Therefore, I learned - and learned well - that forgiveness is an essential key to healing. The opposite of forgiveness is judgment, and judgment always creates separation and guilt. Judgment will evoke a sense of guilt in the one that has been judged, unless they are perfectly awake.
For to forgive means to choose to release another from the perceptions you have been projecting upon them. It is, therefore, an act of forgiving one's self of one's projections. Each time you forgive, you take yourself deeper into the purity of your own consciousness. You begin to see how profoundly you have been coloring and, therefore, affecting all of your relationships, through the simple act of not being aware of the power of projection.
Projection is an act of trying to get rid of what you do not want to own within. It is the effect of the denial of truth. Projection colors your brother or sister with the very energies that you would judge within yourself. How can you begin to break the pattern of projection? How can you allow the bridge of forgiveness to be built? It is actually quite simple, but it will require your commitment.
Forgiveness allows the spaciousness within your consciousness to grow. For when you look upon the thief that has broken into your home and say, "I forgive you," you are decreeing the opposite of what you have learned. You are decreeing that nothing can be taken from you of any value. You are decreeing that judgment is the opposite of what you want, and it will cause you to feel the opposite of how you want to feel. You are decreeing your power to perceive differently. You are, therefore, healing yourself.
Therefore, to practice forgiveness actually cultivates the quality of consciousness in which you finally come to forgive yourself. For when forgiveness has purified the mind and the heart and the emotional field of your own being, you will discover that you exist only to extend Love.
FORGIVENESS IS THAT BRIDGE THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO SEE CLEARLY
Forgiveness is the bridge that links you to the soul - the essence - of your brother or sister. Forgiveness is that bridge that when cultivated will allow you to see clearly. Not just the energies that another is expressing, but you will literally be able to see what events seemed to cultivate that soul's belief that they must act in that way to survive, and what perceptions have led them to feel justified in their inappropriate behaviors. You will see it as clearly as though someone had drawn a picture in front of you.
Imagine then, a society in which the prevalent legal view is simply that your brother or your sister is an aspect of yourself. And if you would help yourself, you must help them meeting each cry for help and healing with forgiveness, love and support. Can you imagine, for a moment, what it would be like to live in such a society? How would it be different than the world you see?
If you would have these things be different, it must begin with you. For the way to heal the world is not by seeking to change what is on the outside, but by first changing what is on the inside. When that change has occurred, you will become a conduit for an energy that knows how to use your gifts, and how to place you in just the right situations. And a great power will work effectively through you - the power alone that knows how to heal your world.
FORGIVENESS IS ANOTHER WORD FOR ALLOWANCE
Forgiveness is another word for allowance. . . . In allowance, you cultivate the very quality of forgiveness. Without forgiveness, it is impossible to awaken into the realization of the Truth that is true always. Allowance is sweet above the taste of honey. For allowance is that realm in which miracles can finally begin to occur.
One who cultivates that ability to allow is cultivating, in truth, the very act of forgiveness. It is releasing the world from its insistence that its perceptions be held as right. It is releasing from itself the need to hold on to its perceptions. Therefore, allow all things. Trust all things. And thereby, embrace and transcend all things.
Beloved friends, there are many of you that have come to taste the truth of what I am to say. Allowance is the greatest of keys to the Kingdom. For allowance requires a rescinding - slowly, patiently at times, painfully at times - of every perception you have ever held of everyone and everything. It is the descent into complete recognition of your ignorance, a complete recognition of your joy-filled dependence on the corrective power of the Holy Spirit.
Remember that forgiveness has nothing at all to do with saying to another, "I can see that you have sinned, but I forgive you your faults." No! Forgiveness is the recognition that nothing has been done to you, and that you would prefer to see the face of Christ in the one in front of you.
And that in complete forgiveness, in which you recognize that there is nothing to forgive, you are absolved completely. (A Course in Miracles)
Easter celebrates resurrection. . . . Upon this Easter or whenever you read this, recognize that you have the power to celebrate and accept your resurrection as the living Christ by seeing beyond the boundaries of death, loss, fear, hurt, anger, projection, and the perceptions upon which projection rests. You are the one who has been reborn when you choose to remember only loving thoughts.
To forgive is merely to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past, and those that were given you. All the rest must be forgotten. . . .(A Course in Miracles)
I say unto you, you can, because everything is present. There is no such thing as past and future, there is only now. So when you have that thought or that memory, it is coming to you for a very specific reason. As a soul, you are learning about forgiveness and how to undo the effects of your previous choices. And so it is being presented to you, yet again, that you might make a new choice.
When that old memory comes, stay with it. Look at it. Recognize how judgment worked at that time. And then say to that person or that event:
I judge you not.
I extend forgiveness to myself for what I have created.
I embrace you, and I love you. I free you to be yourself.
I bless you with the blessing of Christ.
Then see that image or that memory begin to gently dissolve into light, until there is no trace of it left. And be done with it.
Forgiveness is the key to happiness." . . . What could you want forgiveness cannot give? Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of sure protection always? Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep, abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset? (A Course in Miracles)
All this forgiveness offers you, and more. It sparkles on your eyes as you awake, and gives you joy with which to meet the day. It soothes your forehead while you sleep, and rests upon your eyelids so you see no dreams of fear and evil, malice and attack. And when you wake again, it offers you another day of happiness and peace. All this forgiveness offers you, and more. (A Course in Miracles)
Your loving brother,
Jeshua
