Transformation begins with a change in perspective, a paradigm shift. It requires us to go deep within to gain a heart perspective.
It also requires us to climb to a higher vantage where the details become less sharp but the setting and the context more clear.
That context almost always involves karma and reincarnation.
Once I was with a group of people in San Francisco, one of whom was an older gentleman.
As we all got out of the car, I accidentally slammed the door on his hand. Although it wasn’t a serious injury, it was painful.
You can imagine how profoundly sorry and apologetic I was. I couldn’t believe I had done such a thing.
Then he said something I will never forget. He looked at me and said, “That’s all right. I did this to another person one day, and so now you have allowed me to balance my karma.”
Whether or not this man was correct, I thought about that remark and about his attitude for a long time. How quick he was to take that higher perspective.
The same lesson comes to us in the old Tibetan tale about a venerable Buddhist monk who was mistakenly accused of stealing and killing a cow, even though he was a vegetarian.
The monk was chained and put into a hole in the ground, yet he did not say a word to defend himself. Although the cow was found a few days later, the man responsible for the monk’s release got caught up in timely matters and forgot about the prisoner.
The monk remained in the pit for months.
At last, one of his disciples obtained an audience with the king and told him what had happened.
The king rushed to set the monk free and begged the old man’s forgiveness, promising to punish those who were responsible. The monk, however, implored the king to punish no one.
“It was my turn to suffer,” he admitted, explaining that in a past life he had stolen a baby cow. While escaping from his pursuers, he had abandoned it near a holy man meditating in the forest.
The holy man was blamed for the crime and chained in a hole for six days. “I have been waiting lifetimes to expiate my sin,” said the old man, “and I am grateful to your subjects for bringing me the opportunity to be free of this karma.”
Spiritually as well as physically, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, as the Law of the Conservation of Energy tells us.
Three embodiments ago our intense rage may have set off a chain reaction that caused harm to others. We’ve forgotten all about that rampage, but that energy is still in circulation, stamped with negativity.
Now we have a problem in our life and we say, “How can God allow this? If there is a God in the universe, why did he allow me to get into this terrible accident? Why am I constantly surrounded by verbally abusive people? Why did my child die stillborn?”
We become angry with God because we don’t realize that we are God—we are the God of our own universe.
We have set in motion causes whose effects will return to us as surely as the sun rises every day.
To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.
—CONFUCIUS
Forgiveness is always the beginning of the spiritual path, yet it is not necessarily easy, especially when grave crimes have been committed against body, mind or soul.
What makes forgiveness even harder is that many of us have been erroneously taught that it wipes away the transgression or the crime.
We think that when we ask for forgiveness or when we forgive another, that’s the end of the matter. The perpetrator has no further responsibility.
This is a myth. Forgiveness does not equal absolution. We are still required to take full responsibility for our actions.
If you steal something from someone, he may forgive you but you still need to return what you took or pay him back.
“Forgiveness of sins does not mean abrogation,” Mark Prophet once taught.
“God may overlook the fact that people made the error, and he may not demand immediate repayment—because if some people’s debts were called in all at once, they would be spiritually bankrupt! So God says, ‘Well, I’ll forgive your sins.’ But that doesn’t mean that every wrong and every error we made is wiped out. We still have to balance the scales.”
When God forgives us, our negative karma (or sin) is sealed for a time.
It’s as if God lifts a bundle of karma off our back so that it will be easier for us to walk the path of self-mastery and get ready to pass the exam when it comes around again.
That’s how the universe works. If we lose our temper or get angry, we will be tested again on that formula of forgiveness and patience.
The test may come in a new set of circumstances or it may appear as a replay of the same scenario with the same actors.
Whatever the case, we will have to show how much love and forgiveness we can infuse into the situation to heal ourselves and to heal others.
Knowing how precisely the law of karma operates frees us to surrender any situation into God’s hands.
We can forgive without condoning because we know that it is our job to dispense mercy and God’s to dispense the justice that will help the soul learn her lessons.
The when, where and how of that justice is God’s business, not ours, which is what the Bible means when it says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
On a practical level, our lack of forgiveness can be de-energizing.
Here is how it works: If we haven’t “let go,” the anger or resentment we hold on to keeps us tied to those we don’t forgive.
Our attention sets up a circuit of energy and, whether we are consciously aware of it or not, some of our energy is always flowing along that pathway, a prisoner of our mind and emotions.
The energy that is trickling or rushing through that circuit, as the case may be, is not available for us to apply to our creative and loving endeavors.
“Attention is the key,” says the master Saint Germain. “Where man’s attention goes, there goes his energy.”
When we “forgive and forget,” we release the energy we have invested in old patterns and put it back into circulation.
Forgiveness, then, allows us to rechannel that energy into something more constructive.
Just think of all the energy we can have when at the end of each day we let go of all sense of injustice, anger and even guilt about our own shortcomings.
Saint Germain also teaches that “if there is any part of life whom you have not forgiven for any wrong committed against you, real or imagined, you limit by that very resentment, by that very withholding of forgiveness, the amount of forgiveness you can receive for any and all karma.”
This is the same spiritual principle Jesus taught in the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
In other words, forgive us our own faults and mistakes in the same manner as we forgive the faults and mistakes of others.
For we know that by the law of karma, only as we forgive another will we be forgiven.
Extending forgiveness as issues arise is one way to prevent karma from building up. It’s the principle of “pay as you go.” If there is someone you haven’t forgiven or who hasn’t forgiven you, talk to her or write a letter. Ask for her forgiveness and tell her that you forgive her. If the person has passed on, you can express your feelings in a written letter, burn it and ask the angels to deliver your letter to that soul.
You can also practice the art of forgiveness by creating your own surrender ritual, which you can give at the end of each day before going to sleep.
Create your own surrender ritual, which you can give at the end of each day before going to sleep.
If you are burdened by unresolved circumstances, you can ask God to forgive you, ask Him to help you forgive others and to reestablish a figure-eight flow of love between you and those you name.
As part of that ritual, you can ask God to show you the practical steps to take the next day to move toward resolution.
Write those ideas down and try them!
A universal prayer that has become a successful part of many people’s surrender ritual is the affirmation for forgiveness.
I am forgiveness acting here
Casting out all doubt and fear
Setting men forever free
With wings of cosmic victory
I AM calling in full power
For forgiveness every hour;
To all life in every place
I flood forth forgiving grace.