Forgive or forget

Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free. (ACIM Lesson 332) My freedom lies in forgiveness; my freedom lies in seeing that what I thought happened didn’t. For when I am you are you are you are me then there is nothing to forgive.

There is nothing to forgive! How easy it can be to forget. I forgive or forget: it seems to be the way.

Words are hard to come by this still winter morning. There is nothing to say, after all. So maybe when the words don’t flow it is closer to the truth than when they do. I don’t know.

The Tao has so few words, A Course in Miracles so many, and yet their essence is the same. Only difference is, the Tao observes and the Course instructs. I guess observation of emptiness is necessarily minimal, whilst encouraging the transition from confusion to peace takes a lot of effort. The ego doesn’t like letting go. It is tenacious, a fighter, and it lives in a mindset of attack and defence. While it believes it is being attacked, it will defend ruthlessly; so the Course’s persistence is the only thing that can wear it down. Hopefully. I am so near the end, and still there is so much work to do.

And it all lies in forgiveness: Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free. The Course’s most basic lesson – forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive – is still lost on me so much of the time. For over two years it’s been telling me to do but one thing, and I keep finding other little gems to grip onto. That fear is still binding me: fear of forgiveness. What will my ego do, what will become of it if I am free? It will have nothing left to control, no universe to run, no war to fight. Poor thing, its whole reason for existence disappears before it as the universe it made fades to dust.

I need to forgive the ego. That’s it! The sad little thing that would be king. It is holding on so desperately and all it needs is my love. When I try to fight it, I play its game, become it, and it becomes entrenched. When I forgive it, love it, it has no recourse for that is beyond its comprehension. Love is all powerful, forgiveness is its tool.