed by the Tathagatagarbha, and the six consciousnesses cooperate to rise. From this example, it can be seen that the mental faculty experiences feelings—it is not necessarily neutral feeling.

Because of getting up late and causing delays, the initial feelings of anger, regret, and self-blame must originate from consciousness, as consciousness possesses strong reasoning ability and understands what was delayed and how important it was. After consciousness feels regret and self-blame, the mental faculty also becomes aware of its mistake and may likewise feel remorse and self-blame. If the mental faculty does not feel remorse or self-blame, but only consciousness alone regrets, the mental faculty will not change, and the same mistake will be repeated next time—lying in bed and refusing to rise.

Many people, after making mistakes, confess and blame themselves, yet they repeat the same errors afterward. This is because consciousness repents and blames itself, but the mental faculty does not repent, leading to repeated mistakes again and again—showing no learning from experience. To err, correct, err again, and correct again—this is consciousness; to avoid repeating mistakes easily in the future—this is the mental faculty learning from experience. If the flesh changes but the bones remain the same, it indicates that consciousness has superficially changed while the mental faculty remains unchanged, refusing to acknowledge the mistake.

Consciousness may understand a principle and wish to act accordingly, but it cannot make decisions; it must persuade the mental faculty to agree with its idea or force the mental faculty to agree. If the mental faculty agrees, it makes a decision, and thus the action is accomplished. If the mental faculty reluctantly agrees but remains unwilling internally, the same action may not be achievable next time. If the mental faculty does not understand the principle and is frequently forced by consciousness, it will harbor resentment, which will eventually erupt. If it does not erupt, the mental faculty will feel persistently depressed. When consciousness fails to persuade the mental faculty, once supervision relaxes, the inherent habits of the mental faculty resurface. Therefore, falsity by consciousness cannot last; there will always come a time when the truth is revealed.