Repentance and Remorse Are
Sweet
Whisperings From One’s Own Spiritual
Soul
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
The
sixth principle of one’s consciousness is the spiritual or Buddhic soul. It is
also the real source of remorse feelings. Remorse is therefore a sane emotion:
a remorseless individual could only exist by being disconnected from his or her
own conscience.
While discussing the process of Devachan - which is the culmination in
the trajectory between two incarnations -, a Master of Wisdom referred thus to
remorse:
“If a remorse of conscience (the latter proceeding always from
the Sixth Principle) has only once been felt during the period of bliss and
really spiritual love (…..) then this remorse must survive and will
accompany incessantly the scenes of pure love.” [1]
Remorse is Buddhic, then. So is repentance. This is the main point for
the present note. Remorse is an uncomfortable feeling: there can be no doubt
about that. Yet it must be respected,
for it comes from an actual contact with the higher self, and such a contact is
probationary: it is not supposed to be necessarily nice.
The reality of one’s failures must be accepted. It is no use to try to
convince oneself that one rarely makes mistakes, in order to escape from unpleasant
feelings. Remorse must not be artificially denied or suppressed in one’s life. To
be proud of having nothing to repent about is a pathetic delusion. Remorse must
be calmly observed, and accepted, and heard, for it brings important lessons for
us to learn.
In his work “The Prophet”, Kahlil Gibran wrote:
“… How shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than
their misdeeds? Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very
law which you would fain serve? Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent
nor lift it from the heart of the guilty. Unbidden shall it call in the night,
that men may wake and gaze upon themselves. And you who would understand
justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light?
Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing
in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self,
and that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in
its foundation.”[2]
This applies to every altruistic movement, and to every aspect of life,
individual or collective.
NOTES:
[1] “The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett”, T.U.P. edition, Pasadena,
California, 1992, 494 pp., see item 8, Letter XXIV-B, p. 188.
[2] “The Prophet”, Kahlil Gibran, Senate, 2003, Surrey, UK, 114 pp., see p.
52.
000
On the role of the esoteric movement in the ethical
awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire
and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in 2013 by The Aquarian
Theosophist, the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon
Books.
000
