rickhur
2008-02-04 01:22:35 UTC
A friend once told me that "salvation" is a matter of discovering and
employing the right combination of principles. I think that is right
on. One of the principles I want to discuss is the principle of
"forgiveness". It has been said that forgiveness is a reciprocal
action, that is, God forgives us only as we forgive others. That
sounds like a real principle to me and if we are interested in
"salvation" we should have some idea of what forgiveness is and is
not. There is a forgiving of self that must be understood properly
but
today I am concerned with the forgiving of others.
Letting people do wrong and not holding them accountable is not
forgiveness. That is enabling. But the ability to hold another
accountable without anger or resentment is a good example of
forgiveness. The ability to see another, at each meeting, with new
eyes, with fresh eyes free of yesterdays remembrance of a wrong done,
is getting very close to the goal of forgiving others.
Resentment, which means "to feel again", is to have the same negative
feelings today toward another as you did yesterday. Here are some
examples of resentment based feelings that can be carried forward in
unforgiveness: annoyance, antagonism, bitterness, cynicism,
displeasure, dislike, exasperation, fury, grudge, hate, hostility,
hurt, ill feeling, ill will, indignation, ire, irritation, malice,
outrage, perturbation, rage, spite, umbrage, vexation and wrath.
One of the problems with employing negative emotions is that at any
time the person we are employing them against can realize his error
and repent of it without us ever knowing it. If a soul has repented
and we continue to view them in our mind with yesterdays eyes we will
be guilty of judging them most unfairly. We may never know that a
prisoner in jail has repented, for example. but love waits and hopes
for repentance without anger or resentment. Love is ever ready to
reconcile with those who previously did wrong but have repented of
it.
There is also, of course, a fine line between discernment and
judgment. Discernment sees wrong rightly but minus negative,
judgemental emotion. We have been warned to "judge not" or risk
judgment upon ourselves. Upset, anger and hatred are judgemental
emotions and the measure we use to judge others with will be the
measure used to judge us. If we judge angrily another as unworthy, we
will become unworthy ourselves. Salvation means being saved from
something and in this case forgiveness implies being made free of
judging our neighbor. It is far better to mediate and learn to
separate our soul from negative, destructive emotion rather than to
go
to our grave controlled by negative emotion and thinking towards
others.
Daily Life As Spiritual Exercise
http://rickhur.blogspot.com
employing the right combination of principles. I think that is right
on. One of the principles I want to discuss is the principle of
"forgiveness". It has been said that forgiveness is a reciprocal
action, that is, God forgives us only as we forgive others. That
sounds like a real principle to me and if we are interested in
"salvation" we should have some idea of what forgiveness is and is
not. There is a forgiving of self that must be understood properly
but
today I am concerned with the forgiving of others.
Letting people do wrong and not holding them accountable is not
forgiveness. That is enabling. But the ability to hold another
accountable without anger or resentment is a good example of
forgiveness. The ability to see another, at each meeting, with new
eyes, with fresh eyes free of yesterdays remembrance of a wrong done,
is getting very close to the goal of forgiving others.
Resentment, which means "to feel again", is to have the same negative
feelings today toward another as you did yesterday. Here are some
examples of resentment based feelings that can be carried forward in
unforgiveness: annoyance, antagonism, bitterness, cynicism,
displeasure, dislike, exasperation, fury, grudge, hate, hostility,
hurt, ill feeling, ill will, indignation, ire, irritation, malice,
outrage, perturbation, rage, spite, umbrage, vexation and wrath.
One of the problems with employing negative emotions is that at any
time the person we are employing them against can realize his error
and repent of it without us ever knowing it. If a soul has repented
and we continue to view them in our mind with yesterdays eyes we will
be guilty of judging them most unfairly. We may never know that a
prisoner in jail has repented, for example. but love waits and hopes
for repentance without anger or resentment. Love is ever ready to
reconcile with those who previously did wrong but have repented of
it.
There is also, of course, a fine line between discernment and
judgment. Discernment sees wrong rightly but minus negative,
judgemental emotion. We have been warned to "judge not" or risk
judgment upon ourselves. Upset, anger and hatred are judgemental
emotions and the measure we use to judge others with will be the
measure used to judge us. If we judge angrily another as unworthy, we
will become unworthy ourselves. Salvation means being saved from
something and in this case forgiveness implies being made free of
judging our neighbor. It is far better to mediate and learn to
separate our soul from negative, destructive emotion rather than to
go
to our grave controlled by negative emotion and thinking towards
others.
Daily Life As Spiritual Exercise
http://rickhur.blogspot.com