Transforming Power of Forgiveness

From the emails I get there seem to be two problems about forgiveness.
First is the fear of forgiveness because of the ego’s need to retaliate or validate one’s suffering.
Second is the mind’s inability to understand how to forgive or what is implied by it.

Before we get into the secret of forgiveness let’s see some of the transforming power of it. Forgiveness actually collapses time in our favor so that any karmic consequence due us such as an ‘accident’ or painful experience is bypassed.

Our lifetime script is already determined with its ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ plus ‘accidents.’ This script is not set in stone unless the human ignores forgiving then what was determined happens in direct schedule.
To understand this karmic life there has to be the mental grasp of what is called ‘Unconscious Guilt.’ This unconscious guilt is a discomfort most people live with believing it is the way life is. They go about life feeling this inner discomfort and try to find either a reason for it or try to get rid of it. Nothing works because guilt is not something you can put your finger on. It is like having a pebble in your shoe and any attempt to remove it fails since you can’t find the pebble. So, you learn to live with it.

What is this unconscious guilt?

It is unconscious because it is deeply set within the psyche. It is known as ‘guilt’ because it carries with it feelings of separation and the need to be important, to be special or to stand out and be noticed. Within its needs lies a feeling of ‘not being good enough’ combined with the subtle feeling that you are missing something or lacking something. At times it even feels as if you are ‘bad.’ These feelings everyone has regardless of station in life and it is unconscious so that it nags you without knowing what it is.

What creates this unconscious guilt? The reason is simple enough. From the time we are 3 years old we start feeling and believing that we are our name and body and thus, unconsciously, create the feeling we are separate. We have totally forgotten that we are One Being or Oneness itself. And, it is this very estrangement from this fact that allows the unconscious guilt to make its way into our life. This guilt-feeling carries with it self-consciousness, ego pretension, and the need for love ( power or approval.), the need to be heard, seen, noticed and recognized. This need for egoic recognition comprises the emotional and psychological suffering of humanity.

What is ego?
It is the belief that you are a body and therefore separate from others. Most people live a whole lifetime believing they are this ego and never even question it. Such people can never find true peace and inner security and contentment.

Forgiveness helps us in two ways. two-fold. First it keeps the guilty feeling out of the picture, and while doing so, moves us closer to our true nature. Every forgiveness of discomfort enhances our oneness knowing.
Forgiveness cuts through unconscious guilt and its projection of karma like a laser beam. It penetrates through all of your past lives and even future lives, through the different dimensions of time.

How do we forgive?

First of all, you cannot forgive unless you know that you are NOT an ego. Ego wants to hang on to pain and hates to forgive. In fact, ego will want to retaliate, seek revenge and get even in any way it can. Thus it creates karma of a serious nature in one’s life. Ego belief is also written within your life-script. Thus the script contains the tragedies, mishaps, accidents and awful experiences that stem from the belief in ego.

So, one primary ingredient for forgiveness is knowing who you are. It is not difficult if you pay close attention to the following question.
Ask yourself right now, “Do you know yourself?” and then pause for a moment before answering. This pause will give you an opening to LISTEN through your Heart.

Good – now that you have asked it and paused for a moment, what was your answer? Don’t read further until you have answered it.
The Heart replies:
“You are the knower of your body, senses and mind. You know that you have a body and mind. However, this knower can never be known, because you are it and there is nobody to know it. It can
never become an object of observation because it is totality, wholeness, Oneness itself.”

This is who you are – the knower! You are NOT the body, senses,r mind nor thoughts and emotions. In fact, these emotions, thoughts (mind) and body appear only because there is ‘YOU.’ You are NOT an ego but the knower.

Pause and feel what you have just read because only through this process can you grasp the power and ease of forgiveness. And, forgiveness will take you all the way Home. Every time you forgive your guilt, you move one step closer to your true Home of Oneness. Oneness is like peeling an onion. You might not notice the depth of the peeling because it looks like the same onion; however within every peel you’ll be moving closer to the center called Home with each peeling (forgiveness).

