Thoughts And Practices For Enlightened Living 1

Asking For Forgiveness ….Part 1

Much has been said and written about forgiving others. The other side of the Forgiveness coin is Asking For Forgiveness. If letting go was hard enough, asking for forgiveness can be equally hard, if not harder. But the good news is that if we apply either one of them, the other becomes less painful to implement.

If we are asked to count on our fingers the number of times we have been hurt by others, we might find that we run out of fingers. But when asked to do the opposite … how many times have we hurt others, …. We may find we don’t need all ten fingers!

So it is with most people. As usual our ego controls our emotions and how we feel. It makes us feel we are right, others wrong …. We are good, others bad ….we are kind, others heartless …. and so on, always absolving itself of any wrongs and placing the blame squarely on others..

Having said that, in the deepest core of our being, we do realize that we may not always be perfect in our relationships, and if we care to look deeper, we will see that on occasions we have hurt others with our thoughts, words and actions. It might take immense courage to go past your ego and accept that you can be wrong, but once you are ready to accept responsibility for this, you will be ready to ask for forgiveness.

Why should we ask for forgiveness?

Each of us has a core of God Essence, which is perfect, whole and complete and therefore at peace. Whenever we operate from Oneness and with Love, Compassion, Forgiveness …. We are in tune with this Divine Core and we tap into this Godly Peace. Each time we operate from the ego level of me, myself, I, and with hatred, anger, jealousy, fear, and in the process hurt people, we move out of sync with this Godly core and the peace it carries. Outwardly, nothing may appear changed, but inwardly, a lot will be wrong. We will have no inner peace.

This subtle inner agitation will prompt us periodically to ask for forgiveness, but as usual the ego steps in with its own self-serving arguments of how you were not wrong, so why should you ask for forgiveness? This inner battle between your Higher Self and your ego self is quite tiring and very often, the ego wins. So you learn to live with this ‘unpeace.’ To make sure it does not disturb you (actually your ego!) you push it down onto the deep recesses of your consciousness and continue with life as if it were normal.

In truth, it is anything but normal, as you will discover. For this disturbance in inner peace brings about disturbance in your outer peace with all its attendant problems …… in relationships with everybody, even with yourself! The ego may have won the battle, but it will have lost the war.

Next week: How to ask for Forgiveness

With Reiki Blessings and Love from Kenya!

Kamal Tolia