Many people will not believe it when told how severely they hurt themselves by lack of self-understanding. They still wrongly think that harm originates from outside, rather than from its actual origin within.
Take negative reactions. Who is painfully negative when rain ruins the picnic- the rain or the reaction? Who gets hurt when someone breaks his promise to us- the broken promise or the person taking it with resentment? It is as simple as this: We cannot cling to our negative emotions without paying the price. Can we be at peace at the same time that we feel frustrated? No.
Suppose a man worked with this enlightenment fact until he saw it clearly. He would at once drop his preference for negativity. He would see how it robs him of the very happiness he wants. “I know the harm in anger, but can’t seem to do anything about it.” You can understand it. Anger flares up whenever something disturbs a outer picture we have of ourselves. The man, who sees himself as being important, will resent anything suggesting the opposite. If you don’t try to be important, you cannot be disturbed.
The awakened person no longer commits crimes against himself, such as mentally illness and a sense of shame. Shame is a crime against the self? Certainly. The born again person sees too clearly into his psychic-self to fall victim to that folly. Not that he denies any harmful acts he may have committed against himself or against others, but he now sees why he acted like that – he was under the spell of his false self whose nature is harmful.