What is Forgiving

What a beautiful morning, birds are chirping and the pigeons are creating a cacophony with their ‘poo cooing’. I have just finished my fresh lemon drink and oats for breakfast – settling into the chair to enjoy the present moment. I am on the side patio and the gentle breeze provides respite from yesterday’s heat.

Flicking through my Facebook I notice a posting in the feed. It is one of those wisdom card which reads:

‘Do not judge others as you do not walk their footsteps’ so true. Sometimes we are all judge too quickly.

“Do you truly know what it really means?” Universe started, startling me. I am not expecting this.

“Not now Universe, I do not have my computer to type your words” panicking and clearing the table in preparation for my laptop.

“No need for the laptop – you will recall all these later. Don’t panic” Universe continues

“A bit presumptuous of you there, are you sure I will recall our conversation?” I protest.

“Have faith” If I have not mistaken, it sounded like it was coming from one of the pigeons. I am going insane; I actually understand the poo-cooing? Arghhhhh!

“You are not and don’t be silly” I am reassured.

“So do you know what those words you just read mean?” Universe continues.

“So let me see. I think I got this one. The words simply say to me – not to judge others as I do not know what their experience in life is. Simply isn't it?”

“Yes it is simple and No you have not got it”

“Arghhh, so frustrating God help me” thinking aloud.

“I will”

Then the Universe goes into this spill......

“Let us start with the last few words ‘you don’t walk their footsteps’ and I will tell you a story to help you. Once upon a time up in ‘God Land” where all beautiful spirits reside……..”

“Sounds like it’s going to be a long one here”

“Stop interrupting”

“Sorry” I thought

“Accepted”

“Where was I? In this God Land there are plenty of happy, smiling and peaceful spirits going about enjoying being Perfect. One curious little spirit, let’s call it SP1, shoots a question at the ‘big boss’, and let’s call big boss God.

SP1: “God I know I am Perfect but how come I do not feel Perfect?”

“That is a very good question SP1” God answers and continues

“What part of perfection do you not feel?”

SP1 thinks for a while then reply;

“Well Perfection is about loving, forgiving, helping, being content, peaceful, joyous, etc etc etc” SP1 must have seen the movie The King & I.

“So what part of Perfection do you not feel?” God clarifies.

“Well, can I feel again ‘Forgiving’ because I really do not remember what it feels like to forgive” SP1 smiles.

“OK if that is what you want, SP1, I will grant it to you. But for you to feel what it is like to forgive, you will need some other entity to forgive.” waving another spirit over – SP2, a big smile on SP2’s face. God does cause entities to smile.

“Hey SP2, can you please help us? Your friend, SP1 here wants to feel forgiveness. I would need you to be the entity that SP1 forgives and to do that you will need to do something horrible and nasty to SP1. In this way SP1 has a reason to forgive you. Is this arrangement OK?” God is most diplomatic.

“Of course, I love SP1 and I want to help as much as I can” SP2 still smiling and SP1 nods enthusiastically.

Then God continues…. “However, in order that SP1 truly knows and truly understands and thus feel forgiveness, I will need to cause you two to forget this arrangement. Otherwise it will not be a real feeling. And in order to let you feel I will need to convert you two into physical forms so that SP1 can feel forgiveness through this physical form”

“That sounds cool” SP1 and SP2 ‘poo cooes’ in unison.

So with a wave of the hand God transforms SP1 and SP2 into human forms, causing both of them to forget their arrangement. In the human world, and true to form SP2 did a horrible thing to SP1 so bad that it almost destroys SP1 physically and emotionally. After a time frame through suffering and pain, SP1 finds strength to forgive SP2 and in doing so feels the weight of pain and suffering lifting as soon as Forgiveness is experienced.”
“I get it , I get it……” I interrupted.

“What did you get?” Universe answered.

“The words ‘you do not walk their footsteps’ mean that I do not know my own soul’s agenda or indeed the agenda of every person I meet and connect with. Be they friends or enemies, they all serve a purpose in my human life and they all have a prior arrangement with me. Although I really do not know what the agenda is, or the arrangements are, everyone I meet is here to help me fulfill what I am sent to this world for. So we really should not judge others too quickly, especially our enemies as they too have a purpose in my life – even if it means for them to hurt me. I should therefore bless everyone………” I am now jumping off my chair rushing to turn my laptop on.

“bye bye my dear SP1”

I have no time to say good bye to Universe…… just need to type these words.

