Forgiveness - The Power Of Letting Go

Hello everyone,

This is a live broadcast of KOSHI Radio Fresh,

Which are live podcasts that are meant to open your mind to the living truth that is untouched by anything in this world,

By anything in this world.

And I felt it was important to remember 9-11,

Right?

A moment when the entire world stopped.

The entire world stopped on September 11th,

2001.

And for those of us who were adults in September of 2001,

It's a day that you simply can never forget.

It was a radical shift in consciousness.

The shocking,

Horrifying events that unfolded in New York City,

In Pennsylvania,

And in Washington DC at the Pentagon.

And for those of us who were older than 20 or 10 years old,

Even young children,

Will never forget that day,

Or where you were,

Or what you were doing.

We might not remember what we were doing last week,

But we do remember where we were and what we were doing on 9-11 because it was such a shock to the mind,

A shock to the heart,

A heartbreak of massive proportions.

And it did stop the world.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched in utter amazement at what was unfolding.

It seemed like a nightmare or a bad movie.

At the time I was in the financial district in San Francisco.

I was still working in high tech at the time.

And I went into the office early.

I was there really early,

Like 6 a.

M.

There was a big meeting with Hewlett Packard the next day.

And so there was a whole bunch of us working to prepare for that.

What we thought was an important meeting.

But there was a transformation,

A major transformation already unfolding in my life.

I had been introduced to Gangaji and the teaching of Ramana Maharshi only a few months before the events of 9-11.

And that moment in time changed everyone.

It was a radical shift in consciousness,

A shock to the human psyche.

And I had no idea at that time how much this life,

The course of this life would change.

It started out as a regular day.

And then about 5-3,

I was in really early,

I think it was even 5 o'clock that I was in.

So I started getting these emails from all over the world.

We're so sorry.

We can't believe this is happening.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

Over and over again.

This love was pouring out through the emails.

But I was at work.

There was no television.

The internet was new.

There was no smartphones.

And we tried to log on to the internet to find out what was happening and all the news sites had crashed.

The websites had crashed.

Phone service wasn't working.

I had no idea what was going on.

What's happening?

And then I get this frantic phone call from a close friend that says,

Get out of the building.

She knew I worked in the financial district.

And at that time,

They didn't know if there was still more planes in the air.

And the financial district in San Francisco was a target.

Right?

But I said,

What?

Get out of the building?

What are you talking about?

She said this plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.

She's like,

Oh my God,

Another one has just crashed.

We're under attack.

And I said,

Well,

You know,

Nothing seems to be happening.

I walked down the hall,

I talked to a few people.

I looked out the windows,

Nothing was really going on in the financial district at that time.

So I kept working.

I called Hewlett Packard.

I said,

There's something major happening.

Do you want to cancel the meeting?

They said no.

You know,

It was early on.

And so everyone was shocked.

Right?

We just had no comprehension at that point of what was unfolding.

And then about a half an hour later,

My friend calls back and she's even more panicked.

She says,

You must get out of the building.

A plane has crashed in Pennsylvania,

And also into the Pentagon.

And I said,

What?

What?

I mean,

It just didn't register.

It was so diabolical,

What was unfolding.

And at the time,

I was really excited about the teaching of Ramana Maharshi.

And that excitement has never dissipated.

Right?

That teaching is a life changing teaching about what really matters.

The discovery of your eternal nature.

So I talked to my friend and I said,

Well,

It doesn't seem like anything is going on.

And she was watching television,

I could hear it in the background.

And they said that all planes had been grounded.

So at that point,

It was clear that no more planes are going to be crashing because they were all grounded in that moment.

And so I called Hewlett Packard again,

I said,

Do you really want to continue with this meeting?

And they said,

Yes,

We have to,

We have to have this meeting.

And so for the entire day,

I had no access to any images of 9-11.

I had to work the entire day in preparation for this very important meeting,

Right?

And as the time continued,

And more emails came,

Everything changed.

Everything became very surreal.

Things that seemed important when I arrived at the office in the morning were no longer significant.

It seemed ludicrous,

Actually,

Meaningless.

This meeting was totally meaningless.

We're going to talk about software.

We're going to talk about a business deal.

When the twin towers plane has crashed into the building,

People are jumping from the building.

The heat was so intense.

They literally jumped out of the building.

So everything became illusion,

Like an illusion,

Like seeing through the matrix,

Right?

None of it mattered,

This big,

Important meeting we were supposed to be having.

