I want to give you a definition of guilt. Jesus probably uses the word “guilt” more than virtually any other word in the Course. I am going to define guilt for you so that you won’t have the idea that somehow guilt is associated with acts of sinfulness. That is not what guilt is. Guilt is actually the idea that you can think separately from God. That’s guilt, isn’t it? Guilt is nothing but responsibility for your own thoughts. Perception is inherently guilty of its misconstructions.
“It must be understood that when we speak of “guilt” we are speaking of it in its absolutely inevitable sense, not guilt in the sense of regret or wrong or the committing of sinful acts. The human mind suffers from the guilt of associated ideas. Perceptual mind is inevitably responsible for itself. Guilt is only and totally the assumption of the responsibility of identity through conceptual thought, or as Jesus says “the attempted usurping of the Kingdom of God.”
Guilt is the distance between cause and effect. Time is a chance to feel guilty. Guilt is time. Guilt is judgment. Judgment is guilt. Both are an assault on the Whole, and deny the single reality. So what you really share, then, is a perceptual denial of God, a denial of the whole truth.
Master Teacher –Introducing A Course in Miracles – Scripture from Resurrected Man – Discourses with Master Teacher (pp.15-16) Published by Endeavor Academy (2010)
