On Forgiveness ...

"Forgiveness." It's one of those words we use rather too casually. We're assuming everyone has the same take. Assuming also we ourselves understand what it is. What it entails. 

"Love" is another one of those. "I love you!" "I love Sushi!" And then ... recently reading how scientists are looking into "consciousness" in the animal kingdom; using the term, but not in my reading explicating on what is the understood common definition of "consciousness'. 

So "Forgiveness". It's been on my plate of life learning for a long time. Not just looking for a complete and accurate definition, a convincing set of words; but for understanding what it is, and how to exercise the choice to forgive. 

Forgiveness is a practice. An act of courage.

Nisargadatta Maharaj makes the point crystal clear: 

"There is only one meditation — the rigorous refusal to harbor thoughts." Jiddu Krishnamurti put it another way when he said his biggest secret is that he doesn't "mind what happens". Not that he doesn't necessarily give a shit, but that he doesn't harbor thoughts. 

My take, when you don't harbor thoughts, the mind is open to get the right thought for the right moment. Otherwise, you're just spinning in your own juice. Shadow boxing with images on an imaginary mirror of memories of the past. Living with, and into, your own preconceived notions. 

Knowing stuff, that's good. Not bad when it comes to functional reality. Heck, we all know which way the faucet turns. What a red light on the road means. That you don't wear your shoes on your hands. And, we don't have to relearn which goes on what when we put on our shoes. Somethings, solid everyday things, are consistent moment to moment. Living things, Life, living Human beings are only as what we think they are. The world is as you see it. Take away the looking glass and see it for what it is. 

Forgiveness is also a letting go. Just what is it do we let go when we forgive? Mostly it seems when we talk about forgiveness we're referring to something bad that we experienced. Most often perceived as being from the hand of another. Too often we throw out the baby with the bathwater. That is, we "move on" from the issue and from the evil-doer. Out of sight, out of mind.

But forgiveness is not just over the bad stuff, but the good stuff too. The world seems to live in a constant flux between grasping for the "good" and pushing away the "bad". It's the ideas we hold on to about just what is "good" and what is "bad" that need to be let go. Why? So you can be present in the moment and look at what's so with a clear eye. Like I already said.

Nisargadatta: "Discover all that you are not — body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that — nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realize that you are the limitless being."

A Course in Miracles is also a good reference. It's really all about forgiveness. As in, letting go of the past opens the present moment for creative options ... miracles.

ACIM puts it right there from the beginning: "What's Real can't be threatened. What's unreal doesn't exist. Herein lies the Peace of God."

Of course, if you don't believe in God, then fuck all that. Be like that. On your own. How's that going for you, Pilgrim?