A Course in Miracles has many lessons on the topic of forgiveness which is the ongoing theme I am dedicating my blog, YouTube channel, and podcast to throughout this year, 2021. The lesson in focus today, I believe, was provided for the purpose of persuading readers to truly commit to practicing forgiveness. Often when we understand the full range of benefits something has to offer us, it becomes natural and easy to commit to prioritizing it.
Lesson #122 says, “Forgiveness offers everything I want.” If you have read my previous blog post from March 2021 featuring lesson #121 in A Course in Miracles, you would recall the claim that, “forgiveness is the key to happiness.” In lesson #121, there is a very detailed description for what the lack of forgiveness causes in our lives: pain, suffering, limitations, anxiety, depression, and a number of negative things. This introduces a logical sequence leading into its claim that forgiveness is the key to happiness. Furthermore, it provided an exercise that I call, “The Triangle of Light” in which you think of someone you have grievances with or don’t like and extend light to them from someone whom you do like and have a natural affinity to, and then you bring that light back to yourself. Lesson #122 then builds off of #121 to provide details about all of the additional benefits of forgiveness and what it can provide for us.
As bold of a claim as that may sound, here are some of the examples the course outlines as benefits of forgiveness and expanding to anything you could want in this life:
“What could you want forgiveness cannot give? Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of sure protection always? Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset? All this forgiveness offers you, and more.”
Some people may think of forgiveness as a “chore” or as something that you do for someone else’s sake or comfort. The course reminds us that forgiveness is personal practice with limitless benefits for the self.
So if forgiveness is so important, then what is forgiveness and how can we truly understand it? My description of forgiveness is as follows: letting go of an illusory simulated world that the mind creates and projects into our field of perception. This is my simple, functional definition of forgiveness. The human mind is projecting a “movie” or sometimes a “nightmare” which originates from a source that is not equivalent to the version that God or Source has in mind for us. Our versions may include pain, suffering, and inevitably death of the physical body. However there is a parallel “movie” which is comprised of perfection, total safety, unconditional love, and this is the “story” that Source has for us to tap into. Forgiveness, therefore, is giving up on our attachment to our “movie” and separating from the ego’s attack thoughts and allowing ourselves to surrender to God’s story.
Note: This is not to diminish the perceived pain and suffering that feels so real in this world, just as you may cry real tears in the midst of experiencing a nightmare in your sleep based on illusory circumstances. The feelings may be real, but this way of thinking suggests that ultimately the consequences of this life hold no real substance, just as they sing in the popular children’s nursery rhyme, “life is but a dream.”
This lesson invites us to practice 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening of committed forgiveness. It says, “As you practice, say, ‘Forgiveness offers everything I want. Today I have accepted this as true. Today I have received the gifts of God.’” This opportunity is part of God’s plan to make us happy and rescue us from this nightmarish illusory world that we have all individually and collectively created. Try this activity in the morning and night and remember to ask Source for assistance in transitioning from a mindset of grievances toward a mindset of forgiveness. Source not only provides the option for you to alleviate life’s pressures with forgiveness, but also supplies the power to help you do so.
