Special

por Jorge Hessen

Consequences and difficulties resulting from the feeling of guilt

The feeling of guilt is the result of worshiping perfectionism; this is a tricky psychological cyst. When we make mistakes, instead of assuming reparative attitudes, we worship an impossible perfection and blame ourselves definitively; therefore we do not allow ourselves the right to err with the corresponding obligation to repair.

We must allow ourselves the right to make mistakes. This is, because we were created simple and ignorant. Moreover, how is it possible, in our present evolutionary stage, to always get things done in the right way? This is impossible! Therefore, by reasoning, it is easy to see that guilt is intensely unfair to us, because it does not allow us the right to err, indeed the right which God has given us. As we know, we were created simple and ignorant so that we would gradually evolve, making mistakes and getting things right until we reach a relative perfection, when we will reach the level of "Guide and Model" of humanity. From then on we will not make mistakes anymore.

No guilt, no apologies for the flaws

It is a common and mistaken belief to admit Divine Justice as condemning and punitive. God's Laws, embedded in the human conscience, are not punitive, but are educational (trial) and re-educative (atonement). But if we do not allow ourselves the right to make mistakes and the right to make things right, we will remain in a passive and accommodating lazy attitude. To prevent this from happening, it is urgent that we actively move toward the necessary reparation in the face of deliberate misconceptions.

Guilt is a craving for arrogance and omnipotence because we covet to assume God's attributes as we depart from the Law of Mercy and the Law of Love, Justice, and Charity. Now if God does not punish us, then we institute a particular law and through self-decree we inflict the law of self-punishment.

The person who believes that perfection is the limit enters the process of self-flagellation because he perceives how any desire of freedom is so difficult and illusory. In fact, it is not difficult, it is tiring because you must expand love to govern all the other virtues that will transmute the process of guilt. This is due to the fact that worthless guilt is a movement of deep lack of self-love, a cruel repression of love. The guilty one wants to suffer the agony caused by the mistakes because he thinks this mechanism is liberating. But only and solely love releases consciousness.

Self-rejection and guilt

Faced with the moral crimes committed, there are people who introject self-rejection, implanting guilt in their conscience. As a result, they feel rejected by everyone, instead of working to repair the mistake. Because if it is not done right away, the encrusted conscientious conflicts will be casted into the next incarnation.

In the present life there are several cases of self-rejection of the transgressors of the divine laws of consciousness. These are those who, in their youth, in the "dead of the night", made criminal abortions and fear being discovered. There are those who have committed vile adultery and seek to hide it from others and under the lash of guilt fear to be revealed at any moment. These are rare cases; the most frequent ones are those guilty of forgotten crimes of previous reincarnations. Those who bring the blemish before their conscience - since they have not surpassed themselves in their previous lives – go on presently feeding their guilt.

Divine laws are not punitive; they are loving, educational (trial) and re-educative (atonement). Certainly violations of the moral laws will focus on the spiritual economy, needing reparation of the grievances. Not necessarily in an immediate reincarnation, because today many may be repairing crimes of ten previous incarnations. Also, will pain be necessary to repair errors? We believe not. The safe way will be the development of the virtues of the heart, acting with self-love and love for others.

Self-awareness and self-forgiveness are mechanisms that make offenders willing to repair the offense. Since spiritual evolution occurs both horizontally and vertically in life. Pain is the sting that drives evolution horizontally. The transgressor suffers to the point of exhaustion and in exhaustion he observes that there is no alternative but to do the WELL, deciding from there to climb the vertical of life.

The best therapy for guilt is the exercise of the Gospel as an invitation to move away from self-centeredness and focus on the divine essence that IS. This is the path to liberation from egocentric and egoistic movements. The practice of uplifting reading, the tasks of charity necessarily towards you, and then the real charity towards neighbor “without innocuous assistance”, the participation of the activities of the Spiritist center can generally promote the immortal Spirit and help all involved.

When we said “without innocuous assistance” we state that the greatest charity is not the material one, but the spiritual charity that needs to be exercised under the symbol of benevolence towards all, indulgence towards the faults of others and forgiveness of offenses. Which are practical exercises for people to get rid of the mono idea of guilt. In this movement of Christian Spiritist exercises, the mind no longer allows the ideas of the obsessors to be introduced and the person performs the practical actions, which are quite laborious, but drive the vertical evolution of life. It is like ascending on a very steep ladder, but few are willing to rise, most keep grumbling that life is a "stepmother" without making any real efforts for ascension.

