Of
all my weekly yoga class themes, this week’s on Forgiveness has been the one most
requested for me to share via email. Some of the things I shared were
spontaneous and are not included here. But this is the majority.
Enjoy.
Quotes on FORGIVENESS OF SELF &
OTHERS
Yoga Classes Week of September 9, 2019
Ho'oponopono:
The Hawaiian Forgiveness Mantra
I
am sorry, Please forgive me, I love you, Thank you.
Many
of the quotes I used this week came from Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s book:
Words in ( ) [ ] within other quotes are
added by me.
Forgiveness has the power to
bring harmony within and with others. –Jonathan
Davis article
If
something troubles you, if some- thing sends prickles up your spine and you
would like best to turn around and go away, and above all, if someone 'presses
your buttons', always direct your thoughts to prayer… it will lead us to face difficult conflicts
within our relationships and help to heal our resentment of the past (thereby
healing present and future). When we face what is wrong, take responsibility
for our own feelings, and accept and offer unconditional love, unhealthy
situations and relationships transform into more favorable experiences. –Ulrich E. Dupree
article on Daily Om
…the Hawaiian tradition
teaches that all life is connected. Ho’oponopono is, therefore, not only
a way of healing ourselves, but others and our world as well. – Timothy Freke,
Shamanic Wisdomkeepers
…the discordance we find in
others and in the world outside ourselves is due to ‘errors’ in thought stored
in our personal and collective memories. –Jonathan
Davis article
If you want to
change what is going on around you, change what is going on within you. – Billy Cox
“The practice of forgiveness is our most
important contribution to the healing of the world.” ― Marianne
Williamson
“I have learned, that the person I have to ask
for forgiveness from the most is: myself. You must love yourself. You have to
forgive yourself, everyday, whenever you remember a shortcoming, a flaw, you
have to tell yourself
[I am sorry, Please forgive me, I love you,
Thank you.]
"That's
just fine". You have to forgive yourself so much, until you don't even see
those things anymore. Because that's what love is like.” ― C. JoyBell C.
Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has
an understanding and a forgiving heart, one who looks for the best in people.
Leave people better than you found them.”
― Marvin J. Ashton
“When we think
we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect
ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the fearful past causes a fearful
future and the past and future become one. We cannot love when we feel fear....
When we release the fearful past and forgive everyone, we will experience total
love and oneness with all.” ― Gerald G.
Jampolsky
“It is important that we forgive ourselves for
making mistakes. We need to learn from our errors and move on.”
― Steve
Maraboli, Life,
the Truth, and Being Free
Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to
you: love, prayer, and forgiveness. --H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant
attitude.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“…forgiveness,
like happiness, isn’t a final destination. You don’t one day get there and get
to stay.” ― Deb Caletti
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute
of the strong. --Mahatma Gandhi
“We don't forgive people because
they deserve it. We forgive them because they need it—because we need
it.” ― Bree Despain, The Dark Divine
Be the kind of person who can
move on from the past, forgive people and, as a result, be healthy, happy, and
free. It is an easier thing said than done.
But when was anything easy ever considered worthwhile or fully
satisfying and inspiring? When was
anything easy ever considered heroic or miraculous? --MaryAnn Broussard, Feisty ‘n Free
Wholistic Living
Unforgiveness is like drinking
poison yourself and waiting for the other person to die.
