Guilt versus Remorse [VIDEOSTR]

Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.

PLEASE NOTE: This program is also included as Part 3 of the larger audio set “Cast No One Out”: Making It about Them (3m167as).

This workshop contrasts guilt and remorse, two different ways of responding to the ego. Guilt establishes that sin is real, judges it, and then through its expectation that we be punished for what we have done, ensures that the future will be like the past. Thus is time made real as well as the individual self, along with the thought of separation that is their source. Remorse, on the other hand, sees the decision for the ego as simply a mistake to be corrected. By so doing, remorse over having hurt others as well as ourselves undoes the sin-laden past, releasing it to correction. Relationships are now about them, instead of us and our special needs. As an expression of forgiveness, therefore, remorse becomes the means of forgiving ourselves and returning home.

For there remains within me still one gift
That yet is worthy to be given Him [Christ].
Let me forgive myself. For that is all
He asks and needs. And He will take this gift, And bring it to His Father from Himself.