This morning I'd like to talk a little bit about alleviating feelings of or states of shame, guilt, and on the other hand, resentment.

And what these have in common What these

have in common of course is that

These states of mind keep us feeling disconnected, isolated, separated from others. It undermines our conviction

that we can emotionally,

vulnerability connect with the people around us.

It keeps us stuck in states of victim relationships with the world.

And of course, finally, well they're thematically linked as well because the processes of alleviating both shame and resentment are inextricly linked in Buddhist practice. In fact the same meditation that's

used to alleviate one can also alleviate the other. So starting out with feelings of shame and guilt,

these shame and guilt. These socializing emotions and perspectives are deeply embedded in cultures.

And if you look back at our ancestors, we can even see the survival role that shame and guilt would have played in that there was of course a time when we were competing

intensely for scarce resources and those that worked well together would have survived, would have bonded into small

collectives which would have ensured their survival.

And so over the course of the 200,000 years of the human experiment

there would have been a development of socializing emotions geared to

punish us when we acted in ways that harmed the people around us, that harmed the collective or the tribes that we belong to.

Pride would have developed as a reward for socially positive actions.

And of course given how important connection and the social mind is, these emotions are extremely strong.

There's a book called Social by a neuropsychologist named Matthew Lieberman, and he shows in his research that the same parts of the brain that create feelings of physical pain are allocated for feelings of

shame and guilt. They literally use the right

singular and other areas of the strietum and Insula to create feelings of emotional distress.

It's that important that we feel connected.

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