Acceptance, Forgiveness, and the Art of Aikido

At the last Zen retreat that I went to at our temple here, in my interview with the Zen master, he said, “Zen is simply accepting this moment as it is.” That’s it. Being able to accept it. It doesn’t mean you have to like it. It doesn’t mean you want to try to change it, at least in that moment. You can do something to change it but you don’t resist it. You don’t inwardly put up barriers to it and say, “I don’t like this,” or, “I don’t like that.” It is essentially what Jesus said when he said, “Turn the other cheek.”

Now if you see something that troubles you the law of karma demonstrates that the only reason you’re seeing it is because you are holding on to that issue in your unconscious mind, in your Shadow.  And you’re projecting it.  And you’re blaming whatever is going on outside, for your feeling bad about it, when it’s actually your own responsibility for creating it.

What acceptance does is to dissolve that issue within you so that you don’t project it into your immediate experience anymore.  And like I said, it doesn’t mean you have to like it.  You just have to acknowledge what it is and Let It Go.  And Let It Go.  Because the truth of the matter is there is nothing “out there” that can truly hurt you because you are perfect, whole and complete and one with all that is.  The only thing that can hurt you, the only thing that can cause suffering are your thoughts of separation.  And then when you project those thoughts into your immediate experience of reality then it seems that it is coming to you from the outside.  But that’s the province of Shadow Work.

Whenever you see something on the outside that causes you distress, anybody with an ounce of enlightened consciousness needs to ask the question:  “How am I creating this?  What am I doing?  What am I still holding on to that’s creating this?  How can I let it go so that I don’t have to experience this anymore?”

Aikido Is The Art of Non-Resistance       

And it is very much like the martial art of Aikido.  Aikido is the art of non-resistance to attack.  It’s accepting this energy, even though it is seemingly hostile energy, it’s accepting it.  Accept the energy, but don’t allow yourself to be impacted by it.  Don’t react or resist it.  You move, harmonize with it, go to the center of that energy.  And from that center you stop resisting, and you get into that center place, that still point that T.S. Eliot talks about:

“At the still point of the turning world”  T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

When you get to that still point in the center of that attack you can effortlessly re-direct it.  So I like to describe Aikido as a kind of “instant Karma” because if somebody is angry with you and throws an attack at you, you simply get out of the way, re-direct it and they end up hitting the ground pretty hard.  But you really haven’t done very much, you haven’t counter-attacked or anything – you are just taking them where they wanted to go, or at least where they wanted you to go.  So it’s a beautiful art and a beautiful analogy for how to use your mind on the physical plane.

So we also talk about using the principles of Aikido, non-resistance in emotional conflicts, personal conflicts, verbal conflicts.  The key is acceptance.  And acceptance is forgiveness.

I don’t want to create a sense or concept of separation here.  Acceptance is not necessarily manifestation but it is the key to effortless manifestation.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is acceptance and release of blame for past hurts.  Acceptance you do in the present moment.  You’ve got to accept whatever is happening right now.  Forgiveness is acceptance of the past.  It’s allowing whatever happened in the past to exist, without your needing to react to it or hold on to it, or try to change it in any way.  By releasing it you no longer need to change it because it no longer exists.  It no longer can affect you any more. 

That’s why “A Course in Miracles” is such a beautiful and effective practice because the fundamental principle in the “Course in Miracles” is forgiveness.

Remember there is no past and the future.  You can’t prove that there ever was a past, or that there will be a future, because there’s only now.  We create the past and the future from the present moment.  So whatever we are creating in this moment in our minds, in our heads, with our thoughts – that’s what our past was.  We can change our past simply by changing our thoughts or just stopping the focus on those thoughts.

I will close with a quote from my book, Between Yesterday and Tomorrow:

 On Forgiveness.

“Refusal to forgive only confirms and re-enforces one’s identity with victimhood, which then attracts more people and situations that victimize you. You become a magnet for victimizers. It is also a statement that you believe you are not whole, that you are harmed, that you were, and are still vulnerable. What you don’t forgive continues to enslave you by identification with victimhood. As long as you continue to identify with victimhood you cannot realize and experience the Power of Your Divinity.”

“Between Yesterday and Tomorrow” by Jim Giorgi

A Course in Miracles the Movie www.acourseinmiraclesthemovie.com The teachings of A Course in Miracles have been supported by such mainstream commentators as Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer & Marianne Williamson, and are additionally supported by countless “New Thought” churches, such as Centers for Spiritual Living & the Association of Unity Churches. Currently over two million volumes of the book, A Course in Miracles (also referred to as ACIM or the Course) have been published worldwide. Additionally, A Course in Miracles has been translated into nineteen different languages with many new translations underway. A Course In Miracles The Movie, is a new feature length film that blends interviews from Guides in the ACIM community with the story of Kate, a woman learning to use A Course In Miracles to understand what special relationships are truly for. This powerful new movie is designed for ACIM teachers & students to support them and their communities.
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