Forgiving can be VERY difficult at the best of times, but how do you forgive the person who murdered your child? How do you forgive the person who imprisoned someone for 20 years as a sex slave? How do you forgive a man who has raped children? These are all very emotive and sensitive questions that need answering in the most delicate manner possible.

Human nature is a varied and wild beast. We think we are above the animals because of our intellect, but we are only above them by one level of existence. We still have to deal with our base instincts, our base emotions, our base attitudes to life in general.

The human realm is still one of Dukkha. We have to battle every day with the suffering caused by our emotions and attachments. These are all left-overs from our animal ancestry, and they take a hell of a lot of training to get them under control. You are not ‘weak’ if you have trouble doing so, you are merely human.

Even the God realm suffers! They have their emotions to deal with. The Divas are just the same. They crave certain sensual pleasures just as we do, so we are not alone. They have emotions to deal with, you only have to look at the Christian God to see wrath, anger, jealousy to name but a few. To forgive someone who has done us a serious wrong is a blessing both for yourself and for the perpetrator of the crime. It may very well take years for you to be able to achieve that state but when you do, the relief is unfathomable. It releases you from anger, hatred, guilt and a host of other emotions. Forgiveness is good for YOU, the other party may benefit a little if you tell them, but the main effect will be on you!

However, you should not beat yourself up about it if you cannot forgive. We are all human, and we are all on different points of the path to liberation. If you really cannot forgive someone, then accept that fact and move on to other practices. Metta meditation would be a good start. Look it up on Google or YouTube, there is plenty of instruction out there. It is the meditative practice of loving-kindness. It engenders a sense of kindness and compassion to ALL sentient beings, so it will help with any forgiveness issues you may be dealing with.

At the end of the day, forgiveness is a very personal issue and not an easy one to solve, so practice, practice and also practice. You will be better off if you succeed so it is worth trying.

Namaste

To own something is, technically, impossible. Ownership is merely a legal concept used to decide who has the right to possess an item or thing.

Possession is apparent and true. I possess this tablet I am writing this post on. Legally I own it, but all I really do is possess it. If someone breaks in to my flat an steals my tablet, I will no longer possess it, but the thief will. Should the thief be caught, then the courts would decide who, out of the two of us, has the right to possess the item, or ‘own’ it.

If I were to truly own this tablet then I would be able to take the item with me when I pass on, but in reality we only ever really possess things, we ‘own’ nothing.

Take money for example. Do you really own the money in your bank account? All your bank account says is that there are so many pounds and pence in it. they are just 1’s and 0’s recorded on a hard-drive in a server out there somewhere. There are no 5 pound notes sitting in a vault with your name on them. Do you really own those 1’s and 0’s? If the server crashes and those 1’s and 0’s disappear, the bank will say you have nothing. Truthfully you do not even possess those 1’s and 0’s because you cannot hold them in your hand can you?

This may seem a little silly as an example, but when you get down to it, how CAN you own or possess something that cannot even be seen with the naked eye. You have to take it on trust that if you go to the bank and ask for the money that they say you have, that you would actually be given it, and we all know what happened with Northern Rock in the financial crash. They DIDN’T have the money to give to people even though the accounts of the customers said they did have it. So… do you possess, or ‘own’, your money?

You save up for retirement over 30 or 40 years only to find that either the Government or the company has rifled the accounts and your pension pot is next to worthless.

Also, if you have bought a ‘freehold’ house, you say you own the land that comes with the building. How can anyone own part of the planet? It was here several billion years before you were born, and will be here several billion years after you die, so how can you say you ‘own’ the land your house is on? Yes, the government and legal system says you do, but, again, it is just legal jargon for the sake of convenience. You may possess the house and land for the duration you live there because you have the keys to the front door, but you never truly own the land. No one does.

I could go on but I hope you get the idea. Ownership and possession are different matters, one is purely a legal matter, the other is fact for as long as you actually have the item in your hands.

And none of what you think you own or possess can be taken with you into your next incarnation!

Namaste

The Dhamma of Compassion:

Lotus Flower

Compassion is defined as “sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.”

In Buddhism we are taught to practice engendering compassion for ALL sentient beings. This means compassion for ants and slugs, as well as your family and friends. Even your greatest rivals, dictators, Trump and Blare, deserve our compassion. They all suffer as we do. They, especially animals and the likes of Trump and Blare, are ignorant of the Dhamma, they are ignorant of the effects their actions have, they are ignorant of the suffering they cause to other sentient beings. Even Theresa May deserves compassion although she is trying to destroy the NHS. She is causing untold suffering to millions, yet she is totally ignorant of the kammic repercussions she can expect; therefore she deserves our compassion.

Compassion can also mean saying ‘no’ to someone. It does not mean we have to bend over backwards to give everything we can to someone. Sometimes the greatest love you can show an individual is the ability to say ‘no more’. It hands responsibility for their predicament back into their own hands and helps make them a stronger and more responsible individual. Saying ‘no’ is not a bad thing, in the right context.

Many people have difficulty with the concept of universal compassion, believing that certain individuls do not deserve it, but this is a fallacy. We have all already been where those individuals are now in past lives. We have, and still do, deserve compassion. It is our universal ignorance of the Dhamma, and the kammic repercussions, that almost demands compassion should be shown. Care for our fellow-man and all other sentient beings is a must, no matter what level they are at, tramp or king, slug or elephant. We all deserve compassion.

Namaste