ACIM Talk 28: The Ladder Of Forgiveness - Part 2 Of 2

A Course in Miracles Talk 28 The Ladder of Forgiveness Part 2 Forgiving Our Enemies The First Rung of the Forgiveness Ladder We have met the enemy and it is us from Pogo,

The cartoon character by Walt Kelly.

To move from the position that forgiveness is unwarranted to the attempt to forgive our enemies is a major step forward.

For the first time the concept of forgiveness,

Albeit in a distorted form,

Has entered the mind.

At least there is now a concept that can be corrected.

To arrive on this rung we have perceived the hopelessness of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

I would rather agree with Gandhi when he said an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

If we are seemingly successful at forgiving our enemies for their first transgression,

Can we maintain this if they continue in their attacks?

At some point our patience will be lost and righteous anger will rise once again to the surface,

Demanding justified retribution.

Some may turn to prayer for help,

Asking God to help the quote sinners.

Praying for our enemies may seem a noble action,

But what is our motivation?

Are we asking God to heal the evil ones so they can join the ranks of us,

The innocent?

We would do better to pray for ourselves so that we no longer see our brother as an enemy.

The Acostia Miracle's Song of Prayer Supplement states,

The prayer for enemies thus becomes a prayer for your freedom.

Now it is no longer a contradiction in terms.

Let it never be forgotten that prayer at any level is always for yourself.

Pray truly for your enemies for herein lies your own salvation.

Forgive them for your sins and you will be forgiven indeed.

Often people may say they can forgive someone,

But will never forget what they've done.

Implying they still hold painful memories of the incident.

This is a contradiction in terms,

As to forgive is to immediately forget all the pain,

For we have seen and accepted related behaviour within ourselves.

There is no answer to our failure to maintain forgiveness,

Whilst the enemy is still seen as being outside us.

We want enemies so we can put our sins onto them.

And so save ourselves the painful awareness of realising how alike we are.

Our investment in needed enemies is huge.

Anything and anyone will do to act as a shield to stop us discovering the painful truths of what Jung called our shadow side.

We cherish the idea we are innocent,

Because at a deeper level we fear we are not.

Our quote's innocence must be defended at all costs,

And inviting the world into good and bad,

Guilty and innocent,

With me on the innocent side,

Serves to protect our belief in our innocence.

In treading the path of forgiveness,

Instead of attack,

We will come to realise that our enemies can become our saviours,

Instead of our scapegoats.

Without their help,

It is very difficult to see what's hidden in our mind that needs healing.

There is nothing like having enemies to bring up all the unforgiven thoughts in our minds.

They become a superb mirror for what we have tried to bury in our subconscious.

In fact,

If you are brave enough,

It would be very educational to spend time with those you normally avoid,

And try to watch your reactions to them without judgement.

If you find yourself judging what you discover about yourself,

You have let the ego return through the back door of your mind.

Whether you judge yourself or another does not matter,

As either will reinforce the guilt you feel,

And prevent forgiveness.

The Song of Prayer supplement states,

It is impossible to forgive another,

For it is only your sins you see in him.

You want to see them there,

And not in you.

That is why forgiveness of another is an illusion.

Only in someone else can you forgive yourself,

For you have called him guilty of your sins,

And in him must your innocence now be found.

Who but the sinful need to be forgiven?

And do not ever think you can see sin in anyone except yourself.

The last two rungs of the forgiveness ladder,

True Forgiveness and Nothing to Forgive True Forgiveness This is explained in my two talks 19 and 20 on the AAA approach to forgiveness.

Nothing to Forgive,

The last rung.

This last rung on the ladder of forgiveness will not be reached until true forgiveness has been mastered,

And become a habitual response to the challenges in life.

The constant practice of forgiveness chips away at our mountain of guilt,

And bit by bit we recognise the things we dislike in ourselves,

And cease projecting them onto others.

As the darker,

Deeper layers in our unconscious reveal themselves,

We are now better prepared to accept them and let them go.

This is not to say that the journey is easy,

For dark nights of the soul are still likely to await us on the path.

As we start to master forgiveness,

More of our day will be spent guided by the love and wisdom of spirit,

And less by our ego.

A day will arrive when we fully accept that love is our true nature,

And unity,

Not the ego,

Is our reality.

At that moment our belief in the ego will vanish,

And it will be no more.

We will realise our oneness with all things and attain peace.

With the ego gone,

There is nothing to deny and project onto the world,

And hence nothing to forgive.

Before we realise our true spiritual identity,

We must be prepared for the attacks of the ego,

Which is literally fighting for its life.

As we have previously falsely identified ourselves with the thoughts of the ego,

There will be times when our egos try to reclaim their lost ground.

The ego will not go without pitting all its cunning against us.

The ego is the thought we have created,

And like any creation,

It wants to live.

As we move further into the experience of oneness,

And away from the appeal of separation and individuality,

The ego,

Which is simply the thought of separation,

Will do everything in its power to dissuade us.

But what we gain on this journey fortifies us for the road ahead,

And no one can fail in the end.

