Tag: forgiveness

The Art of Not Making It Real

Posted on by Tammy

By Gary Renard

One of the most important tenets of “A Course in Miracles” (ACIM), if you are actually interested in doing the Course, could be put in just four words: Don’t make it real.

More specifically, don’t make this illusion of a world or anything in it real in your mind because the world you see is your projection, which has no inherent reality. With the Course, you don’t forgive people because they really did something to you; you don’t forgive situations because they’re really happening; and you don’t forgive the events you see on the news because they are true. You forgive everything because nothing has really happened except in a dream of your own making; a script you authored and then forgot you made up. As the Course puts it, “We forgive our brother for what he hasn’t done.”

If ACIM is saying anything, it’s saying nothing has happened, and that “The full awareness of the Atonement is that the separation (from God) never occurred.” And because people haven’t really done anything, they are innocent. Few people like that idea at first, until an associated fact sinks in. And the truth of that statement doesn’t just mean other people are innocent. The most important thing is it must also mean that you are innocent. And you get in touch with your own innocence by seeing it everywhere.

The Secret to Salvation
Once in a while something will happen where I’m tempted to be upset. Maybe I’m on the Internet and I read someone saying something very nasty about me. Never mind that they never met me, don’t know me, and have no idea what they’re talking about. You would think, given the confidence with which they make their pronouncements, that they know everything about me. There are a lot of angry people out there, and the Internet is the perfect place for them to project their unconscious guilt onto others. Of course they don’t know that they’re projecting. They just think they’re right and their anger is justified. But as the Course would say to them, “Anger is never justified,” and “Attack has no foundation.” Indeed, the Course even gives us the secret to salvation: “You are doing this unto yourself.”

So, if I’m tempted to be upset, then I have to catch myself and stop. If I’m feeling upset I must be making it real. Why? Because if I wasn’t making it real then I wouldn’t be upset. The second that I remember the truth, the uncomfortableness goes away.

Every now and then I’ll get an e-mail with a complaint, or several complaints about something; my books are too absolute and uncompromising, my jokes are too smart assed, etc. Invariably, the e-mail concludes with the words, “I forgive you.” I write back to them saying, no, they haven’t forgiven me or their grievance. If they learned ACIM they’d know that the problem is, “You have made it real, and so you cannot forgive it.”

Practicing True Forgiveness
forgive-yourselfNot making it real is the smoothest short cut to practicing true forgiveness. Knowing there is a truth just beyond the illusory veil, a world unseen yet truly there, and that the world we see is a trick of the ego, makes it possible to get to the fact of the matter quickly instead of losing our peace. As a character once said in a movie, “The Matrix is an illusion to pull the wool over your eyes and stop you from seeing the real world.” Of course the movie didn’t go all the way and acknowledge God as the truth beyond the illusion, but hey, it’s a good start.

Thinking that people are bodies, and those bodies are real, is what the Course would call egocentricity. In a message to Helen Schucman, the scribe of the Course, Jesus was talking to her about always saying yes to people and not being able to say no. He brought up Edgar Cayce, who worked relentlessly and died younger than he should have, as an example of not being able to say no. Then Jesus made a very interesting statement, “If you cannot say no to the requests of others, you have not yet overcome egocentricity.”

If you can’t say no, then you’re saying to your own mind this is a real person, and they have a real problem, and this problem really has to be solved, and you’re the one who really has to solve it. And by extension you’re saying you are also a real body in a real world. You’re making the whole enchilada true. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t help people. But if you do, then you should do it after asking the Holy Spirit, if there is time. And don’t help them out of guilt or because you think you have to. Help them as an expression of love.

In the future, when the human race has a deeper understanding of quantum physics, recognizes the illusory nature of the universe more completely, and begins to understand the cause and process of projection, then the idea of forgiveness will make much more sense and be seen as the self-forgiving dynamic that it is. But you don’t have to wait for the world. You can end your suffering forever, in this lifetime. You can do this by recognizing that everyone you meet and everything in this world is a symbolic representation of that which is hidden in your own unconscious mind. And by forgiving what you see, you are forgiving yourself. Thus will your mind be healed through the activation of Spirit. And when it is completely healed you will have the peace of God and attain the state of enlightenment.

