How do we release the pain of the past?

Releasing the pain of the past occurs through forgiveness, remembering that forgiveness has a special meaning within Yoga. We envision forgiveness in 5 steps:

First, we recognize that all beings seek happiness and avoid suffering. People don’t hurt others intentionally, but as a form of defense to avoid suffering.

Second, we recognize that the negative actions of others are reflections of their level of consciousness and has nothing to do with us personally. Anyone who came across that person at that time will receive the same treatment as a reflection of their level of awareness.

Third, we recognize that we place ourselves in contact with difficult people or situations person as part of our own process of Self-understanding. We give ourselves the lessons we need to reveal limiting beliefs \calling for release. An example of a limiting belief is: “I can only experience love if someone else loves me”. We repeat these until we finally see the limiting pattern that needs to be released.

Fourth, with this understanding of how pain and misunderstanding occur, we recognize that, at times, others have felt hurt by us. For our part, it was not our intention to hurt anyone, but to be happy and avoid suffering by protecting ourselves. Our words and actions reflected our consciousness at that time, which was the result of conditioning which we received unconsciously. Now, as our level of consciousness expands, we wouldn’t speak or act in the same way. Embracing our own process of transformation, we offer forgiveness to ourselves.

Finally, we recognize that there were situations in the past when we feel hurt by others, and we may still feel the pain of those situations. Through our own process of Self-growth, we see that others were not trying to hurt us, but only to be happy and avoid suffering by protecting themselves. Their attitudes, words and deeds reflected their own limiting beliefs, which they may now be releasing. We also see that we placed ourselves in those situations to see and release our own limiting beliefs.

With this understanding, we offer forgiveness to others and thereby release the pain of the past. For a deeper understanding of the process of forgiveness, let’s experience a guided meditation by Joseph Le Page.