And at the time I was an ordained minister,

I'm still an ordained minister.

And so at five o'clock,

I walked out and we were all planning on meeting in our brand new church,

Which just opened its doors on that Sunday before 9-11,

Sunday the 9th,

2001,

Was our very first multi-faith service.

And so as soon as I came out,

My plan was to go directly to the church,

Because we had been emailing each other all day.

And that was our plan,

Was to go to the church together as a group,

A small group of people,

And pray,

And be together,

And cry,

And share our shock about what was unfolding.

And there's so many things about that day that you just can't erase from your memory,

Right?

So I,

It was five o'clock in the financial district in San Francisco,

California.

At five o'clock,

It was usually a bustling city of activity,

Taxi cabs,

People on bikes,

People walking everywhere.

But that day,

When I came out of the building,

I was the only person on the street.

There was no one in the financial district of San Francisco,

Not a single solitary soul,

Was walking around,

Driving around.

And it was really eerie and strange.

My car was the only car,

There was my car and one other car,

In a parking lot,

Usually crammed with cars.

And there was no one there,

No one.

It was like a nuclear bomb had gone off and everyone had vanished.

And so I went to the church,

And there was probably about 20 or 30 of us,

And we got into a circle and we shared about what we felt,

And we prayed for the people who had lost their lives,

For the people who were still fighting to survive.

And we were all in shock,

All willing to do whatever it took to change,

Right?

To be a catalyst for change,

To be a catalyst for transformation,

A catalyst for true freedom,

Eternal salvation,

Redemption,

Peace.

Is peace even possible in this world?

We wondered these things out loud and we held hands,

And we prayed.

It was what we could do in that moment to begin the healing,

The rawness of that moment,

The heartbreak of that moment.

It was so raw,

So real,

So heartbreaking,

Even though we didn't know anyone necessarily in New York or at the Pentagon or in Pennsylvania.

We all as Americans and people around the world could relate.

These were regular everyday people,

They were just going to work,

They were flying to meetings,

And suddenly their plane is being crashed into the World Trade Center,

Into the Pentagon,

Into a field in Pennsylvania.

It was a radical,

Raw,

Heartbreaking reality.

Terrorism always seemed to be somewhere else,

And now suddenly we were experiencing it in such a heartbreaking way in the United States.

And everything changed.

How we go to the airport changed.

And it used to be that you didn't even have to have identification,

You would just jump on a flight like you were going to downtown,

Like getting on a bus.

There was no security like what we have today.

So that day was a radical shift in how we travel,

And how we perceive other people throughout the world,

Terrorists.

And so Ramana's teaching is radical because he asks us to look at the terrorists within ourselves,

The one that's willing to fight to the death,

To be right about a very narrow perspective.

Jihad is a very narrow perspective of Islam.

It has nothing to do with the religion of Islam.

It's like looking at the Quran through a straw,

Taking one little piece of the Quran and making it the whole teaching,

Which justifies horrendous acts of terror,

Destroying the perceived infidel,

The evil one,

Which is everywhere.

Which is everyone that doesn't hold that belief system,

That fundamental belief system.

So this is how narrow,

When you have a narrow point of view,

It's like looking at the world through a straw.

So it's important to remember on this day that a jihadist is a terrorist that wants to kill the infidel,

And everyone is an infidel unless they are part of their group.

This is not Islam.

The whole purpose of the Quran is to carry you to the abode of peace.

The archangel Gabriel delivered the message to Muhammad,

Who was a sheepherder,

Who couldn't even read and write.

But it's the archangel Gabriel that gave him the Quran.

And many people don't know this,

Right?

But this is what happened,

And it became the religion of Islam.

And the archangel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary to announce the birth of Jesus.

Right?

The advent of Christianity.

Christianity.

So we remember where we were in detail,

Acute detail.

So on that day after,

I hadn't seen any images,

No TV footage,

Nothing.

You know,

I went straight to the church,

Which is this small little garage in San Francisco.

It was very,

Very small.

A group of people that really wanted to be free from suffering,

Wanted to live a life of true freedom,

Right?

So by the time I got home that day,

It was something like nine or ten o'clock at night,

And I was absolutely blown away by what the images that were just being shown again and again and again on the news.

Unbelievable,

Indescribable shock.

The World Trade Center towers collapsing,

The fire and death and destruction at the Pentagon in Pennsylvania.

It was just so diabolical.

