Guilt is both an absolute and relative experience of truth. A person or society feels guilt based on definition of what's right and wrong, appropriate or otherwise, good or bad – created as paradigms, practiced as behavior, expressed as culture and laws.

If in a relationship, a person cannot recognize a wrong done or said, how can he or she admit it, say sorry and repair the damage of an offensive word or action? If these persons handle important jobs in judiciary, education, government, what's the result? Liberalized drugs, sexual promiscuity, homosexual marriages, accessibility to guns, pornography, destruction of natural resources, exploitation of women and children, organized murder and kidnapping that all violate the law of human life and nature. As a society, people create these through condonation by indifference and patronage.   Read more...

Here's a little anecdote: A friend of mine once saw the Dalai Lama speak at a conference. He told me that from the audience several questions arose, and one of the people was asking something about guilt and how to deal with it. Then, to everyone's surprise, this lengthy conversation started between the Dalai Lama and his interpreter. The Dalai Lama just didn't understand the question and kept getting back to his interpreter to clarify. In fact, as it happened, the Dalai Lama was not aware of a concept that we call "guilt!" Isn't that wonderful? Guilt is the emotion that one has done something wrong. But: what if you just don't do something wrong?