I'm so glad I found this post.. I'm working on reading the rest in your series ;) Yes, a think denial is the right word. There is only one truth but yet we still find a way to live in ways that don't align with our core values. Denial, I think, is a two-fold problem. We can use it as an easy way out not to change and put the effort into changing. We can also use it to protect ourselves from feeling guilty. In our consumer-society we are creating so much suffering but we keep denying we are "bad".
And yes, we willingly give our power away. People have slowly lost their will to fight and live it seems.
denial takes many forms - but the thread that connects them is that they all FEEL denying. a white lie is a denial, but in truth all judgements also create denials - a judgement always involves error to some extent and a 'filling in the gaps' process which limits our understanding - while we think we are increasing our understanding. when we realise that most people have no concept of this and that, in fact, much of society is actually BASED on creating judgements - we can begin to realise the degree of delusion we are dealing with.
the idea of using denial to protect from guilt is doubly disturbing since guilt is itself the result of denials. guilt requires blame and neither serve any useful purpose - they deny our natural innocent self and prevent us from fully accepting ourselves and learning and moving on.
Interesting, so what you're saying is we should live in a such a way that we never feel guilty... or work towards it. If we don't feel guilty, it would mean we are living in a way that's aligned to our values.
yes, guilt is the fear that we are going to be told again that we are wrong for doing what we want to or need to do.