You just couldn't even get your head around the idea that somebody would concoct such a radically evil,

Rotten,

Destructive,

Horrifying plan and carry it out.

And so the world changed,

The world stopped.

Everyone was watching this in complete and total shock and amazement.

And it's been 20 years since all of this happened,

And it's still raw in the United States.

It's still real in the United States.

And so when you look back over 20 years,

How has your life changed since 9-11?

My life radically changed on that day.

I had no idea how much it would change,

But it radically changed.

And one month after the events of 9-11,

I walked out of my career that was so important,

I thought was so important,

Right?

I even thought it was important from a spiritual perspective,

Because the money was supporting me while I was,

You know,

Really stepping into the role of a minister,

Right,

A spiritual guide.

But it suddenly was no longer important.

And it was finished.

I had no plan.

I had no idea how I would make any money.

But it was crystal clear.

I was not willing to lay down my life for a software company in the Silicon Valley.

I was not willing to lay down my life for that,

But I was willing to lay down my life for truth,

For freedom,

To help others.

I was willing to lay down my life to be a catalyst for change.

And so when I first met Gangaji in July of 2001,

I recognized immediately how powerful Ramana's teaching is,

Because it asks that question,

Can you face yourself and see the terrorist inside?

The negative aspect of your own mind,

Can you face that within yourself?

Do you have the courage to really look at the dark side of yourself,

The dark thoughts,

The negative thoughts about yourself and other people,

The movement to fight?

Are you willing to stop and inquire into this deeply,

Intimately?

Ramana's teaching is very powerful,

Very powerful,

Infinitely deep.

There is nothing more advanced than the teaching of Ramana Maharshi,

Because he asked you to turn within and confront the demons of despair,

Hatred,

Revenge.

Right?

This is what makes his teaching so real and powerful and potent.

It's not sure coating it.

It's not a hallmark card,

Right?

And 9-11 was so raw and real,

It confronted all of us around the world.

What are we doing?

What is war?

Whatever comes,

What good comes from war,

Violence,

Terror?

And so,

A month after the events of 9-11,

It seemed that forgiveness was the key.

If we had the courage to forgive the terrorist,

To let go of 9-11,

And not go to war,

But to be still,

But to be still,

To open a dialogue with the terrorists,

What would make you so angry,

So filled with hate,

That you would perpetrate such a horrendous crime against people who have no idea about who you are as a terrorist or your jihadist point of view,

Don't know really anything about you.

They were innocent victims.

So,

To turn and confront this,

Confront this,

And forgive,

Which means to let go.

It does not mean to condone.

Forgiveness is not condoning the horrendous actions of someone else.

And so,

Forgiveness seemed to be the key to end the conflict and begin the long process of healing the trauma.

And so,

On the streets of San Francisco,

We had a big picture of Osama bin Laden and asked people to forgive him.

And if you couldn't forgive him,

To write him a letter.

It was called Letters of Light.

And this seems completely crazy.

Even now it can seem crazy because terrorists are brutal,

Barbaric.

Terrorism is barbaric.

It's primitive.

So,

The reaction was violent that day because it was so fresh,

So raw,

So real.

Many people on the streets of San Francisco had lost people in the Twin Towers.

Their best friends had been killed and were asking for Letters of Light.

It seemed like everyone was oriented towards fighting back,

Avenging what had happened.

People threatened to kill me,

Threatened to blow up our church.

We got bomb threats.

And the Board of Directors actually stopped the Letters of Light program,

Right?

Because it was simply too raw,

Too dangerous.

And we recognize that even 2,

000 years after Jesus and his ability to forgive the Roman soldiers that crucified him on the cross,

We still had no idea what that teaching represents.

It is a teaching.

The forgiveness that Jesus gave to the Roman soldiers who had crucified him,

Brutally whipped and tortured him,

He forgave them.

Was he condoning crucifixion,

Torture?

No.

But it was really,

Really important to Jesus to forgive.

And Peter was so beautiful because he said,

Well,

How many times?

Yeah,

It's really hard to forgive,

Especially if somebody's done something you feel is really wrong.

And certainly we can all agree that what Osama bin Laden and those terrorists did on 9-11 was really totally wrong,

Horrible,

Horrendous,

Shocking,

Awful.

You can't think of a word bad enough to describe the events of 9-11.

So two things happened on the streets of San Francisco.

One was I realized I was willing to lay down my life for truth,

The ultimate truth,

The absolute truth,

The living truth alive in your heart.

I was willing to sacrifice this life,

This body for that.

