At the heart of forgiving is developing a skillful, unstuck relationship past harm — ours or others. Choosing to forgive, we end the story of suffering and all that flows from it, then or now. It is a kindness toward ourselves as well as others.
Jeff guided our steps over this tender ground this week, drawing in particular on Yuka Nakamura’s talk on “The Capacity to Forgive”.
You can listen to the talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/74862/
“If you want to see the brave,
look to those who can return love for hatred.
If you want to see the heroic
look to those who can forgive.” — Bhagavad Gita
Winnie Nazarko define forgiveness as follows: The process of developing a skillful, unstuck relationship to the past harmful actions of ourselves or others. It involves choosing the intention to forgive in order to end a suffering relationship to the story, to the people involved and to current arisings which are related to it. This is a way to let go, disengage from continued harm and entanglement with suffering.
