Day 87:
Forgive someone who has harmed you
In the past few days we have discussed some of the methods involved in forgiving
others. Today we discuss why forgiving is necessary for our own well being.
The Lord's Prayer end's with forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. This
points to the great psycho-spiritual truth that hatred and resentment bind us
to the object of our hatred with an invisible chain of mutual destruction. In
order for us to be free of the person who we perceive as having hurt us we must
clear the resentment and hatred. When we forgive we clear the air and open new
doors so we can move along to new places with new people.
Some people object and say, "Am I supposed to roll over and play dead
in front of my persecutors?" That has nothing to do with forgiveness. When
we forgive someone we need not have anything to do with that person. We don't
even need to like that person. We need not ever see nor contact that person
again.
Having forgiven the person for past events and actions, we can take all
necessary actions to stop us from being harmed in the future. Forgiveness clears
the past which is unchangeable and in fact allows us better to take the optimal
action in the future.
Forgiveness is an act of courage which allows us to move on out of harms
way. It is a way of going from the past to the present and then moving on toward
the future. The real point of any event is to learn whatever lesson exists in
that event and then to move on. When we hold onto negative emotions and memories
we end up harming ourselves much more than we could ever hurt or harm the other
person. Thus we give the other person huge amount of power over us and we further
victimize ourselves. When we forgive, we free ourselves from the other person
and our self-esteem immediately gets a boost.
Please again think about these words:
Love is forgiving.
Namaste means "the Divinity within me salutes the Divinity within you...."
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