Understanding Cause and Effect

How do I forgive? You learn how forgiveness works as you recognize that you are not an Effect of a major Cause (Oneness); You are the Cause itself. It is you, the Cause, that predetermined your life’s script. It is You who created the life you live. You cannot be an Effect because then you’d be like a victim. Since most people feel that they are effects of the Source (Cause) then they play victims in life and bemoan their lot. Through forgiveness, seeing expands and reveals (ever deepening) that you can override the pre-determined script by forgiving (what you normally would not have forgiven) and thus transcend the karmic consequences that might have been due you. In other words, forgiveness collapses time as we know linear time. Time doesn’t exist except in our linear thinking. All physicists agree that past, present and future happen simultaneously because we live in a holographic universe. It is from this understanding that forgiveness becomes a natural process.
If someone maligns us or takes advantage of our position we see that we created that so-called individual in our life script. By forgiving him or her we rise above the consequences of such unforgiveness and thus retain our peace and make the path free from obstruction.
Therefore seeing that this ‘other’ created a ‘problem’ for you, you in turn see no problem only something you created in your life script leading you toward forgiveness. In other words, we learn by forgiving both ‘others’ and ourselves in seeing that there’s nothing to forgive.

How did the self-enquiry happen to you Burt?

I have the astral experience regular or at least what people label astral but its not a spiritual or egoless experience because I am still there just the same, able to see my astral body which looks like the stereotypical ghost. Ive noticed alot of people have reported this happening to them, the simplest description is the body falls asleep but the mind is still awake, is this a symptom of self enquiry? did it ever happen to you burt when you were self enquiring?


Self-enquiry was a slow process with me. Initially I would inquire but nothing would happen or so I thought. I persisted with the question “Who am I?” for a long time. My persistence emerged from the knowing that I AM more than the body. My insistence to experience something often resulted in my falling asleep in the midst of this ‘feeling it’ experience. Even though nothing happened for a few years I didn’t give it up but changed it with the question, “What am I?” It wasn’t until the year 2000 (many years later) that I woke up to the realization that there was no answer to the question “Who am I?” for after all, who is going to answer it? Where would an answer come from? It occurred to me, after all that time, that it was the very Silence and non-local being that was the answer. Who I was, was timeless. A moment of crystal-clarity occurred where I saw myself as a human being – a Being playing the role of Burt. It was so clear, so empathic and unmistakable that I wondered how I could have missed something so obvious. I didn’t learn anything but at the same time ‘I knew’ everything there was to know about the human and the Being and the interplay of duality in life’s journey. It was SEEING the whole play where everything that happened had never happened except in mind and time was not linear but holographic. I understood clearly Einstein’s statement, “All that occurs happens simultaneously” and there is no time and space as we come to know it. It is all seeing clearly that it is all NOW.

You emphasize the importance of forgiveness, but isn't that duality?

"You emphasize the power of forgiveness, but who are we asking forgiveness from?"

When we recognize our true nature as Oneness then we see that there is only BEING. This Being is all there is. Ultimately there is no you or me but Oneness appearing as you and me. If you have understood that far then the rest is easy and simple to comprehend.
Our 'job' on earth is to go Home to our Oneness (which in truth we never left). However, since we believe we are separate human beings because we miss recognizing Spirit as Allness, then whenever we transgress through ego identification (separation) then we ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness means 'fore-giveness' or giving forth into Spirit. When we get 'caught in selfishness, fear, loneliness, anxiety or even doubt, or any self-absorption (any form of unhappiness), then we 'forgive-it' into its Emptiness (Spirit, Oneness, Love). In fact, through this incessant forgiving of our egoic thinking, we keep emptying ourselves until there is no one and nothing left to forgive and we have 'attained' our true Home.
Picture the following -- there is the one ocean and you appear as a wave on its surface. Being a wave you forget you are the ocean and so start fearing that you will drown into the vast ocean and disappear. This fear exists only out of ignorance because you have forgotten that you are the same water as the ocean, in fact, the ocean itself. This forgetting brings fear, isolation, loneliness, deprivation, separation and all known suffering. So what can you do? You can start by allowing yourself to see that there is only the One Ocean. Whenever fear arises then you forgive it by fore-giving it into the ocean itself leaving yourself empty of it. This emptying or 'fore-giving' will eventually make you recognize that all you are is simply awareness (empty of form). In this realization alone can you recognize you have always been pure awareness (the vast ocean). Eventually, when the ego has died because there is no longer any feeling of separation (fear) then forgiveness is redundant. You didn't ask for forgiveness from anyone, you simply forgave the ego that thought it was something real and separate.

"I have heard so often about the mystery of "I AM" -- what is so mysterious about it?"

