mastery of release

If you were to ask me what I felt was the single most important spiritual quality to practice, I would reply by saying—forgiveness. It is the light that pierces the darkness of life and dispels the mists of hatred, anger, guilt and resentment. Forgiveness is the wellspring within the heart and is the cornerstone of love and all spiritual practice. And it is the key that unlocks the doorways to peace—peace within and peace on earth. Just think for a while about the number of times in just one day that forgiveness could be given. Now think about the past and what it is that you are still holding onto that could be released through forgiveness.
Many times in today’s world, forgiveness, as a quality and as a primary spiritual practice, is misunderstood and misrepresented. Pure and simple, forgiveness from God is a given. However, forgiveness between others and us is not. Each one of us has to do our own forgiveness, which also involves asking for forgiveness from others. This provides the means through which we able to take a long hard look at ourselves, our thoughts, words and actions, and thus make the necessary and appropriate behavioral changes. On the other hand, if an institution, such as a church, does the work for us, there is no real incentive to learn from our mistakes or to change our hurtful and dysfunctional behavior.
In down-to-earth terms, forgiveness is one of our divine qualities and allows us to face and eventually let go of what I call, our emotional and mental enemies. Three of these enemies, which attach to our heart and mind, are anger, resentment and guilt. These dissonant emotions, pure and simple, are the chains that bind us and prevent us from being happy. The more that we hold on to these emotions, the stronger the chains become. But freedom is always within reach; freedom is within our heart and mind; freedom is forgiveness. It frees us from the bondage of these emotions and allows us the courage to be fearless. Forgiveness does not condone the wrongdoing of others nor is it about forgetting; it does, however, release us from the emotional prison of the present as well as the past.
Forgiveness is transformational. The flow of forgiveness is always circular, returning to its source—and this source is ourselves. If, however, we do not forgive and hold on to our anger and hurt, the energy of our true loving self becomes blocked and hidden in darkness. To keep hurt and anger alive and fresh is to live a life of bitterness and pain. Resentment, anger, and guilt keep us in the painful past, day after day after day. Over time, this can affect our emotional, as well as our physical and spiritual well-being. These emotions also keep us from self-responsibility, by allowing us to blame others for our own unhappy, unfulfilled lives. We might even hold on to our anger to make others feel guilty. But negative practices such as these merely increase our own guilt and emptiness. All of this eventually leads to hate—the hate of others and the hate of ourselves.
Only by letting go, by the release of our past and our past woundings, can we dispel this hatred and truly begin to embrace the divine unconditional love that lets us be reborn anew, each and every day. As divine humans we are each responsible for the healing of the past and for accepting, in the present, the power of forgiveness and divine love. To achieve this most powerful way of being, we need to face our own darkness and we need to embrace the light of forgiveness that is within us. By embodying this healing power of forgiveness, we will be able to release the ‘baggage’ that no longer serves us.
It takes courage to look within ourselves for the dysfunctional patterns that no longer serve us—patterns that may, in fact, be preventing us from achieving the love, compassion, purity and power that is our soul. Sad to say but many of our negative patterns were established during our childhood and adolescence. Initially an important part of our spiritual work involves healing our relationships with our families.
This type of healing process requires change and transformation, which I realize is an uncomfortable thing for most people. But by accepting change and forgiving, we are able to heal and purify our emotions. By facing our past family relationships and woundings, we can achieve an inner healing, which, in turn, will increase our self-esteem and lead us to enhanced interpersonal relationships at all levels. In short, letting go of our woundings that were incurred growing up, not forgetting but forgiving them, allows us to welcome in a life of happiness, love and compassion.
As I have often said, “Forgiveness is the power of angelic light that illuminates the way for everything else. Ah, if you want to be illuminated and enlightened, then forgive!”
Divine Human