As many of you who follow us on a regular basis know, the next few years we are focusing on a different spiritual practice each month. September is the month of forgiveness. While I have always known it to be a spiritual practice, I did not realize that there days that were set aside to calm together as global bodies and practice forgiveness. For example, I just found out that August 5th was International Forgiveness Day, Global Forgiveness Day was August 27th and Regular Forgiveness Day was June 26th. While all these days are important, it is also important to remember that each day has the potential to be forgiveness day in our lives.
After our Living the Five Agreements group tonight, I decided to see what Toltec Wisdom said about forgiveness. In the Everything Toltec Wisdom book, it is written,
“In the old dream, there is a ‘forgiveness’ that is actually based on personal importance. It says: ‘You have hurt me, I judge and condemn you, but I am a better person than you, so I will forgive you.’ There are many variations on this theme, but they all reflect the old dream of wrongdoing, judgment, and victimization. It is not actually forgiveness at all.
“When a Toltec Warrior clears an incident with recapitulation, there is no longer any hurt, no perpetrator, and no victim. The entire incident is released. There is no need to forgive, because from the eagle’s perspective, there is no offense to be punished or forgiven. There is no blame. In the Toltec wisdom, this is the true forgiveness, knowing there is nothing to forgive.
“This forgiveness results from a change of the assemblage point away from victim and perpetrator to the eagle’s view of the perfection of the universe. The cleansing power of this truth releases poison from old emotional wounds. When the warrior applies the poultice of self-love to those cleansed wounds, they heal with only the trace of a scar. When someone touches that place, there is no longer a need to protect it, so the warrior can step forward with his arms wide open to embrace the world.”
How much different would our lives be if we took time to apply the poultice of self-love? What if we lived as if everything within us that forgiveness requires us to heal was healed? What if our stepping forward with our arms wide open helped others to give themselves the gift of forgiveness? We can help all of creation be the best it can be, by us each taking the time to be and radiate the best us that there is at all times.
Let’s begin today by wrapping ourselves in a blanket of forgiveness and radiating forgiveness out to the world. Each day is another opportunity to radiate healing. If we encounter someone who is hurting, then offer them a poultice of self-love. Perhaps that is the most important ingredient in our spiritual first aid kit.