Hello dear friends,
Today's little practice is about forgiveness as a way of releasing yourself from the past.
Forgiveness is a powerful tool.
The meditation teacher Adyashanti tells us that forgiveness is about letting go,
Letting go of hatred,
Rage,
Resentment,
Which are all hindrances on the path to insight.
Forgiveness releases you from the clutches of the past.
When you forgive someone else,
You release yourself from them.
When you forgive yourself,
You release yourself from the past.
You allow yourself to evolve,
To grow.
It takes humility.
We've all done things we need to forgive ourselves for.
And we've all had things done to us that we would be well served to forgive so that we can stop defining ourselves by the past.
It's a matter of the heart.
It takes courage and truth telling and a sense of responsibility.
Forgiveness does not mean forgetfulness.
It does not mean denying a painful experience.
Nothing is being denied.
Forgiveness is not bypassing something or sweeping it under the rug.
When we hold on to rage and resentment,
It keeps the painful event alive in us.
In other words,
We're doing painful things to ourselves when we're not letting go.
Letting go can sound easy,
But if you feel hurt or wronged,
If you have hurt or wronged another,
It's not that simple.
We must bring the heart into it.
It's not an intellectual exercise.
It's a heartful practice.
Part of forgiveness is seeing that when we're harmed or when we harm others,
It's done from a state of ignorance,
Of unconsciousness.
To the extent we're unconscious,
We can do harm even without intending it.
Sometimes we may intend to harm.
That can happen.
But even that intention comes out of a state of unconsciousness.
No matter the source of the harm,
Forgiveness means you're ready to not let it define you anymore.
You're ready to let go of being defined by pain because there's much more to you than that.
And if you have an area in your life where you feel forgiveness is called for,
First remind yourself that harmful acts come out of unconsciousness.
Nobody wakes up on an otherwise good day in a unified and wonderful state of being and chooses to go out and do something terrible.
That's not how it happens.
It usually happens out of pain and conflict and unconsciousness.
We've all done it to one degree or another.
We've all acted from pain and conflict and unconsciousness.
That's part of being human.
Yet to allow ourselves to evolve beyond it into something greater,
We must forgive.
We must decide that we're no longer willing to be defined by the past.
Not by forgetting it,
Not by justifying it,
But by deciding we're not going to live there anymore.
The choice is ours.
You have the capacity to forgive.
So the invitation here is to search within yourself for a situation or an encounter that calls for forgiveness.
If this is hard for you,
Start with something light.
You don't need to go for the most difficult thing right away.
Choose an encounter or situation and notice that it takes some courage to forgive.
It takes honesty to forgive.
It takes understanding to forgive.
Do it to release yourself and to release others in an act of love.
Remind yourself that you don't want to live the rest of your life in resentment or anger because you know there's much more to you than that.
You rest your awareness in your heart and with this situation in mind that calls for forgiveness,
Say to yourself,
Okay,
I am willing to let it go.
I'm willing to forgive.
I'm willing to bless the confusion,
Bless the pain and move on.
And if it takes a few tries,
You give it a few tries.
By doing this process,
You're opening pathways within your heart.
You're moving on so that something bigger can move through you,
Something more real,
More enlivening,
More beautiful,
More truthful,
More courageous.
That's what forgiveness offers.
Ask yourself,
What would it mean for me to forgive?
What simple gesture would I have to make to let go?
To be who I really am?
And once you have let go of small things that need forgiveness,
Move on as you strengthen your muscle to larger things,
Freeing up your own life energy.
The courage this takes is worth it.
You are worth it.
Be well,
My friend.
