When you are a constant reader of my articles, you will know that for me at the core of our spiritual development and our journey towards love and oneness, lies the topic of guilt. Guilt is the feeling that we have done something wrong and is experienced mostly in its projection outward on someone else.
The feeling of guilt is the root of everything in this world and if we are not aware of it, it is behind everything we do in this world. We act out of guilt, that we have done something wrong or - because it is unbearable - tell ourselves, that someone else has done something wrong to me. We call this „injustice“ and feel ourselves victimized.
In its projected form, the whole world can be the source of our suffering - including God. We are playing the blame game and it doesn’t matter on what we are blaming - our partners, our parents, the society, our genes, our body, the weather, the crypto market, the plumber or the universe.
Guilt can be found everywhere if we are looking for it. And we do, all of the times, whether conscious or not.
Guilt projected into the future is called fear (of punishment) and fear is the other emotion that makes our lives so difficult.
So you see, whenever you don’t experience love or peace, the roots are in the feeling that someone has done something wrong.
The roots of the Guilt-Blame-Victim-Game
We have to be very clear about the roots of this game, that is ruling our world. In fact, as A Course in Miracles tells us, the world - seen through the eyes of the ego - has only one function: as a hiding place for our guilt.
Of course we don’t experience this so directly in most cases, which makes it tricky to be aware of. So I want to give you some practical tips, how to spot this ongoing game in your daily life.
One expression of guilt as mentioned above, is the feeling of injustice. Injustice is much more than just the belief, that we have been unfairly treated. It is the the belief, that attack is even possible and serves a purpose!. Even more though, that we know when attack is justified and when not.
The Course tells us:
You have a differential view of when attack is justified, and when you think it is unfair and not to be allowed. When you perceive it as unfair, you think that a response of anger now is just. And thus you see what is the same as different.
T-26.X.1
These sentences out of the chapter with the same name as this article, are the introduction into what for me is one of the most important core teachings of the Course.
The basis of judgement and therefore separation is the belief of the ego, that it knows, when attack/blame is justified. Of course for the ego, attack is always justified when it is the one who does the blaming and in its logic, there has always to be someone or something that is to blame. The basic logic of the ego is „One or the other“ - this is how it makes the world of duality work.
As insane as this already is, it gets worse from there on, as we read:
"What does it mean if you perceive attack in certain forms to be unfair to you? It means that there must be some forms in which you think it’s fair. For otherwise, how could some be evaluated as unfair? Some, then, are given meaning and perceived as sensible. And only some are seen as meaningless. And this denies the fact that all are senseless, equally without a cause or consequence, and cannot have effects of any kind. Their Presence is obscured by any veil that stands between Their shining innocence, and your awareness that it is your own and equally belongs to every living thing along with you. God limits not. And what is limited cannot be Heaven." T-26.X.2.
You see, right here, that the ego giving meaning to attack and evaluating what is fair and what is not, making it the prosecutor and judge at the same time. A collision of functions, that has very serious consequences.
Ego Undercover
Behind this ego undercover project of giving guilt away through judging others and trying to get rid of it through the feeling of injustice, there lies the much deeper illusion - the secret dream - that separation is possible and we having caused it, will now suffer punishment.
"Beware of the temptation to perceive yourself unfairly treated.
In this view, you seek to find an innocence that is not Theirs but yours alone, and at the cost of someone else's guilt. Can innocence be purchased by the giving of your guilt to someone else? And is it innocence that your attack on him attempts to get? Is it not retribution for your own attack upon the Son of God you seek? Is it not safer to believe that you are innocent of this, and victimized despite your innocence? Whatever way the game of guilt is played, there must be loss. Someone must lose his innocence that someone else can take it from him, making it his own." T-26.X.4.
Here we learn what the ego really tries to accomplish through the feeling of injustice. It wants to feel innocent and believes, that through taking the innocence of someone else away, it will become innocent itself again.
This is according to its basic philosophy of „One or the other“.
All of this is based on the totally wrong premise, that sin (= doing something wrong) is even possible!
Our whole world - including all major religions - is based on this belief. We grow up with the belief, that sin is possible and deserves punishment. This is the glue that nearly all moral and religious systems stick together.
