- This topic has 64 replies, 33 voices, and was last updated 2 months ago by
.
- Replies
SHAME: I don’t live my life in shame and I never really lived it in any shame. I wasn’t always perfect and I know I’m not perfect and I accept that. I choose to live each day learning and growing to be better than yesterday. Mistakes can be made as long as you can grow and learn from them and be good to people. When I was a small child, I remember always being preached about shame (catholic religion), and I had to pray for forgiveness. Even then, as a child, I didn’t agree with the guilt and shame they tried to make me feel when I knew in my heart that I was good and kind. None of that made any sense to me and I quit going to church.
I believe if you live life from your heart to do good and mean well to others, you have nothing to be ashamed of. We are all human and are here to receive the good and bestow. If I make a mistake unintentionally, I will not feel shame, only look to do better for myself and others.
Kabbalah agrees that we have nothing to be ashamed of. We are under a law that was arranged before our universe, that says that we shall never again feel shame. That’s why a person lives their whole life never allowing himself to get into a shameful situation. By the same token, people would like to cause others to feel shame, especially when they do things we disapprove of. But spiritually speaking, the Shame that was felt in the Upper Worlds, will never be again because we will correct our desire to receive that lacks an intention to bestow, and then we will be able to receive the true pleasures without shame. Until then, what we experience in our world is called “thin candle” and not the true fulfilment that awaits us.
Hi Gianni,
Do we all have shame? People who have a big strong ego for themselves, to take from others, to build their personal success, do not seem to suffer from shame. (Maybe they are unconscious of the shame.) But people who are more inclined to seeking “spirituality” (even conventional spirituality not aligned with Kabbalists’ definition) seem to suffer from lots of shame and guilt in them.
Thank you, again!
No, I don’t need to be ashamed if I’m Jeff Bezos. I earned all this because I’m diligent and smart. I deserve it. But not only that. Humanity is indebted to me. Look what wonderful convenience I’ve created for billions of people. Look what wealth my company has given its shareholders. If anything I deserve a Nobel prize. And no matter who you give as an example, they will have justified themselves similarly. Even a thief has his self-justification. Man lives his whole life as he does only to avoid ever feeling shame, and he never does. He would first die than truly feel shame. Every decision he makes is a calculation to avoid shame.
Hi Gianni,
Malchut’s decision to not receiving any light for self pleasure except for bestowal does not mean negation/renunciation of, for example, the physical body, right? (In my experience, negation/renunciation of the physical body is a form of shame.) The decision could express itself as change of value about material things as tools, e.g. A person is used to eat for tastes, comfort (the head serving the desire), but after his Malchut decides not to receive any light except for bestowal, s/he now eats to live, eat to live longer so s/he can bestow longer on Earth (head above desires). Another example, s/he used to use the internet for entertainment but now use the internet for connecting with the Ten, building one’s spiritual environment or dissemination. Am I understanding correctly?
Thank you!
That’s right, Hing. We don’t need, don’t benefit from and even detract from spiritual advancement by breaking our corporeal desires, since those are considered above reproach. They are what you have to give this donkey you live with, for it to exist. The test is if I would prefer not to use it but I need it to live in this world: a normal apartment, car, career, family, etc. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of my spirituality. And if I live this way it becomes clear that I can use it all for the sake of the spiritual goal.
I have spent my life experiencing the cancellation of pleasure once I received it and I always thought that the shame I felt was related to my Jewish upbringing that was peppered with guilt…. that I shouldn’t ever enjoy anything while others went without. It’s interesting to find out that there is a destiny to this feeling that is actually propelling me forward in my spiritual growth. Am I misunderstanding?
I watched this lesson several times, and I am still not sure if I understood it right.
I got sick on my stomach (literally) by realizing that often I am not nice to myself because of my own judgment of not deserving, not being good enough, and being jealous of other people when I see them succeed. When it is my turn, I feel that other people will be jealous or offended about my success. Is it related to spiritual shame?
Hi Helen,
All this is included in the simple ego. It doesn’t matter if it’s the desire to receive like this or like that. Either I want to receive more preferable qualities, because I see that with different qualities others are succeeding more, and I simply make a rational observation about the comparison between my qualities and the qualities of others, and I conclude bitterly that it is realistic to presume that I will not receive the fulfilments I might have, were I to have more successful qualities. And of course everyone is this way, so if you will demonstrate that you can succeed more with your qualities than others can with theirs, then they will hate you, precisely to the extent that they are aware of your success. It’s not spiritual shame. But it’s true that all that we do in this world is to avoid ever arriving at a feeling of shame, that I am somehow less than another.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.