Can you please explain how when somebody really makes you feel angry that you must forgive them for it? Does that not give them permission to do it more? How do I work to find forgiveness in my heart when the hatred seems so justified?...

Classroom Talk: 7/17/2002 - The True spiritual key to finding forgiveness in your heart for another is in awakening to your need to be forgiven for having been seduced into becoming someone who believes there is a valid reason for hating anyone.

Can you explain to me about forgiveness? Is forgiveness (and "making amends") something that I (a recovering addict) need to address? It seems silly to think I need to drag up every person from my past that I did something hurtful to. But what about those BIG relationships as in family? Will forgiveness and amends help in the healing of me?...

Why can’t we forgive people? Why do we remain chained to that pain? It’s because “I want to know why you did what you did,” and so I keep revisiting the offense in my mind...

It should be obvious, but it's not: we can't protect our heart and keep it open at the same time, any more than it's possible to be covered by a shadow, and feel the caress of a sunbeam touching our face.

The missing spiritual key -- needed to forgive those who have hurt us -- is found in our own awakening wish to be forgiven for having been deceived, and then seduced into believing there could ever be a valid reason for hating anyone.

Classroom Talk: 9/3/2003 - In this life, because of its invisible laws of perfect reciprocity, anything that we do to help another outgrow the limitations of his or her present nature produces the same order of growth within ourselves.

When it comes to dealing with others who have failed to meet our expectations, let us never forget the following: their choices in the past that may have caused us pain ought never blindly determine how we treat them in the present. After all, if the Divine decided to judge us 'once and for all' -- for even a small portion of our poorly made, self-centered decisions -- surely It would have giv...

The degree to which we judge others, and would make them pay for their shortcomings is inseparable from the false belief that our nature is somehow different, superior to those seen through the eyes of our disdain. In truth -- save for the rarest action of a prepaid grace -- it is not character that differentiates us from those pronounced less fortunate than we; rather, it is only a temporary...

The missing spiritual key -- needed to forgive those who have hurt us -- is found in our own awakening wish to be forgiven for having been deceived, and then seduced into believing there could ever be a valid reason for hating anyone.

There are those who will tell you why it is wise to never forget the pain of the past . . . but if you look closely at the anger, sorrow, and bitterness that has hardened their faces, then you will also see why learning to forgive is the better of the two paths.

When it comes to dealing with others who have failed to meet our expectations, let us never forget the following: their choices in the past that may have caused us pain ought never blindly determine how we treat them in the present. After all, if the Divine decided to judge us "once and for all" -- for even a small portion of our poorly made, self-centered decisions -- surely It would have g...