What is the difference between guilt and conviction?  So often we’re faced with things we feel like we should do.  Calling pitiful friends, apologizing for being the one who was wrong.  In our lives the holy spirit makes us feel convicted about decisions we make.  On the other side of the metaphorical coin…there’s guilt…not feeling like we should do something…but feeling like we have to do something.

The only way to tell the difference is our motives.  This is something I learned from a Tibetan monk I spoke with (via translator) this week.  I asked him what he thought of famous people being Buddhist.  He told me, it’s not about the confession of the mouth or the life…but the motives of the soul.  This is true for everything.  Are you doing something because you should?  Conviction.  Are you doing something because you have to?  Guilt.  You cannot judge your actions by the actions themselves, but by your motives.

A Sand Mandala

This entry was posted on Monday, March 13th, 2006 at 10:27 pm and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.