Читать книгу The Forgiveness Solution - Philip H. Friedman - Страница 43

“Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here…. The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.”

—MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, A Return to Love

“‘Complete forgiveness’ is different from what is usually called forgiveness in the world. Complete forgiveness starts by our realizing that whatever is happening we have asked for. We then offer our perceptions and thoughts about the reality of the grievance to the Holy Spirit and ask for a new perception to be given us. Once the Holy Spirit gives us this new perception we must choose it as ours. This is how grievances are let go. Since our brothers and sisters bring us those forgiveness lessons, our relationships are actually our salvation.”

—REV. TONY PONTICELLO, After Enlightenment

“Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”

—MARK TWAIN

ONE OF THE FIRST times Jerry [Jampolsky] and I lectured together was at the opera house in Seattle. We were backstage waiting to be announced, and Jerry looked through a peephole in the curtain. “Wow,” he commented, “the house is packed.”

This must have made him nervous because suddenly he expressed an overwhelming desire to urinate! Even though we knew that they were going to introduce us in a few minutes, he had to go, so he asked the stagehand where the bathroom was and raced toward it. Later, he told me that he ran as fast as he could, but as he started back, he realized that he'd exited from a different door into an adjoining building. He had to find his way back to the restroom and go out the correct door before he could locate me. He arrived just as we were being announced.

Meanwhile I was having my own anxieties. We'd only lectured together a few times, and I knew that people really came to hear Jerry. My anxiety quickly turned to anger. I said to myself, I will never forgive Jerry for this. Then I began fantasizing about what would happen if he didn't get back in time and the curtain rose and I was standing onstage alone. I decided that I'd tell the truth and say, “Sorry, Jerry went to the bathroom and he'll be right back.”

We were out of the sight of the master of ceremonies as he began to introduce us. Just as he finished, Jerry came tearing across the stage with literally a second to spare. The curtain went up and we opened our lecture with the title of our talk, “Forgiveness Is the Key to Happiness!”

While onstage, I actually shared the fact that we were giving a talk on forgiveness, yet here I'd been just moments before thinking I'd “never” forgive Jerry, who was full of his own self-condemnation! Never more than that night did we recognize the truth of the old saying: “You teach what you need to learn.”

Awareness of the ego is essential if we're to attain a peaceful mind and a happy heart. Forgiveness requires us to look honestly at our thoughts and emotions and see how destructive judgment and anger are: before we turn on the light, we have to see that it's dark.

—from GERALD JAMPOLSKY and DIANE V. CIRINCIONE, Finding Our Way Home: Heartwarming Stories That Ignite Our Spiritual Core