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Home » Teachings & Practices
Dharma Teachings | Sangha Teachings | Loving-kindness Practices | Forgiveness Practice | Reconciliation Practice | Gratitude (Dana)
Forgiveness Practice
Forgiveness is difficult to achieve because whatever has occasioned the need for forgiveness has caused your mind to become clouded by pain, loss, and confusion. The natural response is to stamp out the source of your difficult emotions and make the suffering go away, but pain, loss, and confusion can be directly worked with in your meditation practice. Forgiveness practice liberates you from your difficult emotions and helps you find meaning in even the worst of life’s events. To practice forgiveness meditation, repeat the following phrases first for someone who has caused you harm, then for someone whom you wish to ask for forgiveness, and finally for yourself. For more about forgiveness practice, read Phillip’s article, “Forgiving the Unforgivable.”To those whom I may have caused harm, knowingly or unknowingly, through my thoughts, words and* actions [optional: arising through greeed, ill-will or delusions] I ask your forgiveness.
To those who may have caused me harm, knowingly or unknowingly, through their thoughts, words and actions [can add options] I offer my forgiveness [option: as best I am able].
For any harm I may have caused myself, knowingly or unknowingly, through my thoughts, words, and actions [add another option] I offer my forgiveness.
* some people say "and", others "or". Keep it simple and vibrant for you. Use your own words if better.
