Significance of the feeling of shame
IN every direction we look, in every aspect of public life and in relationships business or private, there is considerable evidence that man has lost his sense of shame. We read most of the time about billions of Naira of public funds disappearing into thin air; they cannot be accounted for as they have been siphoned from the public till. When occasionally the perpetrators are exposed and their faces are shown on television or splashed in newspapers, there is hardly any display of a sense of remorse. The culprits look straight faced. It is ‘ whataboutism’! It is yes, what about it! The cheering orchestra is standing by to hail and dance the night away with wards of currency notes thrown away in nauseating culture called “spraying”. Is he the first to dip his hands into public till and will he be the last? It is often heard. There are no pangs of conscience which trigger a feeling of shame. In business relationships, taking advantage of a partner is regarded as being smart; it is an age- old practice, goes the argument, dismissing the practice as not unusual.
Where the absence of shame is on boldly and on wide- spread unconscionable display is in the mould of dressing by a multitude of women, young girls and ladies in particular in all of the free world. High neckline is regarded as old fashion by the modern woman, and so, it’s thrown out of the window. It’s gone. What the modern lady calls body hug which leaves nothing any longer to imagination is the order of the day. Slit skirt not only exposes the legs but thighs as well. The sensitive parts are not any more held sacrosanct, but property for Dick and Harry to behold.
In the enlightenment in His sacred Work, In The Light of Truth, The Grail Message, Abd- ru- shin states: “The body, like the soul, must be regarded as something precious and therefore untouchable, something that should not be exhibited in order to entice! Thus in this particular respect also the body on earth is inseparable from the soul. Like the soul it must be equally respected and preserved as something inviolable, if it is to have any value at all! Otherwise it will become rubbish with which one soils oneself, deserving nothing better than to be thrown into a corner and picked up cheaply by the first passing hawker.”
The sense of shame is given to us human beings as a shield for our soul during our journey through the material world. So also is it during our short stay in the physical world. It begins to make itself felt on earth at about the age of puberty. Being an endowment of our Creator, the feeling of shame has a unique place in our lives.
Generally, it helps to engender a feeling of moral shyness towards conducts unbefitting of human beings. More specifically, it offers protection against descending from our lofty spiritual height, to yield to the sexual instincts in an indulgent and unwholesome manner as animals do. Because our spiritual origin is higher than that of animals, it makes higher demands on us. When one puts aside the feeling of shame which is a shield for the soul, and surrenders to a life of impropriety, the soul is exposed to impure vibrations and harmed without the person concerned being conscious of it.
The new Creation- Knowledge which the Grail Message offers states:
“When this feeling of outward shame has been choked or eradicated, the soul’s far finer and quite different feeling of shame will always be simultaneously choked and the inner man consequently debased.”
Like weeds, these impure vibrations have a choking effect on the pure qualities or talents of the spirit, thereby preventing their unfolding, development and growth. In other words, our spiritual development depends on their growth and anything that hinders the unfolding and growth of our spiritual qualities also inhibits our spiritual development or progress, which is the singular goal of life on earth. The sense of shame awakens in us simultaneously with the sexual instinct; both are the direct effects of one significant happening in our life: the emergence of what is called the generative power. This is a special animating power, which comes with physical maturity, naturally around the time of puberty. Its emergence marks a turning point in everyone’s life. It is a point at which childhood terminates, and the
Laws of God henceforth hold a human being fully accountable for his actions.
As the name suggests, the generative power is a material empowerment our spirit receives for the expiation of unredeemed karma, trailing all human beings from the errors of our past incarnations. The importance, indeed, essence of the empowerment derived from the generative power is that it brings about the union of our spirit with the material world, where all good and evil karma exists, awaits everyone and manifests. The first noticeable effect of this union is that it engenders in a youth, a deep longing for the pure and noble, together with a restless urge for action. This often manifests in the well- known idealistic yearning of the adolescents and the edginess associated with that age, what sometimes passes as rebellious streak. They want to right wrongs. They have developed a keen sense of right and wrong. As I have mentioned some time in these pages, it is the age students take on authorities in the tertiary institutions, the universities in particular here in our clime, and a girl looks at her mother full in the face and says, “Mom that’s your time, not mine.’ It is a period driven by what is called melancholic temperament. All this is geared towards the redemption of all outstanding karma.
It cannot but be anything other than an act of depravity arising from shamelessness when a man trusted by his community or his country makes away with funds for the development of the community or his country. He is unworthy of the trust. He has sunk deeply. Depravity demonstrates that we have made non- sense of the sacrifices of the servants sent by the Most High our Creator to teach, lead and show us the way upwards through good conduct and right living in order that we may fulfil the purpose of our existence on earth and go back home in Paradise.
It is said In the Light of Truth: “The inner spiritual worth of a human being on earth may be directly measured by the greater or lesser degree of his physical shame. This is an infallible standard and easily recognised by any man!... It is an infallible sign of deep fall and certain deterioration when humanity, under the guise of progress, begin to ‘ lift’ themselves above the feeling of shame, this precious jewel which could help them in every respect. No matter whether this is done under the cover of sport, hygiene, fashion, children’s education or many another welcome pretence! Decline and fall cannot then be stayed...” It is added, “... and only horrors of the worst kind can still bring a few individuals back to their senses!”
