Colin Tipping, PhD (UK) has provided much work on the notion of "Radical Forgiveness". Going about it through allegory, he provides this work which, to me, will take me the rest of my life. No joke. This is the quintessential forgiveness...one that is a spiritual bear to wrap your mind around. And...it takes immense practice with a tolerance for ambiguity for falling short of the mark, but having spiritual tenacity to keep on.
Dr. Tipping "breaks it down" as simply as possible (I am speaking of the theory, not the achievement!) I particularly like his CD, just for convenience, and the ability to load to onto iPods and the like.
He has many forms online to utilize for groups and individuals. I used them with adolescent groups who had wandered into the penal system...not exactly an easy "sell" on anything "touchy-feely". Still grinning, I recall their acceptance and some efforts at use by the kiddos. Again, the allegory and images helped immensely.
I am pasting this pice from Dr. Tipping's site:
Dying Is Flying
By way of preparing you for an essay about death and dying coming soon, I am sharing part of a conversation between Jack, a soul who is being prepared for his incarnation, and Harley, his Angel of Incarnation. This excerpt is taken from my eBook entitled A Radical Incarnation and retitled as A Soul Contract for the audio version. This excerpt deals with the notion of death and the fear we have about it. Part Two explains why we need to forgive before we die or before the other guy does.
“Think of the human experience as a spiritual boot camp,” explained Harley. “Like all boot camps, it is designed to build you up by tearing you down until you surrender completely.”
“So what keeps people in the program?” I (Jack), had to ask. “If it’s as unpleasant as it sounds and there appears to be no reason to be doing it, why do people make such a strong point of doing it for as long as they can?”
“Simple,” replied Harley. “The fear of death. The fear of ceasing to exist. That’s what keeps them in the program. You have to hand it to the Ego, Jack. First it seduces you into believing that you are a separate entity, existing alone — separate from other human beings and from the source of infinite supply and security, God — and, to all intents and purposes, independent and self-reliant.
Then it teaches you to fear death — which we up here know to be the way back home — to such a degree that you hang on to life at all costs and never give up trying to keep death away. While it is true that the pain of being separate and alone may be almost unbearable, it is still preferable to the only alternative — death. Fear of death, Jack. That’s what keeps us in the game. Perfect, don’t you think?”
“I guess it is,” I agreed. “But is that the only purpose for making death fearful — to create a kind of prison without bars from which no one wants to escape?
There is more to it than that, Jack. The fear of death raises the bar for achieving a meaningful level of transcendence through the actual death process. If there was little fear, there would be little challenge to it. The journey of life is nothing more than a march towards death, and the purpose of life, my friend, is to face our worst fear and transcend it.”