Inspired by the Amish Way
When the very young daughters and grand daughters of the Amish people were shamelessly shot execution style by a stranger one day in their school, the community and families comforted one another then looked immediately to the family of the murderer, taking up a collection on their behalf. This was an offering of more than hope for them to resume a normal life, but an offering which told a tale of true forgiveness. We can use this tragedy of human suffering beyond our comprehension to help us all to see the practical and yet incredibly profound use that forgiveness plays in our lives.
But practicality is not a word one uses when thinking of spirituality. The question really is, how could any one man, any one religion, any anything that is of this world, ever come close to helping us to bridge the gap we imagine exists between our selves and our Maker and is made more obvious by such heinous acts? Yet, this is what forgiveness does, and obviously, why Jesus advocated it.
And not only Jesus. Forgiveness can be said to be the equivalent to non-attachment in the eastern religions. Buddha’s main concern was to end the suffering of man. It is done, according to the eastern philosophy, by learning to not attach oneself to the temporal world but to the Oneness of all Things eternal; with peace being the result. Forgiveness lends us this same effect of peace, but Jesus teaches us how to get there, by the practice of forgiving, which made him a very practical teacher.
Our anger and frustration at violent acts such as this recent one keeps the gap forever widening between us and the perfect benevolence of God’s peace. The answer to obliterating this gap, this righteous indignation that in the end only breeds hatred for others, is in the answer which Jesus suggests is the answer: Forgiveness. But it is not Jesus who can bridge the gap; nor Buddha, nor anyone in particular. Yet it is what Jesus tells us we need understand to allow forgiveness to happen where we need to focus.
Most of us have a vague understanding that forgiveness is divine. Even with that small amount of understanding, forgiveness has at one time or another brought us to an awareness of a state of peace we do not understand; usually realizing afterward, we could not have granted ourselves this state, of our own accord. No doubt, God’s Peace is upon our mind and heart strong and clear at times, yet only to wither when we hear such sad stories of mankind’s inhuman acts. Imagine then, as it was for the Amish; if it were your own child murdered! And so, we look with respect and awe at our Amish brothers and sisters, to understand what kind of forgiveness they have come to embrace. It certainly must offer an unchanging state of peace, even among such painful events as this.
WHAT SORT OF FORGIVENESS DO THEY KNOW?
So, we all ask, after something like this especially, what exactly IS forgiveness? After all, no one can, in their right mind, ‘forgive’ or ‘condone’ or ‘pardon’ murdering children. The forgiveness which the Amish live by, sounds very, very much like the understanding that I have learned from the spirituality found in A Course in Miracles. Both of them, based on the foundation of Christian thought.
In the Course we are taught that forgiving is not an act of pardon, but is more of an experience of empathy that extends beyond the physical world, pointing to the idea that it is indeed divine, and yet can be experienced by us as humans, to reach that ‘other world.’ That is why it is termed a course in ‘miracles’ for there is no greater miracle, than the one that changes anger, hatred and sadness to love of the deepest and most giving sort.
To be willing to have this ‘experience’ one needs to understand first and foremost in our mind, that our bodies are not our True Nature and therefore, we need to see past the body and the body’s acts, of our selves and others, to be able to even begin to entertain the idea of the sort of forgiveness that truly heals such inner turmoil as this.
You might say that ‘seeing past a body’ can not be called a practical piece of advice! But in the Course, it is not said we need to know how to see past another body’s acts, but only that we are willing to do so. The rest is divine.
And so, what does ‘being willing to see past the body’ really mean?
It begins by being willing to believe that our human perception of acts; even murder, and all of what we see and hear and think every day, is not necessarily…. true. Before I lose you and tangle myself in a metaphysical maze of thought, it is really not nearly as complicated or as ‘wild’ as it sounds to begin to believe this. What is important to grasp is that what we perceive is not to be held as true, or false, but as meaningless when it is a perception made from a mind that cannot know truth. BUT (and it is a big but,) there is another side to our ‘perception’ from which forgiveness is understood by man and obviously, which the Amish advocate and the Course teaches. That side is from a Holy perspective.
In other words, we can have perception come from a part of our mind that does know truth, but it is not the part we call our ‘self’ which most of us identify with, only because we have not yet met….another Self! It is the part we call the Holy Self, or Holy Spirit and it is entirely our choice when to begin to find this other Self. The Course promotes honest and constant self reflection to uncover an unconscious but ferocious fight against knowing this Higher Self. The ego’s buried need to remain our chosen state of awareness becomes fortified and stronger, the further buried it remains.
From what the Course terms, ‘true perception’ of Spirit, we see truth reflected in the world around us and thus begin to heal our many wounds of the ego’s world. It is not Truth Itself we see in the world, for the world is only symbols and can only reflect God’s Truth. God’s Truth could never be evil, or wrong, or anything which can be judged by man. And so, knowing this, such an event as the murder of these little girls, leaves us with one conclusion. What must have occurred did not reflect God’s Truth. And God’s Truth is how we live and all that we need, to know. And so, we leave the judging of what we do not know to Someone Who knows. And we trust, 100%, it is all good. It simply could not be any other way when we see it through the reflection of Spirit’s eyes.
Coming from ego’s perspective, we use judgment based on the ego’s world which would find it right and good to condemn and punish all such acts, being both judge and jury. And from the Holy Spirit within, from which I would presume the Amish are coming, the question then becomes, ‘How can one not forgive what we could not truly know, or understand?’ This is how forgiveness begins, and lends a new Light to life, but it is not how it ends.
However, I can’t tell you how it ends and I am sure the same goes for most in the Amish community. Like them, I have not totally forgiven everything or everyone, or every act I see, in which event, would I then be in Heaven’s embrace. According to the Course it can take but a second to do this, but it seems, many lifetimes occur before we are willing to let go of this ego’s perception we hold so dear, though buried. Many lifetimes of wondering why God would let such things happen, until we see, He wouldn’t.
And so, I am still in the process of joyously learning to choose Spirit as much as I can, and thereby learning not to label all I see as good or evil, wrong or right, and paying attention to when and why I have a need to do this. I am sure beyond a shadow of a doubt, when I am able to forgive entirely, as Jesus taught, I will have found ‘Heaven’ where a broken world no longer needs forgiven.
