Guided Forgiveness Meditation

This is a beautifully profound guide through a process of forgiveness of others and ourselves, from Tara's “A Forgiving Heart” talk on 2/26/2014. This practice includes a poem from Rumi.

Transcript

So,

We'll close with a forgiveness meditation.

As you close your eyes,

As you're breathing in and just feeling a sense of the breath opening,

Like even in a cellular way,

Opening to receive that you're kind of expanding,

Feeling the life and the energy in your body.

And then with the out-breath,

Just resting and settling and just sensing the space inside and around you,

Stillness,

Resting.

So,

Inhale and open,

Inflate,

Expand,

Yield,

And exhale,

Just rest,

Sensing the space within and around you,

Letting everything float.

You can even sense it if you just take a certain part of your body,

Like your hands,

Just inhaling and feel the joints loosen and open,

The hands soften.

And exhale and just let the sensations float in awareness.

You can feel it in the heart if you inhale and just yield and open,

Just feeling the aliveness,

The vulnerability that's there on the in-breath and on the out-breath,

Just letting be,

Letting this life float in something larger.

We begin the forgiveness practice by sensing where you might have caused harm to another person.

Just taking a moment because we all have places in our life where we have injured others with our words,

Our reactivity,

Our neglect,

Our anger.

You can imagine and sense that person and the hurt that's there.

Staying right here,

Breathing and just letting yourself feel the realness of another's pain.

You might mentally whisper the person's name and just say,

I see and feel the pain I've caused you and I ask your forgiveness.

Please forgive me.

Let yourself keep feeling that breath and staying in contact with your own vulnerability,

Whether it's remorse,

Sorrow,

Again whispering the person's name.

I see and feel the pain I've caused you and I ask your forgiveness.

Please forgive me.

Turning the attention to yourself,

Sensing if you're holding against yourself for hurting this person or for anything right now.

Just scan and sense if there's something unforgiven in yourself.

Just with the intention to forgive yourself,

You might just put your hand on your heart and just offer some forgiven,

Forgiven some words.

It's okay.

I like the words forgiven,

Forgiven because they're so simple.

And even the intention to let go,

To not hold against your own being,

Not to push your own being out of your heart.

Forgiven,

Forgiven.

When we widen our attention to sense where someone has caused injury to us,

That we feel a distance from,

That we're holding resentment or blame towards,

That we'd like to explore being more forgiving with.

Again,

Not to pick someone that where there's trauma,

But where it's just a relationship where you know that you've been locked in in some way to blame,

Where you felt hurt,

Irritated,

Angered,

Some obstacle.

And take some moments to let yourself remember what this person does or has done that has caused the reaction in you,

The armoring.

What is it really that is so bothersome,

Upsetting?

What does it mean to you when a person acts like that?

What does it tell you?

There's something you're believing about how this person's relating to you.

Is it that they don't see you or they're not respecting you?

That they don't care about you?

What's the worst thing about the way that they're behaving?

What brings up the fear or the hurt?

And as you inquire,

Bring your kindness to the place in you that gets upset.

The right first step,

Bring it right to your own upset heart,

Whether it's the feeling of anger or the feeling of fear,

Shame,

Frustration.

Just in some way offer a gesture.

And again,

The hand on the heart can be sometimes the most powerful because you're directly with touch communicating,

I'm here with you,

That you're with yourself,

That you're behind yourself.

And you might,

Again,

Feel that touch and just offer care.

And if you feel like you need some help with it,

Imagine someone that you trust and love helping you to offer care as if they're just beaming it in and bathing you,

The place in you that feels upset with a forgiving,

Loving,

Kind,

Caring energy.

Sometimes when you begin to feel that your own vulnerability and upset is held with kindness,

That you can look out through clearer eyes and with a more open or soft heart at the other and see behind the mask.

Can you see with the other the hurt or the fear or the pain or the suffering that might have that person behave in ways that are upsetting to you?

As you reflect on the other person,

You can sense your intention to include that person in your heart.

Just let it be your intention.

And if you can forgive,

Sometimes the language just whispering the person's name and saying,

I see and feel the pain you've caused me and I forgive you now,

Just mentally whispering that or,

I see and feel the pain you've caused me and it's my intention to forgive you,

Is very powerful.

Offering forgiveness or your intention to forgive.

And then letting the sense of that other person kind of fade into the background.

So we'll close right now just to feel your own heart.

And if there's any judgment about how you're doing the forgiving,

See if you can very gently recognize it and let it go.

Just honor that this is a life process.

And just to feel your intention to walk this path and be very,

Very gentle as you go.

We close with a short verse from Rumi.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

There is a field.

I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

The world is too full to talk about.

Ideas,

Language,

Even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

There is a field.

I'll meet you there.

Namaste and thank you.

Reviews

Always grateful for your kind and wise voice. Thank you.

I always love your forgiveness meditations. I love how you always address how we have hurt someone else and ourselves in the same situation that we felt like someone else hurt us. So healing. And I love the intention to forgive option, for when my ego isn't ready. ❤️

This was such a kind forgiveness practice. It’s just what I needed. Thank you!

Wonderful forgiveness meditation 🧘🏽‍♂️
Love the quotes from Rumi
Thanks Tara 🙏🏽

Very powerful and intentional guided meditation in forgiveness!

Opened my heart… think I’ll take Tara’s longer course

To the degree we forgive ourselves can we forgive others

This practice helped me to forgive myself and forgive my ex . This was very healing. Thanks for sharing this guidance. I'm very grateful to have access to this to help me heal.
Namaste!
Barb

Very helpful for me at the moment need to forgive Thank you

Beautifully paced and spoken, a short but deeply moving journey towards forgiveness.

So powerful. This short meditation practice will stay with me thank you

I was in a place of such hurt and pain the last 2 days but thanks to your kindness and meditation I feel hope and a little more peace in my heart. Thank you!!
❤️❤️❤️🙏

Thank you. I needed this. I chose this meditation to help mend the darkness of a brother feud. It will never heal but I will. I now forgive those that hurt me. Again I appreciate your kindness and grace.

Recording quality a little grainy and brief, to the point and effective.

Such wonderful guidance 🙏 Thank you for your words. ✨️

Powerful! I released a lot during this practice ❤️💫🙏🏽

I was really able to reach some deep un-forgiveness that I’ve been carrying for 10 years. Thank you. My income is uncertain right now, so please accept this token with the deep love that it is intended.

Brief and deep guidance to real forgiveness. Very helpful.

Thank you for the words of affirmation & paving the way to forgive myself & the person who has wronged me.

Thank you for this. I really needed this guided meditation. Will definitely be listening to the forgiveness meditation some more in the next few days.