Punishment has historically been used to correct a perceived wrong and restore balance, peace and order. Within as well as without. Since the time of flogging, shunning, the death penalty or 10 Ave Marias, punishment as the road to balance, peace and order has been deeply ingrained into our collective psyche.
For as long as punishment has existed, forgiveness has been its moral companion. We cannot talk about punishment without talking about forgiveness. Forgiveness is deeply embedded in the notion of punishment. One does not exist without the other. If there is nothing to punish, there is nothing to forgive. If there is nothing to forgive, there is nothing to punish. Just as punishment seek to restore balance, so does forgiveness. The first is personal and the other spiritual in nature.
We have many cultural, religious and legal beliefs that give rise to the dance of punishment and forgiveness. We play these out in small and big ways in our personal lives. And also, most of our collective discourse is centered around the theme of punishment and forgiveness. In today’s world it seems as if all is out to punish someone for something.
It seems as if we have forgotten the power and truth of forgiveness. For as long as we dwell in the realm of the personal, these different beliefs will continue to play out. They keep the collective psyche in a constant state of guilt and blame.
When we begin to extend ourselves beyond the personal drama of punishment, we are able to dive into the underlining energetic order of true redemption, not just for the individual, but for humanity as a whole. When we look at punishment and forgiveness from an energetic perspective, we relieve ourselves from the personal and enter into our true state of being. It all comes down to knowing our true power of love, and that nothing exists outside of us. Not even God. Then we see that it is never truly for us to neither punish nor forgive another, but for each of us to return home to our true nature.
Forgiving another
When we forgive others, we restore our own inner world to its original state of wholeness where no harm exists or can ever be done to us. We give forth that which in consciousness separates us from our true state of being. When we truly forgive, the harm that we perceive has been done to us is literally deleted from consciousness. We let harm be undone. This allows us to energetically be restored to our true state of being. What remains in consciousness is our eternal state of wholeness.
We can forgive others mentally and even emotionally by no longer holding blame, but for as long as we still hold on to the perceived harm in consciousness, we exist in a state of separation from our true self.
The difficulty of giving forth the harm, is that we then feel we let the other go unpunished. We know the deeper energetic truth that if we forgive, it is as if nothing has been done to us. We might still experience the consequences, but we no longer suffer harm as we connect to the part of us that could never suffer any harm at the hands of another. So, on the personal level, we instead choose to hold on.
For as long as we hold on to the harm, we create the illusion that the other is being punished, that we have power over another person’s state of being. We deny the deeper truth that regardless of consequences, no other person can hold dominion over another person’s state of consciousness, which is the only truth that remains. All we do energetically is separate ourselves from inner truth by holding on to the perception of ourselves as harmed, and continue to act from the consciousness of the punisher.
Only we hold the true power of choice to restore ourselves into balance, regardless of what we have suffered at the hands of another. Only we can allow our consciousness to be washed clean again. And it will if we choose to. It is scary, because it requires us to surrender our need for control over others and instead come into our true creative power.
Seeking forgiveness
Sometimes we are the one seeking forgiveness. We seek forgiveness from others or ourselves to relieve ourselves from the burden of feeling we have done something wrong. Energetically, it is not possible to receive forgiveness, neither from others nor from ourself.
The need for forgiveness comes from our belief that we have caused another harm. Therefore, the forgiveness cannot come from ourself, we need another to forgive. Only the harmed can decide to stop carrying the harm and give it forth.
The only way to truly restore balance within is to stop punishing ourselves for what we feel we have done wrong. As we stop punishing ourselves, we stop feeding energy into the belief-system that creates our need to be forgiven. As we do this, we are restored to the eternal state of truth that we are loved and innocent. To experience love in the presence of our condemning Self is to experience forgiveness. When we struggle to stop punishing ourselves, it is because we do not yet see ourselves worthy of that love. We do not yet see the truth of who we are. We do not fully see that it is impossible for another to forgive, because we in the eyes of the ever-impersonal Divine cannot do anything wrong. We come into this world innocent and loved, and we remain that way regardless of what we have done. It is only on us to return to that state.
The addiction to punishment and forgiveness
Punishment and forgiveness can become a pattern we live by. It can express itself in unconsciously seeking punishment in order to be restored through the forgiveness by another. It expresses itself in anything from self-sabotage to destructiveness. It is kept alive when we continue to do things, we deep within know go against our true nature. Or when we continue to punish for perceived wrongs.
It can provide momentary experiences of resurrection that never lasts. It can allow one to carry the burden of believing one is not worthy of love and to be relieved from that burden momentarily – by being proven wrong. Or it can create the illusion of power to disguise our deep sense of powerlessness.
The pattern allows us to continuously do things that go against our higher nature. It exempts us from taking responsibility for our own actions, and keep us in the illusion of truth. The dance of punishment and forgiveness is a shadow game. For as long as we participate, we are stuck in the illusion of Truth and can never really be free. It is an illusionary game designed to become so painful that we eventually wake up to a deeper truth.
Stopping punishment
There is a role for punishment to maintain order, peace and justice in society. But each person has the choice to see how far they wish to be held prisoner to the conditioning of punishment. When we in our relationships stop punishing others for the harm they have done and forgive (let go of the perceived harm within consciousness), we hold a light up to ourselves and to others, which allows shadow patterns to be broken. When we stop participating in the pattern, it breaks. We are able to face our own shadow, and we leave others to face their own shadows. We are then able to learn our lessons, take responsibility, and own up to our mistakes. And only then can balance truly be restored.
This doesn’t mean that there are no consequences. Where there is a choice, there is always a consequence. However, consequences arise from both forgiveness and from punishment. Only you know where your choice arise from, and only you have the power to act in alignment with truth and restore balance for yourself. And when you do, you restore balance within the collective.
It also doesn’t mean that it is necessarily easy. It is hard-won healing that requires time, effort and support. But it begins with the deep knowing that the power begins and ends with you. And step by step you integrate the painful parts of yourself, you leave more of the personal drama behind, and you can start to see this mechanism of punishment and forgiveness for what it is; The mechanism of divine intelligence helping us and teaching us to restore true balance within as without.