 Common understanding of forgiveness is you forgive people for what they did or for what they didn't do that they should have done That you believe that they should have done and they can go two ways, you know Are you sure? Yeah, shooting all these things And sins of omission like you should have been there for me. You should have done this. You should have done that and What a course of miracles is saying is You forgive your brother you forgive your sister for what he did not do So you see it's really different from traditional forgiveness Traditional forgiveness forgive them for what they did do Of course the miracles forgiveness forgive them for what they didn't do Now what does that even mean? How do you that sounds good? You know like well, you know I thought that they had an affair. I I'm I caught them in the middle of the affair or whatever it was you know What the course is teaching us is that we have a misperception of the whole world You could say the ego has sponsored the belief in linear time, but we believe that the human being is a creature of linear time and the course is saying well actually You know, God did not create you that way. God did not create you as flesh and blood with all kinds of mistakes and sins God created you perfect. God created you love. God created you innocence. God created you spirit But you fall on the sleep and now you're dreaming a dream in which you forgot all about all that love You know now it's it's nirvana. It's heaven. It's absolute oneness. You know there's words for it But it's not an awareness, you know, it's not in the dream. You're dreaming a dream of separation That has sickness and fear and guilt and death and all kinds of things are part of it and so Just like there's a lot of spiritualities that emphasize the present moment and living in the present That's what the course is doing and and coming back to the present moment and Realizing that the grievance that you had the hurt that you believe was caused to you by Another person but what they did or but what they didn't do that they should have done was actually a misperception personal forgiveness in the sense that it's an experience but But once you start to realize that the person that we believe we are the persona or the mass that we wear isn't the whole picture It's just a small thread of the whole picture and so True forgiveness would be about clearing away all the thoughts and grievances and judgments Even the positive judgments As well as the negative judgments. You see how that's a lot different. Usually forgiveness is As seen as release all the negative Like accentuate the positive eliminate the negative This is not even where the course is going It's saying that your positive judgments and your negative judgments are both obscuring Your awareness of what what is You might have heard of Byron Katie Love what is we have to let go of what isn't before you can love what is that's forgiveness Well being so present And so still in mind that you Have a total escape from the past and a total lack of interest in the future That's being fully present. That's that's forgiveness It's a practice that takes It seems to take time Not in reality, but because the mind's addicted to these judgments and grievances and it's it seems to take time to detox from these judgments And so it's a very deep journey. It's almost like you you jump down the rabbit hole And say I want to know myself as I truly am or I want peace of mind or Lasting happiness and freedom and bliss and then you drop down in this rabbit hole of Of really emptying the contents of consciousness And coming to that stillness that's that's already there That's really what forgiveness is. So it's very different from The idea of forgiving people because most of us have had the experience where we we forgive people And then there's more grievances that come or sometimes we forgive A person for one thing and then They do something else and then something else and then something else Where they don't do these things that we think they should and then we're left Trying to do this process of forgiveness that seems to be endless It just seems like an endless number of Lessons that keep coming but but this is a teaching that's taking you to the point where you can reach beyond these multiple lessons into a final lesson of pure innocence Some of you have heard of Ho'oponopono Of course with Hawaii, but Dr. Hu Lin and and how When he does a workshop or retreat, you know, he'll he'll get the list of all the retreatants And as soon as he gets the list of everyone who's coming he starts practicing Ho'oponopono on the list Before anybody even shows up He's going through He's practicing practicing. That's a mind clearing process Maybe he's reading through the list and he A name brings an association to his mind of something from the past Or somebody that he knew Or there's a feeling or experience or a judgment as he's just looking at the list Of the ones that are coming And he's practicing before they even arrive He's also quite famous for, you know, having a clinic In which he did this practice with all of the clients In this Clinic where he lived and worked where he worked and and basically He he did the practice in his office So well so thoroughly that they closed the clinic and all the patients were Were set free And he he did really interact with them Physically That's a good example of all he's doing is at the level of the mind, you know, because of Of that practice You know, he literally, uh, practiced it so well that the whole Whole clinic was Dismantled Talk about practicing Teaching yourself out of the job Giving yourself out of the profession So thoroughly that That the clients disappeared I've always said that I said if you if you become a good teacher, you will teach yourself out of the job You'll just end up being There won't be any teaching anymore. Just pure being