Comments on: What is guilt for? (Part II) http://ryantrauman.com/traumanblog/2009/03/22/what-is-guilt-for-part-ii/ Learning to Live With My Own Reflections. Trauman's Blog. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:33:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Amy Wright http://ryantrauman.com/traumanblog/2009/03/22/what-is-guilt-for-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-2830 Amy Wright Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:36:43 +0000 http://ryantrauman.com/traumanblog/?p=220#comment-2830 Oh wow, have you seen this website? I like today's post, which is tangentially related to our guilt conversation. http://www.soulpancake.com/view_post/224758/what-will-it-take-to-change-our-excessive-behaviors.html Oh wow, have you seen this website? I like today’s post, which is tangentially related to our guilt conversation.

http://www.soulpancake.com/view_post/224758/what-will-it-take-to-change-our-excessive-behaviors.html

]]> By: Amy Wright http://ryantrauman.com/traumanblog/2009/03/22/what-is-guilt-for-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-2826 Amy Wright Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:22:44 +0000 http://ryantrauman.com/traumanblog/?p=220#comment-2826 Control is not the right word. Is our role accepting or allowing that? Control is not the right word. Is our role accepting or allowing that?

]]> By: Amy Wright http://ryantrauman.com/traumanblog/2009/03/22/what-is-guilt-for-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-2825 Amy Wright Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:41:59 +0000 http://ryantrauman.com/traumanblog/?p=220#comment-2825 I think you hit the nail on the head--that guilt is a kind of emotional governor, only I don't think it compels people to want forgiveness. I think it prohibits forgiveness. And it is an odd governor, as our emotional governors always are. Liars and cheats. That's what confuses me. Why would we prohibit forgiveness? Maybe I should explain that I understand, like you, that guilt does no good. Not to the other person and not for ourselves. We can only see or recognize in our hurt feelings or in the other person's response to the situation, what we've done. Guilt arises in the resistance to feeling that sorrow or empathy. There is no need for it.The recognition is enough. Or, as Krishnamurti says, "seeing is action." We can feel it and be done. If we allow ourselves to actually feel it, it is done. Probably guilt remains because we hold onto it, thinking it can't be that "easy" or it needs to take a certain amount of time. But do we love ourselves and each other so punily as that? That we want to elongate unhappiness? To what end? David Lynch said on twitter that we have left that unfortunate time in which suffering was considered a necessary part of life. Others have variously said the same thing, Do you believe it? Can we control that? I think you hit the nail on the head–that guilt is a kind of emotional governor, only I don’t think it compels people to want forgiveness. I think it prohibits forgiveness. And it is an odd governor, as our emotional governors always are. Liars and cheats. That’s what confuses me. Why would we prohibit forgiveness? Maybe I should explain that I understand, like you, that guilt does no good. Not to the other person and not for ourselves. We can only see or recognize in our hurt feelings or in the other person’s response to the situation, what we’ve done. Guilt arises in the resistance to feeling that sorrow or empathy. There is no need for it.The recognition is enough. Or, as Krishnamurti says, “seeing is action.” We can feel it and be done. If we allow ourselves to actually feel it, it is done.

Probably guilt remains because we hold onto it, thinking it can’t be that “easy” or it needs to take a certain amount of time. But do we love ourselves and each other so punily as that? That we want to elongate unhappiness? To what end? David Lynch said on twitter that we have left that unfortunate time in which suffering was considered a necessary part of life. Others have variously said the same thing, Do you believe it? Can we control that?

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