MONTH 2: FORGIVENESS WEEK 5: FORGIVENESS & LETTING THE PAST GO We re going to continue practicing all the principles we used in Month One: living in faith, trusting in God, blessing everything, using Christ Vision, acknowledging the Guide and Teacher that is with us, tithing, giving God s gifts, remembering to pause and say: Holy Spirit, Decide for me. A Course in Miracles is about being in the flow, an awareness of God s presence, recognizing your Oneness with everyone and everything. Whenever you release that which is blocking the flow, you open to all the good that God has waiting in storage to be unleashed. The new topic is FORGIVENESS & LETTING THE PAST GO. Miracles are everyone s right, but purification is necessary first. [T1.I.7] A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1: Introduction to Miracles; Miracle Principles 1-14 Purification is of God alone, and THEREFORE for you. Rather than seek to prepare YOURSELF for Him, try to think thus: I, who am host to God, AM worthy of Him. He Who ESTABLISHED His dwelling-place in me created it as He would have it be. It is not needful that I make it ready for Him, but only that I DO NOT INTERFERE with His plan to RESTORE to me my own AWARENESS of my readiness, which is eternal. I need ADD nothing to His plan. But to RECEIVE it, I MUST be willing NOT to substitute my own, IN PLACE of it. A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18: The Dream And The Reality; The Little Willingness
So this Course is never about doing miracles or giving miracles it is about releasing the blocks, grievances, fears and obstacles, the stuff getting in the way. The path is an UNDOING it s a dismantling of the ego identity. For a long time, I had the experience that I really, really, really, wanted to release a grievance but I just couldn t! There was this one woman in my life that seemed to want to sabotage my relationship with a man I love. I knew on an intellectual level that I wasn t a victim, and that nothing could disturb my peace of mind and yet! I was in constant conflict. My peace was definitely disturbed. Every day she did things that would push all my buttons. I kept thinking, If only she would go away, I would be happy! But I knew that wasn t the solution, because I knew that she was in my mind. I knew she wasn t outside of me. Nothing is outside of me! Everything I think I see is coming from me, nothing more than a reflection of a thought I m holding in my own mind. I knew that an old grievance was coming up for healing and to be released, but I was still STUCK. I noticed that this situation had happened many times in my life. I would ask, Why is this happening to me again? 2
Because I had not released it, I had not forgiven it. I had not forgiven myself. I still thought there were people outside of me that could affect my peace and joy, and hurt me in some way. I had forgotten that I am the Christ. I thought I was a body, trapped in a situation where other bodies were doing things to me. Do you remember this idea from the 40-Day Transformation Program? Trials are but lessons which you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain which what you chose before has brought to you. In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity you face, Christ calls to you, and gently says, My brother, choose again. He would not leave one source of pain unhealed, nor any image left to veil the truth. He would remove all misery from you whom God created altars unto joy. He would not leave you comfortless, alone in dreams of hell, but would release your minds from everything that hides His Face from you. His holiness is yours because He is the ONLY power that is real in you. His strength is yours because He is the Self that God created as His ONLY Son. The images you make can not prevail against what God Himself would have you be. [T31.VIII.3] A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31: The Simplicity Of Salvation; Choose Once Again I started blessing her, day and night. I sent love to her constantly. I realized that she was me! That s me, and I love her because I love me because I love God. In a very short time, I felt at peace. I felt happiness and shortly after she disappeared out of my life. Forgiveness is the way to release blocked energy that you may still be carrying around with you. Almost always it is unconscious, but it s still active for you. 3
When you take fear, resentment, grievances, shame, hurt, guilt and bury it, it continually will create chaos in your life. You MUST bring all old shame, guilt and fear to the surface, forgive it, bless the situation that caused it, and release it. YOU DON T NEED IT ANYMORE. It no longer serves a purpose. It s important to remember that holding on is holding on (whether it s money, possessions, false beliefs, limited ideas, judgments) and whenever you are holding on to something, you have given it value and you are a prisoner. You must be prepared to release all of your attachments, to release the energy from the past. FORGIVENESS IS THE KEY THAT OPENS THE DOOR. IT IS THE KEY TO HAPPINESS. In a moment of clarity, you realize you don t want to hold on to one thing from the past. You realize you don t want to be right or get even. You want to be free of the past, free of your grievances and judgments, so you can experience miracles in your life. Think of it like clearing out old possessions out of your closet. You are cleaning out the skeletons. FORGIVENESS IS THE GREAT HEALER. Remember to be fearless! Allow old shame and hurt to surface, so it can be forgiven and healed. Forgive those you think hurt you. Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body. George Carlin 4
