Regret

REGRET, WORRY, CONTRITION    ['gyod] What is worry? It is an obsession regarding the positive, negative, indifferent, timely, untimely, appropriate and inappropriate on account of anything to be done intentionally or unintentionally and is related to bewilderment-erring. Its function is to obstruct the mind from becoming settled. Worry is produced from impressing over and over again on the mind what is not pleasing in view of actions made through continually thinking, "Is what is to be done appropriate or not?" or of actions induced through what others may say.

Worry also has three aspects of being positively toned, negatively toned, and neutrally toned. To worry about offensive things done previously is positively toned. Worry which is produced from having done pleasurable things is negatively toned. To worry little about the situation of work which may profit or may not profit someone else is neutrally toned.

The statement 'timely and untimely, appropriate and inappropriate' means that if one worries in time which still holds a promise, it is appropriate, and if one worries in time which does not hold a promise, it is inappropriate. The appropriateness of worrying in time which still holds a promise is like the necessity of making confession now because, although karma has not yet matured, one will have to worry later about the evil. Worry in time which holds no promise is like being born into evil existence from the maturation of man's actions and, since the life of a blind man or a cripple is the situation in which maturity has been completed, it cannot be altered. Therefore, if one studies
deeply the treatise of the Abhidharmasamuccaya, it will certainly become the most wonderful occasion for gaining certainty in the gradation of the path.