And the Mindfulness Technique to Release It
The ego’s use of guilt can be very subtle.
It feels like being accused of something, like there is a voice inside you, criticizing and condemning you for your actions or lack of action.
“You should have done this!” “You didn’t do that!” “You always do this wrong!”
This guilt can motivate us into action. We want to do something in the world to alleviate the way we feel inside.
The action may be fruitful but the guilt doesn’t seem to go away. We find ourselves guilted into the next action, and the next, all with the purpose of soothing how we feel on the inside.
The ego loves this because that’s how it perpetuates itself. As long as you feel guilty, it feeds and lives on. The ego feeds on your negative emotions. And guilt is a very juicy one.
Being mindful of this guilt can ease much of the burden we carry in our daily lives.
Guilt feels like you are being judged or criticized by a voice in your head.
This voice may manifest as a projection of someone else, a family member, a teacher, a boss or coworker, an enemy.
And this voice says things to trigger your feeling of guilt.
What do you do when you feel this guilt?
Do you get defensive? Do you start arguing with that voice in your head, trying to get it to understand your perspective?
That’s exactly what the ego wants. It wants you to get defensive. It wants you to want its approval.
It wants you to argue back and have these conversations in your head. That’s how it survives.
The solution: Ignore it. Don’t argue back. When the voice says something accusatory, don’t fight back. When you feel the guilty feeling spike inside you, don’t react to it. Simply observe it.
The voice will get quieter. The guilt trip will lessen.
As the great master, Sri Yukteswar Giri, when talking about the mind, once said:
“An ignored guest quickly leaves.”
The ego will happily drive you crazy with guilt. While you keep arguing with the voice in your head, it has you where it wants you.
The ego’s victory is not winning the argument, it’s getting you to argue. As long as you keep thinking of rebuttals to the internal accusations, you are in the grips of the ego.
Don’t argue back at the ego, or any other person in your head — all projections of the ego. Just relax. It makes itself hard to ignore, but ignoring it is freedom.
It will say everything it can to trigger you into a defensive rant. Don’t let it. Stay vigilant.
When you feel the familiar condemning phrases and feelings come at you, simply let them be. Ignore them. They will fade away over time.
The less you get drawn into them, the faster they dissolve.
Other mindfulness practices can be of great help here.
In the presence of negative thoughts, remind yourself of something you love or are grateful for. Change the subject to something more pleasant.
Repeat a mantra or focus your attention singularly on an object in the room as a meditative exercise. Do anything you can to ignore the voice in your head trying to provoke you into an argument.
This isn’t an easy process but it’s the path to liberation. Freedom from the internal feeling of guilt is freedom from the ego. If it can’t make you feel guilty, it can’t run you.
And you live an emotionally free life.