The fundamental reason they are otherworldly is because,
Quite simply,
We are all otherworldly.
Our heritage is spirit.
Having a physical experience,
We tend to confuse this,
And yet it is a major differentiating factor.
How would you live if you truly believed that you were spirit?
Having a physical experience and not the other way around.
I want to start our conversation tonight about the power of forgiveness,
Perhaps by being a bit personal and telling you how I came to understand the significance and the importance of forgiveness.
A little while ago now,
I was taking a walk and I noticed that I was in a particularly down or gloomy mood,
Even though everything around me was wonderful and I was in a great state.
There was nothing for me to be concerned about or to be worried about,
But there I was in this deep,
Dark and gloomy state.
And I found myself,
As I pass by people,
Judging them in my own mind,
Being overly critical.
And my mind is going at it,
Judging,
Criticizing people,
And I could not put an end to it.
But what was different about this particular situation was that,
As I judged,
I was at once feeling the sorrow and the pain of the other person.
As I judged,
I was also feeling the pain of it,
Which was compounding and increasing my own unhappiness.
And suddenly,
I started to understand the significance of what I was doing,
What mentally I was doing,
And what others were doing,
And how we all exist in this energetic atmosphere that we create with our own minds.
I felt terrible.
It was as if I was experiencing my own judgment,
The way the other person was experiencing it,
Or would experience it,
Or would feel it.
I felt terribly ashamed,
But I also felt a terrible remorse,
Unhappiness,
Sadness that I was doing something,
Committing certain apparently unconscious crimes,
Energy crimes.
And as I started to understand this,
Inwardly I really felt like I was in tears,
Feeling the experience of this.
And naturally,
I found myself like a mantra,
Beginning to just say,
Please forgive me,
Please forgive me.
I couldn't stop myself from judging,
Condemning people for the way they looked,
And the way they acted,
And the way they behaved,
And the way they talked,
And the way they walked,
And the way they swam,
And their costumes that they were wearing.
I mean,
There was no end to it.
Does anybody relate?
Or am I,
Have I just jumped myself into the deep end here without,
Surely I'm not the only one,
Right?
But in this case,
I was experiencing the effect of my condemnation,
The effect of my judgment on others,
And it felt terrible.
And naturally,
I found myself like a mantra,
Starting to repeat inside my heart,
In order to stop my judgment,
Please forgive me,
I'm sorry,
Please forgive me.
And at first,
This forgiveness was motivated by this feeling of sorrow,
But at some point I started to understand the significance of it,
And what was happening in my being,
In my body.
Not only was it interfering with the momentum of my judgment,
But I was beginning to bring on a lightness that I hadn't expected.
And so with that,
I started to understand the importance of forgiveness.
I'm sorry,
Please forgive me.
It wasn't just having an action necessarily on the other,
It was having an action on myself in the immediacy of the moment.
When I started to understand this great power,
That whole day,
I was immersed in this activity of forgiving myself,
Forgiving others,
And the lightness that it brought on,
I felt like I was floating.
I went from the depth of sorrow,
The depth of remorse,
To beginning to feel lightness.
Going to sleep that night,
I remember at one point I also started to realize,
Oh my God,
Not only can I forgive on my behalf,
But I can also forgive on the behalf of my brothers and sisters who I loved so much.
And so I started to forgive others on their behalf.
Forgive my brother for having done this,
For all the ill that we've done,
Etc.
,
Etc.
,
Etc.
And the deeper I went into this activity of forgiveness,
The lighter and the greater my understanding about the power of forgiveness that came from my own heart.
