Guilt

Kereta, Coromandel, New Zealand

Feelings of guilt ravage our sense of peace and well being.  Guilt has an original purpose: to encourage us to become more conscious.   However, the vast majority of the guilt we feel arises from our conditioned systems of beliefs, and serves no purpose whatsoever.  We are often tormented by these unnecessary feelings. We can rid ourselves of artificial guilt and free ourselves from the nagging voices in our heads, making us feel shame for no reason.

We can free ourselves from this burden by first identifying natural guild, which has an important role to play in our lives, from artificial guilt, which does not.

How can we tell the difference between natural guilt and artificial guilt?  If we feel guilty about something we did, we can ask ourselves: "if the same situation occurred again, would we do the same thing or do something different?" if we would act differently, that is natural guilt.  Once we endeavor to try to fix the situation we created, apologize, and/or resolve to behave differently when a similar situation arises in the future, the guilt dissolves because it has fulfilled its purpose.

If we would do the exact same thing in the same situation, that is artificial guilt.  There is nothing to be done to remedy the situation, and we do not need to resolve to act differently in the future.  Once we acknowledge this, we can release the feelings of guilt because we recognize them for what they are: an ancient artifact from a useless belief system.  The feelings of artificial guilt will dissolve once we are aware that they serve no purpose whatsoever, except to torment us.

Let's be free.