Wondering About Forgiveness

[Spockrates]

Yes. LOL. He might answer you whether I do or not imo. I am sorry. Please forgive me for butting into someone else's business.

How can I do anything but forgive? For at first you did not know what you were doing, and so such ignorance required forgiveness. Then when you realized what you did was wrong, you obviously repented!

But let's say you knew it was wrong, and did it anyway. Imagine I asked you to stop misbehaving, but you kept at it just the same. Are you saying I should have, even in such circumstances still forgiven you the wrong done to me?

 

[savagewind]

How can I do anything but forgive? For at first you did not know what you were doing, and so such ignorance required forgiveness. Then when you realized what you did was wrong, you obviously repented!

But let's say you knew it was wrong, and did it anyway. Imagine I asked you to stop misbehaving, but you kept at it just the same. Are you saying I should have, even in such circumstances still forgiven you the wrong done to me?

No. In that case you might use the ignore feature.
@Spockrates edit Not should have. For your own well-being it is good to not hold a grudge. Especially over such a trivial matter.

 

[Spockrates]

No. In that case you might use the ignore feature.

LOL! Select Ignore and forgive, or select Ignore and be unforgiving?

 

[savagewind]

LOL! Select Ignore and forgive, or select Ignore and be unforgiving?

I do not think that ignoring someone is forgiving someone. In fact, it is like killing them imo as nothing shows up on the forum from someone put on ignore. I think killing is almost always the wrong way. By the way. I have forgiven the many people who are ignoring me here. There is no way for me to know if I have been eliminated by them or they see me and ignore me. Either way it is OK. I ignore most posts on this forum.

 

[allfoak]

It seems then forgiving must be merely a selfish act that benefits oneself and never selfless act to benefit another. True?

Forgiveness is not a selfish act.
If it were, it would not promote the healing of the soul.
The healing of one soul is the healing of all souls.

 

[Spockrates]

I do not think that ignoring someone is forgiving someone. In fact, it is like killing them imo as nothing shows up on the forum from someone put on ignore. I think killing is almost always the wrong way. By the way. I have forgiven the many people who are ignoring me here. There is no way for me to know if I have been eliminated by them or they see me and ignore me. Either way it is OK. I ignore most posts on this forum.

[emoji4]

 

[Spockrates]

Thanks all for your thoughtful replies and for forgiving my tedious habit of asking simple questions. It's much appreciated. May you all be blessed. Dudes! You're the best!

[emoji41][emoji106]

 

[Spockrates]

Forgiveness is not a selfish act.
If it were, it would not promote the healing of the soul.
The healing of one soul is the healing of all souls.

Thanks for the reply. Not sure I understand. How does my feeling good make all feel good? It seems that no matter how good I might feel, someone somewhere must feel miserable. Am I missing something?

 

[allfoak]

Thanks for the reply. Not sure I understand. How does my feeling good make all feel good? It seems that no matter how good I might feel, someone somewhere must feel miserable. Am I missing something?

All things are connected, all souls are connected, it is all connected by the same source.
All things have the same destiny of going from the Alpha of ignorance to the Omega of knowledge.
Every soul that gets closer helps to pull another up the ladder.

 

[crossfire]

Yes, as I recall, Jesus spoke to a man possessed and asked him his name. In reply he said something like, "We are Legion, because we are many." Then they begged him not to send them to some place they did not want to go, so he cast them into a herd of pigs, which then ran off a cliff, killing themselves. Whether the story was historical or an allegory, I don't know.

So Mara is a group of spiritual beings with malicious intent?

If our individual brains are like individual computer hard drives, then Māras would be like cloud drives. Like people, not all collective egregors are malicious.

 

[Spockrates]

All things are connected, all souls are connected, it is all connected by the same source.
All things have the same destiny of going from the Alpha of ignorance to the Omega of knowledge.
Every soul that gets closer helps to pull another up the ladder.

It would seem that the connection requires communication or action. No matter how much compassion I feel for a starving child in another country, no matter what I desire for her, how will she experience any benefit of these thoughts if I never communicate with her nor take any action?

 

[Spockrates]

If our individual brains are like individual computer hard drives, then Māras would be like cloud drives. Like people, not all collective egregors are malicious.

Well a "cloud drive" is essentially another hard drive, which exists in another computer, called a server, in another location, which may or may not be used to share information.

At work we have shared documents saved to such an external location. Different people make changes to the same document on their own computers than upload the changes to the shared document. The shared document then becomes one creation of many people. Also the changes made by all are downloaded to each person's computer, so they each have identical copies of the shared document.

Is this an analogy helpful for understanding Maras?

 

[allfoak]

It would seem that the connection requires communication or action. No matter how much compassion I feel for a starving child in another country, no matter what I desire for her, how will she experience any benefit of these thoughts if I never communicate with her nor take any action?

We have many thoughts often that we cannot take action on.
What is the purpose of giving them our attention if we are just going to use them as a measuring stick to judge?
If we want to make a difference in the world then we must live as we would like others to live.
In this way, we help to build the structure on which other things can be created.

Thought feeds off of itself, what you think about you will create.

