Why a “Forgiveness Movement?”

Tom Carpenter

After studying A Course In Miracles for 25 years,
I finally got the message. 
How many different ways does its author, Jesus, need to say that
forgiveness is our only function in the world? 
And why is it the key element in our remembering what is true? 
Quite simply it is this: 
The foundation of our belief,
the filter through which all our thinking flows,
is the conviction that there is something wrong with us?that we are
somehow guilty for something we cannot quite define. 
The effect of this belief is to generally feel unworthy,
constantly strive to improve ourselves and
identify who we are with what we do. 
This establishes an attitude of judgment of ourselves and others,
effectively separating us from them. 
The peace and harmony, the joy and love of our God
created union with our brother is lost
in the turmoil and confusion that results.

Forgiveness releases the condemnation that guilt has imposed and
opens our mind to a way of thinking and seeing that is not dedicated to
finding fault.  In the most direct way possible, it denies that the ego’s
unworthy perception is true and offers the peace of acceptance in its place. 
Since it refuses to condemn,
our natural union with one another can be remembered. 
Because of this,
forgiveness is the fundamentally most important thing for us to practice.     

Forgiveness is what accomplishes the whole complex business
we call awakening.  It is the practice of undoing our story that
there is something wrong with us.  It does take a lot of learning to
understand why we think and behave the way we do,
but once we have understood this,
the way we actually change our beliefs is to make different choices and
feel the different emotional feed-back we get from them. 
It is discovering and appreciating how good we feel when we respond to
a loving impulse rather than one motivated by fear and guilt.  
That is the purpose of forgiveness;
responding to someone or to our world in a loving way with
an intention of joining with them. 
Creating a new experience entirely the opposite of our “normal” need to
make someone wrong because we didn’t like ourselves very much.  

Forgiveness is an attitude that dissolves all our thoughts of something
being wrong in the desire just to love. 
It is the practice of making loving choices to find the freedom and happiness
they bring.  We have spent lifetimes developing the habit of condemning what
is wrong?us?then making up stories that hide the truth about everyone. 
Practicing forgiveness now takes back our judgment and
lets us experience what we had missed before.

What else could be more effective or helpful? 
The simplicity of seeing this as the “fast track,”
to paraphrase what Jesus says, rolled around in my mind for several days. 
I have understood the teaching of forgiveness for many years so I wondered
why I had not seen the power of it this clearly before.  I asked. 
Jesus said it wasn’t a matter of not previously understanding that
forgiveness was our function, but what I was feeling here was that we,
our consciousness, was now ready to accept that this was true. 
We were ready now to begin to apply it on a broader scale and
allow it to take us Home.

A few days later,
I awoke with the image of a billboard in my mind. 
It said simply, “The Forgiveness Network.”  
With that image came a myriad of thoughts of what its form was to be:
a web site, what the “network” could do, what it could offer in the way of
giving and receiving support, sharing forgiveness experiences, and more. 
I also saw an image of the earth turning gently in space, with pin-points of
light radiating outward to show the location of forgiveness “net-workers”
willing to witness to what was real in our world.  The ideas will continue to
unfold as those who want to participate join in and add suggestions. 
I suspect and hope this will always be true.

The movement of forgiveness has actually been underway since the moment
we seemed to “fall asleep” and forget what is true about ourselves. 
God placed the Holy Spirit in our mind to show us the way to remember,
to “awaken” to that truth.  The Forgiveness Movement and Network are a way
for us to consciously acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s purpose and to pursue
it together with conscious intention.

Everyone has an idea now of what forgiveness means to them. 
The Holy Spirit will use them all to bring about His goal of revealing a
forgiven and a peaceful world.  ACIM teaches what “real” forgiveness is,
and we will look in depth at what that means. 
But when I think about forgiveness in its simplest form,
I am reminded of a line from my favorite Rumi poem: 

“Out beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing, there is a field.
I will meet you there.”

If the prospect of this reunion resonates with you,
welcome to the Forgiveness Movement.


http://www.tomandlindacarpenter.com/Tom_and_Linda/Forgiveness.html