I Can Never Forgive a Person; I Can Only Forgive a Thought

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Defining what true forgiveness is is tricky.  At first, it seems that I am trying to forgive a person.  Someone does something that hurts me, and I ask for help to find the strength to forgive that person.  This is bargaining, and I probably think I am a better person than that person.

The thing is, I can never forgive a person; I can only ask for help to let go of my thought-image that is making up that person, simply a projection. 

I can only forgive a thought.

That’s good because it keeps it all within my mind; obviously, the image I am projecting outside begins inside, and there is where I need to focus.

And, I am up against it because I am dealing with several  thousand thoughts pouring through my mind all day.

Not only that, these thoughts are based on my habitual conditioning, my core beliefs, that were well in place by the time I was five years old.  This automatic conditioning is the basis for the thoughts that are triggered by another person’s behavior.

And, I can let it go because I am placing my finger on my nose, taking full responsibility, looking inside.

What comes to mind is this passage from Luke:

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. (23/34)

Jesus is acknowledging that those crucifying Him are not aware of their projections.  They completely focused on Jesus, outside of them as a body, completely unaware that He is simply a thought-image, in fact, they all have slightly different thought-images of Him.

Jesus knows full well that they are unaware of their projections and lovingly asks our Father that they be forgiven.

And from Lesson 134, Let me perceive forgiveness as it is:

Forgiveness looks on thoughts with quiet eyes, and merely says to them, “My brother, what you think is not the truth.”

I can never forgive a person; I can only forgive my thoughts projected on a person.

Again, from Lesson 134: 

He has been  gently awakened from his dream by understanding what he THOUGHT he saw was never there. 

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On July 4^th, I began reading “In The World But Not Of It,” by Jesus, as scribed by Gina Lake.

I came across theses brilliant passages by Jesus describing our thought-stream, and I am placing them here because they echo my experience of forgiving thoughts, not people. 

Chapter 2

The Clouds

The illusion Spun by Thoughts

The obscurations to Christ Consciousness, to experiencing your divine nature, are simply thoughts.  These thoughts are the ones that flow continually through your mind, speaking to you as if they were you, and authority figure, or a friend.  They are primarily about you and your life, what to do, how to be, what happened, and what will be.  I will be referring to this mental commentary as the thought-stream, the voice in your head, or the egoic mind. 

Imagine that:  Something as flimsy and ephemeral as a stream of thoughts is powerful enough to hide your divine nature from you and, in its place, create a sense of yourself as separate, limited, vulnerable, and lacking.  Thoughts create the illusion of a self that has problems, fears, desires, struggles, emotions, and pain.  They create the false self.  Without thoughts, problems and suffering disappear and so does the false self.   Thoughts perform quite a magic trick!

Thoughts can come and go in the background without affecting you, because you understand they are simply the programming common to all humans and not uniquely yours.  You see that your thoughts actually have nothing to do with your and mean nothing about you—the real you, that is—although they have everything to do with the false self.

You come to see that you are the spacious, silent Presence in which thoughts, feelings, desires, sense impressions, intimations, knowing, insights, inspiration, and motivations come and go.  You share the ground of being out of which everything you experience arises.  You are that which is eternal and untouched by the coming and gong of thoughts, feelings, desires, sense impressions, and the whole world of form.  And there is total love for form and for its coming and going.  What a miracle this world is!  In Christ Consciousness, you are in love with life itself and with every way that life manifests.