Forgiveness

 What a loaded word forgiveness is and the interpretation of what it means.

My infamous 1981 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary says,  forgiveness is the act of forgiving: pardon.  To forgive is to cease to feel resentment against  an offender or an insult.

What does forgiveness mean to you?  

Does forgiveness and forgetting the act or insult both need to happen? 

 Are you able to forgive other’s? 

 Are you able to forgive yourself?

Forgiveness, to me, is that bridge between fear and love.   When we function from fear and the guilt and shame that coincides with fear we must be able to forgive, not only other’s but ourselves.  Without forgiveness we can not fully love.

I don’t believe that forgiveness and forgetting have to go hand in hand in order to love.  Only true forgiveness and letting go of the offense has to take place.  It doesn’t mean you have to forget that this people harmed you in some way.  Forgiveness becomes about what you do to let the hatred, sadness, and fear go away and not what the other person does or doesn’t do. 

Forgiveness is to free yourself. 

What do you think?

How does one reach awareness?

People wonder, how do I reach a state of awareness that brings a level of inner peace into my life?

I can share with you what I have learned about finding and staying present to inner peace.  First,  the desire to reach that state of awareness must be intense.  From that intensity comes the discipline to act with constant and universal forgiveness and gentleness, without exception.  One has to be compassionate toward everything, including your own self and thoughts.  Finally surrendering the past and the future and become present to the moments of NOW. 

The presence is silent and allows for a state of peace.  With it, all fear disappears, and spiritual joy occurs on a quiet level of pure peace.  Because the experience of time stops, there’s no apprehension, regret, pain or anticipation;  the source of joy is unending and ever-present.  With no beginning or ending, there can be no loss, grief, or suffering for everything is already perfect and complete.

I was a young girl around seven or eight when I first became aware that time was not as it is perceived.  This concept was something that I could articulate but the thoughts were not received well when I shared.  A little wacky to the unaware.

To test this “no time theory” all you have to do is stop and think about a time that something or someone totally and completely brought every part of you to that present moment.  In that moment everything was perfect.

Reaching that awareness takes a constant and unrelenting focus that is in all of us to achieve.

Forgiveness

“Forgiveness means giving up all hope of a better past” – Jack Kornfield

I love this!  How often we are stuck in the rut because of a past situation, or our childhood, or some unfair thing that we have experienced.  We can’t move forward! 

Forgiveness!  Okay, so life it not always perfect and it doesn’t always turn out in our determined time frame.  But what if it is all perfect in it’s creation and we are exactly where we should be and have experienced everything just the way it is supposed to be?

When we stop holding on to the past and the “unfairness” then we can beautifully live in the present moment of NOW and truly live life. 

Forgiveness is a step into love.  The love of yourself! 

Happy loving, forgiving and being! 

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