The Unforgiving Mind

The Unforgiving Mind

 

The unforgiving mind is full of fear,

and offers love no room to be itself;

no place where it can spread its wings in peace

and soar above the turmoil of the world.

 

The unforgiving mind is sad,

without the hope of respite or release from pain.

It suffers and abides in misery,

peering about in darkness, seeing not,

yet certain of the danger lurking there.

 

The unforgiving mind is torn with doubt,

confused about itself and all it sees;

afraid and angry, weak and blustering,

afraid to go ahead, afraid to stay,

afraid to waken or go to sleep,

afraid of every sound,

yet more afraid of stillness;

terrified of darkness,

yet more terrified at the approach of light...

 

 

The unforgiving mind sees no mistakes, but only sins.

It looks upon the world with sightless eyes,

and shrieks as it beholds its own projections

rising to attack its miserable parody of life.

It wants to live, yet wishes it were dead.

It wants forgiveness, yet it sees no hope.

It wants escape, yet can conceive of none

because it sees the sinful everywhere.

 

The unforgiving mind is in despair,

without the prospect of a future

which can offer anything but more despair.

Yet it regards its judgment of the world as irreversible,

and cannot see it has condemned itself to this despair.

It thinks it cannot change, for what it sees

bears witness that its judgment is correct.

It does not ask, because it thinks it knows.

It does not question, certain it is right.

 

The unforgiving mind does not believe

that giving and receiving are the same.

The unforgiving mind must learn through your forgiveness,

that it has been saved from hell.

ACIM

ACIM-W-121:2-9

 

This is what popped out of the pages of Lesson 121 as I was reading it.  Amazing and definitely worthy of some solid consideration.

 

So let's begin!

 

In this lesson we are given the poetic definition of the unforgiving mind which is a mind that has identified with ego rather than with Spirit/Soul/ higher Self/ Awareness/ Presence.  The unforgiving mind is the un-evolved  mind that most of us travel through life using as our guide. That is pretty sad considering:

• That it is so full of fear it prevents Love from expanding within us and from us, as it naturally wants to do
• That it keeps us so contracted and restrained we can not feel the peace that is our birthright and cannot seem to get beyond the earthly "problems" we encounter.
• That it is sad and hopeless giving into the pain it feels it will never escape
• That it suffers and is miserable unable to see in the darkness it created and fearing what lurks in those shadows.
• That it is confused and doubtful about everything it sees including itself.
• That it  is angry, weak and blustering.
• That it is always afraid: fearing everything ...afraid to go or stay; to awaken or go to sleep; afraid to be in darkness, yet afraid to go into the light.
• That it sees all  mistakes as sins.
• That it lacks clarity using the body's sightless eyes to see,  it only sees a threat in everything  it has projected all around it.
• That it wants to live but would rather die; that it wants forgiveness but sees no hope; That it wants escape from the prison it has created but can not conceive of freedom because it sees the sinful everywhere.
• That it is deeply depressed and only sees more despair in the future.
• That it looks about the world in judgment and does not understand it created the world it sees and can escape it
• That it constantly searches for evidence of how it is stuck in this prison it created, how things will never change.
• That it  is so connived of its limited pitiful version of reality  that it doesn't question if there is a better way to live.
•  That it does not see that giving and receiving are the same; that if it gives forgiveness, it will receive forgiveness.

Wow! This is what an unforgiving mind will do for us.  Pretty brutal, eh? Yet most of us are living under the guidance of one and doing what it bids us to do: collecting grievances, picking out the wrong doings of others, holding onto anger and self righteousness, attacking and defending and living in fear. 

 

Why do we live like this when we can live in ultimate safety, peace, Love and joy?  All we have to do is learn to forgive others for their infractions.  Through forgiveness of another we will receive the gift of freedom.  We will awaken!

 

Forgiveness is the key to happiness. 

 

All is well!