Weekly Glow Wisdom: Forgiveness -The Spiritual F-Word (Part One)

(An Excerpt from my Bestselling Spiritual Awakening Book I AM GOOD ENOUGH)

“I can no longer think hateful thoughts about you. When I think of you, it will be with compassion and love. I am letting go of all this disorder that is inside me...I send you love...I send you love...Honestly, I send you love. That simple act of forgiveness was the beginning of an entirely new level of experiencing life for me.”---Wayne Dyer

Wayne Dyer said the words above while standing over his father’s grave in Mississippi, a father he’d never met, a father who’d abandon his family which included his mother and two brothers, a father who had been in prison, was an alcoholic and had abused Wayne’s mother.

Dr. Dyer spent a lifetime practicing in his nightmares how he’d one day face his father and demand answers for his behavior. He hoped when he did have that opportunity to at least learn enough from him that he could try to piece together some resemblance of understanding for why his father had acted as he had. But that opportunity never came.

What Dr. Dyer found that day as he first stood over his father’s grave was so much more. He found peace, and he credits his experience of forgiveness for his father as the beginning of his own transformation into living in-Spirit. And he didn’t experience this powerful change until he was 33.

I chose Dr. Dyer’s story as the main focus of this chapter on forgiveness, having no idea that he would leave his body while I was writing it. At the same moment that I was trying to find the words to share all that he’s taught me on the spiritually uplifting practice of forgiveness, he began his journey far beyond the human realm. I will forever be so very grateful for everything I’ve learned from him, and most of all, blessed beyond all imagination to make Forgiveness a practice in my life.

Wayne reminded us often that:

“We are not a human being having a spiritual experience, but rather a spiritual being having a human experience.”

As spiritual beings, we only have love and light to give and receive. In our human forms, we’re simply the conduits for these divine elements.

One of Wayne’s favorite spiritual thought leaders was one of my favorites too, Ram Dass. Wayne loved Ram Dass’s description of the word ‘paradox’ in his book Be Here Now:

“The most exquisite paradox...as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all.”

One of the most important things we can give up in order to move forward in our spiritual journey are the ill feelings and thoughts we harbor about others and the wrongs they caused in our lives.

Dr Dyer said that if we want to truly transform, then we must have the “ability and willingness to live beyond our form.” What he was saying here was that we must live as spiritual beings, not according to the limitations we experience as humans.

It reminds me of the wonderful words of poet Alexander Pope who said:

“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”

Hugs Love and Namaste --- DD

P.S. Tomorrow in Forgiveness (Part Two), we'll talk about how Forgiveness can be used as a wonderful awakening tool in your everyday life.