 

[savagewind]

We have many thoughts often that we cannot take action on.
What is the purpose of giving them our attention if we are just going to use them as a measuring stick to judge?
If we want to make a difference in the world then we must live as we would like others to live.
In this way, we help to build the structure on which other things can be created.

Thought feeds off of itself, what you think about you will create.

I agree this might be true.
One child starving and cold. Many trillions of thought processes and few are with that child. The more loving attention going her way, the better she has to feel. She doesn't know it but the person who loves her in his thought processes knows it. Know makes know. Ignorance makes ignorance. Will she be alone or will she sense her helper?

 

[Spockrates]

We have many thoughts often that we cannot take action on.
What is the purpose of giving them our attention if we are just going to use them as a measuring stick to judge?
If we want to make a difference in the world then we must live as we would like others to live.
In this way, we help to build the structure on which other things can be created.

Thought feeds off of itself, what you think about you will create.

Very well. Then what does this premise teach us of forgiveness? Should forgiving remain merely in our thoughts and feelings, or does true forgiveness become forgiving words and deeds that make a real difference in our own worlds?

 

[allfoak]

Very well. Then what does this premise teach us of forgiveness? Should forgiving remain merely in our thoughts and feelings, or does true forgiveness become forgiving words and deeds that make a real difference in our own worlds?

Our purpose here primarily, is to give birth to our soul.
The way this is done is through the overcoming of the laws that we live under.
We must work with these laws and try and prevail over them.

The transformation that slowly takes place as a result of overcoming these laws is the transformation of matter to spirit.
It is through this means that we become at-one with our soul and for this purpose that we would never want to harbor any thing that will bring disease and death.

Forgiveness is just the beginning.
Until we have the profound experience of forgiveness that prepares us for the journey, then we are only still trying to find the road.
It is when we realize who we are and where we are, that this experience can come.

We are the image of our soul-self here for the purpose of our soul being able to learn the essence of things.
This holographic image that we are is a complete entity within itself and because this is true, we think that our body consciousness is who we are, when our body consciousness is the least of who we are and completely unable to function on its own.

Once we come to this realization that we are not alone and that your soul-self is always available to give strength, understanding, peace of mind as well as many other things, then we can begin to experience the idea of forgiveness.
What is actually happening is that a oneness is taking place through understanding and acceptance.

This then prepares us to develop empathy, which then gives us the compassion to act.
Prior to this, a charitable act will likely be selfishly motivated and best avoided.

I myself have been on the receiving end and the giving end of "charitable" acts that clearly were selfishly motivated.
The result of course is not only a failure to overcome, but rather to make worse the laws we are under.

 

[Spockrates]

Our purpose here primarily, is to give birth to our soul.
The way this is done is through the overcoming of the laws that we live under.
We must work with these laws and try and prevail over them.

The transformation that slowly takes place as a result of overcoming these laws is the transformation of matter to spirit.
It is through this means that we become at-one with our soul and for this purpose that we would never want to harbor any thing that will bring disease and death.

Forgiveness is just the beginning.
Until we have the profound experience of forgiveness that prepares us for the journey, then we are only still trying to find the road.
It is when we realize who we are and where we are, that this experience can come.

We are the image of our soul-self here for the purpose of our soul being able to learn the essence of things.
This holographic image that we are is a complete entity within itself and because this is true, we think that our body consciousness is who we are, when our body consciousness is the least of who we are and completely unable to function on its own.

Once we come to this realization that we are not alone and that your soul-self is always available to give strength, understanding, peace of mind as well as many other things, then we can begin to experience the idea of forgiveness.
What is actually happening is that a oneness is taking place through understanding and acceptance.

This then prepares us to develop empathy, which then gives us the compassion to act.
Prior to this, a charitable act will likely be selfishly motivated and best avoided.

I myself have been on the receiving end and the giving end of "charitable" acts that clearly were selfishly motivated.
The result of course is not only a failure to overcome, but rather to make worse the laws we are under.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, but did you forget to answer my question? Perhaps a simple yes or no will do: Is forgiveness merely a thought?

 

[crossfire]

Well a "cloud drive" is essentially another hard drive, which exists in another computer, called a server, in another location, which may or may not be used to share information.

At work we have shared documents saved to such an external location. Different people make changes to the same document on their own computers than upload the changes to the shared document. The shared document then becomes one creation of many people. Also the changes made by all are downloaded to each person's computer, so they each have identical copies of the shared document.

Is this an analogy helpful for understanding Maras?

Yes. With memes. And the cloud server would (almost) be in what Buddhists call "the fine material realm," (but still within the sensuous realm) rather than this concrete human realm of the sensuous realm our brains occupy.

 

[allfoak]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, but did you forget to answer my question? Perhaps a simple yes or no will do: Is forgiveness merely a thought?

Forgiveness is a giving up of things that we no longer need or want in our lives.
It is similar to repentance.
We all have the power to forgive sin.
Meaning, we all have the power to overcome through forgiveness.
It is a cleansing process.

Did this answer your question?

 

[GoodbyeDave]

I'm woefully ignorant of Heathenism. I tend to think of it more as a philosophy than a religion. Forgive the stupidity of the question: Is it a kind of religious atheism?

Definitely not! Heathens are Germanic pagans, worshiping gods like Thor and Odin.