On Forgiveness and Retribution


The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes forgiveness blesses, so they see a world where terror is impossible and witnesses to fear cannot be found.”

From the “Workbook for Students” in A Course In Miracles
“Thanks to Felix Koutchinski for sharing this image on Unsplash.”

To think that one can actually speak the words “forgiveness” and “retribution” in the same sentence is ludicrous at best. Speaking these two words in the same sentence actually cancels out the meaning of the word “forgiveness” as we would like to think about it.

It is well understood that when light enters the darkness, darkness is immediately dispelled, however in this case when retribution enters forgiveness’ space, darkness immediately dispels the light. While the existence of light can never be obliterated, only obscured, retribution (which the world identifies as “justice”) simply causes light to move into the realm of the unseen, thus unperceived. Never can the two legitimately dwell together in the same space.

When we forgive, we would like to think and believe that we have let go of something or someone who has committed a wrong against us. The “let go of” means that it no longer has any influence over your thoughts, words, actions, and emotions simply because it is no longer a part of your life and experience – you’ve let-it-GO!

Unfortunately, this is simply not how the vast majority of the population of the world practices forgiveness. As the world practices it, the words forgiveness and retribution become synonymous. The reason for this is that the teachings of the world are forged in ego-based duality. For every wrong action, retribution or punishment is merited, and must be doled out.

Just look at the justice system in most any court in the world, where the face of forgiveness rarely gets even a nod or a smile of recognition. A recent experience in the United States in which potential jurors were undergoing questioning to see if they would be selected, one person responded to the judge’s question by saying, “I am a firm believer in true spiritual forgiveness, and if I am selected to sit on the jury, no matter what the charges against the defendant, my response will never be ‘guilty or innocent’, but only and always, ‘I forgive you’”. Whereupon the judge and the attorneys were observed scribbling furiously in their note pads. Needless to say, this person was not selected as one of the jurors for the case. No matter where in the world a courtroom exists, forgiveness is rarely, if ever, invited in.

Let us look at exactly how the world’s egoic form of forgiveness works based on the duality of separation.

The world’s form of forgiveness is one based on inequality. A person experiences and perceives a wrong that has been done to them by a person or group, and even an animal, and then says, “I forgive you”. The words have been spoken, however the victim who spoke the words of forgiveness does not erase the ingrained perception that something hurtful happened to them, and even though they say the word “forgive”, in her heart and mind it is an unmerited forgiveness.

The victim of the hurt now sits on a higher platform of judgment looking down at the perpetrator who now remains on a lower level because they did something bad. This will remain so literally forever in the heart and mind of the victim unless some form of catharsis occurs to release the hurt to true forgiveness – and even a catharsis is no guarantee that this will take place. The ego’s version of unequal and separate forgiveness has a strong grip.

A Course In Miracles (A.C.I.M.), definitively and beautifully states about this inequality of forgiveness as the world practices it.

Unjustified forgiveness is attack. And this is all the world can ever give. It pardons ‘sinners’ sometimes but remains aware that they have sinned. And so it does not merit the forgiveness that it gives.”

The A.C.I.M. further states…

Pardon is always justified. It has a sure foundation. You do not forgive the unforgivable, nor overlook a real attack that calls for punishment. If pardon were unjustified, you would be asked to sacrifice your rights when you return forgiveness for attack. But you merely asked to see forgiveness as the natural reaction to distress that rests on error, and thus calls for help. Forgiveness is the only sane response. It keeps your rights from being sacrificed.”

And if you are surprised that this egoic form of human forgiveness can extend even to animals, one need look no further than any incident in which a wild animal, following its natural instincts, attacks and harms a person, retribution is almost always the answer by the hunting down and killing of the attacking animal. This is yet another example of retribution/justice blotting out any light forgiveness has to offer.

The reverberation of the human dualistic, ego-based form of forgiveness will forever echo in a continuous loop, “You hurt me! I am ‘up here’, and you are bad and are ‘down there’ in my eyes forever – but I forgive you.

And the egoic form of human forgiveness is perpetually reinforced in today’s high-tech world of instantaneous communication via the internet, and all forms of media entertainment and news.

Take a moment to review the latest movies you see or in the entertainment section of any newspaper in the world. There are countless movies and television shows whose main theme is that of retribution and vengeance. The main plot always seems to be that some form of brutal and deadly hurt was doled out to an individual or the individual’s family, and the rest of the entire show follows the “hero” as they kill, maim, and injure everyone they see as responsible for this awful hurt. “Screw the forgiveness! Kill them all!” screams each and every one of these forms of “entertainment”, all the while reinforcing the way the world continues to practice forgiveness (or lack thereof).

As for the news programs on television, once a report of some wrong-doing by an individual or group comes on, and the way it is presented, the human mind almost always jumps immediately into a form of egoic judgement that screams – “GUILTY!” – instead of what should be the assumption of “innocent until proven guilty”. There is rarely if ever a modicum of forgiveness in these media reports or wrong-doing – the human ego mind will not allow it!

At some point, somewhere, somehow, someone has to stand up and shout at the top of their voice from the highest mountain – “ENOUGH ALREADY! STOP!”

I cannot forgive you because I have no grudge against you.”

Buddha

There is a form of forgiveness where forgiveness and retribution shall never, ever meet, and that is Quantum Forgiveness.

