Forgiveness is nobody else’s business only your own. To forgive is to give for-give; and yet in this giving you receive. The very second you forgive, totally, 100%, a weight lifts from your shoulders and you can start anew. It only takes a second; you can be in the same minute, let go and suddenly everything changes. A release of a thought based burden that only you carry; only you keep alive and only you can drop. What are you dropping? A story of the past that has already left you.
Forgiveness requires a line to be drawn.
You draw a line and say, ok, from now on I am only ever going forward not backward. In other words you accept and recognise there is only one true direction. The reality of now and the reality to come as opposed to a thought based non-reality called “past” that lives on only in memory.
You draw the line and it may require daily remembering, yet every single time it is a choice – 100% choice for 100% forgiveness. The past is only resurrected via thoughts. You are the only one who holds non-forgiveness in place via your choice of thoughts. You are the only one who can choose to move forward, even if it means moving ahead one day at a time.
Forgiveness need not wait as it is the sole responsibility of the one forgiving. Forgiveness rises above time. Forgiveness also rises above the need of an apology. True forgiveness rises above ego.
Today is the start of the rest of your life. Reality is new every moment – only the mind wants to link events in time. Detachment is freedom – whatever you give up, let go of, frees you; including your past, your stories, your thoughts and your imagined “need” of not allowing forgiveness. Attacking the outside simply enforces beliefs on the inside. The work is within and without; it is your sole responsibility and contrary to your thinking an effortless momentary task available to you as an instantaneous option; right now.
Tormented thoughts are like your own ghost haunting yourself. Beliefs are often barriers to new thinking. Without barriers, the mind is free. The barriers of course are thoughts unquestioned. Repetitive thoughts that deep down you know you are choosing and know that you can change. Belief is choice. Because belief is choice, what you choose to believe does not have to be true for you to believe it. That includes the belief that you cannot forgive. Unquestioned beliefs and unquestioned thoughts potentially masquerade as truth or reality. Can you drop a belief? Can you drop a thought? In the same way that you let go of a dream when you wake up.
Non-forgiveness is essentially an attachment. What is an attachment? Non-reality. Non-forgiveness is non-reality. Forgiveness is reality. Recognition of truth; the truth that the past has gone. You draw the line by recognising that the line has already been drawn. The line was already drawn seconds after the past left you and you left it.
When does the past leave you? Now, this very instant, in the time it takes to draw the line. In the time it takes to draw a line.
Non-forgiveness is essentially expecting the world to comply with your expectations and wishes which it cannot do, any more than the weather can always be how you want it to be. Forgive yourself for your past errors and forgive others because this is not a perfect world all of the time; much like the weather.
Jealousy is similar to non-forgiveness. Jealousy is imagination. Fear of inadequacy or loss. All ego. All non-reality. All illusion. Non-forgiveness is imagining you cannot forgive. When you say you cannot forgive, you mean you “choose” not to, not that you can’t. So in choosing not to forgive, you are choosing not to give release, closure, relief, joy, happiness to yourself; you deny yourself and think it is someone else’s fault. The result? Justification, reasons, excuses, bitterness, resentment, blame, unhappiness for yourself and others.
In the words of Gandhi “An eye for an eye makes the whole World blind”. Here is another quote on forgiveness:
“Forgiveness is letting go of all hope for a better past” – A Course in Miracles
Draw the line. Give the gift of forgiveness – the gift is for you.
See also:
Present Moment Awareness Mind Map
Further reading:
The Power of Letting Go by Patricia Carrington
Loving What is by Byron Katie
A Thousand Names for Joy by Byron Katie
Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
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