But not for money,

Not for prestige or software or any of that stuff,

But for truth,

The eternal truth.

And the other thing was that people don't really understand what forgiveness is.

Forgiveness is a power.

When you don't forgive,

When you don't let go of the past,

You put yourself in the prison of the past.

That's what happens when you don't forgive.

You are put in the prison of the past and that makes it almost impossible to heal from the trauma.

Right?

You must let go of the past in order to be free of that.

And it's not condoning.

And this is why it was so volatile.

It was really a raw and real and shocking and crazy time.

Right?

So maybe it was premature.

Maybe it was the right message.

If we had the courage to stop and forgive and not go to war,

Maybe we wouldn't see what's still unfolding around the world in terms of terrorist attacks,

Which is even worse now than it was back then.

So it's not condoning.

It's not saying this is okay.

And certainly from a karmic perspective,

When you perpetrate such a horrendous crime,

There are karmic consequences that last for eons.

There are eons,

Millions of incarnations to atone for this negative action.

So there are consequences for action.

The impulse.

We are genetically ingrained.

Our genetics are wired for the fight.

We're wired to seek revenge,

To avenge.

Right?

So when you follow that impulse to attack,

You are generating karma for yourself and for others as well.

So it might have been the right idea at the wrong time.

Or maybe it was the right idea at the right time.

But forgiveness is a power.

It has the power to set you free from the past.

And this is no small power.

And it's no easy task,

Especially when you have been hurt.

So if you're listening to this and you lost somebody on 9-11,

You might not even be able to hear this.

Maybe you've already turned the radio off,

Clicked away from Facebook,

Forgive Osama bin Laden.

No way.

He's evil.

He's rotten to the core.

The heartbreak is too much.

I can't let it go.

We will never avenge enough.

We should keep the war going.

We should fight terrorism.

We should fight terrorism.

And the way to fight terrorism is with love.

That is the ultimate power.

And forgiveness is an act of love.

It's loving yourself to let go of the past,

To unlock the prison of fear and trauma.

No matter how bad the situation was in your life,

Whether you were raped or beat up or mugged or lost somebody in 9-11,

It takes a certain amount of courage to let it go.

It's not easy.

Why?

Because of these deeply ingrained genetic tendencies to fight,

To be right,

To avenge,

Right?

To prove you're right and the other person is wrong.

So this power of forgiveness sets you free from the past.

The past is the graveyard.

And if you keep visiting the past,

You will make present the trauma of the past.

So if you experienced a horrific event in the past and you replay that in your mind,

Your brain has no concept of time.

So it makes that trauma raw and real and present and makes that trauma raw and real and present now with all of the raw and real emotions you experienced in the past.

And the trauma is stored in the limbic system of your brain.

So this is no small thing to forgive.

But there's power in it.

The power of love,

The power of freedom,

The power to see beyond the illusion of the past and discover that you are the freedom of now.

But to discover that you are the freedom of now,

You must let go of the past because the past does not live in this moment.

Unless you give your attention to your memory and the images of your mind.

And today there'll be all kinds of tributes,

All kinds of video footage of that horrendous day,

Which will bring it present again.

Never forget is the motto,

Right?

And we don't want to forget.

We don't want to condone.

It's not about condoning.

But to be clear,

To be present,

To be here and now,

You have to be willing to let go of the past.

It doesn't mean forget it,

Because something like that is seared into your memory.

The events of that day are seared into the memory of the people that were living at that time.

We will never forget just by default,

Right?

But can we forgive?

And the answer is yes.

When you recognize what forgiveness is,

And the power it represents to set you free from the past,

To unlock the prison of despair,

The mind will keep you trapped there.

The brain has no concept of being trapped there.

The brain has no concept of time.

So if you keep revisiting past events,

You're making yourself miserable right now.

When now is always free of the past,

Forever free,

And who you are is now,

Is love.

Which is the essence of forgiveness,

Is love.

To let go and be free here and now.

This is the challenge and the gift.

It's the challenge and the gift.

But the power of letting go is it sets you free from the past.

And it opens the door for your own direct discovery of peace,

Love,

And freedom that surpasses all understanding.

And this is the gift of Sri Sri Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

Recognize that the past is not real in this moment,

And you will set yourself free from its horrendous grip.

The ultimate act of love is to forgive.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Om.

Peace,

Peace,

Peace.

May all beings discover this peace.

The prayer of the Vedas.

Namaste,

Everyone.