Whew DONE !!!!!!!

Meditation

Here I am another jam toast in hand, another morning and a hot Maconna coffee waiting for another conversation.

"Come on talk to me!" I challenged.

I can only hear the pigeon "poo cooing" and an enthusiastic bird chirping.
I close my eyes, settling into the symphony of bird chatter' - focussing on my breath. 

"Define meditation" Universe started
"You are kidding me?" Sitting up, my eyes wide open, putting my jam toast on the plate and reaching for the keyboard. I wanted to record everything that comes out of this conversation.

"Everyone tells me different things about what meditation is. What do you think it is?" furiously typing.
"It's not what you think?"
"Elusive as usual" I thought.
"I am not" it said. Damn it reads my mind. I better be careful here.
"There is no need to be careful" it reassured. 

"If you can dis-associate with your mind, then you will find that there is a real presence behind the incessant thinking of your mind."

"Wow hold it old fellow, no need to get too heavy so early in the morning" surely it is not asking me to be "out of my mind?"

"Have you tried observing your thoughts?" It continued.

"Yep it is asking me to be out of my mind" My fingers could not stop typing.

"If you can draw back and be the observer of your thoughts. You will suddenly find that amongst the incessant chatter in your mind, there is another presence that is there just above the chatter. It is the omnipresent consciousness that exists before, during and after the activity called thinking." 

My fingers are going crazy pounding on the keyboard.

" Observe your mind's thinking, accept whatever the thinking is, do not judge, do not be part of it and do not participate. Just simply BE the one observing your thoughts. When you do that, you will suddenly find a duality happening. On the one hand there is this mind that is doing the thinking and the other a presence that is simply observing the thinking. When this happens you would have dis-associated with your mind or putting it simply you have created a gap. This gap is called NO MIND and when you are in this NO MIND you will feel an immediate sense of calm and at-one-ment with the present. Your senses will be sharper; the pigeons sound ever clearer, your jam toast tasting better. It may only happen for a split second initially but with practice this NO MIND will last longer. When you do it long and often enough, you will eventually bath in an overwhelming sense of peace and connection with your inner soul. When you do you are in true meditation. Every time you become the observer of your thinking mind you are in meditation"

I am absolutely blown away.

"Is this your answer to my question during our last conversation about living a fulfilled life?" I am typing so fast my fingers are slipping off the keyboard. 

"Yes" and with this..... silence!

Looking at my untouched coffee, thinking about a book I read a number of times about 8 years ago years ago and it is revisiting me this morning. 

"Thanks dear Universe, you have reminded me about this book" as I enter the gap.....

Fulfillment

As I sit here in the quietness of the day's morning, sipping coffee and chewing on my jam toast, I ponder the meaning of "living in fulfillment". I know there are a host of wonderful quotes defining this concept and almost all of them are meaningful. In short they all make sense conceptually.

One particular quote come to mind "To live a fulfilled life, live a peaceful life and you will find happiness and fulfillment."

I must be stupid, I have read this concept in many New Age books (or ebooks) but it still leaves a void in me. How can we do it? I cannot help but ask the question 'how?' How does one be happy? How does one be peaceful? How, how, how?

Then the "I" in me said "It has nothing to do with how"

"huh?" sitting up gulping down my coffee.

"It has to do with Being" wiping jam off my pyjama pants.

"What do you mean?" feeling foolish replying to "I"

Then "I" continued leaving me flabbergasted.
"Being is but a state of mind. There is nothing you can or need to do to be in this state of mind. You simply create the state of mind you choose to BE and then you will be"

"How?"getting agitated. "I" is really toying with my emotions now. I am going to give this "I" a good run for his/her money. Like a good consultant I am going to stay one step ahead of the client.

I then said "I know your answer. It has nothing to do with how, all you need is to create a space in your own consciousness and fill that consciousness with serene and calm disposition. Then from this space you look at your day or your situation and treat each day or the situation with this peaceful disposition. In this way you cannot help but BE peaceful."

With this "I" was silent. I managed to shut "I" up.

Finishing my coffee and my cold toast, I settled into my chair savouring the answer given by me.

"Correct" taking me by surprise.

With this answer "I" took leave allowing me to swallow my last mouthful of jam toast. At the most critical moment the Universe refuses to talk any more. Gulping cold coffee, I vow to return to this spot to take on "I" again.

I need to have a shower now.