After many years serving as a facilitator for Course in Miracles groups I really believed that I had mastered the Course. I had forgiven everyone who I believed ever had hurt me in any way. I did not realize just how spiritualized that my ego had become. I was adept at explaining the Course and working with others to help them forgive those who had trepassed against them. Many of those who worked with me made great progress in their Spiritual growth.
It was not until my life began falling apart that the true meaning and purpose of Forgiveness was revealed unto me. I had won many "good guy" and best businessman awards. I was a successful businessman. I was a "go to guy" for those who were seeking public office in our area. I had a beautiful wife, talented children, a lovely home, and a great fishing boat with lots of friends to go along with it.
It was not until I was standing at the Gates of Hell in Auschwitz that I finally came face to face with the true meaning of Forgiveness. I was visiting the concentration camp with the person who I had come to know as my persecuter in a previous lifetime that ended in Auschwitz. Right in front of me stood this person as we looked into one another's eyes intently. It seemed like an eternity as we stood there waiting for one of us to speak.
Strangely it was raining everywhere else except where we were standing. All of the other people in the camp had left to evade the heavy rainfall. One by one they left while looking at us in a very puzzled way. Even the raindrops were unique. Each raindrop was elongated just like a tear. So we were surrounded by teardrops while standing in a bright circular plume of light.
I have never really believed in time and had spent many years studying the various explanations of multiple life experiences including re-incarnation, DNA memory, and so many more philosophies. I had even had several dreams and experiences where important people in my current lifetime were revealed to me as part of my Auschwitz nightmares or who had lost families members there. I even had a member of one of my Course in Miracles groups who had the numbers on her arm to prove she had been part of the Aucshwitz experience.
I knew exactly what I had to do...I thought. I would take a deep breath and tell this person in front me that I offer them complete forgiveness from my heart for what they had done "to me and my family".
Then from deep within myself I clearly heard a voice. That voice said...
"You don't get it, do you?"
I was confused. So many years preparing for what I thought would be the final test and graduation from A Course in Miracles.
I paused and listened further. It seemed once that I let go of what I thought that I knew about Forgiveness the voice became much more clear and concise.
The voice continued...
"You must ask your persecuter for Forgiveness. Guilt is what keeps the illusion of time in place."
I was confused for a moment, and then it all made sense.
The Truth is that we are all made of Love...One Heart....One mind...One Love. Therefore if we are all made from love and we are all connected in Oneness...then "How much love would it take for another soul to join us in a lifetime and serve us by acting out the roll of the ultimate villain in that life?" I had come to realize a very empowering distinction..."It was not what this person standing in front of me had done TO ME, it was what they had done FOR ME."
Bodies come and bodies go...however, our souls are eternal and none of us ever really dies.
All this, as strange and illogical as it seemed, "felt" perfect in my heart at that very moment and ever since then.
I once again engaged eye to eye with my former persecuter and said...
"Please forgive me for my needing you to serve me in the roll as the villain of my Auschwitz life".
Both our bodies seemed to shudder for a prolonged period of time. Then we hugged one another and the other person left the platform area where the trains had unloaded their precious cargo from the Gates of Hell.
Before arriving at Auschwitz I had been told in a meditation that I was supposed to give a Course in Miracles lesson in the concentration camp. Little did I know what would happen next.
Since the guilt between us had been released and I had taken full responsibility for that life experience in Auschwitz, the veil of time fell away. Right before me I felt a gathering of children in their ragged clothes. The deeper that I went into the my heart the more clearly I could see and feel those children. They gathered on the ground around me intent upon listening to what I had traveled so far to read.
I began to read aloud...The Forgotten Song from A Course in Miracles. And the more that I read, the greater was the sense of energy gathering around me. From time to time as I looked up from the text it seemed that more and more souls were gathering. There were adults gathering behind the barbed wire fences and also listening.
Many of my Spiritual teachers taught me that the last breath that we take as humans is our most important breath. It must be a breath of Love and Welcoming of our next life. Preparing for our last breath must be our most important purpose in living. To die with honor, kindness, and innocence. Because those who have unreconciled deaths and suffering sometimes choose not to move on. It seemed that I had been called to Auschwitz to bear witness to this fact.
The Forgotten Song
Listen…
Perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state...not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps... and yet... not altogether unfamiliar.
Like a song...whose name is long forgotten...and the circumstances in which you heard ...completely unremembered.
Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything
particular. But you remember...from just this little part,...how lovely was the song... how wonderful the setting where you
heard it...and how you loved those...who were there...and listened with you.
The notes are nothing. Yet you have kept them with you, not for themselves, but as a soft reminder...of what would make
you weep...if you remembered how dear it was to you. You could remember, yet you are afraid, believing you would lose
the world you learned since then. And yet you know ...that nothing in the world you learned...is half so dear as this.
Listen...and see if you remember an ancient song...you knew so long ago...and held more dear...than any melody you
taught yourself to cherish since.
Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see...and yet somehow familiar,
is an arc of golden light...that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle.
And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it...is no longer contained
at all. The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity...forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere.
Within it...everything is joined...in perfect continuity. Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there
is nowhere where that this light is not.
This is the vision of the Son of God, whom you know well. Here is the sight of him who knows his Father.
Here is the memory of what you are; a part of this, with all of it within, and joined to all...as surely as all is
joined in you. Accept the vision that can show you this, and not the body. You know the ancient song, and
know it well. Nothing will ever be as dear to you as is this ancient hymn the Son of God sings to his Father still.
And now the blind can see, for that same song they sing in honor of their Creator gives praise to them as well.
The blindness that they made will not withstand the memory of this song. And they will look upon the vision of
the Son of God, remembering who He is they sing of. What is a miracle but this remembering?
And who is there in whom this memory lies not? The light in one awakens it in all. And when you see it in your
your brother, you are remembering for everyone.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************
Easter week begins with lilies and ends with a crown of thorns and a resurrection. Each of our relationships have the potential for crucifixion or resurrection. We must choose what to offer each individual whom we attract into our life. We can offer them a crown of thorns or a Gift of Lilies, knowing clearly that what we choose to give is exactly what we will receive.
Only the Love is Real.