OK, first for some of you who don't know, Moral Shame and Moral Dread are a pair. In the scriptures, the Buddha referred to them as "Two Virtues That Protect The World": Lokapala Dhamma. They're very important. If all you actually did in your practice was to work with Moral Shame and Moral Dread over and over, I believe you could get enlightened. Now Moral Shame and Moral Dread have two different jobs to do. They're both responsible for two different things, but they work together. Together as a pair, they protect the world.
Moral Shame's job is to look into our past. It just looks at everything and it is objective about it. It just looks in the past and says "OK, what did I do that wasn't so wise, what was not skilful, what was basically wrong? What did I do?" And it's supposed to do it just like a scientist, it's not doing it in order to come back later and beat us over the head with guilt and fear and all that, it's just to look into our past and say, "What did I do wrong?" It's like a computer database, it starts recording everything. It just looks back and says, "When I was twelve I did this, when I was fourteen I did that" and so on, and it just records everything that you did that was not wise. That's all Moral Shame is supposed to do, it's like a recording base, a database.
Fine, now if that's all you use, you've got a nice file stuck away in some folder, right? And that's all it does. So, Moral Shame has a little bit more to do. Moral Shame turns to Moral Dread, and says "Here Moral Dread, here's your stuff. Study it." Moral Dread: the word "dread" is actually a type of fear. It's a wise fear. We don't want to do it again. This is Moral Dread's job, "Don't do it again." But Moral Dread can't stop us from doing anything again in the future unless it actually knows what was done in the past, that's why Moral Shame hands over the file to Moral Dread. Moral Dread's got to study it. It's got to really study it, it's got to learn, "What was it that I did wrong? What was it that I did wrong? What was it, what was it?" Moral Dread's really got to understand this database, this file that Moral Shame gives it. Then Moral Dread starts watching out. That's where our Mindfulness comes in along with our Compassion for ourselves. We don't want to make the same Dukkha for ourselves again. That's Moral Dread's job: "Don't do it again." So, that's how the two work together.
Now, how can you get Moral Dread stronger? How can you motivate Moral Dread? Reflect on Dukkha, whether you want it or not. Do you want that same stuff again? Motivate the Energy factor. I talked yesterday about getting energy going, the determination factor: "I'm not going to do it again." New Year's resolutions. We just passed New Year's. How many of you made a New Year's resolution? We had an old student in the last retreat, and this person was having trouble keeping a formal practice going in their normal life. They'd been a student for about six or seven years now, had done five or six retreats. But they had not cemented a formal daily practice in their life. So I said to them, "Good, guess what's coming soon? New Year. How about a New Year's resolution? Can you do ten minutes a day?" Ah, they thought that was cute: "OK I'll try." We got an email from them two days ago, January 13th. They made it! For thirteen days they'd done ten minutes a day, they were happy. That was probably the first time they'd done formal practice for thirteen days straight in six years. It gives them some happiness, it gives them some joy, that determination factor. So, when we think of Moral Dread, it's got to have the determination factor in it too, based on the fact that we don't want the Dukkha anymore, that's our Compassion. Get your Compassion stronger, and Moral Dread gets stronger.