FORGIVENESS

In Tibet we say: “Negative action has one good quality: it can be purified.” So there is always hope. Even murderers and the most hardened criminals can change and overcome the conditioning that led them to their crimes. Our present condition, if we use it skillfully and with wisdom, can be an inspiration to free ourselves from the bondage of suffering.

GLIMPSE AFTER GLIMPSE
Sogyal Rinpoche

 I suppose that after I first came around I was mildly disturbed there were so many petty criminals, and even hardened ones, in the Fellowship freely admitting their crimes and misdemeanors. I say “after” because, when I first came in the rooms, I didn’t care who was there. I was desperate and that desperation was the greatest gift I could’ve had if I was to start this journey. The truth was, once I’d shaken off my obsessions like water off a duck’s back, these preconceived notions that a leopard could not change its spots (from my own personal experience) arose. Besides, I felt that even if a murderer could change, why then ought he/she be forgiven the crime? But then I looked at my own misadventures in the Fourth Step and realized that it was this inability to forgive myself for my sins that was the source of so much of my own suffering. The act of forgiving others, the willingness to change and the action of retribution was the magic that worked so well for me. A radical change took place and I understood that at last I could forgive and move on. This was the source of humility and a check on my pride lest I get foolish and judge others wrongly again.

 geo

5,112