Resentments are the RELIVING of old hurts rather than releasing. When you are thinking about people and what they did to hurt you, and how upset you are, you are reliving the situation. You will be releasing your past hurts and disappointments, not reliving them. There is a saying: Holding on to resentments is like taking poison and hoping the other person will die. You are the one who experiences the effect of taking poison. They might have done something to you that seems unforgivable taken away your childhood, destroyed your marriage, made you lose a job but that s the past. And if you are still reliving these stories in your mind, that s you drinking the poison. That s what creates problems and sickness. At a certain point, you make a decision to let it all go! We are unblocking the channel from old resentments, limited beliefs, and fears so the Love of God and all His Gifts and Miracles can pour through. Many blessings. WHAT IS FORGIVENESS? Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees there was no sin. And in this view are all your sins forgiven. What is sin except a false idea about God s Son? Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go. What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God. An unforgiving thought is one, which makes a judgment that it will not raise to doubt, although it is not true. The mind is closed, and will not be released. The thought protects projection, tightening its chains, so that distortions are more veiled and more obscure; less easily accessible to doubt, and further kept from reason. What can come between a fixed projection and the aim that it has chosen as its needed goal? 5
An unforgiving thought does many things. In frantic action it pursues its goal, twisting and overturning what it sees as interfering with its chosen path. Distortion is its purpose and the means by which it would accomplish it as well. It sets about its furious attempts to smash reality, without concern for anything that would appear to pose a contradiction to its point of view. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing. It offends no aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appearance that it likes. It merely looks and waits and judges not. He who would not forgive must judge, for he must justify his failure to forgive. But he who would forgive himself must learn to welcome truth exactly as it is. Do nothing, then, and let forgiveness show you what to do through Him Who is your Guide, your Savior and Defender, strong in hope, and certain of your ultimate success. He has forgiven you already, for such is His function, given Him by God. Now must you share His function, and forgive whom He has saved, whose sinlessness. He sees, and whom He honors as the Son of God. A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lessons, Part II: Lessons 221 290 WEEK 5 PRACTICES: Read ACIM Lesson 46 God is the love in which I forgive. Read ACIM Lesson 288 Let me forget my brother s past today. 6
Read ACIM Lesson 289 The past is over. It cannot touch me. Make a forgiveness list. Complete the following Practice of Forgiveness throughout the week: a. I am willing to release the past so that I am a clear open channel for the Love of God. b. I am ready to release all judgments that I have placed on others. c. I forgive myself. God is the Love in which I forgive. d. I am getting out of the way. e. Holy Spirit is in charge! f. I am Host to God. g. I m grateful to have a Guide Who knows the way perfectly and always shows me quickly which way to go and what to say and what to do when I ask. h. Thank you God. 7
Write names of people on it that cause you hurt, resentment, grievances, shame, frustration. Invite the Holy Spirit to help you release these people from the past you gave them, so you can see them differently. As you forgive, you will see the energy flow in your life opening up in new ways. WEEK 5 REFLECTIONS: 1. What situation seems to keep repeating itself in your life? Can you see a pattern? What Guidance are you receiving to correct the error? 2. What do you think about A Course in Miracles definition of forgiveness: THAT NONE OF IT HAPPENED. How does this statement make you feel: What you think your brother did, never occurred. 3. What feelings have your buried alive? 8
4. Do you find forgiving yourself difficult? Do you have attack or hatred thoughts about yourself, or your body, or your life? What are they? 5. What is your practice for releasing? www.teachersofgod.org 9