Quantum forgiveness has been around for much of human history but only within a very few religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism in which the dualism of the ego enters not. Instead it is understood that the reality of human existence is based only in unity and oneness. In the late 20th century and now in the early 21st century, this is being taught and expounded by the modern spiritual guide, A Course In Miracles, which is based on the teaching of pure, uncompromising, non-dualistic unity and oneness of all creatures and things. In the practice of quantum forgiveness, no inequality exists nor can it exist. If it does, then it again becomes dualistic in nature, based upon separation.

What Exactly is Quantum Forgiveness?

True spiritual forgiveness (or quantum forgiveness), is one of equality, where all is recognized as one without separation. Whatever seemed to happen to you to make you perceive that a wrong was done to you is really just an illusion. It didn’t really happen! You now understand that this life of yours and the world around you that you perceive is only a dream while you, the Son of All-That-Is, is asleep within a tiny mad idea of separation. This makes any perceived attack upon you not real, so there really is nothing to forgive. With this knowing, the unity and oneness of All-That-Is is undisturbed, and you move forth on your journey ensconced in only unconditional love where there is and never will be anything to forgive.

This definition obviously is hard for the world’s ego to swallow, because it exposes the truth of how the world practices forgiveness by replacing it with retribution, inequality, and separation. This explanation of quantum forgiveness may also trigger the “woo” factor with most of the world in that they inherently think it is all mumbo-jumbo. However, it has already been proven scientifically that we – everything – is a matrix of the interconnectedness of All-That-Is, or as the author, Lynne McTaggart, refers to it in her book, The Field, as the “Zero Point Field”.

In her book in which she speaks of numerous research projects on the human brain and behavior done by famed 20th century psychologist, Karl Pribam, and many other prominent and respected scientists and researchers, it is stated,

The fact that the human body was exchanging information with a mutable field of quantum fluctuation suggested something profound about the world. It hinted at human capabilities for knowledge and communication far deeper and more extended than we presently understand. It also blurred the boundary lines of our individuality – our very sense of separateness. If living things boil down to charged particles interacting with a field and sending out and receiving quantum information, where did we end and the rest of the world begin? Where was consciousness – encased inside our bodies or out there in The Field? Indeed, there was no more ‘out there’ if we and the rest of the world were so intrinsically interconnected.”

This is just one step toward slamming the door on the “woo” factor. There are numerous verified scientific research projects published in the most respected scientific journals of our time and performed by some of the most brilliant scientists in the world. Each of these projects confirms the intimate, innate interconnectedness of every individual who has ever existed throughout human history, into a very real oneness and collective consciousness that is necessary to practice quantum forgiveness.

Referring once again to author, Lynne McTaggart, this time from her book, The Intention Experiment that confirms this…

At least forty top scientists in academic centers of research around the world have demonstrated that an information transfer constantly carries on between living things, and thought forms are simply another aspect of transmitted energy”.

For further scientific research as proof of the oneness of all that encompasses our universe, one need look no further than Brendan D. Murphy’s voluminous book, The Grand Illusion: A Synthesis of Science and Spirituality, Book One, in which he speaks about the groundbreaking work of Quantum Physicist, David Bohm.

Bohm called our everyday world of space, time, and causality the ‘explicate order’. He proposed that underlying this world is the ‘implicate order’, from which our manifest reality is projected (literally, unfolds).”

And Murphy goes on to cite…

Perennial Philosophy (the philosophical tradition of the world’s great thinkers dealing with problems of ultimate reality as the nature of being) offers the philosophical background most consistent with the new scientific paradigm…What remains after you subtract state, time, and culture-dependent realities, which are all transient ‘inventions’, is the unbroken, unified, and eternal consciousness that creates and pervades all. This realization is at the core of all major religions (behind the exoteric dogmas), and incidentally, is also the view of various ‘spiritual’ physicists, who see what quantum physics is pointing us towards.”

As the title of Murphy’s book suggests, over the last century or more, there really has been a synthesis of science and spirituality, with the scientists now saying what the spiritual icons have been saying for thousands of years, only using different lingo to describe the same thing – We are all one, and separation of anything does not and cannot exist! And as noted in the above quote that the original core teachings of all major religions is obscured by their exoteric dogmas, which is why today’s organized religions will never be able to practice unconditional or quantum forgiveness.

Despite the scientific proof of universal oneness which allows one to understand that any ‘conditional’ forgiveness is all the world can ever offer, the vast majority of the world’s populace keeps its blinders in place and refuses to accept the obvious. Because of this, in truth, the “woo” factor falls squarely on the unbelievers of the truth of oneness – a oneness that makes valid the statement, “As you do unto others, so shall you do unto yourself.”

Quantum or true spiritual forgiveness flies squarely in the face of the human ego who is determined to keep world’s conditional forgiveness tied to retribution so that it may remain strong and powerful via the resulting conflict, human drama, and hate. The beautiful thing is that the mind of the world is awakening to what true spiritual forgiveness is at a geometrically increasing pace, so that one day soon the light of understanding and very real, unencumbered forgiveness will soon become our human reality.

Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you? In no fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely. Nothing you see here, sleeping or waking, comes near to such loveliness. And nothing will you value like unto this, nor hold so dear.”

A Course In Miracles, TX-17.I.1.

Karl Gruber

My work as a Certified Law of Attraction Life Coach has blossomed out of my deep belief that you have an “extraordinary” – a very real champion – deep within you that is just waiting to be unleashed, and blossom to its fullest potential – a champion that you may not even be aware of that has existed within you since the moment you were born! My focus on helping you to understand, practice and integrate fitness, health, and well-being into your life, is just one piece of the formula to unleash your inner champion.

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