Excerpt from "The Awareness of Self Discovery"

By William Samuel

CHAPTER 16

A Conversation about Guilt

"Mr Samuel, it seems to me that in the final analysis, the solipsistic metaphysics of the Absolute tells me that I am the cause of the discord on the scene. This means that I am taking on the sins of the world—that I am responsible for every heinous act ever committed that I have ever been aware of. I don't like this at all."

The Christian Christ has been pictured as one who was willing to accept this appearance of guilt, and then do something about it; but be that as it may, who says that the expanding view of a society in upheaval is a bad view or a guilty view to be disliked? Who says it is heinous to see our former landmarks being left behind?

We view without judgment because awareness doesn't judge. Society judges. As we look out into the world "tumult," we are merely seeing misconceptions tumbling or not tumbling into the piles of unimportant dust they are. We have seen fit not to continue giving them a power they do not have, but this doesn't mean it is bad or that we are guilty of the sights we see. As awareness, we are not responsible for any appearing. Awareness is the seeing of Deity, and it is our good pleasure to be the seeing that DEITY (ISNESS) is "responsible" for.

Just as we come to stop holding others guilty for what it appears they are doing to themselves or society, neither do we hold ourselves guilty for being their creators.

Awareness is no creator. Awareness beholds a kingdom which is forever finished. When did "Eternity" begin? Really, even the use of the term "finished kingdom" can be misleading. What had no beginning cannot be finished.

"Well, as I understand it, Mr. Samuel, solipsism says that by my act of putting off the old man, the misidentification, I am looking out at my own opposites as they do battle with one another and this appears to be my world in turmoil for which I am guilty!"

Not so! We would like to be the Creator, a Shakespeare who writes and enacts all the wondrous events appearing as history, but as AWARENESS-IDENTITY we cannot take credit for aught. We let the old man bury the old man—and he is certainly doing a thorough job of ending the fiction he began. But that one is not our identity. That one is not awareness. Awareness, here and now perceiving these words, is not guilty of personal judgments or fragmented purviews of Isness without the knowledge that they are only fragments.

"But we must put away the former concepts and it is this action that appears to be my world in turmoil and isn't this the most awful guilt of all?"

Listen carefully: The events of history as they are apparently unfolding in the arena of tangibility are both (1) the human dream ending and (2) perfect ISNESS disclosing Itself to Itself. The sights and sounds on an historic scale would be appearing whether we were engaged in this study or not. Events in the world will continue to go on unfolding as the appearances of people reacting to human pendulum swings one way of the other, but as WE put off the belief of misidentification, we are able to perceive events as they are and for what they represent. Furthermore, we are able to stop being personal reactors and become "passers-by." If events are the appearing of a personal dream ending, the dreamer is their cause and has the same control as the dream-identity in the dream has over the events of the dream. On the other hand, events that are the divine Isness unfolding to Itself are "going on" regardless of a dreamer's personal actions (or reactions) and his awakening appears as an ability to endure the events without judgment, without blinding involvement and without being disturbed.

"Now I see. All that has been accomplished by becoming so intellectually involved is that now I know why 'all things work together for good to them that love God.'"

Yes, and we can see that the appearance of a human awakening going on is only half the scene, for which we are not guilty! There is a greater Scene being all scenes.

A LETTER CONCERNING GUILT AND FORGIVENESS

Listen with the Heart, John;

Considering the human scene alone, the "wages of sin is death."

"Sin" is "guilt". Semanticists can rationalize until hell freezes over, but "sin" still winds up being "guilt" — and guilt, sin. Their "effect" appears to grind the spirit and body to dust-and "death".

The seekers of truth finally wind up facing the greatest guilt of all—the most heinous "sin" imaginable: What is it? The belief that, since nothing is external to awareness, then one is guilty of every botched appearance in his world—guilty of wars, pestilences, murders, governments, pollution, over-population—to infinity.

Notice, I just said facing this greatest guilt of all—not guilty of it. In this particular aspect of experience (or "cycle" if you want to call it that) it is imperative to see the absurdity of this "final" onslaught of the old nature. It is the "equal and opposite" claim of the same ego which earlier tries to be God, using the same pretense—i.e., that everything is included WITHIN me! — that "me" still the old impostor.

This particular aspect of guilt presents itself via any avenue it is given to enter—it says many things: "My life is a failure—I am ignorant—my family doesn't love me—my friends are leaving— I have hurt this one or that one—I have broken up this or that..."—all of which is only the other end of the playing-at-being-God swing of the pendulum.

THE EXTENT OF GUILT

The extent of mortal guilt—that is, the belief and acceptance of it—is horrendous. The pressures of guilt are used in every way—even to teaching—even in our casual conversations. Indeed, guilt is the veritable food of the "old man."

The lids that are popping off throughout the world are mankind's attempts to find an escape from the constant pressures of imposed and accepted guilt. Why, even the television commercials teach, sell, make their points by way of adding to our guilt: "Why aren't you wearing your seat belt?"—"Are you giving your family orange juice every day?"

The body appears to break down in our attempts (subconscious) to justify the guilt we accept from every hand and ultimate "death" appears the consequence.

There is no guilt outside the acceptance of it! God is not guilty of doing God in. There is no Identity but the One and that One is not guilty. Guilt exists in the superimposed ego-world which has already served its purpose for you. (Its purpose is to bring us to perceive the ONE and "learn" via its contradistinctions just what the one is.) The ONE is not guilty of sin, sickness or death. The One is not lethargic. The One does not need to be boosted up by bourbon nor propped by pills—and does not develop a dependence on them. The guilt that would tear the body apart is the final "is not"—and now you do not need more contradistinctions to battle with.