The text states,

Tolerance for pain may be high,

But it's not without limits.

Eventually everyone begins to recognise,

However dimly,

That there must be a better way.

As this recognition becomes more verbally established,

It becomes a turning point.

The loss of personal identity,

That we are a separate identity and a body,

Is a terrifying prospect and our egos will tell us there will be nothing left if we let the ego go.

How can you manage to run your daily life without my experience and judgement,

It declares?

Without me,

All will be chaos.

Behind our ego's thoughts of defence and attack is a loving and wise part of us,

Our spiritual reality,

Just waiting to take over our lives and effortlessly guide us through our days.

The journey of forgiveness must be a gradual one,

Allowing us to move at a pace that will not terrify us.

A sudden unexpected loss of the ego can do more harm than good if we are not sufficiently prepared.

The gradual lessening of our guilt in our minds through forgiveness provides the preparation we need.

We begin the inner journey with firm convictions of who we are and our roles in life.

But find as the journey progresses,

We become less sure,

Until we are no longer certain of anything.

The ego seems so solid and real,

But with time it becomes transparent.

The following story is helpful in understanding the illusory nature of the ego.

In a small village lived a cow herder named John.

Each morning he would go into the cow shed and untie the ropes around the necks of the cows.

Without this restraint the cows would wander away from the shed and get lost.

John would then lead the cows out to pasture.

At night he would bring the cows back to the shed and retie their ropes.

One evening he was shocked to discover that a rope was missing.

Fearful that a cow might get lost overnight,

He sought the help of an elder in the village.

John was told there was no problem.

All he had to do was go back to the shed and pretend to tie up the last cow.

John returned to the shed and followed this instruction.

The following morning he nervously approached the cow shed,

Wondering what he might find.

To his relief,

The cow with the non-existent rope around its neck was standing in line like all the others.

He quickly untied the remaining cows and led them all out to graze.

As usual,

John counted the number of cattle that were in the field.

To his horror,

He discovered there was one missing.

He searched everywhere but could not locate the animal.

But then he had a hunch and went back to the cow shed,

Where he found the cow he had tied up with a non-existent rope still standing there.

John tried to lead the cow out of the shed.

Although the cow was very willing to follow John,

It could not move because of its rope.

John returned to the village elder and told him the story.

The advice this time was to return to the cow and pretend to take the rope off its neck.

Once that was achieved,

The cow happily left the shed to join the others.

Adapted from Awakened Children by Mata Ambarit Anandamar In this story,

The rope symbolises the ego.

Just like the rope,

The ego does not actually exist.

However,

We believe it does,

And so it seems very real to us,

And we allow its thought system of denial and projection to exert itself in our minds.

While we maintain the belief that the ego is necessary to our survival,

The guidance of our true self must wait.

The ego is like the darkness in a room where all the windows are shuttered.

Once the windows are opened,

The light shines away the darkness.

The darkness is not real in itself,

It is simply the absence of light.

Call for Love When we refuse to forgive and attack others instead,

What are we teaching ourselves?

We are teaching ourselves daily by what we say,

Do and think.

If we keep telling ourselves we are weak,

We will become weaker.

If we attack others,

We teach ourselves hate is more powerful than love.

Similarly,

If we tell ourselves that we are supported by an inner love and wisdom,

We will grow more secure and confident.

If another person attacks us,

We have a choice of two responses,

To attack,

Defend,

Or to see their actions as a call for love,

Which asks for our understanding and help.

As the Course in Miracles text states,

Every loving thought is true.

Everything else is an appeal for healing and help,

Regardless of the form it takes.

Can anyone be justified in responding with anger to a brother's plea for help?

No response can be appropriate,

Except the willingness to give it to him,

For this and only this is what he is asking for.

If we choose attack or defence,

We are saying to ourselves,

I am weak and need defence.

I do not believe I should help my attacker,

And therefore I do not believe there is help available for me.

Our response denies help to both of us.

The more we defend,

The weaker and more isolated we feel.

What we do to others,

We also do to ourselves.

It is therefore,

Quote,

Divine selfishness,

Unquote,

To see another's attack as a call for our help.

As we return love for attack,

We reinforce in our minds that we are strong,

In need of no defence,

And have inner resources to guide us.

We see that in our defencelessness our safety lies.

For more information on this,

See the Course in Miracles Lessons 135 and 153.

None of the above refers to what form our behaviour takes when under attack.

If we have advanced enough along the path of forgiveness,

This will not concern us.

We will simply know how best to respond in any given situation.

Our inner guide will tell us what to do or say,

And we may safely leave all that up to its wisdom and love.

The more we practice this,

The more we realise it works.

This is true forgiveness and demonstrates that attack has no effect upon us.

Instead,

It provides an opportunity to strengthen the awareness of the love and wisdom we all carry within us.

As mentioned earlier,

Our attacker can be turned into our saviour.

No longer do we believe that another must lose for us to win.

Instead,

We see that to give is to receive,

And so we happily extend our love and wisdom,

Knowing that we automatically reinforce them in our mind.