A forgiveness meditation.
Sit in your sacred space,
Now closing down your eyes,
Consciously relax all the muscles in your body.
Focus on the gentle rise and fall of your breath and sink inwards towards your heart,
Taking a couple of deep cleansing breaths,
Breathing in through your nose and letting it out with an audible sigh,
Letting yourself sink deeper into whatever it is that you're sitting on and taking another deep breath in through your nose and letting it out with a sigh and letting go further of everything else except for being right here now fully present in this moment.
Let your breathing find its natural rhythm and now breathe into your heart.
Breathe in and out of your heart space.
Sense,
Feel or imagine a tiny flame of light right at the center of your chest.
See this flame as the flame of loving,
Kindness and forgiveness and as you continue to simply breathe in and out,
Feel this flame as a feeling of joy,
Kindness,
Forgiveness,
Filling your entire body.
Feel it as it spreads down through your legs all the way to the soles of your feet and simultaneously up through your arms,
Your chest,
Your shoulders,
Your neck,
Your head,
Your face to the very crown of your head.
Feel love,
Kindness,
Forgiveness,
Filling every cell in your body and now with each breath in and out,
Let your breath empower this flame of loving,
Kindness and forgiveness and as you do so,
See the flame grow larger,
Brighter,
More intense,
And as you see this flame expand,
Feel your heart softening,
Expanding and opening.
Now reflect upon yourself,
Your basic desire to love and be loved.
See yourself as a small child,
Your basic wish and right to be happy and at peace.
You may see yourself hugging this small child and say slowly to yourself,
Silently or out loud,
I am sorry,
Please forgive me,
Thank you,
I love you and now see yourself pouring all this loving,
Kindness and forgiveness into yourself as a child and just take a few moments as you sit with this feeling allowing it to overflow to yourself.
Now call to mind someone you care deeply about and in the same way reflect on their basic desire to love and be loved and reflect on your desire for them to love and be loved.
Visualise their face now in front of you and perhaps take their face in your hands and look into their eyes and then extend from your heart and say silently or out loud,
I am sorry,
Please forgive me,
Thank you,
I love you and pour all of your love and your desire for them to be happy and at peace into them and just take a few moments as your heart expands further and shares all of those feelings with them.
Now bring to mind someone whom you have no strong feelings about,
Someone whom you know,
Whom you have regular contact with.
It may be the person who makes your coffee,
Someone you see at the bus stop,
Someone you pass on your daily walk.
Just let their image come to you and as it does so,
Once again imagine reaching out with your hands and holding their face in your hands and once again feeling your heart expand and open towards them and say to them silently or out loud,
I am sorry,
Please forgive me,
Thank you,
I love you and with your open heart allow these blessings to pour over them,
Wishing for them that their desire for peace and happiness is met and just take a few moments as you extend this loving kindness and forgiveness to them.
And now bring to mind someone with whom you have had difficulties,
Someone whom challenges you,
Who you feel has hurt you or threatened you,
Maybe someone with whom you are angry or upset or maybe irritated or simply frustrated with and as they come to mind,
Gently remind yourself that those feelings do not bring you peace.
Allow those feelings to bubble up to the surface in this moment and simply see them without judgment,
Noting how they make you feel.
Do you feel them physically in your body?
What is the main emotion that comes to mind?
And as you do so,
Gently remind yourself that these feelings are holding you back from inner peace and happiness.
And so for your own peace,
Your own wholeness,
Be willing now to send the same loving kindness and forgiveness towards them that you have offered your loved ones.
You do not have to believe that they deserve it.
As you see their face before you now,
Look into their eyes,
Look through your judgments of them,
Be willing to see their light beyond your experience and to see their light of them.
Be willing to see their light beyond your experience of them.
It may help to see them as a small child,
See their basic goodness,
Their basic desire for love and to love.
And now say to them silently or out loud,
I am sorry,
Please forgive me,
Thank you,
I love you.
And take a few moments now as you pour this loving kindness and forgiveness from your heart to theirs,
Seeing beyond their action to their soul,
To their heart,
To their basic goodness.
And just take a few minutes to allow your heart to expand further as you send this loving kindness and forgiveness to them.
And now let your heart expand even further.
Let those feelings of loving kindness and forgiveness ripple out from your heart to all beings everywhere.
Allow this ripple to extend first to the people who are close to you,
In your home,
In your street,
In your town.
And now let this ripple travel further and further,
Covering the entire region that you're living in,
And expanding even further still to cover the whole state.
And now it travels even further,
Rippling out further and further to cover the whole country,
The whole country,
Receiving this loving kindness and forgiveness.
And now you'll see that it ripples even further to encompass the entire planet,
The whole of the earth,
The whole globe,
Wrapped in this ripple of loving kindness and forgiveness.
And see this as it travels from your heart to the heart of all beings in the world,
And in doing so,
Wishing them that basic right of happiness,
Of peace,
Of love.
And now say silently or out loud to all beings everywhere,
I am sorry,
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you.
And now just take a few moments to really feel that ripple of loving kindness as it's spreading to every being in the world.
Taking a moment to connect with all living beings,
Knowing that we are all one,
That there is no separation.
And now gently bringing your attention back to the very center of your chest,
Where this beautiful flame of loving kindness and forgiveness is still burning brightly.
And take a few deep breaths into that heart space,
Breathing in through your nose,
And letting it out with a sigh.
Breathing in through your nose,
And letting it out with a sigh.
And know that you carry this flame of loving kindness and forgiveness within you.
And you can choose to send that out into the world at any time,
To yourself,
To those you love,
To those you come into contact with,
To those that harm you or hurt you.
And to all beings in the world.
Now gently bringing some attention back to your body,
Maybe moving your toes,
Wriggling your toes and fingers,
And coming back fully here,
Now.
When you feel ready,
Open your eyes.
And as you do so,
Bring a smile to your lips,
And gently bow your head to the wisdom of your heart,
And give thanks.
For this practice that you have experienced and shared with all living beings.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
