On Forgiveness

"Jacob Seeking Forgiveness of Esau," Jan Victors, 1652.

[I believe forgiveness is one of the most important functions of our spiritual life. Recently reading an excellent book on remote viewing and associated psi activities ~ Limitless Mind by Russell Targ ~ I found his thoughts on the topic of forgiveness.]

"Carrying a grudge is like carrying a red-hot rock or giving the person who hurt you a lifetime of free rent in your mind. Why would you want to do that? In some families, grievances and resentment are held for years, even decades. We forgive people who we imagine have harmed us because, for our own mental health, we want to lay down the burden of the past rather than carry it into the present.

"…. It appears that forgiveness is an essential step on the road to peace. It is not forgetting, but forgiving and letting go that heals all separations.

"… The great Hindu mystic Shankara taught that the most important thing for us to learn is the discernment of reality from illusion. We then discover that most of what we thought we were experiencing was, in fact, illusion. Furthermore the Buddhists teach that there is virtually no objective reality to our judgments, so they usually lead to errors, and often to suffering. In our personal lives, our judgment of others always separates us from the loving connection with God."