True Regret

When we meditate, things from the past come up. We may remember times when we treated others horribly -hurting their feelings, deceiving, manipulating them. While regret is necessary to purify these karmas, we often fall into guilt instead. Guilt and shame are obstacles, because they keep us trapped in our self-centered melodrama entitled "How Bad I Am." Regret, on the other hand, motivates us to refrain from acting like that again.

-Dalai Lama