Forgiveness is the Ultimate Untapped Super Power

“Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.” ~Buddha

It's hard to dodge that topic of forgiveness. It doesn't matter what spiritual tradition you follow someone is asking you to be forgiving. If you are searching for healing, mental, physical or spiritual you are going to run headfirst into the concept of forgiving.

If you are looking for greater success and abundance there is going to be forgiveness work involved. If you are trying to improve your relationships or searching for world peace some spiritual leader is going to remind you that you need to forgive.

You need to forgive the large and the small. There is simply no escape.

Forgiveness is the spiritual work to be done. It's the push up your sleeves and "get 'er done" stuff. It's where we feel resistance. And it seems so illogical to resist the very spiritual practice that promises so very very much.

Forgiveness is something you do for yourself. Forgiveness frees you to live life more fully and more joyously. Forgiveness adds power to your prayers and unleashes your creativity.

What's not to love about forgiveness! 

Geez ... it's like a freekin' super power. 

Oh but how, but how, but how??? What if I am just not feeling it? And how do you know when you are done? What if you recognize all the great gifts of forgivenss but you still can't bring yourself to do it? Where do you start?

Do you have a Forgiveness Practice?
You gotta practice to get good at anything. Why not practice forgiveness? What would a Forgiveness Practice look like?

Search your heart every day and honestly ask yourself "did I close my heart to anyone today?" You can use some of these tools to antedote yourself a little every day.

Oh and don't forget yourself in all this forgiving. It may be the most important work of all.

• Try a Forgiveness Meditation. There are meditation tapes out there for the very purpose of forgiveness. Here is a Forgiveness Meditation from Jack Kornfield.
• Trade resentment for gratitude. Did you know you can't feel both resentment and gratitude at the same time? Make a litany written or spoken of all that you are grateful for regarding the situation.
• Write a forgiveness letter, you don't have to send it but start writing it now.
• If writing isn't your thing use your imagination and set that person in a chair before you and talk to them. Work it out in your own heart.
• When all else fails ask for help. (I always forget this one for some reason, it's not like it isn't for a good cause.)

Forgiving isn't forgeting. In fact remembering all that transpired and no longer being "hooked" by the memory is your indication that your forgiveness work is complete. Sometimes it takes a few rounds but with all that's promised you know that it's worth the effort.

Meditation The Art Of Inner Listening

All of the great world religions contain a mystical or meditative tradition. This tradition emphasizes the importance of daily reflection as a direct method for realizing an unmediated experience of the true nature of existence.

In Buddhism meditation is viewed as the central spiritual practice,   Please meditate on this video by one of my favorite teachers, Jack Kornfield.

Today, I take the time to listen to my inner voice. - Namaste.

And So It Is! 

Jack Kornfield The Quality of Listening

In Africa. There is a story that illustrates the quality of listening that can come through meditation. In a particular east african tribe or village. When a child is born they don't count the birthday of that child from the day the child comes from its mothers body or even the day it is conceived as in certain other cultures, but rather from when that child was first a thought in its mothers mind, that is the real birthday. And as soon as the mother realizes that she would like to have a child with this particular partner, She will go off and sit out in a field under a tree, and listen, and wait until she can hear the song of the child that wants to be born in her heart that will come from the wedding or the coming together with this particular man. And when she hears this song, she sings it to herself, and then returns back to the village and teaches it to her partner so that when they make love together, joined together in love, They sing this song and invite this child to be born. And later as She is pregnant. She sings the song to the child in the womb and teachers it to midwives so that when the child is born. The first song or sound that it hears is those gathered around singing its own unique song. And as the child grows. The people of the village learn the song of this person so that when he falls or she falls and hurts herself. someone picts her up and sings her song to her, or in the rites of passage or rituals of the village the song is sung, the wedding ceremony where both songs are sung until finally even at the end of life, the song of this child now as an old man or women. is sung for the last time, and say their last words...

When I first heard the story in it touched in me a longing to live in a place where we heard one another's songs, where we were so in tune with ourselves and with one another that we could greet each other in that way, to meditate allows us to hear the song within ourself and to be respectful and hear the song of those around us. - Jack Kornfield

Happy Birthday Kate! 

Stories: It's a Beautiful Way to Live

Jack Kornfield reflects on the role of wisdom in our technology centric culture and how practices from Eastern contemplative traditions can play a role in the West, for a wiser, happier culture. The video is part of the 'Stories from the Path' collection, a series that profile changemakers, culture-shapers, and great teachers who are courageously changing the world through the way they live, the ideas they connect, and the projects they build.

For more stories of a wiser culture and tools to be the change, visit www.cultureofchoice.com

A Culture of Choice empowers the gen x and millennial generation to a create happy, healthy, harmonious lifestyle by offering the vision + tools for making conscious choices, by synthesizing science, spirituality,and social systems and apply these teachings and tools to the contemporary lifestyle.

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