Photo by Rikki Vieira

~ The Aim of Forgiveness ~

 What is the aim of forgiveness? It is to restore awareness of our natural state which is guiltlessness. And guiltlessness is true invulnerability. In guiltlessness we remain undefended against God’s Love. While we harbor fear or guilt then we reject God’s Love, help and healing.

Despite the multitude of seeming ‘needs’ the ego floods us with, there is really only one, always and in all situations. And this one need, when sincerely requested in any Holy Instant, will undo all perception of deprivation and suffering.

 “A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct.” T-1.VI.2:1

The return of our awareness to guiltlessness is accomplished by Spirit via the miracle. It is the undoing of the fear and guilt that caused our perception of attack.  Guilt always triggers fear. Yet fear wears countless masks, many of which are not recognized as fear. The masks of fear include anger, frustration, conflict (inner and outer), the need to control, jealousy, fatigue, worry, scarcity, sadness, pain, disease, depression, feeling victimized, etc.

” I am never upset for the reason I think because I am constantly trying to justify my thoughts. I am constantly trying to make them true. I make all things my enemies, so that my anger is justified and my attacks are warranted. I have not realized how much I have misused everything I see by assigning this role to it. I have done this to defend a thought system that has hurt me, and that I no longer want. I am willing to let it go.” W-51.5.(5)

Fear is a master of disguise. The ego uses these disguises as decoys to divert our attention from the one ’cause’ of all our upsets. And this is always our unconscious guilt. Fear regardless of its form, must be recognized and surrendered to Spirit in order to invoke the miracle; true forgiveness. That is why Atonement is the undoing of fear and thus the undoing of guilt. (Note: Click here for the forgiveness/Atonement process)

Every seeming attack we perceive always arises from our unconscious guilt. There can be no fear and no attack without guilt to spawn them. Conflict, abuse, betrayal, sickness, physical and emotional pain, financial scarcity, accidents, loss and death all come from un-relinquished and unconscious guilt. So all guilt is self-attack or self-sabotage.

But we cannot overcome this unconscious self-attack until we see it first. And we can’t see it until we are willing to discover its only source of origin. There is no attack that has its source ‘out there’ in the body, in others or in the world. To believe the cause of our upset is out there, is to fall into ego’s delusional trap to ensure we don’t find the real cause and therefore heal it.

“Spirit, help me to forgive MYSELF for using (another, pain, sickness, the past, scarcity, etc.,) to attack myself and to separate from your Love as my Holy Self.”

The core of all our imagined ‘needs’ and frustrated desires, lies in this nebulous mass of unconscious guilt. Everything we think we need and everything we defend against in this world, is prompted by the unconscious fears of being attacked, alone, unloved, betrayed, abandoned, unworthy, un-supported, unheard, and unseen.

So we spend our lives seeking substitutes for the forgotten and invulnerable God Self that we are. We may have a long laundry list of unaccomplished dreams, many of which we plan to experience before we ‘die’. But let’s get some perspective here. Every instant we feel anguish or pain over something, then this suffering is a direct result of our ‘anticipation’ of attack or loss, albeit it unconscious. Because that’s what guilt is; the expectation of punishment in the form of attack. And the subsequent manifestation of that fear of attack.

It might seem to manifest as fear of loss, betrayal, abandonment, pain, disease, addiction, scarcity, etc. But at its core, the nucleus that ego never wants us to expose, is that our unconscious anticipation of attack, regardless of its form, is the essence of our dreadful ‘fear of God.’ The vague memory that we abandoned God by making this false-self and world to hide from Love. And this is guilt.

As I have said many times before, we can’t experience fear without there being a deep sense of guilt to trigger it. Guilt equals expectation of punishment. No wonder our first compulsion is to project our guilt onto the body, others and the world! Anything rather than to face the truth, that we are doing this to our self.

That’s why we feel this insatiable desire to seize every morsel of pleasure, approval, happiness, health and wealth in life, because we ‘expect’ it could be cut off by suffering or death at any point. “It’s a short life, enjoy it while you can.” So we greedily snatch every opportunity to get our needs met before death snuffs out our life.

Let’s look at the idea of ‘retirement’. Retirement from what? For many it would be retirement from a working life lived for the most part, through sacrifice. To feed the family, to fund education, to acquire a home and the adult toys that make life’s bitterness taste just that little bit sweeter.

So the ego says, “With only a few short years left before we die, let’s make up for a life filled with sacrifice by cramming these last few years with a taste of freedom? After all, we deserve it! After all we have sacrificed.” Ah, but the truth is that the cost of sacrifice is unfortunately pain. And certainly never freedom as the ego would have us believe.

