December 24, 2023
Some say that Gandhi forgave his assassin, but in those confusing moments, hard evidence seems not to have been saved; although he previously stated his intention to do so in these Last Words.
He did not stop loving humanity. Strangers were his cherished siblings. He forgave them their trespasses.
Acts can be evil, but people are not evil. Evil acts are far from their deepest desires - not even close. They are caught up in the emotional plague. Every perpetrator is first a victim of cultural training in contest and enmity. They are stuck on the injustices done to them and their supposed obligation to defend their personal honor. The perpetrators have not unlearned destructive feelings like anger, resentment, and envy. Revenge, blame, hate, dismissiveness, arrogance, selfishness, and wishing for power over the choices belonging to others are also among the feelings widely regarded as natural to all people, despite the fact that we are not born with them, but taught them from birth. These were made part of the culture during our many barbarian centuries.
If you lived for a thousand years, would you like to live another thousand years resenting people for their transgressions? Would you want to be obsessed by the injustices you feel have been done to you?
We add, by imitation, to the few feelings we have at birth. The destructive ones can be unlearned, but reactions are not our only resource. There is love. We can take an active part in feeling love for others. This returns more than it gives.
Artists, musicians, an authors invent feelings all of the time. We are amazingly good at learning new feelings. Sometimes a person will revisit a country or a home town just to be reminded of how it feels to stand in a particular place.
We have been beseeched many times to care about each other. Policies and behavior are perfected by caring about the wellbeing and happiness of every living person.
Purging these destructive feelings is not any kind of suppression or amnesia. They may be part of your history, but they will no longer be painful, and they will not automatically recur.
This method works for every person who actually tries it:
The first step is to fervently wish these changes.
These changes are personality changes. When a person can change such feelings, then habits, aversions, inclinations, and many other features can be changed.
While there are other approaches, a very effective one is the intentional invention of daydreams featuring yourself as a changed person. This may result in sleeping dreams having content similar to the daydreams. The method is as follows:
A few times a day, imagine yourself with people in circumstances that usually prompt some feeling or action that you want to eliminate from your behavior. See yourself acting differently and not reacting as usual - see yourself behaving as you wish you would. See yourself not feeling what you usually feel in those circumstances, but feeling empathy or love or understanding or courage as you would wish to feel in those circumstances.
If this sort of daydream in done a few times a day, you will see changes (verified by others) within a few months. That is my experience and the experience of a great many others.
Those who mistreat you are misled. Love humanity, not contest.
Never leave your higher self.
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