Ten ideas of Christ

Idea Four: Forgiveness

Here is Idea Four that Christ gave in His Teachings: The power of Forgiveness

We have excellent examples of the power of forgiveness in our lives. Witness the huge work done in South Africa and also by people who have survived genocides. The power of forgiveness is huge and it is one of the most healing agents in our life. If we can forgive ourselves and forgive others for what they have done to us, and ask for forgiveness for for what we have done to others, we put ourselves onto the path of healing. We cannot harbor hatred and love in the same line of thought. If we try to, our mind will not function as clearly and as creatively.

Following is another exerpt from The Teaching of Christ:

The fourth value that Christ gave us is forgiveness. Disciples came and said, “Shall we forgive each other? How many times? Is seven times enough?” “No,” Christ said. “Seventy-seven times is not enough.” Then are you going to forgive people? If you are sensitive, if you can really mentally analyze your life, you will see that any time you are not forgiving, you are building a tremendous tension and burden in your brain, in your heart, in your blood, and your blood pressure is rising. Revenge is another poison. The heart attacks that you are developing come from unforgiveness. What does unforgiveness do? It really kills you. You do not need that burden, that tension, that strain in your nervous system.

Forgiveness gives a chance and challenges the other person to strive to a better life. Forgiveness means that you already know that no man is bad. The divinity in the man did not do anything wrong. ­Because he was sick physically, emotionally, or mentally, he did wrong things, and you are fighting against the elementals, punishing that man who did not do anything. He was sick. When you cure him, forgiveness gives you the chance to take this man and put him into an educational process. Forgiveness makes you realize that these crimes are increasing because of wrong conditions of life.

So Christ brought forgiveness and He said something that was so beautiful. There was a man who owed a thousand dollars to a rich man. He said, “Lord, I don’t have this money. Can you forgive my debt to you?” He said, “Okay, I will forgive your debt because you are a sincere and beautiful man. Now, go away.”

He went away and he was so happy. He was jumping and singing, but suddenly on the road he met a man who owed him one dollar. He said, “John, good morning. Come here. Three months ago I gave you one dollar. Give it back to me now.” John said, “I don’t have it. You didn’t tell me you would be asking for it today.” “Why don’t you have it? I want it now!” Fortunately the rich man was coming by on his horse. He saw the man beating up John and asked him what he was doing. He said, “This man owes me one dollar.” “You are beating this man for one dollar? I forgave you one thousand dollars.” So the rich man called his soldiers and said, “Take this man and put him in prison so that he learns the science of forgiveness.”

What was Christ saying? If you do not forgive, you are limiting your freedom. It is a drama. When you are not forgiving, you are imprisoning yourself, you are limiting yourself, and you are creating ­reactions and troubles and pains and sufferings for yourself. You are suffering because of your non-forgiveness. How to teach these things? Can you teach these things?

....We are seeing now that only this kind of Teaching will save us from destruction. This is it. Do you see how great is the Teaching?

(These excerpts are taken from the unpublished first volume of the Teachings of Christ by Torkom Saraydarian. All rights reserved. The Creative Trust. Used by permission of the copyright holder. For an Ageless Wisdom approach to the life and teachings of Christ and Jesus, please see Christ The Avatar of Sacrificial Love by Torkom Saraydarian.)