“Forgiveness
Sweetens our hearts
And
Enlightens our minds.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“Forgiveness
Is the only real happiness
That lasts.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Forgiveness is both a product of and prerequisite for fruitful meditation and spiritual progress.
Meditation opens and expands our hearts, as a slow-motion blossoming of a flower petal by petal. As our hearts expand, the quality of forgiveness grows naturally and spontaneously, without any conscious effort on our part, for forgiveness is inherent to the heart as fragrance to a flower.
The heart expands to include others, and ultimately all. As our heart identifies with others through love and intuitive oneness, we see and claim both their strengths and weaknesses as our own. When we can see others’ motivations and actions within ourselves, forgiveness flows automatically.
We cannot give what we do not have ourselves. Unless and until we forgive ourselves we can never know or offer forgiveness to others. Forgiving ourselves is as fundamental to our spiritual wellbeing as personal hygiene to our physical health. Every day prior to meditation, breathe in absolute forgiveness for everything you have ever thought, felt or done or will ever think, feel or do.
Our heart longs for happiness everywhere, always. As happiness cannot come without transformation, and transformation cannot come without forgiveness, any lack of forgiveness is always an insuperable hurdle in our hearts’ happiness-quest. Without the flow of forgiveness for all, the quality of our meditation will always “hit a wall” and be held back.
When we become aware of this, we must invoke forgiveness ardently and eagerly from the inexhaustible source of forgiveness in the depths of our hearts. Only when forgiveness flows unconditionally can our meditation aspire to its full potential and unlock all our other hearts’ qualities – peace, love, light, gratitude, sweetness, compassion, wisdom, freedom and bliss.