Compassion and Forgiveness

"I will behold the person
who now considers himself as my enemy
to be in truth my divine brother
hiding behind a veil of misunderstanding.
I will tear aside this veil
with a dagger of love so that,
seeing my humble, forgiving understanding,
he will no longer spurn the offering of my goodwill."
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Last night, I watched Sex in the City: The Movie, one more time. Once of my favorite scenes is a poignant one, where Carrie Bradshaw and Miranda Hobbs sit in a cab together in the rain. Miranda asks Carrie to forgive her for something she did - yet she has been unable to forgive her own husband for something he did 6 months before...

Carrie points out - that in the end - forgiveness - is simply that - forgiveness...

As I reflected on the entries on compassion in Paramahansa Yogananda's Spiritual Diary, it seemed clear to me, that one cannot truly embody compassion if one is not willing to forgive, even those things that seem to lay beyond the scope of forgiveness.

As I delve more deeply into my meditation practices, I realized that my newest practice was inviting me to heal and transform more deeply, and thoughts of those that I needed to forgive surfaced in my mind. In my deepest dreams last night, i experienced the aftermath of forgiveness in the spirit realm with a soul - that may never find such expression in the physical realm - and it brought me great peace. We may not always be granted the opportunity for the tidy resolution of discord experienced with others, but we can engage in lovingkindness practices - always sending love and healing energy to such souls - for truly - they are not separate from us.

This morning, I chose the following quote from my entry yesterday, as my status on Facebook. It is worth revisiting:

"True love is boundless as the ocean,
and swelling within one,
spreads itself in and out and,
crossing all boundaries and frontiers,
envelops the whole world."
- MK Gandhi