Question: What is meant by “unconscious guilt?” That was brought up earlier and I need clarification on what the means.
There are primarily two reasons we are unaware of the role guilt plays in our life. The first is simply because it is so “normal” to us. We are so accustomed to the choices it requires us to make and the effects it has in our world that we just presume this is the way life is. We have learned to cope with it instead of recognize we have the choice to let it go.
The second reason is that we have become very expert at making other people responsible for our guilt. Projection is the highest “art form” of the ego’s thinking. So, one of the ways that we can always be aware of how guilty we feel is to take a look at the judgments we make about other people’s guilt. I can observe, for instance, how I feel about you when you are doing something that irritates me. If I am honest with myself then I can get an insight into what I judge myself for, begin to see the hidden role guilt is playing in my perception and ask my God Self how to heal it.
Guilt and separateness form the basis for the ego’s self-perception. It is so much a part of the way we see that it is important to find the different ways it controls our thinking. Observing our judgments and using forgiveness to change the way we think and see is the most important function we have here. Guilt is a self imposed idea based on my misperception of what is true. It is not a fact of life. And if we take responsibility for our thoughts instead of projecting them onto others, we can change our mind about guilt simply because it isn’t true. It won’t disappear by ignoring it, but it will go away when it no longer serves any purpose for you. And forgiveness is the practice of accomplishing that.
As helpful as it is to discover what we believe we judge ourselves for, it is not the things we have done “wrong” in our life that are responsible for our feelings of guilt. Guilt is an idea that originated with the thought that we had somehow been separated from our Creator because of doing something against His Will. This belief, then, was used to interpret everything we think and do. It has become the basis for our very self image. It is the reason we do not feel wholly deserving to be happy, peaceful or fulfilled in our desires. Fortunately, we are now free to change all that.