Dear friend, if you do not see the mystery and the wonder of "I AM" then it would be hard to appreciate the miracle called 'YOU.' When you refer to yourself, ordinarily, you refer to name and form such as "I am John." However, this "I AM" prior to name and form is everyone's "I AM." In fact, every living human being says the same "I AM" except that they refer to their ego instead of their true identity of "I AM." It was Jesus who said that the great mystery is how Christ lives in each heart. All 6 billion humans are the very same "I AM" that you are! Can you see this incredible mystery?
You, in truth, cannot die because you never existed. How and why? -- because you are "I AM" which is Existence itself and never had a beginning. It was never born.
Now the mind gets boggled through this until you start 'seeing' with your heart that you are not a body and name which Albert Einstein referred to as the great optical delusion of mankind. You are a hologram and not made in linear time from which your brain functions. In other words, the creation of form was the result of duality. Duality has to be in creation to survive and linear time was born to create that illusion. However the truth of you is holographic which also means that the time you seem to be living now has already been lived and you are going through the motions. Holographic means that the smallest pattern is the same as the biggest pattern. The smallest seed or fragment contains the entire universe just as one single cell of your body contains the whole image of you physically. In fact it has been proven that one single cell of your form can create a duplicate of it.
This mystery is beyond the mind but can be felt in the awakened spirit. You are the timeless now that is not locatable but seem to be localized in time and space. This is the mtsrery. To 'yourself' you seem to be so alive and real and yet so does everyone human being on earth feel the same...and yet it is all ONE. Now ho can you understand this with your mind? Isn't this a mystery? Yet all this is a fact, it is the truth and the only Truth.
Here below is a video that can give us a greater glimpse...

Is there a way to simplify the spiritual journey?

Is there a way to simplify the spiritual journey?

The Spiritual life is about opening the heart to unlearning our values, beliefs and conditioning. It is not about learning something new but looking at what is here-now as it actually is!
It is often a frustrating and confusing journey because we have to undo all that we thought was real which actually isn’t!
It is often followed with little annoying shocks that what we held so dear and meaningful suddenly is seen to be only our conditioned value system. The meaning we give things have only the meaning we gave them.

Think of it this way – imagine a gigantic ladder reaching above the clouds. As you look up you can’t see the top as it is way far above you. This ladder represents your journey step-by-step. You start as an average consciousness on the first rung of the ladder. This is where most people are at. In this first step you are self-centred, self-absorped and self-concerned. You feel like the center of your world where only you matters to you. It is like a little frog in her small pond-world. You worry about your body because you’re totally identified with it. In fact you don’t question your world or your form-body and you take them for granted. They are your belief system. You are convinced that this is who you are. And, this is all you can see and think. In fact, you hardly ever think about anyone else without first thinking about you. Chances are you stay in that first step for most of your life.
If something starts to make you suffer unduly and start asking, “What is it all about?” “What is this thing called ‘my life?’ and so on then you become a seeker. A seeker is anyone who seeks a better and more fulfilled life. So actually what drives you to seek is an inner knowing that there has to be a better life than the one you have.

In this seeking you start climbing without realizing you are doing it. It is as if something takes over and takes you up two or three steps up the ladder.
You look down and you see more than before. You see more people around you. You see greater expanse of space. Then something strikes you, “Hey, we are all really alike apart from our looks!!” This is quite a revelation that you are not different or separate as you thought. We are all the same…seeking to be happy, loved, want to be special, need to feel wanted and appreciated and so on. You also notice, because of your greater and higher vantage point, how everyone believes they are right. How everyone is an ego with the same fears and hopes and desires.

You climb a little higher and you begin to see more of this oneness…oneness in our egoic needs and oneness in our love needs. At this point you will begin to see that even though everyone wants love (called appreciation or need for approval) yet no one knows what love really is. At this point we believe that love is something we are going to get from someone else or the world at large. Thus even though we see our similarity yet we still cling to our different viewpoint as best.

Now we climb higher still, and as we see more in our higher climb we also start getting a little confused. We can’t help seeing that all the training we had and conditioning in our religious and traditional upbringing is coming up for questioning and it scares us. We get scared because we had invested so much of our energy learning about values that only have meaning to us and not to others. So the frightening question is at this point, “How real is everything I have learned?” “How valuable is it to my life?” “Where has it brought me if I am still not at peace in my heart’s core?”
We are now pulled so many ways from our familiar conditioning, family values, national or traditional training and beliefs. This is quite uncomfortable and so confusion reigns. So, one part clings to what is familiar and another part knows there’s a higher truth. Many people stop at this point and go no further. In fact, many years go by before they start climbing higher. It takes great motivation to go higher than our conditioned belief system. Here is skepticism, uncertainty, fear, doubt, confusion and feling torn between continuing and not.

