Sunday Messages

This Week’s Message

A New Understanding of Foregiveness

We have long held the understanding that we should forgive others who hurt us, to not hold a grudge, and to love the other person, and give them another chance. We also understand that we need to make amends for any hurts that we do to others, to ask for forgiveness, and to promise to never do that again.

In recent years, there has been an emphasis on forgiving ourselves for everything we have done to hurt ourselves. This is a more complicated way of forgiveness. We can offer forgiveness to ourselves when we haven’t been mindful, when we cut our thumb or stub our toes. But it is a little harder to be mindful of the words we use with ourselves and to catch the negative ones and apologize for using them. Negative self-talk should be on everyone’s list for forgiving the self.

Sometimes we let our emotions override our logical thinking and the results are not always in our best interest. That slip in control is probably a good area for forgiveness too. Or our logical mind is too controlling, and our Inner Self is kept from expressing important emotions. That is another good area for forgiveness. So it is important to take good care of both Mind and Heart.

We also know that holding onto grudges, old hurts, and thoughts and feelings of revenge are dangerous to our spiritual growth. Seeing everyone as a beloved Child of God does help, but often it takes constant reminders to stay on the Path of Love and Compassionate.

Not to mention these old hurts can create blocks in the connection with others, diminishing our relationships, and with God, keeping our prayers from being sent and spiritual guidance from being received.

A new understanding of forgiveness is about perception and the communication between the Mind and the Heart, or the Conscious, your ability to see and understand what is going on in your life from a logical point of view and the Sub-Conscious, the ability to sense all the underlying energies and vibrations of people and situations.

This perceptual understanding of forgiveness has to do with the spiritual relationship between Mind and Heart or Mind and Your Inner Child, which is your Sub-conscious self. The Mind is supposed to be the interpreter of all the information and sensations that come into it. If the Mind interprets the information and sensations incorrectly then hurt occurs. It perceives hurt where often hurt was never intended.

The pono words of “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you,” are words for forgiving perceptual misunderstandings within the self.

“I’m Sorry” is an apology to the Inner Self, the Heart Self, for seeing and interpreting the other person or situation in a non-loving way, outside of spiritual understanding. I’m sorry that I assumed the worst about this person. I’m sorry I was so quick to judge. I’m sorry that I forgot that everyone is a beloved Child of God, and I used my words improperly. I’m sorry I saw this as a hurt.

“Please Forgive Me.” Asking for forgiveness of the Inner Self for starting on a destructive path instead of a path of love is the next step. Asking for forgiveness for not remembering the Truth about the Divine Spirit and all of Creation is important to explain.

“I Love You.” I’m sorry I put you in the position of feeling bad. I want only the best for you and I love you so much. I want you to feel joyful and happy. I really love you and want to take care of you.

“Thank You.” I am so grateful for everything you do, my beloved Inner Self. You add richness and beauty to our life and use your intuition to make our life better. I am so grateful, thank you. It feels good to have someone else say thank you to you. It also feels good when you say thank you to yourself.

This pono process ends with a promise to be more careful and mindful of jumping to conclusions before remembering that God is everywhere and in everything. I promise to be mindful, to uplift our thoughts and feelings, and to keep our life on the Path of Spirit. I promise that each thought will be loving and kind so that our emotions will be filled with love and joy.

I’m sorry, please forgive, I love you, thank you. Think about these words as we ask for and receive forgiveness in the Ho’oponopono ceremony. We are so grateful for the gift of this Hawaiian teaching. Aloha, the presence of the Divine is here now.