Reflections on The Wisdom of Forgiveness

I recently read The Wisdom of Forgiveness: Intimate Conversations and Journeys by the Dalai Lama and Victor Chan. What follows are some reflections from my journal.

The mantra is forgiveness and interdependence. His wisdom and practice is presented in the midst of his experiences of meeting and sharing stories with folks all over the world. There is one meditation practice which strikes me . . . it's a bit different and for sure more universal in perspective than our normal individualistic spiritual practice.

In response to the question "Is there a special meditation technique that you use?" he says, "I use a meditation technique called giving and taking. I make visualization: send my positive emotions like happiness, affection to others. Then another visualization. I visualize receiving their sufferings, their negative emotions. I do this every day. I pay special attention to the Chinese--especially those doing terrible things to the Tibetans. So, as I meditate, I breathe in all their poisons--hatred, fear, cruelty. Then I breathe out. And I let all the good things come out, things like compassion, forgiveness. I take inside my body all these bad things. Then I replace poisons with fresh air. Giving and Taking. I take care not to blame--I don't blame the Chinese and I don't blame myself. This meditation is very effective, useful to reduce hatred, useful to cultivate forgiveness."

What I find remarkable about this meditation is that rather than shun poisons, he takes them in and replaces them with compassion and forgiveness. I've often wondered how to pray, how to respond to negativity and pain. This gives me a technique to respond to some of the ugliness. I'm going to try it.

I have frequently used a breathing technique to breathe in love and light and breathe out my stress and pain. Take in the good, let go the bad. This seems to be the opposite. Take upon oneself the ugly, breathe out blessing. Reminds one a bit of Jesus, doesnt' it? Perhaps in my practice of prayerful meditation there is a time for each.

The Dalai Lama also shares a delightful image about the potential impact of small actions, an illustration of interdependence. He calls it the Butterfly Effect. The flapping of a butterfly's wings in Beijing could cause minuscule atmospheric changes, which over time could affect weather patterns in Vancouver. It reminded me of similar thoughts contained in writings of Madeleine L'Engle.