The Source of Guilt

The Source of Guilt [+ favourites]

I was recently reading about this guy, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who founded 'The Art of Living'. Art of Living centers are found worldwide and they teach a unique way of life which stresses oneness, harmony and peace.

So I read a few of his quotes which are in tune with a lot of prominent figures in our history such as Buddha or Ghandi. I tried to find this specific quote that triggered a theory I came up with this morning but I couldn't.

I theorized, though, that an unintelligent being cannot experience guilt or arrogance because it does not recognize the self. Recognizing the self separates you from your environment and that takes away the harmony, it isn't natural. It is not right then to think good of yourself because then you then you will think that everyone else is less and likewise it is not right to think bad of yourself because it makes you think everyone else is better.

So any way you look at it, you can't recognize yourself and live in harmony. You must be one with all things to be in harmony. You and your environment are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other like something and nothing. They give each other meaning.

"I try my best to be just like I am but everybody wants you to be just like them."

You're sort of blurring the solution. The answer is not ignorance, which is what you seem to be suggesting. Animals do not suffer guilt or arrogance, and they have a gentle harmony. However, one glaring difference is that they have no control over this harmony: It is the result of coincidental artifacts in nature that create a harmonious balance. If nature were to become different, they would not be able to adapt to a new environment in a harmonious way.

There is nothing wrong with recognizing the self... everyone has their own entirely unique "Dharma" that dictates that their life will be unique and different than anyone else's. Just like your fingers have a purpose that is different than your feet. However, this does not mean that any one part is less or more.

The key is recognizing the necessity of everything so a union exists to optiimze the life of the greater whole. People as a group should do the same.

But of course, society is almost entirely functional based on an unhealthy form of social competition. Mimicking the methods of corporations, this competition no longer prompts one to excel, but prompts one to miss-represent oneself and denounce others in an effort to fool everyone including themselves into thinking they are above.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

True, I did make it look like ignorance was the answer and that is in fact wrong. Humans are far too intelligent not to recognize the self. What I wanted to stress though is that you cannot recognize yourself to be any better or worse than any other selves. It is this that I theorize causes guilt and disunity.

"I try my best to be just like I am but everybody wants you to be just like them."

Most certainly. Segregation, in other words. Segregation is created by any association that excludes any other association. So if there are gay people, then there are non-gay people. If there are black people, there are non-black people. If any association comes with it any positivity, there is an inverse negativity imposed on those that are not a part of it.

It's a tricky situation. On one hand you want pride and confidence, on the other you can't derive it in any way that is based on comparison.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

Yah, you just have to take things for what they are. I think everything is perfect. Only through comparison do things become imperfect.

"I try my best to be just like I am but everybody wants you to be just like them."

Yeah this ones a complicated road.

Watch some animals in a mirror; some recognise themselves. Others don't. I've watched a baby recognise itself slowly over time when it looked in the mirror again and again.

By thinking too much we blur whats natural. However, theres a catch there because for some people its natural to think too much. Problems arise for me when idiots add things to conversations that could be true and I accept it could be true. Some things we read are just plain rubbish. Clearly, some people are more intelligent than others and some are better at other things than others. Accept the differences, look up to the differences that intuition tells us are good. If you naturally think someones stupid believe it. If you naturally think someones clever believe it. This isnt going to work for most people and its not politically correct but its true for some.

""No words""

heyjme: You have a tendency to blur your points... I don't dissagree with what you are saying but it doesn't directly address what is being discussed nor does it clearly state a point. Your intentions are important so you should integrate them into your post in my opinion.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

"You can't recognise yourself and live in harmony"
I find this to be a very interesting statement and I like the way you are thinking. Yes I believe you are right when you talk about the fact that this is what separates us from most animals. However you are talking about very complicated emotions, i.e guilt etc. I can't help wonder though if some animals do have those sorts of feelings on some level. Just because we can't understand them, communicate with them, does that mean that they do not possess some level of intelligence?

And being self aware and not being able to live in harmony with your environment...I'm not sure about that one...is it not being able to be in harmony with the physical environment or the social one? Because it is social emotions you seem to be referring to...emotions that depend on an emotional bond with another person. Am I waffling again or does this make any sense?

""Each child holds the world in an open hand to mould it into any shape they choose.""

Decius; I prefer to post something and then get a reaction of your type sometimes; simply because it leaves it broad and then I can narrow in.

Consciousness breeds thought. It also breeds conflict in thought. Thought is accurate when its proven to be right; the only judge. Guilt is a judge of past action. If the past action is thought to be wrong then we are 'guilty'. The feeling of guilt, to me, is a character flaw of being smarter than most. However, I think its a necessary feeling to make onself better, and strangely enough, overcome guilt in the future.

My intention here is that obvisoulsy some are smart enough to know they are right; though some fool themselves. And therefore, rather than dwell on the problem and look over a shoulder, the answer is to just do things naturally, if and only if, you've gotten to a point where you know deep down no human is perfect. And I think we have to know guilt to get there. After this point, doing actions naturally, and with confidence, the guilt melts away.

""No words""