Great responses. Here's a follow-up question.
Within Buddhist philosophy and scripture, is there a concept
corresponding to "conscience?" In western psychology conscience is seen
as a regulator of "good vs. bad" behavior, and not a particularly strong
regulator since human activity is loaded with bad behavior. A person's
bad conscience is portrayed as a nagging angel on the shoulder that
competes with the devil on the other shoulder, often losing the
argument.
In constellation work, conscience is seen as a regulator of belonging,
and a very powerful force. The guilt a person feels when betraying
group or family loyalty is difficult, often impossible to overcome. It
is conscience that serves as the chains of entanglement.
In the Buddhist Abhidhamma there are 121 classes of consciousness. I
have read the description of these classes, but have not meditated my
way through them. To my layman's eyes, conscience as a regulator of
belonging is not described.
My question is does the concept "conscience guards belonging" correspond
to anything in Buddhist philosophy?
As always, thanks for everyone to contributing.
Dan