Since evil of any kind exists only in the World of Matter, as we now know that the spirit with Matter enables the former to exert its influence effectively upon the latter, in order to break the shackles of evil karma, and secure its freedom to ascend to its homogenous spiritual home. Now, the helping hand which the feeling of shame lends in the expiation of a carried- over guilt is that, serving as a shield, it checks the dissipation of the generative power, which is usually one of the harmful consequences of indulgence. The power thus conserved can then be fully deployed to working on oneself and atonement, through pure and selfless deeds. Again since the generative power is also needed for the creation of fresh karma, good or evil, the feeling of shame which guards against bad conducts, also naturally guards against the creation of new evil karma.
When the sense of shame is utilised as willed by the Creator, so that it protects the pure qualities of the spirit, these noble qualities then rise to the top and, coalescing with the existing pure longing, increases the strength of the yearning a thousand- fold. Now leveraging on the restless urge for action, the increased longing is easily converted to actual beneficial activity. The effects of this collaborative enterprise of pure volition work backwards, severing all the dark threads of fate or karma, with the sharpness of a sword, and the strength of an avalanche.
When our sense of shame is thus active, as it should, it naturally extends its ennobling influence to all other aspects of our life, including our professional, public and social life. The visible effects of this would include a reduction in cases of fraudulent practices and barefaced stealing in public offices, of inappropriate professional conduct, and acts of impropriety connected with the performance of duty generally. There would be a refinement of conduct in the social arenas, including the marriage institution. For the self- respect, which an active sense of shame engenders, cannot but impact positively on the marriage union.
Accordingly, there would be far less cases of couple coming to blows, sometimes in the presence of children, and of bringing sensitive confidential domestic issues, like child’s paternity, for instance, to public domain. Indecent dressing would begin to receive the aversion it deserves, as well as the distasteful displacement of gender roles and clothing. In the New Creation Knowledge, The Grail Massage, afforded mankind today, it is stated “... Womanhood of today trample under foot their real power and their high mission, they blindly overlook them, wantonly destroy all sacred gifts they carry within them, instead of being an upbuilding influence they bring about disintegration... Look at the woman of today!... You will hardly recognise the high qualities of genuine womanhood, those in which there can be unfolded that pure might which is given only to the finer sensitiveness of womanhood, to be used solely as a blessing.
“A man can never develop this pervading
It cannot but be anything other than an act of depravity arising from shamelessness when a man trusted by his community or his country makes away with funds for the development of the community or his country. He is unworthy of the trust. He has sunk deeply.
nature. The silent weaving of the invisible power which the Creator allows to move through the Universe, first and completely seizes the woman with her more delicate intuitive perception. Man receives it only partially, and converts it into deeds.”
It is further stated: “You girls and you women, you must first of all remember that you are the bearers in this Creation of the highest tasks, with which God has endowed you! Neither marriage nor motherhood is your highest goal, sacred as they are! You stand alone and firmly for yourselves as soon as you stand aright!
“How ridiculous and disgusting will the present fashion craze appear, to which you have always readily and even unconditionally submitted! Every nonsensical creation thrown on the market for the sake of money- making by the fashion designers you seized like an animal to which titbits are thrown!
“You will live to recognise the disgrace contained in this, even in the reception you gave to the sometimes quite questionable aberrations from the concepts of true beauty, not to mention purity at all! Purity has always been soiled in these matters with an impudence that could not be further increased.”
The more active our physical sense of shame, the more refined our activities and personality, and the more refined our inner sense of shame.
Inwardly, therefore, the feeling of shame, which helps us to maintain purity of thoughts, also constitutes a buffer or rampart for the soul in the so- called spiritual warfare against powers and principalities. To nip evil in the bud through pure thoughts means to confront the adversary outside of the gate of one’s domain. Like a sentry, the feeling of shame then stands on a guard duty, in the defence work of the mind; for the proverbial battle of life is first fought and won, or lost, in the mind. The human mind, as the mental field of our thought, is, in truth, the actual battlefield in the war against dark influences, seeking to devour the one who lowers the guard, through impure thoughts.
The Lord Christ Who knew this truth about the human mind, as the actual battlefield in the spiritual warfare of life, also addressed the matter with the simple exhortation, corresponding with the spiritual immaturity of that time, when He is credited with the beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Matthew 5: 8 ( King James Version).
Building upon the sound Foundation of this Teaching of the Lord Christ, and upon His entire true Message, the Author of the Grail Message, explains in greater detail the spiritual nature of the human being and his thoughts creation. Thus, we learn that our thoughts create invisible forms, which gather in the beyond according to their homogenous kind. The uncanny accumulation of evil thought- forms create corresponding dark power centres now often described as powers and principalities, stoking the so- called spiritual warfare which some people claim to fight, without knowing that our individual thought, thus the self, is the real adversary. The first step to remaining victorious in all fronts of this inner battle is to persevere on the path of pure thoughts, which the Grail Message also admonishes:
“The foundation for the up- building of a new humanity, which you cannot and must not evade, rests in the one sentence: Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure! And it is with this that man must begin!”
Therefore, in the deep recesses of the human mind, the hearth of thoughts and volition lies the battlefield for which the feeling of shame can provide a buffer zone for the soul, which, unfortunately, is usually at the receiving end of our indiscretions in the battlefield. So, the feeling of shame is not an old- fashioned sentiment that the modern man could shove aside, because as a gift of the Almighty, a violation of the principle of the feeling of shame, is a violation of His Will.
So, none can toy with the gift of the Creator without harming oneself. Thus it is stated In the Light of Truth: Happy is he who can then reawaken the feeling of shame! It will be shield and support when all else crumbles!”
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THE GUARDIAN, Thursday, April 18, 2024