Forgiveness as a path to the future

Within the process of life are experiences that impress themselves light and shadows on the soul. To transform these shadows, which manifest in mysterious ways in the life of the soul, insights were brought to us by divine messengers of whom the Christ, through Christ-Jesus, leads us forward. Forgiveness and compassion move hand in hand as living forces of the soul that manifest through one’s thoughts, feelings, and deeds. These powerful inner forces, which we can control, are living and active principles that affect ourselves and others.

After one transitions to the spiritual worlds, our consciousness expands. We become one with God, Christ, our divine guides, a cosmic family, and the universe. We are confronted by the reality of our deeds, thoughts, feelings, and relationships that were formed over the course of not just our past lifetime, but also our prior lifetimes as well. Some relationships live on in new and constructive ways, enlightened by recent changes in our experiences. Some are shadows and weights that must be shed. These dregs have a darkening influence on the soul that diminishes hope, love, and freedom.

The true causes of our dispositions, situations, forms, and events of our lives becomes known. During this process, the reality of forgiveness, compassion, and the various nuances of the human soul are revealed and how they shaped our lives and the lives of others in perfect clarity. Forgiveness and compassion are as vital for our lives here as they are for those who have passed through the gate of death.

We perceive and are led to the living facts that of what was caused by us directly or indirectly and is the result of our own doing. We brought forth these aspects of existence through our karma from past lifetimes; the results of our own decisions, and the decisions of others, which weave like a tapestry in the soul and the universe. We pass through the past-life review in a very personal way as if we were, in fact, the other person upon whom we helped or did harm. The love and pain becomes our own. 

For those things done, that cannot be undone, karmic debts are accumulated and recorded. They are written into the divine books, recorded by angelic divine guides, who weave and build transformative experiences and circumstances into our future lifetimes as redemptive karma. Alongside these facts are the benefits, gains, and constructive aspects that we brought to other people. What could we have done? What did we do? What was our intent? What was the outcome? All of this is reviewed in absolute truth as a multi-dimensional experience in images, thoughts, and feelings. The facts revealed and observed are not a matter of debate in the sense that we have a path to self-denial as we do in the world while we are here. 

Within the reflection of life are higher and lower aspects that manifest through habits and dispositions. We seek the higher and rectify the shadows by the insights brought to us by divine messengers of whom the Christ, through Christ-Jesus, and divine messengers and leaders have given to humanity since time began. They move through the human heart. Forgiveness, love, and compassion are living forces that manifest through one’s consciousness, soul, and thoughts. We can choose to embrace them or surrender to our inner dragon; the shadow. 

Forgiveness and compassion are living principles that constructively influence ourselves and others. This becomes a powerful living force when applied though intelligent and conscious awareness and effort. The forces of the soul, which find their apex and resolution in the Christ as a living and perpetual cosmic force that transforms humanity, have substance and movement.

The reality of karmic debts does not imply that one cannot disagree with another; it simply means that a grudge must not be formed or carry forward. If a shadow continues, we must find a path to forgiveness in order to release the burden for ourselves and others. Otherwise, it molds itself into redemptive karma. A deed, behavior, or activity when forgiven does not carry forward in the heart. While a redemptive moment is necessary in the world based on one's destiny, the enduring nature of redemptive karmic burdens as a "wheel of suffering" is not required assuming that one has changed their disposition and attitude which gave rise to it. This is a difficult obstacle. However, controlling these things is essential for our growth and the growth of others.

I believe that the living principle of forgiveness as a spiritual principle and law is predicated upon two primary elements; both are equally important and one does not need to come before the other. First, is living forgiveness in the heart by the one who was a receiver of a transgression acknowledging that karma and decisions somehow played a role...even if one is not aware of it. Having forgiven someone in truth will allow the receiver to move on to a new experience regardless of how lowly the transgression committed was.

Second, the quest for forgiveness by the projector who committed a transgression against another. This quest can be more challenging if, for example, the receiver is not willing to forgive the one who committed the transgression. Pride, vanity, and anger all get in the way on both sides of the equation and will block someone from taking responsibility and forgiving. If this can be accomplished in the heart and find its way into thoughts, words, and deeds then the soul can move forward in freedom. The past, for better or worse, always shapes and molds itself into redemptive karma and fulfillments. However, the path is necessitated by acknowledgement and reconciliation.

The negative aspects always prevent healing and cause the soul to contract. Karmic debts are accumulated by lower paths and forces in each of us; many times without our knowledge. The one who bears a grudge - either as a projector or receiver - will be compelled to approach the threshold of forgiveness somehow and someday by confronting themselves. This will occur consciously as one gets a hold of one's dragon or on the path of life when as Dr. Carl Jung stated; "We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life." 

