Unprincipled conduct View in explorer

19 discourses
Conduct that disregards moral restraint and ignores the consequences of harm done to oneself or others through body or speech. Such behavior clouds the mind and leads to regret and further decline.
Also known as: lacking in moral principles, lacking in ethics, immoral, wrong action
Pāli: dussīlya, micchākammanta
Supported by
Moral recklessness

Moral recklessness

Acting without moral concern for how one's behavior affects others. The mind sees no reason to hold back from wrongdoing, treating ethical boundaries as irrelevant.

Also known as: fearlessness of wrongdoing, without concern for others, lack of prudence
Pāli: anottappa
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Shamelessness

Shamelessness

A lack of inner concern or self-respect that allows a person to do what they understand as wrong without discomfort or restraint.

Also known as: act without thinking about what is right, fair, or appropriate, disregarding one's moral sense of right and wrong, unconscientiousness
Pāli: ahirika
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Wrong intention

Wrong intention

Intention of sensuality, ill will, or harming. It inclines thought and action toward harm and exploitation, opposing the intentions of renunciation, goodwill, and harmlessness.

Also known as: incorrect resolve, unwholesome thought, unskillful aspiration, wrong thought, harmful volition
Pāli: micchāsaṅkappa
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Leads to
Brashness

Brashness

Overstepping of bounds in speech and conduct, marked by pushiness, arrogance, and disregard for restraint; contrasted with humility and modesty.

Also known as: cockiness, forwardness, impudence, shameless assertiveness
Pāli: pāgabbhiya
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Treachery

Treachery

Deliberate deception that exploits another's trust for personal gain. It wears a mask of friendliness while secretly working against the other's welfare.

Also known as: deviousness, scamming, betrayal
Pāli: sāṭheyya
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Regret

Regret

A remorseful stirring of the mind that recalls what was done or left undone, weighing heavily and disturbing inner calm. It binds awareness to the past and obscures clarity.

Also known as: to be burned, to be consumed, to suffer remorse
Pāli: tappati
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Opposite
Ethical conduct

Ethical conduct

A disciplined way of living grounded in harmlessness and integrity. Ethical conduct restrains the body and speech from harm, purifies behavior, and forms the foundation for collectedness and wisdom.

Also known as: moral integrity, right action, virtue
Pāli: sīla, sammākammanta
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The Buddha expounds the noble right collectedness complete with its supporting conditions, clarifying how the factors of the noble eightfold path give rise to either mundane or supramundane fruits. He shows how right view leads to the sequential development of the path, culminating in right knowledge and right liberation.

When his foster mother, Mahāpajāpati Gotamī, offers a robe to the Buddha, he encourages her to offer it to the Saṅgha instead. He then classifies offerings directed to individuals, contrasts them with those directed to the Saṅgha, and explains four kinds of offering purification.

The Buddha describes the four qualities that distinguish a person of integrity from one lacking in integrity.

The Buddha explains that one lacking integrity cannot discern the true nature of others, while a person of integrity discerns both the good and the bad. The discourse contrasts their ethics, views, and associations, revealing their vastly different karmic destinations.

The Buddha explains to the brahmin householders of Sālā the causes of rebirth in states of loss or in good destinations, emphasizing the importance of ethical and wholesome conduct. He outlines ten kinds of misconduct and ten kinds of wholesome conduct, illustrating how these actions lead to different outcomes after death.

Endowed with the mental qualities of harmful conduct and views, one is reborn in hell.

The Buddha describes the two behaviors that lead to suffering and rebirth in hell if not abandoned.

The Buddha describes the three kinds of misconduct - by body, speech and mind.

The Buddha teaches that a wise person aspiring for the three kinds of happiness - of 1) praise, 2) wealth, and 3) good rebirth - should safeguard their virtue.

The Buddha explains how the livelihood of subsisting on alms, although an extreme of livelihoods, is a sensible choice for those who hope to discern a complete end to the entire mass of suffering.

The Buddha uses the simile of a log of wood carried by a river to explain the eight obstacles to reaching Nibbāna.

Who is a person without integrity and who is a person of integrity.

The Buddha contrasts shallow and deep, factious and unified, worldly and Dhamma-centered assemblies. Communities bound by empty talk, indulgence, and discord decline, while those rooted in seclusion, concord, discipline, inquiry, and the true Dhamma flourish.

The Buddha describes the three divine messengers that appear among human beings and what happens to those who do not heed their message.

Approaching wrongness leads to failure, not success. Approaching rightness leads to success, not failure.

The Buddha explains the proximate causes of non-regret, joy, tranquility, and other qualities leading to liberation, contrasting how they are fulfilled in a virtuous person versus an unprincipled person.

The Buddha sits silently among the Saṅgha of bhikkhus on an Uposatha night when the assembly wasn’t pure. Afterwards, the Buddha explains the eight wonderful and marvelous qualities of the Dhamma and Vinaya, likening them to similarly wonderful qualities of the great ocean.

Dhammapada verses 157-166 emphasize self-discipline, personal responsibility, and inner mastery. A wise person must first establish themselves properly before guiding others, as self-mastery is difficult but essential. Purity and impurity are personal matters, and one should prioritize their own spiritual welfare over external concerns, for no one can purify another.

Dhammapada verses 235-255 emphasize on the urgency of striving swiftly, not being negligent, discerning gradually, stains of various qualities. A contrast is drawn on the lives of one who is shameless and one with a sense of right and wrong, on finding the faults of others and one’s own, and on the path of the Tathāgatas.