“Forgiveness is truly the grace by which we enable
another person to get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew. To not
forgive leads to bitterness and hatred. Like self-hatred and self-contempt,
hatred of others gnaws away at our vitals. Whether hatred is projected out or
stuffed in, it is always corrosive to the human spirit.” ― Desmond Tutu, The
Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World
“Forgiveness is an act of
the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” Corrie Ten
Boom
“True forgiveness is when
you can say, "Thank you for that experience.” ― Oprah Winfrey
“Forgiveness is the only way to heal ourselves
and to be free from the past. Without forgiveness, we remain tethered to the
person who harmed us. We are bound to the chains of bitterness, tied together,
trapped. Until we can forgive the person who harmed us, that person will hold
the keys to our happiness, that person will be our jailor. When we forgive, we
take back control of our own fate and our feelings. We become our own
liberator.” ― Desmond Tutu
“Forgiveness is the key that
unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that
breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.” ― Corrie Ten Boom, Clippings from
My Notebook
“You have stood at this
junction before. You will stand at this junction again. If you pause, you can ask yourself which way
to turn. You can turn away from your own sadness and run the race named [Resentment,
Bitterness, and] Revenge. You will run that tired track again and again. Or,
you can admit your own pain and walk the path that ends. In this direction lies
freedom. My friend, I can show you where hope [healing] and wholeness make
their homes, but you can’t push past your anguish on your way there. To find
the path to peace, you will have to meet your pain and speak its name.” ― Desmond Tutu, The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing
Ourselves and Our World --[MaryAnn
Broussard, Feisty ‘n Free Wholistic Living]
“When we are uncaring, when
we lack compassion, when we are unforgiving, we will always pay the price for
it. It is not, however, we alone who suffer. Our whole community suffers, and
ultimately our whole world suffers. We are made to exist in a delicate network
of interdependence. We are sisters and brothers, whether we like it or not. To
treat anyone as if they were less than human, less than a brother or a sister,
no matter what they have done, is to contravene the very laws of our humanity.
And those who shred the web of interconnectedness cannot escape the
consequences of their actions.” ― Desmond
Tutu, The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our
World
“Forgiveness does not mean
that we pretend things are anything other than they are. I am hurt, we say. I
am betrayed, we announce. I am in pain and grief. I have been treated unfairly.
I am feeling ashamed. I am angry this has been done to me. I am sad and I am
lost. I may never forget what you have done to me, but I will forgive. I will
do everything in my power not to let you harm me again. I will not retaliate against
you or against myself.” ― Desmond
Tutu, The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our
World
“Offer it up personally, then.
Right now. I thought of how many people go to their graves unforgiven and
unforgiving. I thought of how many people have had siblings or friends or
children or lovers disappear from their lives before precious words of clemency
or absolution could be passed along. How do the survivors of terminated
relationships ever endure the pain of unfinished business? From that place of
meditation, I found the answer-you can finish the business yourself, from
within yourself. It's not only possible, it's essential.” ― Elizabeth
Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
Corrie
herself was put to the test in 1947 while speaking in a Munich church. At the
close of the service, a balding man in a gray overcoat stepped forward to greet
her. Corrie froze. She knew this man well; he’d been one of the most vicious
guards at Ravensbrück, one who had mocked the women prisoners as they
showered. “It came back with a rush,” she wrote, “the huge room with its harsh
overhead lights; the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the
floor; the shame of walking naked past this man.”
And now he was pushing his hand out to shake hers, and
saying:
“A fine message, Fraulein! How good it is to know that,
as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”
And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled
in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of
course — how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?
But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from
his belt. I was face to face with one of my captors, and my blood seemed to
freeze.
“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying.
“I was a guard there… But since that time,” he went on, “I have become
a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did
there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein” — again
the hand came out —“will you forgive me?”
And I stood there — I whose sins had again and again to
be forgiven — and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place — could he
erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?
The soldier stood there expectantly, waiting for Corrie
to shake his hand. She “wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had
to do. For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a
prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us.”
Standing there before the former S.S. man, Corrie
remembered that forgiveness is an act of the will — not an emotion. “Jesus,
help me!” she prayed. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the
feeling.”
Corrie thrust out her hand.
And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current
started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And
then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my
eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart.”
For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the
former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely
as I did then. But even so, I realized it was not my love. I had tried, and did
not have the power. It was the power of the Holy Spirit.1
Excerpted with permission from 7 Women: And The
Secret Of Their Greatness by Eric Metaxas, copyright Thomas
Nelson.
1. Corrie ten Boom, with Jamie Buckingham, Tramp for the
Lord. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975), 217–218.
