Welcome.
Today I'd like to explain an exercise called the 7 Steps to Peace.
This is a progressive forgiveness exercise based on the principles you find in A Course in Miracles.
All forgiveness is of yourself.
This is of course not the way the world sees it.
It sees some person who is acting quite inappropriately and you decide that you'll forgive them.
There's something missing here and that's your part you play in it.
The Course says in its supplement,
The Song of Prayer,
It's impossible to forgive another for it's only your sins you see in him.
You want to see them there and not in you.
That is why forgiveness of another is an illusion.
When someone upsets you,
What's actually happening is that they're reflecting to you something unforgiven,
Unhealed in yourself and this is the last thing you want to look at.
So you deny it's there and you project it out and you accuse the other person of this.
If it wasn't in you,
Then your reaction to the person's inappropriate behavior would actually be one of compassion and not attack.
So this is always the red flag to say,
Ah,
You've met someone in the mirror who's shown you what you need to look at,
What you need to forgive in yourself.
The Course calls this type of forgiveness where you blame another and then decide how your goodness to forgive them,
Forgiveness to destroy.
It's the world's forgiveness but it's not the Course's forgiveness.
The Course says your brother is your savior because they can show you what's unhealed in you and without them it's much more difficult to see what's lurking in the unconscious.
In lesson 108 the Course says today we will attempt to offer peace to everyone and see how quickly peace returns to us.
So this exercise will bless you as you bless the other and it's an example of the law of manifestation.
The law of manifestation or we create our own reality is something that's happening all the time.
Look around you,
This is the world you've manifested,
You've created it from your thoughts,
You've drawn it to you.
The Bible says what you sow you reap.
Another way of putting that is what you put out you get back.
A quote I like from Ananda,
A spirit guide that's channeled by Tina Spalding says thoughts that you focus on and especially those you energize with strong feelings like fear and love will manifest in your physical reality whether you want them or not.
So if you keep thinking perhaps I'll never be rich,
I've always been in poverty,
I'm sure I always will be in poverty,
I only get old cars,
I have so little money.
It's like the universe is listening to you like it's a giant copier and says oh I can arrange that I'll just keep the poverty going.
Any money they get they'll soon lose this is what they're interested in and this is what I'll give.
No morals here no right or wrong,
You're such a powerful creator though you may not know it.
What you consistently think about and energize you start to draw to you.
Sickness or health,
Wealth or poverty,
Happiness or sadness,
You create this world.
In lesson 16 the Course says everything you see is the results of your thoughts,
There is no exception to this fact.
Salvation requires that you also recognize that every thought you have is either peace or war,
Either love or fear.
A neutral result is impossible because a neutral thought is impossible.
This is our power,
This is what we create all the time by thinking consistently and energizing our thoughts.
In the manual in question 21 the Course says I am responsible for what I see.
I choose the feelings I experience and I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
Everything that seems to happen to me I ask for and received as I have asked.
So in regards to this forgiveness exercise if you can extend peace to someone you are having difficulty with then you start to draw peace into your life.
In the same way as you attack others even though you think it may be justifiable you will bring situations that attack you and create what you think about.
Here is the first step in this exercise.
See light around her or him.
This is perhaps the easiest thing to do although some will struggle with it.
While you are putting light or imagining light around someone then it blocks judgement.
Ego doesn't quite know what to do with this.
This step I found from the spiritual guide Ananda channeled by Tina Spaulding and inspired me to come up with the other steps.
Then we move on to see the light around them but also see her or him smiling.
They are showing some happiness now.
Struggle may come here because perhaps you think they should be punished for their sins.
They should be made to suffer.
Here we are trying to achieve the reverse.
We increase this.
We start to see them laughing and happy.
You are blessing them and this blessing will return to you.
Now we have a bit of a jump here because now in this exercise you need to say to the person I have no right to say you must be different.
In other words it is a sentence of acceptance.
This is what is shown in this diagram.
There is what is in this example perhaps the angry person in front of you.
What should be a person who is not angry or perhaps apologizing to you for being angry.
You want something different from what is.
What is acceptance and what should be is some desired behaviour in the future.
It is that gap between what is and what should be is where our pain is.
It is raining.
What I want is the sun.
It is raining.
So we have a gap there.
The next step is to pray for this person.
Ask for their healing and their peace.
This is what you want for yourself and therefore you need to give it to others.
This next step can be particularly hard.
As we mentioned earlier you can't be upset about someone's behaviour unless in some way you have it in yourself.
They are acting as a mirror to what is unhealed in you.
If you didn't have it in you just have compassion for their behaviour.
Your form may be quite different to their form.
Maybe it is your partner and they are jealous of you each time you look at someone of the opposite sex.
You don't mind your partner doing this at all.
But your jealousy may be in the realm of people who seem more spiritual than you.
You are jealous of their achievements.
So the form can change.
It is still the same issue.
If you got this far,
Well done.
Now you try to give them a hug.
Sense it or visualise them in front of you.
With this hug you bless him or her.
On another video,
The link is on this page,
I guide you slowly through these steps.
It is relatively easy to explain forgiveness like this but it is not easy to do.
We are addicted to our victimhood and justified anger and the other person punished for their sins.
But this doesn't change your anger.
For you to be at peace the only path is forgiveness.
If you want to inquire more into this I have books on the subject which you can get on my website.
Also some healing exercises.
So I wish you well with this exercise and I hope you tried the guided version that is available to you.
And I wish you well on your daily classroom of forgiveness.
