Indulgence and Forgiveness

Consider a person whom you dislike very much.

Try to discover what is that person’s very best emotional quality and which is strongly apparent-an aspect of the person that you would admire if it were in someone else’s personality.

Now, take another aspect of the person that you admire and consider it.

Do this until you are coming up with aspects, which, though positive, are rather ordinary and shared by pretty much everyone else. Then you can stop and ask the questions below.

Ask yourself,What part of me resists doing this exercise?

Am I attached to negative summations?

Do I review my opinions from time to time to see if I still agree with them intellectually or emotionally?

Has this person become a bit less two dimensional and more likely to be seen by me as a complex individual with many parts?

How does this process serve my psychological health?

Is there a payoff to using this process on a daily basis?

How would it feel to do this for myself and the opinions I hold about myself? Could I do this honestly? Will I?

What is the deepest form of forgiveness that I practice on a regular basis? The passage of time? Intellectually mulling over the issues? Emotional repatterning? How deep can I go? Will I?

If I had a secret room in my house that had all the walls filled with negative graffiti, how would that affect how I felt while living in the house? How would I feel every time I walked passed the closed door? How would I feel when someone came to visit?

What is in my heart of hearts?