Forgiveness: Seeing Everything As a Symbol

Lately, it is easier for me to think of everything I experience as just a symbol of a projected thought in my mind (my movie); so it is I who gives 'my life' all its meaning by my thoughts; nothing external.

I like to think of every experience as just another scene from my movie in which I can observe my ego (my belief that I am separate) and watch how I choose what I see in my movie and why and when; the purpose is always to see myself as individual and separate; apart from others...but sometimes I can remember to just observe the scene and watch my ego's judgements; and when I do, my experience is that I don't take anything I'm seeing in my movie as seriously.  Most of the time, however, I forget and remain asleep; unaware that I'm making this all up.  But when I get those brief respites of peace then I realize and can admit to myself that I, in fact, do believe I have an ego with all those awful, loveless, fearful thoughts; but with this admission is the key to peace.

So, simply by admitting that I have an ego (really the belief in one), then I am able to watch how it operates until such time that I won't need it any more, as it has served its purpose -- to keep me separate and fearful -- because I will no longer have a use for fear -- and can be my true Self.

Forgiveness Knows No Exclusion

How can I tell when I have forgiven?

I have truly forgiven when I exclude no one from the gift of love I accepted for myself; so I must accept forgiveness for myself first.  On a practical basis, I accept forgiveness for myself by bringing all my thoughts of exclusion, hate, annoyance, attack, separation, specialness, and seeing guilt in others to that thought of perfect peace and love that I have obscured in my mind

Forgiveness: Letting go of Judging our Judgments

Forgiveness can be simply defined as:


Looking at the ego without judgment


But what does that really entail at a practical level?  It simply means that we begin the process of letting go of our ego (special self identity) by not judging ourselves when we have thoughts of condemnation.  As long as we continue to condemn ourselves for judgmental thoughts of others (which are really condemning thoughts of who we think we are -- the tiny special ego self that separated from God) then forgiveness is not possible.


Parting thought:  Today I can forgive by simply choosing to look at my judgments without judgment (guilt or condemnation)

Forgiveness: A Gentle Process

Forgiveness can only be achieved in the mind -- not between people as all relationships are in the mind, not between bodies; and I learn to FORGIVE -- to see the innocence in you -- by withdrawing the guilt I projected on you -- I withdraw the guilt from myself

So then, practicing forgiveness becomes a gentle melting away of guilt from the mind, a journey leading you to a point where you see EVERYTHING as either a call for love or as an extension of love (no matter what the other person has done in terms of behavior) -- so, over time, my only response becomes extending love to all, where no one is excluded from that love that radiates from my mind

To Forgive But Not Forget Is Not Forgiveness

How many times in my day do I forgive someone else or myself, but I do not forget?

It is that NOT FORGETTING that makes forgiveness an exercise in futility.

Forgiveness is a relinquishment of any perceived attack to myself or others.  Forgiveness and not forgetting are mutually exclusive, so I cannot forgive until I see that it is my unwillingness to forget that keeps me in the illusion of attack revenge cycle -- i perceive attack from you or against someone I love or hold dear and I then I get my true 'revenge' from your attack by not forgetting.  In my wrong mind, I get the best of both worlds -- i get to 'forgive' but I get to hold onto the attack as well...ah, self-righteousness -- it is the goal of perceived separation.

Happily, this internal bargaining I make is all an illusion -- attack is only a wrong minded idea.

It is only when I can begin to see your 'attack' as your fear and nothing else (and fear is not real) then true forgiveness is possible -- I realize I am outside the illusion looking in and I gently smile -- I know I have forgiven myself; for I am the only one I can forgive -- and in that moment, I am awake.

How Do I Practice Forgiveness?

I look at you and see myself and remember to gently laugh at it ALL

Forgiveness Required As Long As I Perceive Needs

When I can step back and look at the "life" that I seem to be experiencing; only then can I see that my need for forgiveness is only "required" because I perceive that I have needs other than being that perfect expression of peace and love -- in two words -- GOD IS

Any other my 'perceived needs' which include my need for self love, or the need for love and companionship from others, moreover, needing anything or anyone in the world to "be" a certain way; or stated another way -- that anything needs to change in the world before I can have peace of mind, requires only forgiveness to undo that thought

Parting thought:  At any time, I can step back and  change my mind's purpose -- forgive -- outside of the dream, to see things as they really are; not how I want to see them; only then will I experience real peace

Forgiveness: Changing the Goal/Purpose

Been thinking about my peace of mind and particularly my lack of it and its causes.

Could one of the possible "causes" of my lack of peace be my unconscious pre-decision that I really do not want peace?  That I would not know how to navigate in my world without the constant undercurrent of fear, pain, victimization, discomfort, discontent, and disappointment?

Perhaps one option could be to 'wipe the slate clean' or 'lay aside' my unconscious goals.

One way I could practice consciously is when I notice that I am experiencing the effects of 'my unconscious goal' to remember that I have another choice and to recognize that I am just too afraid in this moment to let it go; nothing more.


Just by acknowledging what I am REALLY doing may be enough to take away any 'guilt' from my thought and what will be left will be peace.


Parting thought: just admitting to myself that I am just too afraid to give up my investment in specialness may be all I need to open up the door to lasting peace

 

Forgiveness Leads Us Back to Who We Are

So, we begin our "life" with the mistaken belief that we are separate, on our own, incomplete -- but that is just a belief; a mistaken belief -- it is not true, only our belief in it seems to be true

In reality, we are perfect oneness, perfect love, but at the time of our "birth" we mistakenly "forget" our true identity.

