There are many books, blogs, articles, guided meditations, etc. on the topic of Forgiveness. Indeed, it is an important part of being human and living on this Earth. How can we exist in a peaceful world without forgiveness? It is impossible. Maybe that is the reason there is so much unrest in the world on both micro and macro levels. The idea of forgiveness is merely a concept. It is not taught on a deep level at an early age.
When someone does something to us that hurts us deeply, should we forgive that person or their actions? Why is this even a question? Everyone will have an opinion on this. They will tell you their personal experiences with forgiveness or they will vent and complain with a look in their eyes of unfinished business. Of course, my answer to the question of "should we forgive someone or their actions?" is quite different. My answer in an emphatic: NO. I will not Forgive them!!
Why will I not forgive one who has hurt me? Because it is not them I need to FORGIVE; it is my own self that needs that. I believe in The Mystical Law of Cause and Effect (Nam Myoho Renge Kyo). This states that for every action or intention or thought or feeling, there is an effect created. Actions, intentions, thoughts and feelings are simply energy. Energy creates a chain reaction. It is not stagnant; it is moving. It affects other parts of the whole which is why everything is connected all of the time. We are all one simply because energy is in movement and creates reactions, causes, and effects that affect the whole.
I take responsibility for the fact that whatever I am experiencing is because of myself. Because of my thoughts, my feelings, my vibration, my energy, my essence, and/or my reactions to things, something happens in my life. I may like it or dislike it; seldom is it possible to be neutral. I am the creator of those happenings. Why should I ever forgive anyone when I was the creator of a circumstance?
You might think that you know the true story and are justified to blame your life situation on someone else. But, that contradicts the Law of Cause of Effect. The main ingredient that is missing in many people's views is what happened in the past. We don't know what we might have done in past lives to the people who are in our lives now. How can I blame someone and then have to go through the process of forgiving them if I might have killed them in a past life?
I realized that what I have done to the people who have upset me in this lifetime is probably far, far worse than what they have done in this one. I have no proof or concrete knowledge of what I might have done in a past life, but I feel that it is the reason I am experiencing what I experience. The way to change my experiences in life is to Forgive myself.
I have a Higher Power in my life. Sometimes I call that Higher Power Source Energy or God or All That Is, or The Force, or The Universe, or Love Energy, etc. In my perspective, it is an inexplicable energy that is unseen yet has Power and is, ultimately, Beneficial and Benevolent. It seeks to Expand. We are connected as one and our Expansion is part of the Whole that expands everyday to become better and better, more wiser, more loving. I feel that my Higher Power loves me as I am. In this case my Higher Power has already accepted me as I am, so there is no need to even be forgiven. But, I needed to say that I was Forgiven by God in order to help me to Forgive myself. I imagined myself to be a soldier that was commissioned to kill a neighboring tribe by the government that wanted them eradicated. I imagined that I was Forgiven by All That Is which helped me to Forgive myself for killing in combat. I didn't know what I was really doing. I didn't know that Peace could be attained by any other way besides War. In forgiving myself for an imagined past life, it helped me to see why I might have created people in this life that wanted revenge. If I had stole all of someone's money in an imagined past life, I no longer had to forgive them for taking $20 from my wallet. I had done far worse to them in a past life than they have done in this life.
I believe that everyone's common purpose is to expand to become more Whole, more Loving. In this way, we are all linked, all of the time. We just don't always all expand toward good in the same lifetime. It might take someone until the next lifetime to be able to be more loving. Forgiving ourselves for what we might have done in past lives is crucial, in my opinion, to help us expand. If we have hatred and rage against someone and want to kill them with our bare hands because they have killed or harmed our child, that rage can damn up our whole energy, our whole life. It can cause us illness and ruin our entire lives. But, if we understand on a deeper level that we might have murdered their whole family in a past life, then we are experiencing a karmic pay back. We are experiencing the Law of cause and effect. Sometimes there is instant karma and sometimes it happens in the future. That is why we really have to watch our thoughts towards others: it will eventually bite us in the ass somehow if we are not kind. Maybe everybody is really doing the best that they can do on the level they are on. We cannot fault them for not being on a Higher Level. They are just not there yet. They don't know what they are doing.
Forgiving ourselves for what we might have done in past lives that might have caused some of our experiences in this one helps us to make Peace with the way things are. We don't have to fight against someone if we image a past where we might have been less evolved than we are now.
After we Forgive ourselves, we no longer have damned up energy against others or the world. We no longer hold resentment, anguish, rage, hatred, unrest, etc. in our cells. We let it all go and Accept that we are burning Karma if something happens that is not to our liking. We can pick ourselves up and change our situation once we Forgive ourselves for the unknown past. But, if we continue to hold grudges and bad feelings, we might move to another location to try to flee, but we will soon experience something similar. We cannot run away from Karma, but the sooner we Accept and Forgive ourselves for past mistakes in this life and in past lives, then we can love ourselves as Source Energy loves us. We can start over to Receive Abundance and So Much Good In Order to Share. Once we totally Forgive our entire past, this life and past lives, we can live from a place of Sharing Good with others and living in order to Serve from a place of Joy.
I heard this song many years ago. After this realization about Forgiveness, it popped back into my head again. Enjoy: https://youtu.be/q3JjlkfX5Gk
