When, Why, and How to Forgive

While exploring Sri Devi’s profile after reading about her extraordinary spiritual experience, I came upon a new article with the heading “Stop Gossiping, It Ruins Lives.” (Special appreciation to Akshay Om ji, who shared this link)

It’s a nice piece, and at the end she explains how she has a daily ritual to shake off the unkind comments others make.

I’m still unclear on the nature of her ritual, so I sought advice from the ultimate model of forgiveness: Gautam Buddha. The practise of forgiving all beings before going to sleep, which he taught his disciples while still alive, is now known as metta meditation.

Gautam Buddha taught meditation on forgiveness, which is known as मेत्त ध्यान Metta Meditation which you can use it to do so.

There was once a time when Buddha was on the move when a merchant from that city, jealous of Buddha, approached him and spat in his face.

As was to be expected, Buddha proceeded without resentment.

The merchant sought forgiveness from the Buddha after discovering the truth about him. I have already forgiven you, Tathagat declared.

The statement shocked the merchant and his followers equally.

Later on, Buddha instructed all of his followers in what would become known as Metta meditation, the art of forgiveness.

While I was able to locate a guided metta meditation practice in Hindi, I was unable to locate a suitable English language counterpart.

Many people’s lives were altered by this brief meditation, and yours will be, too.

Take a few minutes at the end of each day to relax and unwind with this meditation.

Want to learn more about Buddha’s origin story for metta meditation?

Further Read

Sayings of Om Swami ~ Simple Quotes of Swami Ji that can make our life Better
You Don’t Have To Be A Big Corporation To Have A Great Compassion
A Curious Question on God’s Power