Let's begin this meditative cultivation of forgiveness by finding a comfortable position.
Relaxing deeply into the eyes,
Choosing for yourself whether you would like to close the eyes or keep the eyes open.
And with this relaxation in the eyes,
Enjoy the liberty to look more freely inward into the mind.
And in this inward looking,
Consider for yourself,
Is there someone,
A person,
Who has inspired you through their willingness to forgive,
To give up any feelings of resentment,
Vengeance and alienation,
And to wholeheartedly embrace goodwill?
Is there anyone you recognize that embodies this virtue of forgiveness?
If so,
Bring them to heart and mind.
And through this reflection,
Can you momentarily come into resonance with this incredible power of forgiveness?
Knowing full well it's a quality that each and every one of us can embrace.
And implicit to this power of forgiveness is our capacity to care.
And ignite this carrying capacity within yourself by briefly checking into the body and noting if there are any parts of the body that feel tight.
And if so,
Is a exercise of care for yourself in this moment.
Breathe in,
Welcome a sense of expansion and breathe out.
Gently releasing,
Letting go of any unnecessary tension or strain.
Breathing in,
Welcoming the experience of openness,
Expansion,
Breathing out,
Releasing.
And along with this deepening sense of relaxation,
Enjoying a rare opportunity for stillness.
Not being called upon to do anything.
Gifting yourself a precious opportunity to simply be.
And in the very nucleus of being,
Can you distinguish a natural ongoing flow of awareness?
An effortless knowing.
And in that knowing,
Can you recognize an attribute of clarity,
Of wakefulness?
And if so,
Rest in this clarity.
And upon this integration of relaxation,
Stillness,
And wakefulness.
Let the breath begin to settle into its natural rhythm.
And in the turnaround between the out breath and the in breath,
Give yourself a moment to release any inner dialogue,
Any mental chit chat.
And momentarily come to rest in inner silence,
Settling your inner voice.
And now with little or to none verbal articulation,
Bring the mind to a place of rest.
Relaxing in the mind,
So what comes to mind has space to come and go.
And if something lifts your attention away from this present centered awareness,
No problem relaxing,
Releasing,
Coming back to the simplicity of knowing.
And again in this knowing,
Allowing for whatever activities of the mind to arise and pass.
And in this settling,
We'll create the mental space to intentionally engage in the cultivation of forgiveness.
And to engage in the cultivation of forgiveness,
We can start by considering a minor offense that we've experienced in relationship to another.
But something recent,
Maybe just in the past few days,
An offense of being betrayed or insulted or dismissed.
Can you bring a recent circumstance to mind?
And begin to fully acknowledge the reality of this event.
It is said in the early stages of forgiveness,
We must give up all hope of having a better past and simply come to terms with what is,
What has happened.
And in this acceptance,
We give ourselves then a valuable opportunity to honor any of the feelings that are present around this situation.
Perhaps we experience a sense of disappointment.
We may feel a sense of indignation,
Judgment,
Contempt,
Whatever.
Just give yourself a moment to notice,
Are there any feelings that arise in relationship to this event?
And experience in yourself what is it like to become aware of these feelings without getting caught up and carried away by them,
But giving them space to naturally arise and persist and eventually dissolve away.
And now upon acknowledging an offense,
Giving ourselves time to become aware of any feelings that were or are present.
Begin to consider the possibility of offering forgiveness.
Consider the possibility again of letting go of any feelings of resentment,
Vengeance of alienation.
And if you're ready,
As you breathe out,
Bring forth the expression of forgiveness.
You may internally verbalize this with the phrase,
Forgiven,
Or I forgive you.
If you're bringing this phrase to heart and mind as you breathe out,
Can you also explore what is it like to release the feelings of resentment,
Vengeance of alienation?
Letting these feelings go.
And sure,
They may continue to arise,
But not holding on to them.
Breathing out,
Bringing forth your own authentic expression of forgiveness.
And of course,
If you're not ready for this expression of forgiveness,
Just simply rest with the feelings that are present around the situation,
Letting them come and go,
Seeing if eventually you can create a bit of space around these feelings.
And forgiveness is not only releasing certain feelings,
But it's also embracing a spirit of goodwill.
And finally,
If you'd like breathing in,
Can you invigorate the sense of goodwill,
Of benevolent caring for another?
Breathing out,
Releasing any difficult feelings,
Breathing in and invigorating.
The innate sense of goodwill.
And now in the same way we can extend forgiveness to another,
Let's give to ourself a moment to consider any forgiveness that we could offer to ourselves.
And again,
In the recent past,
Maybe the last few days,
Is there anything you've done,
A minor offense,
Toward yourself?
Again,
A kind of betrayal or a judgment,
A dismissal of our wholeness.
Again,
See if there is anything that comes to heart and mind,
And if so,
Acknowledge the reality of our past.
So forgiveness is not forgetting our past,
But it's solving the difficult feelings around our past so we can become more wholehearted in the present.
And if we've identified an area where forgiveness may be relevant,
We can become aware of any of the difficult feelings that are present in this circumstance or situation,
But doing so without getting caught up and carried away by our feelings,
Just simply observing them.
And investing in this larger body of knowing.
And from this larger body of knowing,
Again,
If you feel ready,
Engage in an expression of forgiveness toward yourself.
Breathing out,
You are forgiven.
Letting go of any feelings of resentment.
Letting go of any feelings of vengeance or alienation toward ourselves.
With the breath in,
Vitalizing a sense of goodwill.
And like the sun basking in its own radiance.
Letting your heart radiate this goodwill to the entirety of your being.
And if in this reflection,
You've discovered this resonance of forgiveness,
The same resonance in which we aligned with and thinking about another who has inspired us,
Through their forgiveness,
Come to rest again in this quality.
And finally,
Before bringing the practice to a close,
Close,
Invite you to establish the intention to bring forth this quality of forgiveness,
Aspiring to enact it.
Whenever were the recipients of harm,
What would it be like to embody this forgiveness more fluidly in our daily life?
And upon this aspiration and this possibility,
Let's bring our practice to a close.
