Thus, we should dissolve guilt like melting snow. Otherwise, if we indulge ourselves in feelings of guilt, it is not only meaningless, but also makes us depressed and stressed. In addition, it brings stress to the people around us. When we sink into darkness, we cannot communicate with others; we become indifferent to whatever they say. Even when they say something funny, we manage a smile at most and then bury ourselves again in our negative feelings, being unable to make ourselves happy; because that joy has nothing to do with our guilty feelings. So, only by doing something to compensate for our wrongdoings can we truly feel happy. There is thus a cause for every effect.
It's important for us to be repentant and humble, but it's more important to love ourselves. How can a person love anyone else if he can't love himself? Loving ourselves doesn't mean selfishness; it doesn't mean snatching everything for ourselves, or only thinking of ourselves in all circumstances without considering the feelings or convenience of others, or doing nothing to make others happy, or only caring about our own happiness and blaming others when we are unhappy. That's not loving ourselves, but displaying despotism, autocracy and selfishness! That's different.
Loving ourselves includes understanding that our spiritual level is not high so when we meditate we can't concentrate well. Maybe, in our past lives, being without the guidance of an enlightened Master, we were rather ignorant, and incurred more karma than others did. So, in this life we can't practice well or we progress slowly, and that's why we should love ourselves more. When we see anyone like that, we pity him, so should we not pity ourselves? Thus, we should try to do as well as we can and improve ourselves as much as possible instead of only saying, "I am remorseful; don't you see? I've repented. Isn't that good enough?" No, that's not right. True repentance is teaching ourselves, helping ourselves, encouraging ourselves, and reminding ourselves to do better in the future. We should write down all that we know that's good for ourselves and for others, and do it as well as we can. Meanwhile, we should change our bad habits one by one until there are none left.
So, we need to take care of both aspects rather than focusing our minds on our guilt every day and staying in darkness without applying some positive remedy. That's of no use and of no good to us. We should think of ways to apply remedies, and when we do good deeds, we will feel comforted and encouraged and gradually forget our sins. In this way, our bad habits will naturally change and we'll forgive ourselves.
Otherwise, we won't be able to forgive ourselves. It's not that others don't forgive us, but that we're pressured to death by our own guilty feelings. Hell is created in this way. The wrongdoers cannot find a remedy so they can't forgive themselves; it's not that God or anyone else will punish us. We are the masters of all beings; no one can punish us except ourselves. We allow ourselves to sink to such a degree just to teach ourselves.
We hear that evildoers go to hell in order to be taught a lesson and make up for their wrongdoings. But there's a better way, a more positive way. For example, if we have stolen money from others in the past, now we should not only stop stealing, but we should also give; we should perform charity and help the needy. We shouldn't just be passive and negative. Instead, we should be active and positive! If we simply stop doing the negative action, it's still very passive. We should do good things to make up for our past mistakes. That's active and positive, and it can erase our sins.
