Ask: Are not murderers, etc., guilty?

My problem with the Course is it seems irresponsible to say that there is no such thing as guilt. What about murderers? What about rapists and child molesters? Are they not guilty? If we don’t say that some behaviors are bad or wrong then the world would be even more chaotic than it is...

When A Course in Miracles says that there is no guilt it means that in God (Truth, Reality) there is no guilt. But in the mistaken construct of a reality (illusion) that we call a world there must be rules for living with each other in relative harmony. So there is in the world guilt under the law.
The guilt that the Course says does not exist would be an internal feeling of “I am wrong/bad” or “I have done something wrong/bad”. This is the guilt that is not real. In the world, legal guilt does not refer to an internal experience of guilt. It refers to socially inappropriate behavior.
The ego (personal thought system) confuses them, however, to explain the internal guilt that you feel is real. Here is an excerpt from my recently released book, Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace, which might help clarify things:

When you are very young adults are supposed to teach you the boundaries and laws of your family, culture, and society. These rules of right and wrong form a social-morality. As you learn these you develop a social conscience. Your social conscience is an internal sense of what is right or wrong according to your family, culture, or society. It is what feels disturbed when you violate social-morality. Rules, boundaries, and laws vary among families, cultures, and societies. They also change over time as values change and more is learned about the world and human nature. Though arbitrary, social-morality is a starting point for living in relative harmony with others in the world.
            When rational and realistic, rules, boundaries, and laws serve the well-being of a family, culture, or society. But the belief in an absolute-morality results in unrealistic and/or harsh social-moralities to control members of a family, culture, or society. Absolute-morality, if it existed, would be right and wrong behavior in the world as decreed by a power, or god, over it. Your unconscious belief in absolute-morality is your belief that guilt is an intrinsic aspect of reality. When you confuse absolute-morality and social-morality, social-morality becomes an attempt to control what is seen as intrinsic guilt. 
A disturbed social conscience and feeling guilty are not the same experience. But the personal thought system hijacks your social conscience to “prove” your guilt. A social conscience refers to the self’s behavior in the world in relation to others. If guilt does not become involved with it, your social conscience is assuaged through amends or a genuine change in values. Guilt, however, is the feeling that the imperfect and sometimes mistaken self is proof that you are intrinsically wrong or bad. Guilt cannot be swept away. Where your social conscience sees temporary mistakes easily corrected, your belief in intrinsic guilt sees eternal sins that can never be undone. It twists your social conscience into a useful source for guilt.


Murderers, rapists, and child molesters break social-moral boundaries and are guilty under the law. But they are not guilty in the eyes of God because they do not exist to God! There is no relationship between God and the world. Only the belief in intrinsic guilt makes it seem that there is.

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Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, 4 Habits for Inner Peace and new! Releasing Guilt for Inner Peace new! at www.acimmentor.com.
If you have a question the answer to which you think will help others send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog.

Comments

will said…
I think elevated intrinsic guilt is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. For me it is the one thing that keeps me pushing forward in the Course. To have it removed at the root.
will said…
If anyone is involved with mental health counseling it is essentially the same thing as Toxic Shame.
Dirk said…
A Course In Miracles is message from out of time, that can not be used to explain the illusion. How is it helpful or even possible to explain an illusion? It is not. All A Course in Miracles offers is a complete alternative to the way I interpret the illusion right now.

Jesus says in chapter 13....as long as you believe that guilt is justified in any way, in anyone, whatever he may do, you will not look within, where you would always find Atonement. The end of guilt will never come as long as you believe there is a reason for it. For you must learn that guilt is always totally insane, and has no reason. The Holy Spirit seeks not to dispel reality. If guilt were real, Atonement would not be. The purpose of Atonement is to dispel illusions, not to establish them as real and then forgive them.

Thank you!! Love, Dirk
Dirk said…
dirkschultze@hotmail.com
will said…
Dirk,

Thanks for posting. There is not enough people to talk to on this site.

This is my take and I could be wrong in my approach. The main purpose of the Course is to explain the illusion and a way out of it. I think two things are going on. To Dirk and Will Jesus is explaining where you are headed in the long run not in what is happening today. Will and Dirk can't do the things you are talking about. But our 'ego,' the voice in our head insists that we can. The other purpose of the Course is to communicate with that part of our spiritual mind that is asleep. Actually most of the text is not talking to Dirk or Will it is talking to the part of our spiritual mind that is asleep. But for things like guilt or shame and many other things the Course is saying that it is not possible for us to fix this. One of the traps of studying the Course is we have a tendency to want to make it an intellectual exercise. To act "as if" we are able to be the way the Course describes

Universe132 said…

Hi Will,

thank you for that comment.

A Course in Miracles is not an intellectual exercise. I totally agree. That is the reason, why it is not helpful and even possible to explain and analyse the illusion because that is just an intellectual exercise.

A Course in Miracles is all about the experience of a Miracle. In order to experience a miracle you have to be willing to right minded thinking and put all the reasoning of the conceptual mind away.

It is not possible for me to fix guilt and shame, but I can train my mind to not justify guilt and shame. That is the part I have to play, the Holy Spirit / Jesus does the rest.

Am I and you the Holy Son of God? Yes we are that one Christ mind. Nothing else is true. We are not acting, we are declaring what we want to be true, so that we experience it.

In Love,

Dirk






will said…
123,

If that is your understanding then I respect that.

will
Anonymous said…
Justify your desire by ignoring others !!
Selfishness . EGO hmmmmm.
Pure Hoax








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