“Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.”
-Suzanne Somers
When you really forgive someone… you will feel a tremendous burden lift off your shoulders. They may not notice it at all… but you most certainly will!
So if we are the recipient of the gift… why aren’t we a little more giving with forgiveness?
When we are angry, we don’t recognize forgiveness as a gift to ourselves!
Classic advice teaches us to be slow to anger and quick to forgive for this very reason… and I like to think I embody this… but do I really?
Are you still just as deep, loving, and spiritual when you’re pissed off?
Or does all of that go straight out the window?
We all have moments of clarity… moments of peace… moments of forgiveness.
Moments where we realize the compassion we feel for others impacts us first… both powerfully and positively!
Yet we have to stretch these moments into more of our lives… we have to stretch these moments into the most challenging areas… we have to bring compassion to our anger.
The habits of anger and mental violence (whether it is carried over into physical violence or not) run deep in our minds.
The mind often acts like an angry dog… when it sees the opportunity, it attacks!
When we feel angered, we frequently mentally lash out at the perceived cause… before we even realize what’s happening.
How do we start to soften this internalized ‘Killer Instinct’?
Just as was implied yesterday’s lesson… letting go of the vicious cycle of anger, revenge, fear of vengeance, etc… leads to real peace.
A Course in Miracles: Day 23
The game for Day 23 is:
I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.
For today’s exercise, you will want to set aside 5 practice periods of about a minute or two each.
- As you look at the area and objects around you, repeat the idea slowly to yourself “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.”
- Then close your eyes and watch thoughts and sensations arise for about a minute…
- Notice any thoughts or sensations that arise in conjunction with irritation, frustration, anger, hatred, etc.
- As these thoughts cross your mind, say “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about X” (then let the thought go and move to the next)
Where ‘X’ is a simple description of the thought. For example:
- I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about my job
- I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about my sister
- I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about my lower back pain
Be as specific as possible.
This is also a very powerful game to apply throughout the day as angry thoughts and feelings arise.
From ACIM:
You see a world that you have made, but you do not see yourself as the image maker. You cannot be saved from the world, but you can escape from its cause… Loveliness can light your images, and transform them that you will love them, even though they were made of hate. For you will not be making them alone.
There is help.
Most of the time, I don’t bother applying a name to it.
When your compassion falls short… when you’re angry… when it seems that you can’t get it right…
The willingness to surrender and ask for help will often bring help. You will usually feel it immediately, and depending on the nature of the situation, ‘external’ help may arrive as well.
The key is in your willingness.
“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”
-Mark Twain
Although this is a beautiful quote, you don’t have to let yourself be crushed in order to forgive. You can still be strong in the eternal world. You can still be directive in the external world. You can still be dynamically powerful in the external world.
Internally, though, you must be accepting…
And when you truly embrace relaxation and acceptance on an internal level… you will find Yourself entirely uncrushable!
keep smiling,
Ben
P.S. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I changed the format on a couple of the posts… judging by the number of visits to these posts… the standard format of A Course in Miracles… Day X is the best way to go.
I also want to make it clear that although the idea behind the Workbook for A Course in Miracles is one exercise per day for 365 days… there is nothing wrong with missing a day. There is also nothing wrong with repeating a day if you want to ‘get it’ a little bit more deeply before moving on (I’ve done this a couple of times, already).
Although I’m working toward a post per day on ACIM, I’ve already missed a couple of days.
If you find that you are ready for a new exercise, and I have not posted it yet, please visit: ACIM.org/Lessons/toc.html… you can find the entire list of the exercises/ideas/games from the workbook here.
It also doesn’t hurt to read the exercises directly out of the Course for further clarification!
