Chapter 4 The Power of Forgiveness We should do our best to not blame other people for what we're feeling.
We should try to be grateful for their presence in our lives.
The people who make us the most uncomfortable are often the best teachers we'll ever have.
We should always wish them well.
This is an excellent way of remaining empowered and unaffected by their words and actions.
We can overcome the unpleasantness of their behaviors by extending our heart to them,
No matter what they may have done to us.
This pushes out hate and helps open the possibility of inner and outer peace.
When we're feeling angry at someone or sad at how they may have hurt us,
We might try summoning the courage to wish them happiness and peace.
We're all capable of giving love,
And this is an excellent way of practicing this.
And when we can invite others to receive peace and goodness,
It allows us to be more open to it as well.
As we do this,
We'll begin to see our resentment and frustration fade away and start to understand the power of forgiveness.
This is the path of the heart.
This is the path back to yourself and the power that you thought you'd lost so long ago.
This is the way back to the person that you thought you could never be,
That you always wanted to be,
That you forgot you were.
Never be afraid to extend peaceful thoughts to those who you think have wronged you,
For these people are not unlike you.
Who among us hasn't done something that's hurt another?
Like all of us,
These people are often acting in ways in which they're unaware,
Blinded to the reality of fairness,
Equality,
And truth.
They too are moving toward greater self-realization and acceptance.
At heart,
We're all the same.
We're all still like children at times,
Acting in ways that reflect some early fear or unmet need.
Try to recognize this child within yourself and imagine the effects of these hidden fears on your own actions and have compassion for the ways in which you've acted out of fear,
Sadness or anger as a result.
Consider a painful childhood experience and imagine it as a pebble dropped in a big pond of emotion.
See the rings of waves spreading out from the point of contact of the stone.
Unlike an actual pond,
However,
Which quickly returns to stillness,
We continue to feel these emotional ripples,
Echoing through us until we're able to see them and calm them with our silent observation.
We should try to be patient with ourselves and all others and have compassion for the pain suffered so long ago that's creating these waves of emotion that are affecting us today.
We can learn to let these ripples within us subside again and again until they're lost in the firm banks of our own self-acceptance.
Then the pond that we are will be still.
We have to find the courage to be present with ourselves when we're feeling lost and alone,
When our inner pond is astir,
And to also remember that we have the universe guiding us in every moment.
We can learn to hold our own hand through the days of darkness and know that although we cannot always see the sun,
It is shining.
Every treasure has a path leading to it,
And if we continue walking this path back into ourselves,
We'll find greater inner peace,
Happiness,
And connection with ourselves and others.
We all have a choice to live alone or in community with the world.
To choose the latter,
We have to practice forgiving others for their actions and do what we can to help them and ourselves.
In addition to offering our peaceful thoughts,
We can look for ways to be in creative action so that we can improve someone else's experience in this moment,
And as a result,
Our own.
Doing this provides us with an opportunity to realize how much selfishness and aggression destroy our world and how much power we have to stop it.
By simply sharing our generous thoughts and empowered caring actions with others and ourselves,
The world will be reborn.
