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Chapter 5

Spirituality & guilt and its effects

Inside us, we feel that there is something more, that we have or are spirit, and that perhaps we have an immortal soul. We feel trapped, and we continue to look outside for the solution to this loneliness and this emptiness that drowns our soul.

We project our divine essence on the outside. Furthermore, we are not yet able to find the answer inside of us. The ego controls our divided mind and, although it is possible for it to change, it convinces us that it is very difficult.

The ego enjoys when we feel incapable, small, unworthy and when we believe that we do not know enough, that we have to prepare ourselves for whatever, but we are always prepared, without being aware that the secret is found in the experience.

In our projection we deny our divinity, and we put God outside us. We see God as a God to give praise and to be prayed to, an Almighty God who can punish us with great pain if we misbehave.

Religion combines this thought and creates the duality of good and evil, heaven and hell, as things external to us. We feel needy, dispossessed, we think that we are alone and abandoned by this God who has left us to our fate.

Norms are established, commandments, rituals, lists of sins are made, and there is a whole series of requirements to be good in the eyes of God. We create sentences in which guilt manifests itself. We punish ourselves because, in this way, when our time comes, we will be punished already. Not only that, but we deprive ourselves in different ways because we think that if we have wealth we will not enter into Heaven. We deliver our goods to institutions to which we give power, thinking that in this way, they will intercede for us before God. They are the intermediaries of the ego, of fear, they speak of love and forgiveness, and they make us feel constantly guilty by telling us what is right and what is wrong. They establish laws and commandments, and – be careful, because if we do not follow them – then all the hardships await us in an eternity. All this apparently created by a God who is supposed to be loving!

Theologians believe in sin and study how to get forgiveness to get to God. To believe in sin is to make it real in the dream, and this binds us to it. Belief in sin makes it possible for the devil to exist, and we give him the power to oppose God. We call this Antichrist, that we ourselves feed with our divided mind, believing that our guilt is so big that it is almost impossible for God to forgive us. The more we are separated from God, the more sinful and guilty we feel, the more strength it acquires that what the collective mind calls devil.

The question is, to which extent are we fully aware that we do not see the world as it really is? It is not about not having beliefs but about knowing that our beliefs are not true. However, when we believe that they are true we project them into the world, and then everything that surrounds us is in resonance with our beliefs and these condition all the circumstances of our life, because what we believe we do see.

Guilt and its effect

We tend to think that what happens to us comes from outside, that external factors make us feel in a certain way and when we do not like what we feel, then we point to something or someone as responsible for our condition.

By blaming others we free ourselves from our responsibility. However, we forget that by renouncing our own responsibility we give power to others, and we become victims. Blaming has a cost! The loss of our freedom. Furthermore, the role of the victim brings with it a self-perception of weakness, vulnerability and defencelessness, which are the main components of apathy and depression.

Guilt in itself begets negative feelings and negative feelings in and of themselves also beget guilt.

There is no winner in the guilt game. The first step to stop blaming is to acknowledge that we “choose” to blame someone or something. Only when we let go of blaming, we can experience forgiveness, and as a consequence we feel the resurgence of the energy of life, well-being and physical health.

We have to get rid of projecting blame onto others, and become aware that all our projections in the end turn against us. If we release them, we release ourselves, and this is the great secret to find happiness.