Founder Letter: Forgiveness & Personal Freedom

Dear Rosies,

The other morning in meditation, I had a vision of myself draped in a massive, heavy brown cloak. I heard a voice in my ear say, as clear as water: “Forgive. Forgive everything. Forgive everyone.”  I glanced back at the cloak, stretched behind me, going back a thousand years, carrying not only my own grievances, disappointments, and frustrations, but the sorrows of my lineage and all the accumulated grievances of humanity itself.

 In that moment, I took one step forward into a great light, and the cloak slipped off my shoulders, out from under the weight. In that instant, in the vision, I was utterly transfigured—joyful, free, radiant. And I saw that this choice is available to all of humanity at any moment. Forgiveness is not a long road or a distant ideal. It is an immediate choice. Right now, we can decide whether we want to carry the heaviness of our complaints against life or step lightly into the present.

Forgiveness doesn’t deny that harm was done or that justice may still be necessary. It simply liberates you. Waiting for apology, restitution, or punishment keeps us bound to the story of injury. Forgiveness, by contrast, reclaims our freedom.

Sometimes what makes it hard is the grief at the heart of the wound. The moment we realize someone is not who we hoped they would be, or that life didn’t turn out as we imagined, that tender disappointment can feel unbearable. We can feel unvalued or unseen.  But when we touch that core grief with compassion, the hold of resentment begins to soften.

Another way to shift the grievance is to ask: How might this have contributed to the evolution of my soul? Every rupture and betrayal, as devastating as it may feel, carries some hidden gift: an invitation to set boundaries, to stand more truthfully, to release paths that were never meant for us. 

And perhaps the most radical step of all is moving beyond “I forgive you” toward “I love this experience for what it has shown me.” To see even the painful passages of life as part of a mysterious intelligence that is shaping us, growing us, ripening us into who we are meant to become.

I offer you a little forgiveness meditation, should it resonate: 

Show me, please, anywhere it would be beneficial to the suffering of the world, for me to approach and ask for forgiveness, or for me to grant forgiveness without being asked, for me to release the heavy cloak of my grievances and my stories and step fully into the possibility and creative expression of this life, fully into the light.

May I hold myself and others gently with less attachment, less wrong-making, and more curiosity and more allowing. May anything unjust or unfair be placed into your hands for resolution. May I be brave enough, from the deepest parts of my heart, to be an inquiry beyond my current story and see the gifts that are here for me in all moments. Help me hand it over to forces that are larger than myself, so that it can be held in a frame that is much more expansive than anything my conscious mind can see.

Our next Good Community satsang is scheduled for September 21, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific. They are free.

My bi-annual class on Living Tantra begins September 16, 2025, and runs for 6 weeks online.

All love,

Christine