So what to do? Look in the mirror and see that one INNOCENT. Look in the mirror and FORGIVE that one of everything. You can do it because that one is not guilty. That one has never had a mind of its own except in its own belief. But "belief" is just belief—a powerless notion, incapable of doing anything to anything. What can two plus two equals five do to the perfect principle of arithmetic? What can "is not an oak tree" do to the pine tree? Not a blamed thing, and you know it! A lie is a zero. A big lie is the same zero. A belief in guilt is a zero, incapable of bundling up the nerves, incapable of preventing AWARENESS from doing whatever it seems sensible to do.

Do you understand this?

You can, in the twinkling of an eye—and find the RELEASE, the PEACE that letting go the burden of guilt will bring.

We do "forgive sins"—by "forgiving" guilt—and you will find yourself quite able to take up your bed and walk wherever you want to!

Walk straight to the mirror first and forgive yourself. Thank the Ineffable HERENESS for its forgiveness of guilt by its preclusion of guilt.

...then, watch what happens in the minutes, days, weeks ahead!

————————

Dear John,

This letter comes as a simple "proof" that you have not been forsaken—a few words from me and my pines on this side of the hill.

A grand harmony reigns. While the humanist declares there is no God but mankind himself, I know better. What I have found exists above and beyond the concepts of people. Its articulation, however, is apparently limited to human words and human philosophic attempts.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

We are not guilty of ignorance. We are not guilty of having created our trials and tribulations. While it seems so—and much of the religious education of the world hangs this albatross around our neck—"'tain't true, 'tain't so!" The dreamer dreams because the dreamer is the dream. To say that the dreamer is responsible for the dream is the subtle birth of guilt—a pseudo-guilt that has never been justified. We are not guilty of a botched experience because of our failure to "know the Truth" or to be honest or any other such thing. Every "trial and tribulation" of personal experience has worked to prove our uprightness to us—all events of a natural, normal and happy, happy awakening. That awakening is even now going on, and you are my opportunity to tell myself so—even as I am yourself telling you.

All is well because All is.

IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO SAY "THERE IS NO GUILT"

There is more to having done with the appearances of "guilt" than simply saying there isn't any. There is even more to it than understanding that there is no guilt. It is not enough to declare with grand metaphysical flourish that "guilt implies sin and a sinner, which are impossible because God is ALL." Oh yes, this is true—God is ALL and this holy ALLness precludes the guilt of wrongdoing—but until such time as we stop enacting the role of a guilty sinner by virtue of believing ourselves to be a sinner, then that identification is stuck with the appearances of its beliefs—the sense of guilt being the most unbearable, hence paradoxically most likely to shake us from the belief of the imposter.

In short, the appearances of guilt remain on the scene until we stop holding ourselves or anyone else guilty. Of what? Of anything short of the absolute perfection they are!

It is one thing to say there is no guilt. It is another to ACT in accord.

————————

There is a monumental joy to be discovered when we release others from any obligation we think they owe us. I did not find myself "free" until I first freed others of any responsibility for my own happiness; until I stopped expecting them to conform to patterns I or humanity had established as proper, normal, correct, polite, expected, etc. I simply let all this go upon discerning the light: in the words of Jesus" ...forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."

Of course, this does not mean that we become remiss in what appears to be our responsibility toward others.

————————

Dear Mary,

Listen to these words of hope: From out the depths of depression and feeling of guilt, from out the sense of personal worthlessness, hopelessness, helplessness and despair; from out this nearly unendurable darkness seemingly void of Love always comes the birth of the Christ Truth within! Always! Without fail! Inevitably!

GUILT AND IDENTITY

Thank you for your letter which I hasten to answer. The very fact that you are concerned enough to be "seeking" is enough for me to tell you—and very positively—that you shall find every answer to the "enigma of life." For a time, they will appear to come to you from books, classes, tapes, conversations with others and letters such as this, but I assure you that each and every one is coming from within your own Selfhood; from your own desire to know the Truth you be.

In the play, Lady Macbeth feels a great sense of hopelessness and guilt for having killed the king. You will remember that she tries to wash the blood from her hands and fails. For one to believe any feeling of guilt to be real (no matter what the supposed cause) may be compared to an actress playing the role of Lady Macbeth and completely forgetting her real identity. Her true Identity is not a guilt-ridden Lady Macbeth, but a happy and devoted actress.

We have a greater Identity too. Aware of this fact, we are able to go on playing whatever role seems to be our part on the human stage, ever mindful that "things are not as they appear." Let us leave "guilt" with the old man" whom we are not.

————————

On the stage, no matter how heinous the sin, it has nothing to do with the genuine Identity. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Oh, but we remain wary, wary not to use this as an excuse to condone our own dishonesty or to attack the appearances of dishonesty in others.

ISNESS IS THE VALUE AND THE POWER

An all-pervading Reality exists everywhere, being everything. The charging horseman with raised sword only thunders across a powerless stage. The blood he seeks and mayhap draws is but the enactment of a line or two of fiction, a parody on Truth.

On the stage we walk wherever seems best and say the line that reveals the play's harmless beauty—but we remain steadfastly aware that Truth and its enactment are already one and inseparable; that Reality of God is the Value and possesses the Power.

The Light that Love is lets us see the scene as an undisturbing event that best suits the moment. And what is the moment? Another aspect of Reality's Love coming to light!

If you would like further guidance in understanding any of William Samuel's work based on Self discover you are welcome to contact me, Sandy Jones - samuelandfriends@gmail.com - Ojai, California -