Forgiveness

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by ArcticWolf

Well I was being overly simplistic, what I actually think is that there are degrees of forgiveness. I'll list them below. In this sense, full forgiveness indeed means giving the other person a chance to offend you again. It's the lesser degrees of forgiveness that deny this possibility. ...

8) Full restoration, return to the state of innocent trust. In this state, if the other person makes another offense, it will be treated as if it's the first time.

How about adding a further step:

9) Being so empty that there is nothing which anyone else can do which will cause us offence in the first place. Thus there is never anything to forgive.

After all, does the offence lie in the other person's action or in our response to that action? Whatever offence we feel is our creation, a thought in our head.

Offence occurs because we identify with something so small that it can be offended by the actions or words of another person. Remove that identification and there is nothing within us to be offended.

So nothing happens and there is nothing to forgive.

Peace

[Unseeking Seeker]

Originally Posted by iamthat

How about adding a further step:

9) Being so empty that there is nothing which anyone else can do which will cause us offence in the first place. Thus there is never anything to forgive.

Hey! That’s copyright! See post 5. Just kidding!

[iamthat]

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

Hey! That’s copyright! See post 5. Just kidding!

Oh yes! You are right. No doubt I am forgiven.

And in post 7 you mention Ho'oponopono which is very relevant. The basic premise of Ho'oponopono is that we are responsible for everything which manifests in our life. So if someone offends us then we have done something to bring that offence into our life. We therefore ask their forgiveness for whatever we might have done. We also forgive ourselves for whatever it is we might have done. Ho'oponopono is a very simple but effective practice.

Peace