Doesn’t everyone want to be free of pain? If so, why do we make choices that hurt us? We avoid being close to others. We make ourselves sick through poor diet and other bad habits. We beat up on ourselves and others. Why?

This is not a rhetorical question. There is a clear answer: guilt. We suffer when we believe we are guilty and have not learned to exchange guilt for innocence.

When people believe in their own guilt, you can see it in their eyes. They feel unworthy of love, freedom, health, and abundance. Believing that they have nothing good to offer, they withdraw and attack others to break relationships and create more separation.

Those who believe they are guilty also behave in ways that cause themselves to be attacked. Most people believe that attack can teach a lesson and can correct behavior. Imagine how misguided it is to attack the guilty, when teaching the exchange of guilt for innocence is what heals.

I know that every brother and sister is inherently good. Our love, our goodness, our light is the only thing real about any of us. As the force of life, itself, we are not only equal we are one. It is only our belief in guilt that drives all the thoughts, perceptions, and behaviors that ultimately cause pain and cloud our goodness.

The truth about you, about everyone, is the truth of perfect innocence. Forgive all guilt by simply recognizing it is as unreal. It is not what we are and nothing we need to carry. Whatever errors have been made, we can effortlessly correct them in the embrace of our innocent, good selves. Whatever we’ve done, whatever we want, whatever we need, we can correct it and obtain it by applying the thought system of unconditional love, total honesty, and freedom. This is the exchange of guilt for innocence, the end of pain, the beginning of ongoing joy.