Forgiveness: I Can Change You… Guaranteed!
by Michael Braunstein
It’s a bit of a detailed thread of logic so if I bore you, either hang in there and be rewarded or bail and have a nice day. However and within whatever paradigm you choose, I believe you will find the stream of logic hard to defy. So, here we go.
“It’s about forgiveness…” — Don Henley We are each created. We exist, if only under the premise of “Cogito, ergo sum.” If each of us or the whole exists, we didn’t create ourselves. We are the “created” and created by some entity. If one chooses the “God made me” paradigm, by the dictum that “like creates like” and the definition of God being a perfect Being, then we are created indeed in the image and likeness of a perfect Being and a perfect Being can do no wrong and is therefore innocent. That means we as a creation are conceived with the same perfection and our intrinsic nature is one of innocence. Our true nature is being innocent. (Now, for those who dismiss the “God made me” paradigm, then even if a human being is no more than a conglomerate of random molecules assembled by a base twist of fatal organic chemistry known only as the “energy of the Universe,” then we are imbued with that same neutrality that the Universe has. What is neutral, devoid of judgement, is still to be considered “innocent.” Get it? Whichever way you want to slice your reality, innocence is our essence.)
Now, given that, we each long for our true selves and the consummate evaluation of that true self is as an innocent. (Again, in the words of Don Henley, “Are ya with me so far?”) And like any conscious being, we crave being who we truly are. Though we have the ability to stray far from who we truly are, we never forget it and long for it. We mourn for it.
Learning Human beings learn by watching other humans. In fact, observation of like kind is how all living beings learn. No human, no animal at all, ever truly learned by being told verbally how to do something. It’s either observation or experience. Mom didn’t say, “Now Debbie, here is how you walk. Move that left foot forward a bit. Now the right. Oops, don’t forget to balance.” No, talk is not how infants learned to walk. Seeing another human being walking is how we learned to walk. It’s the same with speaking or water skiing or anything else. When we see another human do something or exist in a certain way, we realize that, “Hey, that’s a human. I’m a human. I can be like that.”
So it follows that if our core desire is to reclaim our innate innocence, to be as we were created, then we must relearn the truth about ourself. We must learn our innocence by observing innocence in another human being. There is a sure-fire method to do that.
Why choose innocence? Because guilt kills. Guilt poisons. Guilt makes dis-ease. When was the last time you enjoyed feeling guilty? When was the last time you embraced guilt? I don’t mean when was the last time you made a mistake. That’s human. To err is human. It’s the nature of being imperfect in an imperfect world. But we are not of this world though we keep a body in it.
I see you. I can change any person in the world that I want to. I can make them entirely different if I so choose. Your very essence is under my control. Your core being is what I choose it to be and you are powerless to stop me. What is it that I can do that you are powerless to stop? I can make you innocent. By my forgiving you, you become innocent.
The best, surest way for me to learn innocence is to make you innocent so I can observe innocence in you, my human analog. And the guaranteed methodology that will succeed in making you innocent is to forgive you. When I forgive you, you instantly become what I long to be: innocent, free from guilt.
And though your actions may or may not be intentionally designed to attack or harm, I will always be able to forgive them if I so choose. Many have come to us over the arc of time who demonstrated that immeasurable power to forgive. They have taught that those who offend are doing so in error, out of fear or sickness only. No matter. I am still able to forgive. When we see another human in the light of forgiveness, it reminds us of our essence, our innocence. We remember that we are, as our Creator/Energy of the Universe is, a perfect energy being only but a human body. We remember that to err is human. To forgive is divine. And that our reward is the bliss of innocence.
Be well.
Heartland Healing is a metaphysically based polemic describing alternatives to conventional methods of healing the body, mind and planet. It is provided as information and entertainment, certainly not medical advice. Important to remember and pass on to others: for a weekly dose of Heartland Healing, visit HeartlandHealing.com.