Karma necessitates, but we can find a path through that requirement by acceptance and an active path of admission, letting go, and then doing something about it. We accept our karma which was the outcome of prior thoughts, feelings, and decisions and has returned to confront us through the forms, relationships, and events of our lives. Karma leads us to confront ourselves and change, but forgiveness and compassion are lights that guide our way to freedom and redemption. 

Opportunities and pathways are provided for healing by our divine guardians. There is a living, spiritual reality to the act, thought, and outcome of forgiveness and compassion that releases a burden; however insignificant it may be. It extends into eternity as a living idea. What once was, is, and shall be. One who has been forgiven can then move forward unattached, unburdened, and cleansed of prior transgressions. They achieve freedom and healing. The thought, feeling, or deed remains etched into the ethers of the universe, it is true, but alongside it is the living Christ-light of forgiveness and compassion that allows it to transform from a dark form into a rose of fulfillment.

Forgiveness and compassion are spiritual laws and living principles. They are aligned with the health, balance, and redemption of the human soul. It is the outcome of a shift in attitude and seeking of truth and resolution. Forgiveness and compassion bring into clarity both sides of an open equation that restores balance as a redemptive force. Through forgiveness, compassion becomes ignited as does love, patience, and understanding.  If one can embrace forgiveness now, while looking back into the past of one’s lifetime and taking responsibility for one's decisions and reactions to the events in our lives, then one can move forward in freedom...or at the very least a path to inner freedom.

Admission of transgressions committed against another however small or insignificant is acknowledgment and commitment to action. Stepping forward as the receiver, or projector, and taking action in forgiveness and compassion is a commitment to progress to transform the world.  It begins with a prayer and daily affirmation that comes from the heart and a commitment to life and a brighter future…

Selected Quotes:

(1) "And wherever any religious confession, in its outer ceremonial associates itself with this saying of Christ in order to bring home to souls the meaning and significance of Christ, we must seek this deeper meaning in it. When in any form of religious confession, one of His servants speaks of the forgiveness of sins, by Christ's command, as it were, it means that he who with his words about the forgiveness of sins, forms a connection with the forgiveness of sins through Christ, says to the soul in need of comfort: ‘I have seen that thou hast developed a living relationship to Christ. Thou dost unite with objective sin and guilt, and with what as objective sin and guilt is to enter into thine Earth-relics, all that Christ is to thee. Because I have recognized that thou hast permeated thyself with the Christ — therefore I dare to say to thee: “Thy sins are forgiven thee.”  -Steiner, Rudolf.  How the Spiritual World Interpenetrates the Physical, GA 155,Christ and the Human Soul IV, 16 July 1914. https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/SpiritPhys/19140716p02.html

(2)  "When we see someone facing life in a helpless and dependent way, we must say: “Envy must have been at work during his past incarnation,” and we should behave towards him accordingly. If the laws of Karma hold good, it will soon appear whether our attitude is justified. When we see someone entering life with bad health and a weak constitution, we may take for granted that envy played a certain part in his life during his past incarnation.

When there is such a person in our environment, we must say that Karma led us together with him for a definite purpose: perhaps we were the object of his former envy. What can we now do for him? If Karma is a fact which can be reasonably accepted, if it is a valid truth, it should become manifest that by adopting the right attitude towards such a physically weak person in our environment, a good result can be achieved. 

What he needs is forgiveness; he needs to encounter this forgiving attitude in the widest measure. Under the condition that we have something to forgive him, we should envelop him in an atmosphere of forgiveness. “You have to forgive him something — therefore do it”; this is what we say to ourselves, but not to HIM — we shall act accordingly and await the result, and we shall see him gaining health and strength. Simply try to do what is right and the result will not fail to appear." - Steiner, Rudolf. Morality and Karma,  12 November 1910, Nuremberg, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/MorKar_index.html

(3) “Who gains by being forgiven and forgiving? The one that forgives…”

- Edgar Cayce reading 585-2 

(4) "For not of you alone may one meet self; but in not only the forgiveness in self but in the abilities of expressing self that others may forgive also." 

- Edgar Cayce reading 1096-1

(5) "In showing forth that which is manifest in thine experience, let the love that was manifested in forgiveness be in thee, that there be no envy, no strife, no knowledge of other than good works through the activities of self."  -Edgar Cayce reading 262-4

(6) “Tolerance comes of age.  I see no fault committed that I myself could not have committed at some time or other.”  -Johann Wolfram von Goethe (1749-1832)

(7)  "A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart." -Johann Wolfram von Goethe (1749-1832)

An Affirmation by the Author: "I consciously forgive all who have ever sinned against me, now and forever, I forgive all who have ever, over the course of all my lifetimes, ever committed a sin or transgression against me. All grudges are forgiven. All sins are forgiven however small or insignificant. All notions of wrongdoings committed by others upon me are forgiven, either known or unknown. All are released from any karmic burdens and obligations to me so that they move freely into the future, and the Light of the Christ, for all time."