Of course, these are all made by humans and not by God.
God has no idea what „sin“ even is, nor is it possible, since in Oneness, there are no sinners, simply because there is no attack possible.
Love: the end of guilt and victimhood
The opposite of the Guilt-Blame-Victim-Game is Love. In Love, there is no judgement possible, since there are not two - so there is no perpetrator and no victim. Love is the end of guilt - in other words:
Love means seeing with the eyes of innocence.
Wherever you look - inside or at the so called „outside - you always have the choice through which pair of glasses you are looking. If you are looking through the glasses of the ego, you will see guilt, injustice, blame and fear.
If you are looking with the glasses of Love, you are seeing peace instead. This is the only choice you got - nothing else has to be done.
The Course is very practical, because it is only concerned about the cause of our suffering. It is a course in cause and not effect.
This important chapter concludes with these wise words, that make us aware of the immense consequences that a life seen through the eyes of the ego has:
"What this injustice does to you who judge unfairly, and who see as you have judged, you cannot calculate. The world grows dim and threatening, not a trace of all the happy sparkle that salvation brings can you perceive to lighten up your way. And so you see yourself deprived of light, abandoned to the dark, unfairly left without a purpose in a futile world. The world is fair because the Holy Spirit has brought injustice to the light within, and there has all unfairness been resolved and been replaced with justice and with love. If you perceive injustice anywhere, you need but say:
By this do I deny the Presence of the Father and the Son. And I would rather know of Them than see injustice, which Their Presence shines away."
T-26.X.6.
These insights alone have the power to transform the way you see yourself and the world forever. Take your time, my friends, since there is no need to hurry. As long as there is a world, there are enough opportunities to forgive each and every moment.
Forgiving means being aware of your judgements and the feeling of being unfairly treated and seeing the unreality and insaneness of the belief in error that is called sin and separation.
You deserve to be seen through the eyes of innocence. You deserve to be loved.
Love and Blessings,
Atmos
Posted from my blog https://atmos.black/the-end-of-injustice/ via #steempress
For further discussion and to ask questions please join my new Telegram channel https://t.me/acim_mentorship
Interesting perspectives on guilt. It's hard to wrap my head around the idea that guilt is at the root of it all. What would you say about those who have no conscience like psychopaths?
It's a funny coincidence to read this, as the article about hypocrisy I wrote last night speaks of projection and ties love in at the end as the ultimate cure as well. Thanks for sharing. :)
It doesn't matter if you are conscious of the underlying guilt or not, nor if you see it in others or yourself. The reason why ACIM is speaking so extensively about guilt is, because the ego is build on the imagined separation from source.
The moment you imagine to be separated from source, the basic "error" seemed to have happened and the resulting feeling is always guilt (or fear, if projected into the future). This is the case with a psychopath as well as "normal psychopaths" (since believing in separation is in itself "psychopathic", since we are imagening something, that is not there: a world. Which is by definition "psychotic"). I'll check out your article! Thank you! <3
Thanks for checking it out. Don't feel the need to upvote it. It's not nearly as complex, and comes from my own ideas and feelings, not a school of thought that I'm completely uneducated in. In fact, I have to read your comment again in an attempt to understand what you just said lol. ;)
Yeah. Indeed many people are so caught up in the train of guilt that they gradually losing their self esteem and motivation unconsciously. Thanks for this insightful write-up. We need to embrace forgiveness and love, even to the unlovable.
Indeed, guilt does feature substantially in the stories people tell themselves are true.
And then there is fear. People often believe the opposite of "love" is "hate," but in observing people in action and interaction, it often holds true that the opposite of love is actually fear. And guilt is one of the many things that derive from fear: When we look within, and stand in our truth with authenticity and no fear, such things a guilt, shame, judgment, envy and others tend to just fall away.
Bright Blessings!
Indeed, fear is projecting guilt into the future. As long as there is believe in guilt and time, there will always be fear too. <3
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STOPgreat article...your article lines is right 👍🏻
Another lovely piece Atmos, late to the party ...err.. again! `Can you believe I found an app for the daily lessons that even prompts at the required intervals with a sweet gently chime! technology has its loving uses.