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Articles
Forgiveness: What It Is and What It Is Not!
by Rusty Stewart, Ph.D.
I have been struggling for years with forgiveness! I went through all the motions. I did my release work and let go of what people had done to me and forgave them. The problem was, it didn't work! Not until I started studying and experiencing A Course In Miracles (ACIM). In "Journey Beyond Words" (a companion book to ACIM), "Forgiveness is NOT, ever, for any reason, in any way, forgiving someone else for what he/her has done to you. Nothing can be done TO YOU, by anyone, ever" (Haskell, 1994). Now this may be unsettling for some of you.
The premise of ACIM is that we make everything that we experience. This is because we are all children of God or Creator. Thus, we are essentially all Gods, we just have forgotten this in our dreams, both waking and asleep. Whatever we need to experience to learn our lessons we make through our thoughts. None of it is real. The only thing real is love. Everything else will pass or turn to dust. In Spirit the only thing that exists is love. Creation is based on love. Making is based on form and is temporary. So if we experience somebody doing something to us we ultimately chose and made that experience through thought to learn something. Humbling isn't it?
So what is our purpose as human beings and bodies in form? "Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your function here" (ACIM, 1975). At this point you may be wondering what forgiveness is since I've only articulated what it isn't.
"True forgiveness is merely the dismissal of all blocks that would seem to separate you from your inheritance, from your true nature as the Son (Daughter) of God" (Haskell, 1994). Sin is separation. And sin is not real since we are all One. So anything that somebody seems to do to us is a mirror of our own lessons we have chosen for ourselves, since there is no separation or sin. Thus my salvation and the world's salvation is up to me. Humbling isn't it?
When I finally got this I became very depressed and unsettled. This was because I realized I chose, and still choose, every aspect and experience in my life from before my birth in human form for my own salvation. Wow, I chose a lot of pain, guilt, shame, loneliness, and fear! Now, I am starting to finally come out of this blaming myself (because there truly is nobody else to blame) and experience myself as an empowered Co-Creator! I've chosen for this to take time and learn some powerful, and yes painful lessons. However, I'm also changing my perception (Miracle) and accepting what is as just is, as well as a lesson in my salvation. Humbling isn't it?
"For your choosing to come and live in human form is a choice to EXPERIENCE your body, and space, and time. And your forgiveness will take you beyond all those blocks, the major ones being your body, and space, and time itself. In your forgiveness you will be freed from the prison of space and time, and your body. For they are but products of the thoughts you have. And we have said often before that your thoughts do not mean anything. Your forgiveness will lead you to a point where you will know, beyond your ideas and thoughts, that your body and space and time itself are but thoughts that do not mean anything, and ultimately are not real. Therefore, you are free. So in your forgiveness you will be free" (Haskell, 1994). Humbling isn't it?
Thus, forgiveness is really forgiving ourselves for projecting all our illusions and not claiming our birthright as the Creators that we are. I can tell you that I have experienced glimpses of this and it is peaceful and freeing! My work is to experience more of forgiveness. By the way, forgiveness is not real either in the Kingdom of God (the collective experience of Love). However, forgiveness is the way out of the illusion or dream that we are limited beings destined to die. We are eternal, perfect, spiritual beings choosing to have a human experience. So while you are here enjoy all your bothers and sisters, they are all our saviors, all one with us. Humbling isn't it?
Let me leave you with this one last quote from "Journey Beyond Words." "It is impossible that anyone can ever DO anything to you. If you are angry, never delude yourself into thinking you are angry at someone else. You are angry at yourself. If you are hurt, never delude yourself into thinking that another has hurt you. For you can only hurt yourself. So never feel it is loving, or appropriate, or kind, or gentle, to forgive another. For she/he could not, can not, and will not do anything TO you" (Haskell, 1994).
Yoga Living, September/October 2004
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