Guilt has been laid upon our shoulders by many authority figures, by parents, teachers, and friends, by the media; by our government and our educational and religious institutions. This burden of guilt is placed on us for two reasons, to control, and/or to punish. To understand guilt we must first be aware of what precedes and what comes after guilt. For guilt is part of a threesome, accompanied by two fellow travelers, sin and punishment.
Definition of all three words;
*Sin is a missing of the mark.
*Guilt is a compulsion to repeat an act correctly.
*Punishment is a reminder that comes along when the act is not repeated correctly.
First there is the Sin.
An outside agency, such as a parent, an institution (religious or educational), a peer, the government, or the media, sets a mark for you, telling you that this is the way it must be. If you do not follow the rules that are being laid out for you, it is implied, then you are doing something wrong and you will be punished for it. Generally these rules are set before a young and growing mind, the type of mind that is most receptive to information. Upon hearing these rules from the great authority figure, an impressionable child accepts the information as valid, and so all the “thou shalts� and “thou shalt nots� take root. The young person who does something that violates a rule feels as though he or she has done something wrong, has, in fact, sinned.
Then there is Guilt.
Nature has installed within the human framework a great many fail-safe systems, such as intelligence, self-awareness, and guilt. When we feel that we have missed the mark, that we have done something wrong ( sinned), then we experience what has been placed there by nature, a compulsion to repeat the act, but this time correctly. It is not possible however, to repeat most sinful acts, which range from the benign sin of eating something that you were not supposed to eat or failing to be nice to your mother’s brother when you do not particularly care for him, to a host of complicated “shalts� and “shalt nots� that have been set by outside agencies.
Finally there is Punishment.
These guilts or compulsions to repeat begin to build and are ultimately released in a punishing action. Unfortunately, the "punishment" does not necessarily fit the "crime:, nor does it absolve the individual. Punishment is simply nature’s little reminder, her way of saying, “Say, you didn’t do that correctly", How strong is the punishment? That depends on the degree the individual feels he or she has missed the mark; it is totally relative to the individual. On the physical plane (and we’re not relating this now to spiritual sin and guilt), a person killing a butterfly may feel more remorseful and carry a heavier burden of guilt than the same person would killing a human being. For that individual the killing of the butterfly is the greater sin, if he or she believes it to be a greater sin. For most of us, the reverse would be true, but in any event the degree of punishment sought is relative to an individual’s own perspective of guilt.
Guilt Follows Sin, Punishment Follows Guilt
Just as surely as night follows day, guilt follows sin and punishment follows guilt.
When the guilt has not been released, then the reminder, punishment, enters the scene, usually in the form of limitations. Individuals with guilt piled upon burdensome guilt tend to limit themselves in life, feeling “I only deserve X….". I only deserve so much money. I only deserve so much good health. I only deserve so much in the way of a home, of a spouse, of friends, of clothing,� and so on. These are self-imposed limitations that the individual is scarcely aware of, all stemming from unresolved problems. The negative effect of guilt is a condemnation of one’s self.Sin and guilt are imaginary in that they reside in the imagination.They’re mental. Punishment is mental as well, the difficulty being that while sin and guilt are mental aspects, punishment manifests on the physical plane. How can you neutralize guilt? You switch your viewpoint. In this case we’re neutralizing the negative effects of guilt. The negative effect of guilt is a condemnation of one’s self. The opposite of self-condemnation would be self-forgiveness. Therein lies the key to overcoming guilt. How easy. How difficult.
To Forgive is to Let Go of the Idea of Punishment.
It’s easy to say “Forgive yourself.� But before forgiveness must come understanding. Know that whenever you do something, whatever it is, you are doing your best at that time. We always do our best. At no time do you ever go out and say “I’m going to do the worst I can.� Even when you want to do something badly, you still do your best to do it badly. The very fact that in the present you might feel you had done something wrong in the past is a measure of your maturity. Say that somebody you respect asks you to do something. You agree, but don’t do the thing you promised to do, and then you feel guilty about it later. At the time you didn’t do it there were reasons you didn’t. They may have been subconscious, or they may have been conscious, but whatever they were you can bet that reasons did exist. Given the same emotional state, given the same circumstances, the same mood, the same you, given the same opportunity, you would have done ,or not done, exactly what you did ,or did not do, the first time around. The very fact that in the present you might feel you had done something wrong in the past is a measure of your maturity. You have grown, you have evolved, you are more aware, you are more mature. Of course, the new mature you looking back at some past error, some past missing of the mark, can say, “That was dumb, why did I do that? I wouldn’t do that today.� Of course you wouldn’t do it today. You’re not the same person you were then. With your greater awareness and maturity as resources, you recognize the thing now as an error you will not commit again. Know this: whatever you do, you do your best. Whatever you did in the past, given your resources of that time, could have been done in no other way. There’s nothing to feel remorseful about. There’s nothing to feel guilty about. The fact that you do feel guilt is an indication that you have grown to the individual you are now. You may forgive yourself for all of your past “error,� for you are a different person today. Forgive yourself, for you could have done it in no other way.Forgive yourself, for you will not do that again; you are more mature. If twenty thousand angels with twenty thousand bibles in their hands were to attest to the new you and forgive you for all your past misdeeds, yet you remained unforgiving of yourself, then you would not feel forgiven. On the other hand, should the whole world condemn you and you forgive yourself, then you would feel forgiven. The key lies within your own imagination, for this is where sin, guilt, and punishment reside, in that image-making capacity of your mind. Imagine that you have forgiven yourself and you will be forgiven. Forgiveness is simply giving up the desire to punish.......
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