Can you better the world by practicing forgiveness?
I would say you can interact with it with more wisdom and clarity, so potentially yes. Not directly, but yes your point is valid.
I’ve said this before, but people can use forgiveness to control. i.e. in the church, for instance. Often times, the idea that things like forgiveness can better the world just devolve into a baseless moralistic idealism, and feed the problems they would fix with their high ideals. This creates an us versus them mentality, and forbids actual forgiveness.
When things cannot be changed, perhaps it frees up the energy to accept the thing as it is. It does, and you will need that energy to deal with whatever seems like such a problem.
You’re just feeding your own self again. Then I’m the forgiving one, therefore superior. Yes. Idealism is egotism.
But to forgive a harmful behaviour that is continually being repeated, I do not believe is productive. You do need to forgive it. The reason you need to forgive it is that you cannot solve a problem in the same state of mind that you became aware of it in. You can’t effectively deal with the unrepentant villain by knowing why they are a villain.
Forgiveness is a tough topic for me. Far too easy to equate with permissiveness. They are not the same. That view limits your options. If you cannot forgive and you cannot permit, then are you able to choose? If you cannot choose, then how will things change? But yes, often times concepts jail us, clarity releases us. The person executed for murder has been forgiven, they will face no further consequences at mans hands.
I didn’t choose the behaviours that lead to the results I did not want. No. You did not choose that behaviour. Why not? Free will. Yes, for yourself and them. So these consequences you did not want, why were you disempowered in dealing with them? Because others had the right to choose and had more power. And you could not choose a response? You had no choices? If your mind is full of the power of another, you disempower yourself. If you cannot forgive, then you are placing yourself under the power of something else. But if the events as they happened leave you free to respond, then what need is there to be entangled in the problem? Knowing that the government is more powerful than the individual, helps us how?
It doesn’t really. Exactly, and if your mind is full of thinking about the governments power, what will happen to your personal life?
It will affect the choices. You’ll quickly get depressed. It will damage your own self, your spirit and own power. So yes, the government creates problems, as do corporations. Do we have to know about the problems they create, and how they do it in order to be able to improve our own life?
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~