Forgiveness & Letting Go of a Linear Agenda
In the essence of all of the great spiritual traditions of the world, it is suggested that we live from the heart – the spiritual teacher Jesus, the Buddha, the Wisdom of Solomon and many more all shared that knowing with us. It is also a common theme of the spiritual movement at the moment that we need to move into the place where we think with our hearts. Personally, I’d say it is the evolutionary imperative for humanity over the coming years and decades.
A large part of that living from our hearts emanates from the necessity to live with forgiveness in our hearts. With forgiveness of course come acceptance, compassion, unconditional love and so many other qualities that our sometimes unforgiving world sadly lacks.
So what is forgiveness? There are many possible descriptions; it could be described as a letting go of past suffering and a release of the burdens of pains; perhaps as a conscious willingness to release the past and empower our own hearts. Or you could simply call it freedom from the past so that we can truly live in the present moment.
Forgiveness is first and foremost for ourselves, and for our own heart and mind and bodies. And to forgive is also healthy for the cells of our body – it helps us to let go of dis-ease.
When we work with forgiveness in regression sessions (as we often do), then we often assist with the flow of forgiveness as a positive, healing energy that flows right down into the very cells of the body and into the quanta of the energy bodies surrounding us. Sometimes, simply helping to facilitate that process can be quite extra-ordinary and the benefits for the clients are also very special to.
To not forgive is to be tied to the suffering that happened a long time ago and to continue to carry that suffering in our minds and in the cellular memories of our bodies. Jack Kornfield, a Buddhist Spiritual Teacher tells a story of two former prisoners of war who meet many years later. One says to the other “Have you forgiven our captors yet?” The second prisoner says “NO, never!” The first calmly replies “ok, well in that case, they still have you in prison, don’t they!!”
The essence of forgiveness is really in our own hearts. It doesn’t mean that we have to try and fix others and/or suggest that amends be made or not. And to forgive makes us strong. Gandhi called it “a bravery”. The Bhagavad Gita says if you want to see the heroic, then look to those can return love for hatred. If you want to see the brave, then look to those who can forgive. Martin Luther King called forgiveness a Soul Force that we can use to face up to physical force with.
Forgiveness does not mean that we approve or justify what has been done. Often it results in learning, in stronger boundaries and the words “never again” may often accompany the forgiveness to prevent any further “harm” from occurring.
And what we always, always need to remember is to forgive the most important person. And that of course is our lovely selves. To embrace forgiveness fully we need to accept everything as it is; we accept that nothing was ever done to us and in fact behind every thing that ever happened and will happen there is a Soul learning. The explanation for “why did something happen?” relates to the fact that need something to be rationalised and that is essentially an outdated programme running in the collective human psyche. It is a “head-based” programme; the heart knows exactly why something happened or why someone came into our lives and it will reveal that knowledge at the right time…if it ever needs to….
In doing that, we let go of our need for human justice (or a cause and effect type agenda) to be present in our lives. Essentially this is another level of trust and trusting the process is always perfect and that is something we can choose (or not) to plug ourselves into. You could even say that it relates to the old type of “eye for an eye” type form of justice that has been so present in our world for too long. By letting go of that, we allow the bigger picture to be part of our inner and external world and accept and trust that every experience is one of empowerment for us and our hearts and our Souls. That is essentially the journey of the heart that we all need to make individually and collectively…as Gandhi said “an eye for an eye makes the whole blind”. We can see some many examples of that in our history books and in our newspapers and in our streets. It is, however, time to move on.
When we do, then within that bigger picture and at that new level of trust, our idea of forgiveness takes on a new dimension….because at that level of reality there is nothing to forgive since no-one has ever harmed you. Ouch!!
Caroline Myss, says that the Spiritual teacher Jesus demonstrated this test to us in a very interesting, symbolic way…
In your life…
You will yourself find in some form of experience of betrayal – a Judas experience… a person or perception or belief system will betray you
In this betrayal you will feel completely victimised – the purpose of this is not to be victimised but to come to terms with how much you believe you need human order…and how little faith you have in the Divine Order…that’s why you need this experience
As you come to terms with that, your Gethsemane experience occurs – where you feel completely abandoned – I’m not sure I have the faith go through this
Then comes your crucifixion experience – not literally but symbolically – your perception system gets crucified – your false Gods – your victimhood – the idea or rather the fear that events should follow a human perception of logic
And when you are hanging on your cross – saying if I only knew why this happened to me, then I could let it go…. But of course that’s the very thing you can never know…you let it go because you have faith there is a reason…not because you know what it is…or are show what it is…
And when you do let it go…then the light goes on and you realise there is nothing to forgive…and then you resurrect and ascend to a higher order of consciousness – that is what the fourth chakra is all about – the heart chakra
Interesting, huh?
