Forgiveness is a central theme throughout A Course in Miracles, so much so that you could say the teaching and practice of forgiveness is its primary aim.  The text provides us with the foundation and understanding, and we are then asked to bring this learning into our everyday situations and relationships and practically apply it to the classroom that is our life.  To do this, we first have to understand what the Course means when it talks about forgiveness.  While this may seem obvious, ‘true forgiveness’, as the Course calls it, is actually very different to the kind of forgiveness the world is accustomed to.

 

In the eyes of the world, forgiveness goes something like this – someone says or does something that we deem inappropriate or bad, or they hurt us in some way physically or emotionally and we decide to be the ‘better’ person and forgive them for their actions.  Maybe it’s a seemingly small thing, such as a child drawing on the wall with pens, or a friend saying something snarky that upsets you.  Or it could also be a large and traumatic thing, such as someone physically harming you, a partner being unfaithful, or the death of a loved one at the hands of another.  

When we decide to ‘pardon’ or ‘let go’ of what we see as the wrongdoings of someone else, this is what the world considers to be forgiveness.  It can equally apply to difficult worldly situations or circumstances we find ourselves in such as a natural disaster, the loss of a job, or your car breaking down.  Regardless of whether it’s an event, circumstance or person, the world’s belief is that we are forgiving something outside of us that we believe has impacted us negatively or wronged us in some way.

 A Course in Miracles’ teaching of forgiveness is quite the opposite.  It says that the people and events we think are happening outside of us aren’t really there, and so there is nothing to forgive.  It is like when we dream at night.  In this dream someone may be doing something we consider to be very terrible.  When you awaken and you realise it was just a dream you don’t go and yell at that person for what they did – that would make no sense.  You know that it wasn’t true, and they haven’t really done anything.  You know it was your dream.  

Our everyday life – the life we think we are living – is just like such a dream, and the people we think are doing bad or evil things to us or others in the world are merely figures acting out in that dream.  But there are no outside forces negatively impacting us – just images we are seeing on the screen of our mind that we are mistaking for reality.  Nothing is actually happening, and so there is nothing to forgive (T-14.III.7:5).

 This idea of forgiveness is obviously very at odds with how the world views it.  This is because behind each of these views lie two very different thought systems – the ego’s thought system, and the Holy Spirit’s.  The ego, which is the world’s thought system, follows the belief that there is a world out there that needs to be forgiven.  It blames people and things outside of you for your misery and unhappiness, and it doesn’t see that these things are not outside of you at all, but are all within your mind.  The ego perceives you as a victim of these outside agents and teaches that it is up to you which of these, if any, you decide to forgive.  When it comes to others, your forgiveness is based upon who you deem as worthy or unworthy of receiving your forgiveness. 

 

The Holy Spirit looks upon these same situations and people and perceives them differently – as a classroom through which you can learn how to apply His true forgiveness.  In His perception of the world, nothing is seen but justifies forgiveness and the sight of perfect sinlessness (T-25.III.5:2).  He knows all the sin and guilt you think you are seeing outside of you is actually in your mind, and so He teaches you how to return your attention to the mind where forgiveness is really applied.  It is within the mind that you forgive the images that aren’t actually doing anything to you, and you simultaneously forgive yourself for dreaming them up in the first place.  We can then look beyond these false images to the truth within everything and everyone, which is whole and perfect Spirit.  When you see only this truth, this is what the Course calls forgiveness; The Christ in you looks only on the truth, and sees no condemnation that could need forgiveness (T-24.V.3:2).

 

Where the ego’s form of forgiveness is selective and chooses to forgive some people but not others, the Holy Spirit’s forgiveness is applicable to everyone.  There is no one He sees as more worthy of his forgiveness than another.  Not one does Christ forget (W-160.10:1).  He knows that one brother is all brothers.  To withhold His forgiveness from one would be to withhold it from all, but He also knows that to truly offer it to one is to offer it to all.  

In the same respect, when you forgive it is actually only ever yourself that you are forgiving.  And when you withhold forgiveness, you are only ever really withholding it from yourself.  This is because the images you are forgiving, or not forgiving as the case may be, are in your mind.  They are not separate from you, but are a part of you and are of your own making.  So, it’s really only a part of yourself that you forgive, even though it appears that you are forgiving individual people and circumstances.

 

True forgiveness as the Course teaches it is very hard to do, and you might be wondering if it is even possible.  It is absolutely possible, but it takes a lot of dedication, persistence and practice.  It is not a quick process, but one you learn and build on gradually over the course of a lifetime.  It is one thing to understand intellectually that our life is just a dream, but it is quite another thing to experience this as true.  Indeed, all our bodily senses attest to the opposite and there is no denying that our experience here is that our lives are very solid and real.  And so we need an experience of the truth before we can truly know that the people and circumstances in the world that we think are hurting us are merely illusory.  It is this experience that the Course is guiding us towards, and it is through the application of forgiveness that it is achievable.

 

 

Read more about how to apply the Holy Spirit’s forgiveness in your life here.