When we sacrifice, we unconsciously demand payment. The outcome is always that we end up paying. Why? Because in truth, there is only myself. The payment exacted is usually in the form of attack on the body (aging and illness), followed by death. Sounds like a comedy right? Well yes, it certainly is. But the joke is on us because we are the ones who forgot to laugh!

There would be no need for retirement if there was no separate self who believed in sacrifice. Only a separate self has fears of being attacked, alone, cheated, unloved, unworthy, un-supported, broke, sick, unheard, and unseen. The Holy Self does not experience any of this. Can you imagine living out from a healed Self? As the ego’s projections of self-attack are withdrawn through genuine forgiveness, there would remain nothing to strive to gain and no more to defend against. And there would be no needs that are not already met. And nothing remains as a threat to be resisted. Can you imagine the freedom? The absolute liberation from suffering and responsibility? 

If we could begin to see just how much we will gain from wholeheartedly forgiving the world! Another way to look at this is that every ‘idol’ we place our faith in, will betray us. This is the nature of ego idols. These idols kidnap us and then abscond, leaving us with a sense of incompletion every time they are attained. In particular are all our special relationships. And not just the romantic ones. These relationships can only seem to betray us because we betrayed ourselves first; by choosing to abandon our Holy Self to find someone or something ‘out there’ to complete us.

What is a relationship for? This question involves all our relationships including those with our children, parents, siblings, partners and colleagues. They have but one purpose, what is it? Is it to fulfill the ego’s assigned ‘role’ (being the form and not content) of parent? Or lover? Or spouse? Or child? Or colleague? Is the purpose to get our emotional needs met? Or perhaps to get our physical needs met through financial security or sex? Do we use any of our relationships to fulfill our sense of incompletion?

The answers to these questions must be courageously exhumed and released to Spirit if you wholeheartedly will to know your total invulnerability and guiltlessness; your genuine and unassailable security, happiness and joy. Only here can you have any real relationships; ones that cannot be threatened by anyone or anything.

All relationships have just one purpose. Forgiveness. How else will you possibly unearth your own unconscious self-hatred (guilt)? How else will you heal the only need you have, which is a sense of separation from your beloved and Holy Self?

***

Some still choose to carry the scars of childhood. I did this for many years. Our parents may or may not have been monsters, but the deeper truth is that we chose to enter this life for one reason only. To learn to forgive ourselves for using others and situations to attack ourselves. I learned not so much to forgive my Mother, but to forgive myself for using her for my own self-attack. And in this quantum forgiveness, the unconscious guilt magnet that was made to attract self-sabotage, was undone.

Forgiveness undoes our unconscious desire for self-sabotage. If we knew, if we trusted and felt deeply into the guiltlessness that lies undisturbed within our Self, we would be unable to feel fear in any form. This includes all of fear’s disguises, for example: anger, frustration, conflict (inner and outer), the need to control, jealousy, fatigue, worry, scarcity, sadness, pain, disease, depression, feeling victimized, etc.

So now for me, I have great gratitude for all the seeming uncomfortable challenges I’ve encountered in my life. Because without them, I would never have recognized the source of all attack as being within my own mind. Now I know without a doubt that I have the power to overcome attack because it’s always self-attack. I have cultivated great gratitude and appreciation for forgiveness opportunities, as these are the crumbs that lead me out of the dark dream of terror and carry me gently Home to the one Holy Self.

Perhaps you might ask Spirit to reveal where you still judge others, yourself, the past or God. And ask to see where you have abandoned or betrayed yourself by being un-truthful to yourself. When we betray or abandon ourselves, we unconsciously ‘sacrifice’ our Truth in exchange for an illusion of love, security, money, approval, etc. As I said before, when we sacrifice we end up paying the price.

Invite Spirit to help you to forgive ‘yourself’ for using these people or experiences to separate from your Holy Self. Because these grievances are always ‘self-accusations’ that induce guilt and deny you access to resting deeply in the safety of your indestructible innocence.  Here is a powerful prayer…

~ “Spirit, please reveal to me my guiltlessness. Show me my complete invulnerability in your Love. And let me rest safely in the shelter of innocence that I share within the Oneness of all. Thank you. Amen.” ~

Recommended Blogs:
The 7 Keys to Authentic Communication
The Seven Essential Principles of Quantum Forgiveness
Powerful Forgiveness Process – The Atonement