Forgiving the unforgiveable

There have been some terrible events in this country and around the world in recent weeks, as we all know.

it is the human tendency to react with anger, blame, recrimination, rage, sorrow, finger-pointing. If we could, just for one moment, truly grasp the concept of karma, it might take some of the negative energetic charge out of our reactions. This would require a belief in more than one lifetime, and the thousands of lifetimes lived that have brought us to this time and place. It would also require a shift in belief that...eeeeek! We might have been truly terrible people in some lives, and that we have caused profound suffering for other souls in many lifetimes.

As Master Zhi Gang Sha teaches, heaven is completely fair. Karma is mathematically correct. Our hearts hurt when we see children cut down in mass shootings, white supremacists screaming their fear and hatred, a congressman inches from death on a baseball field, an apartment high-rise transformed to a towering inferno. But what if we could suspend belief and judgement for just a moment and look at the possibility that those beings are paying karmic debt?

Let us consider the possibility that EVERY word, EVERY action, EVERY thought, creates some kind of karma (a Sanskrit word that simply means action), positive or negative. It could be overwhelming to think that, but it also creates a fertile ground for changing our behaviors in an effective way. Even a simply way. Kind...good. Mean...bad. Serving others selflessly...good. Killing...bad. On and on, you fill in the blanks. Forgiving means releasing the emotional charge of a situation so that it can't affect you anymore, it doesn't mean the harm was ok. Forgive everything. It's a great start.