The guilty one rejects all who work for self-renewal, because they are giving him an example. He identifies in others a “mirror” portraying the behavior he should have, but is not willing to do so. Therefore, he rejects and repudiates the “mirror”, throws a stone at it to break it, so as not to see the image of the renewal he should try to attain. Therefore, he remains lazy and cowering for moral self-renewal. The "mirror" out of his sight, will not be constantly recommending and charging for what he should do.

The guilt and alertness of conscience

Consciousness is the Divine in our existential reality; in it are written the Laws of the Creator. In turn, guilt results from not listening to the "awareness alert", so it is pathological and generates deep self-punishing psychological shake. Detail: it is impossible for the conscientious alert not to exist in the human psyche. We can pretend not to hear the "voice of conscience," and yet it will always warn, except in the extreme cases of psychopathology where the mentally ill does not feel the slightest regret and guilt.

The conscientious alert signals the transgressions of the Law of love, justice and charity. In view of this, we become aware and repent of the error, seeking to repair it. On the other hand, guilt is a pathological process in which we worship the error under the psychological movement of self-judgment, self-condemnation and self-punishment.

The Law of Cause and Effect is one of the fundamental principles advocated by the Spiritist Doctrine to explain the vicissitudes linked to human life. Before the Law of causation the harvest derives from sowing, without any castrating or fatalistic expression for reparation. The “awareness alert”, for example, well absorbed, becomes a responsible component. But if we ignore it, we collapse into apology and reject the blame for error. In the face of it, apology is a deeply irresponsible posture towards itself.

The negligent (excuser) says that “to err is human”, but it is risky to reason that way. It is a wrong process that outrages the Law of God. Indeed, we need not blame ourselves (demand) when we make mistakes, let alone apologize (neglect), but we need to hear the voice of conscience and learn from mistakes in order to make amends.

Nevertheless, in M.E.B. - Brazilian Spiritist Movement there is plenty of welfare services. Spiritist psychiatrist Alirio Cerqueira, coordinator of the Spiritist Project of the Spiritist Federation of Mato Grosso, argues that many make welfare without real awareness of the social need of the needy. Indeed, they work "charitatively" under the shackles of a guilty conscience and risk concealing to them, the automatic exercise of "altruism." They act subconsciously as bearers of a very painful wound, and instead of treating it to heal they are putting anesthetic ointment on the wound (guilt) to ease the pain.

On the other extreme side, there are people who feed so much guilt that they feel unworthy to say a prayer and or do well. But let us judge this: Prayer is not for pure Spirits. Jesus directed that it is not the healthy who need doctors but the sick. Now, waiting for our purification to pray and do well, makes no sense, because we gradually perfect ourselves, praying initially and especially doing well to the limit of our strength.

Inescapable Consequences of the Guilty Mind

Guilt causes commotion, self-punishing disorders, and contributes to a lack of self-esteem. It causes self-exterminating compulsion as a result of the self-judgmental, self-condemning and self-punishing movements in which the guilty person ruins its self-esteem, making loving self-acceptance impossible.

At the origin of every disease there are always psychic or spiritual components. Diseases are inheritances arising from the divine Law of Cause and Effect, and arising from this or previous lives. They are debris that fixed in the genes the enabling factors for the installation of pathological disorders.

We are the image and likeness of the Creator; we are of divine essence and were created for happiness and harmony. When we seek to develop existential balance responsibly, we will not be reached by genetic diseases, because it is not the biological composition that determines the health or disease of the Spirit, but it is the Spirit that commands the physical body.

There are those who keep their moods almost uninterrupted. They are those who wake up moody, spend the day moody and go to sleep moody, because they are all the time in a process of guilt in self-judgment, self-condemnation and self-punishment. To get out of this state it is imperative to develop the basic feelings of self-esteem, self-acceptance, self-confidence, self-worth and self-respect.

There are several consequences of guilt, namely: insecurity, isolationism, absence of oneself and others. The person enters a state of psychic isolation and expands the feeling of existential abandonment. It is not possible for such a person to feel it belongs to the Universe, and it is precisely the feeling of belonging to the universe that generates in us existentialism and joy of life.


Translation:
Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br

 
 

     
     

O Consolador
 Revista Semanal de Divulgação Espírita