EXTEND FORGIVENESS...BE RELEASED

I see my light come shining/From the west down to the east/Any day now, any day now/I shall be released. -- Bob Dylan 

Forgiveness. I have come to believe that an unselfed life comes down to the living of that one word, forgiveness. 

At one time, the very thought of that word and I immediately envisioned Hitler and all the mini-Hitlers in my limited world. It is both embarrassing and enlightening to me now how many qualified as a "mini" to my unshucked (or shackled) world.

My personal world has never known a Hitler, in literal fact...but that is the nature of a material mind. Without a higher Guide, the material mind is driven by self...specifically, self-protection, ego's throne. 

There is no heart-guided forgiveness to the egoic mind. In the dailies of life, there is "No problem" to another's "I'm sorry" which we then unconsciously file away for use as needed later. We learn, we learn...don't live there, it'll just come back later and bite you in the butt. 

We're looking now at the serial hurts, actual harms and soul-searing losses we have experienced over our lifetime. Forgiveness for those...forgiveness from the head, down to the toes, up to the heart via the gut, back to the head...is impossible all on ourself alone. Even finding ourself deserted on an island in the Pacific or slogging through the sands of the Sahara...alone, all alone...we cannot find forgiveness by willing it. 

Comes now the good news...we are never alone, all alone. Then we find that fact is useless until we come to believe it. And guess what gets us there...forgiveness! 

Letting go of the one we say got us on that isle, slogging the sands, behind the bars, up the creek...not by thinking about it, but by the despairing realization of so what, who cares, what's the use, I'm lost, there is no  hope. 

There...our head surrenders and the sealed door of our heart opens if just a crack. Unbeknownst to us, forgiveness has just taken root, bloomed and is spreading within us. Our  seemingly rough and rutted road has just been paved with slivers of the gold of detachment...forgiveness in disguise.

Forgiveness comes in the release of blame...blame for the poor, misguided killer, for all our mini-Hitlers, for our own self-shame...we release all. Else what's forgiveness for?    

Thank you.