Some of you go on despite your family’s training and/or objections and follow a different drummer. Here you climb a few steps higher. This is where you feel the pangs of catch-22 – damned if you go higher and damned if you don’t. You feel truly stuck between a rock and a hard place. This is even more confusing than before because here you are faced with the inevitable truth which is – you are NOT who you thought you were at all. This is shaking the foundation of belief system that you had invested so much time in. Yet, despite this fear, you know at this point that the truth is not a belief but something very real inside you. You still don’t know what that is, but yet know it exists. This is the sink or swim point in your journey. You are dangling in this midway point. You shudder to think of taking the plunge into the unknown and yet also know that there’s no way out. The ego self has to be transcended.
Most people stay in this point called “stuckness” and never get over this point as fear mounts with time. Many live the rest of their life in this midpoint stage. There are many spiritual ‘teachers’ who are in this midway point and haven’t taken the plunge over the edge. They know what’s necessary and they can even teach it but yet do not have the courage to leap.

Those very few who take the leap had questioned every belief they held and saw it as nothing more than just a concept. They have used an inquiry similar to Bhagavan or Byron Katie or advanced Advaita asking at every turn, “What is real?” and as they sincerely investigated found nothing real. I remember hearing Adjashanti covering this stage of realization where he saw clearly that everything he experienced began and ended and nothing was real. The moment we see clearly that nothing, absolutely nothing, in this world is real we discover something very precious. The real was/is the one that saw the unreality of everything. The changing personality and self saw clearly that everything changed and therefore eventually died and passed away…but the one who saw the change was changeless and in that facing of everything as changeable and unreal, was also the recognition of that which was unchanging and real and lasting. Tis is the discovery of the eternal infinite Self.

In summary it went like this…
The focal point of ‘I’ consciousness is similar to a tall ladder. The steps start at the bottom and keep rising to see more and more of the area until the top is reached. This ‘I’ consciousness arises from pure awareness and initially is experienced as ‘me’ as separate from you. This ‘me’ is known as the suffering ego beset with the need for control and conscious of limitation. It identifies fully with the body and its past and thus suffers automatically from unconscious guilt in the present and fear of the future. This viewpoint is the asleep state of the separate ‘me.’
As the psychological suffering reaches a point of seeking to find what is more in life, there is a higher aspect of the ‘I’ that also gets bogged down with confusion, frustration and unceasing questions. These questions help in ascending the ladder and seeing more.
There comes a point in the ascension of the ladder where the viewpoint gets stuck due to fear of the vaster realm awaiting it. This is the ‘stuck’ point many seekers find themselves in. This ‘stuckness’ usually lasts several years to a whole lifetime unless there is the love of truth that is stronger than its fear of ego annihilation.
Most seekers gets stuck in the midway point of the ladder called catch-22 – feel damned if I do go on and damned if I don’t. This is the sink or swim stage that all awakened beings have gone through. This is the crucial process where the personal ‘I’ is beginning to see that it is really universal Oneness. It is extremely fearful and threatening to give up what has been familiar for so many lifetimes. If a breathrough occurs then we reach close to the top and our viewpoint goes from EFFECT VIEWPOINT to CAUSE VIEWPOINT. We are now quite aware that our ‘me’ had never existed but was always the ‘I’ of Oneness.
This focal point of “I” is never lost but reaches such a height of Oneness-expression that reincarnation is no longer required.
And here is the great paradox as we peer from the top ladder looking down…we see clearly that nothing ever happened and the ladder was always the same one except that now we are looking from a greater vantage point of view. The film of life had already been finished and we are replaying it. We have the choice to see it from this higher view instead of the ‘effect-view.’ We have not changed and life goes on the same way but without the fears, questions and linear time consciousness. We have reached inner peace.

T.S. Eliot wrote, “We shall not cease from exploration. At the end of all our exploring we shall arrive at where we started and KNOW that place for the first time.”

Why do I make everything so real?

"Why do I make everything so real that I become a victim of it?"

Until we get to know our true Source Being then we unconsciously believe and make real everything that happens to us. It is like having your shadow chasing you and you run away from it only to have it chase you as well. One day after exhaustive running and escaping this shadow you realize fully, "It is not real but a shadow cast by my body!" then you are free of it even though the shadow remains. You are free because it has lost is power over you. In other words, you have stopped making it real. Similarly with thoughts and emotions. The moment you see them as they actually are, just thoughts and emotions, then you are free.