Even for meditators, the act of true forgiveness implies a new lot of soul searching; to be able to first, remember the obvious: that each one was doing the best they could with the awareness they had at the time of the events. It'd be easier if life was like in cowboy movies: the good guys and the bad guys. This black and white definition could help us make safer choices and save us pain (and therefore the learning). But reality is, we are the victims of some, and the perpetrators of others, even for those whom we love the most. Realizing we can also be the bad guy in someone's life can be the start of our forgiveness to others.
Lately the concept of forgiveness seems to have become popular. Magazines, FB, the media, talk about self-forgiveness, or the forgiveness of others. But how serious are we ? Currently, as a society, we believe that not everything is forgivable, in fact we support the concept of learning better ways through punishment. Hence most of our punitive systems : the rules and regulations in schools and educational institutions, policies and procedures of organisations, the legal system, the prison system, even the capital punishment in some developed countries. They all exist to tell us what to forgive, what and how we punish in order to teach. What would happen to these systems if forgiveness was accepted as a mainstream value ? What would be the consequences of a more lenient or forgiving society? Do we really want forgiveness to permeate so far? Are we really happy to forgive? I'd love to hear your views.
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