'Forgiveness' Articles
The need for forgiveness is universal. Forgiveness is not someone else’s sanction. You do not need anyone’s permission to exist. Forgiveness is just tolerance for error. It has nothing to do with altering someone else’s state of mind, that’s well outside of anyone’s realm of influence. When someone comes to you seeking forgiveness, they are actually just seeking consolation, affirmation that you and they are at peace. They cannot ask you for what they will not give themselves.
Forgiving is not forgetting. Forgiving is seeing any event as it is, just an event, one of many possible events that can happen at any given time, and realizing that as anything arises it can just as certainly fall away. The only thing that persists is your own attitude.
“When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.” Catherine Ponder
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” Lewis B. Smedes
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Mahatma Gandhi (Indian Philosopher, internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest, 1869-1948)
Purpose of Forgiveness
What is the purpose of forgiveness, friends? To let something go, not to continue to live it. I have an awkward history with forgiveness. I was not forgiven for not forgiving. It is releasing the hold that person’s words or actions had on you. I think letting go is a good meaning for me. And a way to a peaceful new beginning, and I think when you forgive someone, you give them permission to forgive themselves and vice versa. Is there a standard from which one’s behaviour should not deviate? Is anyone without error in their behaviour? When we have… Seek More
See What Is Right
Identifying something as wrong… Has that ever done anything useful for you, friends? Served a constructive purpose? Is that like me saying I wish I had done this or that? Yes. Does that make you function better? Einstein had an insight that applies to this, and it has been said in many ways by many brilliant people, but so far it hasn’t been incorporated into our culture. I will paraphrase. You cannot solve a problem in the same state of mind you became aware of it. I will admit I struggle with remembering this myself, but it’s true. When something… Seek More
Feel The Heart
How do you feel the heart? When you are in your community, the events around you happen all of themselves. Everyone sees everyone else. Everyone is aware to some degree of everything that is going on in their environment. You don’t have to choose this. You can embrace this rather than try to shut it out. The air in your very lungs in invasive. This energy in your environment is life supporting also. In fact, if you look at your thoughts and your life experiences, your beliefs, where did they come from? They have nothing to do with choice. You… Seek More
Clearing Your Head
I am convinced emotion is a big part of memory. It’s been proven, to the point of a phenomenon called flashbulb memory. When you are in pain or afraid, your amygdale underscores every element of that event. Then will replay it involuntarily the next time anything even remotely resembles that. So forgiveness is clearing your head. Flashbulbs blind if your eyes are focused on them. It’s a good test to find out how much of your emotional energy is locked up in something even when you think you’re over it. Yes. Now, in my case, I display traits of what… Seek More
Starting Over
Anyone get really ticked off lately? End:CIV – In a nutshell, it talks about how civilization as we know it is the ‘machine’ that is destroying the planet. Ah yes, also known (though not commonly) as the cyberpunk movement. So why do you become angry with this? Because it does seem to be true and it’s terrible. It also makes me very sad. And this moves you to anger why? I’m not being sarcastic. It’s on the topic of forgiveness. It is a useless kind of anger. The anger is useless not in its root, but in its branches. The anger… Seek More
Your Power
Can you better the world by practicing forgiveness? I would say you can interact with it with more wisdom and clarity, so potentially yes. Not directly, but yes your point is valid. I’ve said this before, but people can use forgiveness to control. i.e. in the church, for instance. Often times, the idea that things like forgiveness can better the world just devolve into a baseless moralistic idealism, and feed the problems they would fix with their high ideals. This creates an us versus them mentality, and forbids actual forgiveness. When things cannot be changed, perhaps it frees up the… Seek More
Forgiveness Is For You
Forgiveness is giving up all hope for a better past. That sums it up perfectly. You are here now. Can you be here now if you have old grudges in your mind? Can you pay full attention to your life that way, or actually help make anything better? Hoping for a better past is truly insane. Yes. Another definition of insanity is repeating the same action non-stop and hoping for a different outcome. If you are locked into what you cannot permit, you will repeat what you do, because it will stay stuck in the picture of what you could… Seek More
Forgiveness Is Not Permissiveness
Forgiveness is not permissiveness. If you shove me, I will not like it. If you shove me, I won’t appreciate it at first. It isn’t pleasant to be shoved, but I will take a moment and look around. If you shoved me out of the way of a speeding car about to hit me, I will be grateful. It’s true that shoving is shoving, but if you work only from superficial judgement of things, you will do only harm, pointless mindless harm. Often more to yourself than the other person, as they may very likely just walk away from your… Seek More
What Good Is Judgement?
Let’s argue the other side of things. What good do your judgements do for you? Has anyone had a better life from things they judged? I could say they help you avoid danger. Wasn’t that your experiences? I have heard many stories of people who made a judgement and it cost them their life. One particularly harsh example. In the Vietnam war they would stuff a grenade down a babies diaper and then set it to wander in a town they knew soldiers to be in. The soldier, thinking he was being heroic, would go to save the abandoned baby, and… Seek More
