SECRETS OF LIFE
"Some words do arouse strong emotion, don't they? Just one word and you
start to change inside, start to feel things, start to get fiery, you start
to perspire. This word is shame.
Now here you're not being accused of anything. I'm just putting the word
out, but even putting it out and letting it fall on elementary associations
can sometimes start a jitteriness inside you, right? When someone says to
you seriously, 'You ought to be ashamed of yourself for doing that!'
And you begin to wonder what you've been doing, huh? And then you can no
doubt think of a number of things.
So we want to talk about shame tonight and see where it has its right
place and where it has its wrong place. When you do something and feel
ashamed over it, you must realize the first rule, which is this: The reason
you feel ashamed is because you have identified with action. That sarcastic
remark and someone called it to your attention, that act which hurt
someone, that blast at someone and someone does say to you, 'You ought to
be ashamed for doing a thing like that,' you identify with the action, with
the word that you said, the action that you made and indeed you do feel
ashamed.
Now listen carefully. When you do make a mistake because you've been
taken over, you've been captured, when you do make a mistake of some kind,
there is the jolt of it, isn't there, when someone says, 'You shouldn't
have done that' or you tell yourself you shouldn't have done that. So
there is the jolt.
Now careful. You did something, said something that was wrong, hurt
somebody and someone said, 'You should be ashamed of yourself,' there's
immediately the shock over what they said. Now you make your mistake. You
make your mistake of beginning to think about it. Now you've brought
ordinary thought into the process and when you do that, you've lost your
opportunity to understand shame and put an end to it. You may not even put
an end to your mistakes but you can put an end to self-centered shame."
Here is Your Highway to Home - Part 2
Let a Higher Spirit Guide You - MP3 CD, track 2
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