Extracts from Zen and the Art of Lost and Found

17

People Who Are Aware Of Their Past, Have Processed And Accepted It For What It Is And Are Thus Able To Live With It. Forgiveness In Its Proper Form Restores So Much ... It Also Permits Our Life's Journey To Proceed ... Problem Is ... Most Don't Know What Forgiveness Is ...

Forgiveness is the release of the energy that we have invested in protecting ourselves from the situations, the people and places and events that hurt us ... it is something akin to holding on to the head of the rattlesnake ... now that you have it what are you going to do with it besides cart it around with you everywhere that you go...

To forgive, you have to release it ... the snake's head ... back into the universe ... so that you can regain the use of the energy that is, or was, invested in holding onto the snake's head ... for self preservation. Of course, as long as you held on to the snake's head you knew where it was ... and the presumption was that if you could hold it at arms length for an undetermined period of time ... for that space in time you would be fine because it could not reach you ... in a harmful way. 

The problem with this theory was that it overlooks the fact that you have to go through life with one hand always occupied ... your mind and body never really rested ... and there is a high possibility that you probably scared off a few people that you would have liked to come to know or have as friends or as a spouse ... they left when they noticed the snake's head in your hand... 

Forgiveness is overcoming the fear and letting the snake's head go ... so it can take its place in the universe ... no longer held in the grasp of your desperation.

Discovery Made:

It releases the past in the present and gives us back our future ... not just our physical future ... but our eternal future as well ... the one where time is not a factor nor a consideration 

18

The Irony Is That Most People Do Exactly The Opposite. Exact Opposite Of What? Doing What It Is That Is Really Necessary To Heal Or Come To A Place Of Spiritual Completion.  Even Those Who Profess Most Loudly That They Are On The Path.

Forgiveness does not ask us to deny that someone or something hurt us ... does not ask us to deny our pain as a result of those interchanges ... What it does do is ask us to release the energy we have invested in protecting us from the something or circumstance or person that caused something to happen that in turn caused us pain ... a long time ago ... And if you are noticing ... that something or someplace or circumstance or person is not happening in the here and now...

We all have triggers back into our reactive memories ... know this ... they are not happening at this moment in time ... that was then and this is now.  Knowing this fact is key for you to be able to regain your previously invested energy ... to use it in a more creative form and not to have to use it to form defense postures against The Ghost of Christmas Past.

Discovery Made:

·      Forgiveness is a very selfish thing ... the problem is that most people believe that Selfish is bad ... it's not. Selfish is a very necessary process or cog in the developmental process of life ... it needs to be addressed and completed for The Self to come to maturity and move on ... to get on with what is next rather then being bogged down in the past.

·      Forgiveness: a process of waiting out the ego ...  of getting past my own Best Thinking.

·      Forgiveness works only in the moment ... Right Here ... Right Now ... that's it, that's all.

·      Discovery Made:

·      Forgiveness can only be offered for the right now ... directly into the conflict within you ... not directed out into the world at them ... the ones who hurt you ... although that is how it appears sometimes. 

Oh yes it may seem to be all about them, but the conflict is within you ... Then you may find as I have, that The Ego dislikes the light of understanding and the process of awakening and maturation ... things that truly bring peace and gentleness to the soul ... And because the Ego dislikes this so strongly ... it will retreat and retire from any engagement or interaction with enlightenment ... that could bring relief ... for what seems to be very plausible reasons at the time of the flight from truth.