Within the process of life are tools and insights brought to us by divine messengers of whom the Christ, through Christ-Jesus, as the Redeemer and Representative of Humanity. Forgiveness, and compassion, as simple tools which manifest though one’s consciousness, soul, and heart, are spiritual forces, as living principles that affect ourselves and others, effective means. If it comes from the heart, soul, and spirit; it changes things.illusory.
After one dies, life expands. Consciousness expands. We become one with God, Christ, our divine guides, 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, and only if it is appropriate, prior lifetimes as well. Some relationships live on in new and constructive ways, enlightened by recent changes in our experiences. Others are tainted by a shadow of the past and have yet to be healed or transformed.
As we review our lives in reverse, the smallest of things, down to the most insignificant of nuances, are revealed to us. We are forced to confront, and reconcile, the effects of our feelings, thoughts, and deeds down to the smallest aspects; direct and indirect. We perceive and are led to the living fact of what was caused by us directly, was brought forth by our karma from the past, or was thrust upon us indirectly; We pass through the past-life review, and experience, in a very personal way as if we were, in fact, the other person upon whom we deliberately, or inadvertently, helped or did harm. The love, and pain, becomes our own.
For those things done, which cannot be undone, karmic debts are accumulated and recorded. They are written into the divine books, recorded by divine angelic divine guides, who weave and build transformative experiences, and circumstances, into our future lifetimes as redemptive karma. Alongside these facts are the benefits and gains, and constructive aspects that we brought to other people’s lives. 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; the facts revealed and observed a matter of discussion but not debate in the sense that we have a path to self-denial through deception.
Within the process of life are tools and insights brought to us by divine messengers of whom the Christ, through Christ-Jesus, as the Redeemer and Representative of Humanity for healing and transforming ourselves and others. Forgiveness, love, and compassion are simple tools which manifest though one’s consciousness, soul, and hear as living spiritual forces. They are living principles that affect ourselves and others, when applied though intelligent and conscious effort. The forces of the soul, which find their apex in the Christ, have substance and movement. They can change things.
The reality of karmic debts does not imply that one cannot disagree with another; it simply means that a grudge must not formed. If it is, we must find a path to forgiveness. A deed, behavior, or activity when forgiven does not carry forward in the heart. Redemptive karmic burdens are not required; assuming that one has changed their disposition and attitude which gave rise to it in the first place. A truly wise person knows how to disagree with another without forming karmic debts or grudges.
I believe that the living principle of forgiveness, as a spiritual law, requires two primary aspects; 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 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 along to a new experience, regardless of how depraved the sin that committed was, having truly forgiven them.
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. They prevent healing. Karmic debts can, and are, accumulated by those paths. The process, however, of denying forgiveness cannot go on forever; the one who bears a grudge will need to approach the threshold of forgiveness somehow and someday.
I believe that grudges cannot go on forever, as a personal vendetta of karmic burdens, because every person, in the final analysis, must take responsibility for themselves. We must accept our karma which was created by ourselves, and was returned to us, in the past through prior deeds, thoughts, and feelings. Unawareness by others of a sin transgressed against them anonymously does not negate it.
Opportunities, and pathways, are provided for healing over the course of many lifetimes. There is a living, spiritual reality to the act, thought, and outcome of forgiveness that extends far beyond the relationships of the physical world. It extends into eternity as a living idea; what once was, is then transformed. One who has been forgiven and 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, golden, Christ-light of forgiveness that allows it to transform from a dark shadow, compelling some future deed or circumstance, to become a rose of fulfillment.
Forgiveness, and compassion, is a spiritual law and living principle. It is aligned with a shift in attitude, and perspective, of the one who is struggling with the grudge. If one can embrace forgiveness now, looking back into the past of one’s lifetime in totality, then one can move forward, otherwise, the grudge holds us back.
Admission of transgressions committed against another, however small or insignificant, or when it occurred in time, is acknowledgment and commitment to action. Stepping forward as the receiver and taking action, in forgiveness, is commitment to progress and transformation in one's self and in others. It begins with a prayer and daily affirmation that comes from the heart and a commitment to life and the 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)
(8) "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. 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." - The Author