Forgiveness of everything and everyone you perceive, by not making it real and instead choosing the reality of Spirit, is necessary if you are to experience complete forgiveness for yourself. As “A Course in Miracles” asks you, “Can you to whom God says, ‘Release My Son!’ be tempted not to listen, when you learn that it is you for whom He asks release? And what but this is what this course would teach? And what but this is there for you to learn?”

ABOUT GARY RENARD
GaryRenardGary Renard is the bestselling author of “The Disappearance of the Universe” trilogy, including “Your Immortal Reality,” and his latest, “Love Has Forgotten No One: The Answer to Life ” — all based on “A Course in Miracles.” As a teacher and worldwide speaker, Renard has taught “A Course in Miracles” in 24 countries and 43 states, appeared in seven documentary movies, won the Infinity Foundation Spirit Award, and hosts a monthly podcast. For more information, visit www.garyrenard.com.

Forgiveness Raises Our Vibration

Posted on by Tammy

By Sherry Winn

Do you know shame and guilt are the two lowest emotions you can have, and that holding onto them puts you in a love vibrational state?

It is essential to feel good in order to attract what you desire in life, and you cannot get there if you are holding onto a past incident, wanting to punish yourself or someone else.

Can you remember an incident where somebody hurt you in a way you thought you would never recover? Like most people, I have a past full of wounds. I have stories about how people betrayed and abandoned me. I believed people hurt me and caused me to bleed in such a way my wound would never heal. In fact, I made certain it wouldn’t.

Why? Because I held onto the painful memories. I thought I had to because if I let them go then the people who hurt me would not be punished. And who would remember the pain and be the keeper of those lessons so that they wouldn’t happen to me again? When I used to think of those memories, I would go right back to anger, shame or even guilt. I kept those emotions within me because I thought I needed them.

But when we do this to ourselves, we are moving away from what we desire because we are planting ourselves into a low vibrational state.

Forgiveness is About You
You might not believe you want to punish yourself, but do you remember doing something you thought was bad as a kid and all you wanted was relief from that feeling of guilt? After your parents punished you by a grounding you or giving you a time out, did you feel better? After you were punished, did you let go of the incident more easily?

Now, when we lie, cheat, steal or hurt somebody else, since our parents are not there to punish us and make us feel better, we often punish ourselves. We overeat, drink too much, take drugs, become workaholics, anorexics or bulimics. We find ways to beat ourselves up because we feel we don’t deserve to have love, health or wealth.

Can you feel the negative energy emanating from the thought of punishing yourself? And how long do you need to punish yourself before forgiveness?

The law of attraction works on positive vibrations, and the feeling that you are living your dreams. How can you live the feeling of already having what you desire when you don’t feel you deserve it? If you are struggling with issues of forgiveness, you are blocking yourself from receiving the abundance the Universe has to offer.

Forgiveness allows us to clean up our vibrations. It puts us back on the path of feeling good. The higher our vibrations are, the higher we raise our energy to the place of receiving.

How do we learn to forgive? Here are some concepts that helped me learn to forgive myself and others:

1. Nothing is either good or bad. It just is. It is a step in our growth and learning.

2. We choose our lessons on earth. People who come in our path are part of those   lessons. What we do to others is a part of their lesson.

3. The highest power on earth is love and therefore the highest vibration. Love trumps everything else. We do not love ourselves or others when we hold grudges.

4. Forgiveness allows us to move forward. Being unforgiving pulls us backward.

5. Everything that happens to us is for our own highest good.

When we are able to let go of our judgments of others and ourselves, we are raising our vibrations. Once we disperse with anger, shame and guilt, we begin to allow abundance to enter our lives.

Sherry Winn - The Law of AttractionSherry Winn is an author, EFT Practitioner, Certified Law of Attraction and Master Life Coach and a motivational speaker, whose topics include “Making the Impossible Possible,” “Loving Challenges,” and “Catching Your Dreams.” As a former elite athlete competing at the Olympic Games in 1984 and 1988 in the sport of team handball and head collegiate coach for 23 years, she possesses a deep passion for helping others become motivated to reach their highest levels of success.

Winn overcame her fears and limitations when she contracted chronic pain at the age of 33 and was told by 17 different medical professionals there was no answer. Through books, meditation, mentors and Webinars, she discovered the power of healing through positive thinking. 

To receive a free 50-minute Law of Attraction coaching session, or more information about Winn, she can be contacted by email at sherrymwinn@gmail.com, through her website at www.ucancreatesuccess.com or on Facebook.