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A SPIRITUAL
PRACTICE OF FORGIVING AND REPENTANCE
Composed by Rabbi Michael
Lerner
The ten days of Repentance that Jews observe this
year from the eve of Rosh Hashanah Sept. 29th to the end
of Yom Kippur at nightfall October 9th can be used by
anyone. Muslims may also find this of value as they
complete the Ramadan season.
Practice 1: Repentance
Carefully review
your life, acknowledge to yourself who you have hurt and
where your life has gone astray from your own highest
ideals. Find a place where you can be safely alone, and
then say out loud who and how you've hurt others and how
you've hurt yourself. In the case of others, go to them
and say clearly what you've done and ask for
forgiveness. Do not mitigate or "explain"-just
acknowledge and sincerely ask for forgiveness.
We do not start from the assumption that anyone has
become evil. Rather, we vision any 'sins' as "missing
the mark." We are born pure and with the best of
intentions to be the highest possible spiritual being we
can be, as though we were an arrow being shot straight
toward God to connect more fully, yet at various points
in our lives the arrow gets slightly off track and
misses the mark. Repentance is really about a mid-course
adjustment to get back on track.
Practice 2: Forgiveness
Every night before
going to sleep or every morning before engaging in your
various tasks, projects or interactions with others,
review your life, recall who you feel has hurt or
betrayed you and toward whom you are still holding
resentment or anger. Then, find a place to say this out
loud:
MEDITATION OR PRAYER OF FORGIVENESS
YOU, my Lord, the Almighty God, WITNESS now that I
forgive anyone who hurt or upset me or who offended me
by
- damaging my body, my property, my reputation, hurting
my feelings, shaming me, undermining my friendships or
hurting my income or scaring me or making me angry
-
- or damaging people that I love-
whether by accident or purposely-- with words, deeds,
thoughts or attitudes.
I think particularly of……fill in here anyone in your
life who may have done some of the above).
I forgive (name each person) and every person who has
hurt or upset me, whether or not I can remember them at
this moment.
May no one be punished because of me.
May no one suffer from karmic consequences for hurting
or upsetting me.
Help me, Eternal Friend, to keep from offending You and
others.
Help me to be thoughtful and not commit outrage by doing
what is evil in Your eyes.
Whatever sins I have committed, blot out, please, in
Your abundant kindness, and spare me suffering or
harmful illnesses.
Help me become aware of the ways I may have
unintentionally or intentionally hurt others,
- and please give me guidance and strength to rectify
those hurts--- and to develop the sensitivity to not
continue acting in a hurtful way.
Let me forgive others,
- let me forgive myself--but also let me change in ways
that make it easy for me to avoid paths of hurtfulness
to others.
I seek peace, let me BE peace.
I seek justice, let me be just.
I seek a world of kindness, let me be kind.
I seek a world of generosity, let me be generous with
all that I have and to everyone I encounter in my life
and to those whom I do not encounter but who need my
help..
I seek a world of sharing, let me share all that I have.
I seek a world of giving, let me be giving to all around
me.
I seek a world of love-- let me be loving beyond all
reason,
beyond all normal expectation, beyond all societal
frameworks that tell me how much love is "normal,"
- beyond all fear that giving too much love will leave
me with too little.
And let me be open, aware, sensitive and receptive to
all the love that is already coming to me, from:
- the love of people I know, -
- the love that is part of the human condition,
- the accumulated love of past generations that flows
through and is embodied in the language, music,
agriculture & recipes for cooking or preparing food,
technology, literature, religions, agriculture, and
family heritages that have been passed on to me and to
us.
Let me pass that love on to the next generations in an
even fuller and more conscious way.
Source of goodness and love in the universe, let me be
alive to all the goodness that surrounds me.
And let that awareness of the goodness and love of the
universe be my shield and protector.
Hear the words of my mouth and may the meditations of my
heart find acceptance before You, Eternal Friend, who
protects and frees me.
Amen.
courtesy: Tikkun Magazine of the Network of Spiritual
Progressiveness.
Note: Slightly edited for al-huda online magazine.
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