Jack Kornfield on Forgiveness

This is an excellent forgiveness talk given by renown Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Here are some of the highlights. Quoting Rumi, Kornfield illustrates one of my favorite forgiveness themes, that our greatest pain can be the doorway to great healing:  

Don’t reject your grief and loneliness
Let them seize in you
Like few ingredients can

Kornfield points out that we become very loyal to our stories, yet most of them are reruns! He says we each have an underlying capacity for love and freedom that is untouched by what happens to us. This is our true nature and the shift of identity back to our true nature is the invitation of forgiveness work. Last but not least, he shares this from the Bhagavad Gita:

                      If you want to see the brave,
                           look for those who can return love for hatred, 
                       If you want to see the heroic,  
                          look for those who can forgive.

 I encourage you to check out the accompanying article entitled the Ancient Heart of Forgiveness.

Thanks Eric Boehm for sending this.

New and Improved Forgiveness Challenge – A new Tutu Global Forgiveness Challenge starts at the beginning of August.  This online program is free of charge.