Forgiveness & Bad Things Part I
The topics of “Forgiveness” and “Why do Bad Things Happen to Good People,” are a very close match. Underlying these two topics is a common root, perception and perspective.
First of all we would not need forgiveness if bad things did not happen, if people did not do bad things to us. Isn’t that correct? So what makes a thing or an event bad? This is a question that we must ask ourselves, and we must not stop asking until we go very deep with this question.
It is pain and suffering that cause us to label a thing or event as bad. But what if pain and suffering were optional? What if an event occurred and even if it would usually cause pain and suffering, it did not? Or what if the pain and suffering lasted only a fraction of the time it usually does, say only 1% as long? Would that make it easier to hold back your judgment about an event? To give it some time before you decide if it were good or bad?
There is one thing I know for sure, that all pain and suffering is optional. I have experienced enough of it, and transformed enough of it, to know for certain that suffering is optional. Now it may not be optional to you or to some people at a certain moment in time, but that is only because they have not practiced enough, or developed enough for it to be an option. This is a skill that one can develop, the skill that makes all suffering optional.
So if all suffering is optional, is there anything left to forgive? In the book A Course in Miracles it says that God does not condemn? It is for a very similar reason…there is nothing to forgive.
To arrive at this conclusion however will require a different perspective than the one from which pain and suffering occur on. It will also require practice. When you are in emotional distress you have less energy, less power available to you. That is when we fall into habits and run on automatic pilot. So it is essential to develop new habits when you are feeling good, or at least in a neutral place.
You will find part 2 of this topic in the next blog.
Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story
image from sxc.hu
Tags: pain, suffering, forgiveness
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November 22nd, 2007 at 3:05 pm
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April 12th, 2008 at 12:26 am
wow nicely put… thanks for this I gained new insight again on forgiveness and bad things… find it hard to let go of the hurt …but you are right God does not condemn so I don’t have the right to do so… thanks so much
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