Lesson 141: My mind holds only what I think with God
Review of lessons 121: Forgiveness is the key to happiness, and
Lesson 122: Forgiveness offers everything I want.
Grievance is a part of our every day lives. Turn on the news or read through your social media feed for five minutes and you’ll get your fill. From top leaders to your neighbors, everyone has a grievance, a complaint about the world and how things are not as they should be.
Forgiveness seems to be in short supply.
It is, of course, because forgiveness – true, divine forgiveness – doesn’t exist in this world of ego. The ego likes to use forgiveness as a weapon to make ourselves feel better, and better than, others. We forgive because we’re so “spiritual” and we deign to overlook the terrible, no good things you’ve done to us. Rest assured, we may forgive, but the ego’s form of forgiveness never forgets.
Divine forgiveness realizes that every injustice and every slight we feel has been done to us by others is simply part of this ego illusion. Those we see as offending us in some way are acting out of their unconscious ego state. They literally do not know what they are doing because they are not in their right, or Holy, mind.
Instead of making the offense “real,” A Course in Miracles teaches us to see all those slights and offenses for what they really are – a call for Love. There is nothing to forgive here – there is only our choice to answer that call for Love with Love and not hatred, aggression or fear.
Forgiveness is the key to happiness and offers everything we want because it allows us to walk through this chaotic world with a sense of Holy, unshakeable peace. It’s not a peace that disregards the suffering of others, but compassionately sees it, looks through the offense and beholds the beautiful, innocent image of God that resides within every person.
Forgiveness gives us Holy eyesight and the ability to love even those who may hate us or attempt to do us harm in some way in this world. As we walk through this world of chaos, we are called to embody the peace and Love that this ego world fights violently against. If we remain centered – understanding that forgiveness is the key to happiness and offers us everything we could ever want – then we become that force for good and justice in the world.
As Hafiz writes:
When someone becomes quiet in this world,
really quiet, those who aren’t may turn to them,
even from behind a wall or from a great distance.
It is like a touch they, the unstill, wanted
a touch that can come from the invisible,
come from an intimate region of the benevolent spirit
in someone in true peace.
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