The Importance of Forgiveness | Eckhart Teachings

So you can look at the world wars, you can look at all the terrorism and all the other mad wars that are being fought as just. It's just a question of degrees of unconsciousness, not different. So when you go into that state of unconsciousness, it takes you over, you lose it. Basically, then that is the same energy field that has created what we see as the madness of human history and what we see of the madness of the so called world news, the same energy. So don't complain about all these violent people who are doing all these dreadful things. All that it is is human unconsciousness in a more pronounced form than yours or your partner's. And so that helps a little bit to find perhaps almost some compassion towards all these crazy people that are doing such crazy things and creating such terrible suffering. Now, if you become compassionate towards them, don't worry, it doesn't mean that they will not experience the consequences of their unconsciousness. That still happens. By being compassionate to another human being, you don't necessarily remove the karmic consequences of their action, but you yourself become free from the, from being drawn into the karmic cycle. So the act of forgiveness does not mean that this person is not going to suffer the consequences because life makes sure in whatever form that they do suffer the consequences of the suffering that they inflict on other human beings. It's a karmic law. But if you don't want to be part of that anymore, if you want to step out of the karmic law, the first step out of the, and the most important step out of the karmic law is forgiveness, then you do not feed it, you don't become part of it. That's why traditionally, in spiritual teachings of various traditions, forgiveness is always emphasized. It must be real. Though there are many forms of superficial forgiveness when just the mind, okay, I forgive you. It's not deep, it's not real. Yet the mind is trying to forgive. But you can only forgive if you realize that whatever actions have been perpetrated are the effects of human unconsciousness. In other words, what Jesus said on the cross is reported to have said, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Very profound statement. It is a profound statement that can be applied to any act of violence perpetrated against other humans or life forms. Forgive them, for they know not what they do. Not knowing what they do, of course, means they are unconscious. The word unconscious probably in that sense wasn't used at the time. So he said, they don't know what they do. Karmic law still operates but without you. And you can notice karmic law when you see a movie. Some movies like to manipulate your emotions. And so there are particular types of movies where they. First they build up the tension by showing you some very evil person. And this evil person is killing all these people or hurting all these people. And then you're being manipulated to feel that incredible pull that this person should suffer for what he or she has done. That's the manipulation. The audience loves that. They love watching things like that. So then the emotion builds up. And finally, there are even some movies, like the movies that about vigilantes who take justice in their own hands because the justice system doesn't deal with the criminals anymore. So finally you have this guy who goes out and kills all the bad guys. And your emotions have been manipulated so much that the audience says, yes, yes, he must die. Not realize what you are feeling. It might also happen if you read about some dreadful crime that somebody has committed. And then if you read it on the Internet, you can read on some news websites, you can read the comment section. And in the comment section, every other comment says, we should have the death penalty. He needs to say electric chair. He needs to be done to what he did. They should do to him. And all these. And this is an enormous pressure that people feel inside. And this is connected to karmic law because there's a compensatory factor in karmic law. And you can feel that as the pressure inside you, but it keeps you trapped in karma. So in that sense, watching these movies is not helpful because it keeps you trapped in that wheel of karma. So they don't teach forgiveness there. So this is. We are talking about something very important, and that is dealing with human unconsciousness and what looks like evil. So there are many things that are quite dreadful. So how do we. How does that affect our state of consciousness? And what role does our state of consciousness play in this whole scenario? It does have a role to play. So it's for us important that we are no longer part of action and reaction. Because the definition of karma is action. Karma means action and reaction. And it goes on and on. And as you can see in certain societies and so on, the karmic thing goes on, goes back centuries and centuries. The same grievance transmitted from one generation to the next generation and the next and the next. And they are all asleep. This is why spiritual teachings say, you are asleep. They are all so unconscious. They get taken over by the collective mental emotional pattern and the mental story. They just inherit it from their parents, and then they pass it on to their children. And then they and each generation suffers. They suffer the coma, suffering created for for each other. And at some point the suffering becomes almost unbearable for certain people within that society. And that's the beginning of a shift when it gets too much. So suffering drives humans to a point of awakening. It's a strange paradox. Here is the suffering is created by the unconsciousness in humans. But in some strange way, eventually it wakes you up, it awakens you. That's the redeeming feature behind the suffering that humans create for each other. Eventually it leads to a spiritual awakening. So it all good thing to realize. It all comes down to your state of consciousness and how you relate to the people around you. And that spreads. That is what creates the world. And even how you react to when you listen to the world news has certain influence because all human minds are connected at a deeper level. So the way in which you react to what you hear on the world news contributes either to the unconsciousness. If you get on your computer or the iPad and you type in, this guy does not deserve to live. He should be die slowly and they should torture him. Then you become part of the same karma. If you've ever done that, please forgive yourself. And if you enjoy reading those comments, also forgive yourself. This mind made sense of self is also much more focused on the negative than the positive. To be free, you awaken to who you are beyond your history and your life situation.