So we then spend our entire lives trying to reclaim that oneness which we actually never lost -- that was impossible -- but the mistaken belief that we could be separate seems possible -- and so we replay that original thought of separateness each and every moment of every day -- even in our dreams -- until we each come to the conclusion that a belief in a separate self does not bring us peace or happiness -- there must be another way to look at life.

Parting thought:  I can use every single thing that happens in my life to gently remember and "reclaim" that thought of perfect love and peace that I never really lost; I only thought I did; here's to remembering who I truly am

Forgiveness: I should or ought to...

When I feel like 'I should' or 'ought to' do anything -- that includes Forgiveness -- then I have unwittingly brought my false self (ego) to replace my true Self (my identity as love) -- because love does not or cannot demand anything...


Love sits quietly and waits and does not judge (so it would never need to do anything; so there is nothing it should or would or could do -- in fact it cannot do anything)


So, just by making the observation that I'm feeling that 'tinge' of guilt (the shoulda/coulda/woulda/oughta), I can recognize that as a red flag as the ego's offering of guilt to my decision making mind -- if I decide to choose for guilt


But forgiveness gives me an alternative -- there is another choice which appears to be its opposite (if that were possible) -- to be in the moment and extend love


Parting thought: I can make the choice to experience love in this moment whenever I feel the need that i really should/ought to do anything -- peace will be the reward

Forgiveness: Who Has the Key?

If all I need to do is forgive, how do I really accomplish that in my daily life?  It would be so nice if I could just find the key to forgiveness, it seems I've been searching and searching for the longest time for that key; I think I may have found an answer that makes total sense to me:

My brother holds the key to my forgiveness

What?  You mean I can only forgive if I first look to my brother?  I can't believe I did not make that connection earlier, I mean I've heard about projecting my guilt onto my brother and that in order to see myself as 'sinless' I need to first see it in my brother, but this passage made it clear to me that my brother really holds the key; without his key I cannot forgive:

The key you threw away God gave your brother, whose holy hands would offer it to you when you were ready to accept His plan for your salvation in the place of yours.  How could this readiness be reached save through the sight of all your misery, and the awareness that your plan has failed, and will forever fail to bring you peace and joy of any kind?  Through this despair you travel now, yet it is but illusion of despair. The death of specialness is not your death, but your awaking into life eternal. You but emerge from an illusion of what you are to the acceptance of yourself as God created you. (T-24, II. 14)

How happy I am to finally found the key, for everytime I see my brother as sinful (separate; which is most of the time), I just need to look again and see that he has the key, I can imagine it as a key on a chain around his neck, waiting there for me to gently take it back -- to see him and myself as sinless -- one

parting thought:  have fun taking the key back

Reflect Perfect Peace

As I was reading last night, I was thinking that we are all 'reflectors'; that each one of us serves as a reflector to others and we can either reflect love (forgiveness and healing) or fear

Parting thought:  I can look at everything I see as a reflection of what is going on in my mind -- and when I choose fear (which will be most of the time), I can then pause and remember there is always another choice -- perfect peace -- love -- that is always there waiting patiently for me to choose

 

Forget to Forgive -- then Forgive Yourself For It

One of the best ways to practice forgiveness is to first forget to forgive and then forgive yourself for it

So whenever something happens and I have an attack thought and I forget to forgive (which is really on purpose but that's another blog); that is good news because then there is another opportunity for me to forgive myself for not forgiving...

And over time, as I forgive myself for not forgiving, forgiveness will come more naturally as it is not really the object of my attack that needs forgiveness, but myself for thinking that I could attack in the first place (i.e., taking the thought of attack (separation) seriously).

parting thought: here's to practicing the "F" word :-D

Failure to Remember to Forgive

On the way to work today, again, a bicyclist was impeding in 'my' lane (as if i own the roadway); being in auto-ego mode first thing in the morning, i quickly dumped all my hate onto the bicyclist..but there is a miracle here..'wait for it'..

but instead of being overwhelmed over the 'guilt' for once again spewing my self-hate onto someone else (so that I can feel guiltless (at least for a couple seconds)),

[Now, here is the lesson:]

i quickly asked for different way to look at it (because i really do know inside that the bicyclist was not the cause of my guilt).

the lesson is that I did not let the guilt of my first attack prevent me from asking for help, so I was able to receive the correction (the miracle).

Parting thought: today, as I begin to feel guilty for anything that arises in my mind, instead of feeling like a bad student, my right mind can remind my decision maker that this is just another opportunity to ask for help if I so choose...that's all..just another opportunity for correction, nothing else, nothing more...freedom from pangs of guilt at last...

One Mind One Dream

So begins our forgiveness blog; our discussion (so please post your thoughts too) of our only function; 

Forgiveness

So, if forgiveness is our only function, then it would seem that I should be able to easily define it, but so far that is not the case.  But as I read about it and try and practice it I see many references to forgiveness that make sense to me:

Here are some lines from workbook lesson 62 that describe forgiveness as our means of remembering that we are one Self:

Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory. Therefore, in your forgiveness lies your salvation.

Illusions about yourself and the world are one. That is why all forgiveness is a gift to yourself. Your goal is to find out who you are, having denied your Identity by attacking creation and its Creator. Now you are learning how to remember the truth. For this attack must be replaced by forgiveness, so that thoughts of life may replace thoughts of death.

Parting thought:  As we go about our day, at any time we can ask for help to fulfill our only function as we remember and are willing and able, we will be at peace