Atonement
by
Derek Ayre
Atonement, if split into syllables, becomes at-one-ment.
Most people in the self-development movement today
accept that in order to improve the quality of life, a person
first of all needs to focus on his/her problems and/or conflicts
to resolve them - in other words, to become at one with
them(atonement). In fact, the more somebody can merge with their
difficulty, the more successful they will become at overcoming
it.
To look at atonement from a religious point of view I feel,
is not at a lot different to looking at it from a psychological
point of view and would indeed, atonement would have the same beneficial
result.
For example, say somebody was angry and feeling vindictive
against somebody who had wronged him/her in some way, whom
is that anger going to hurt?
Well, not the person to whom they are directed, that's
for certain. The person creating the feelings of hatred,
of vengeful thoughts and other things is going to suffer
the most. Yet forgiveness (atonement: i.e. really letting go) of
thoughts, needs for retribution and even judgement, will
product real feelings of well-being and freedom and allow
the person to move on.
Atonement is not something that can be taught, but
it's very easy to do. All that is needed is a willingness
to forgive others for what they have done to us. In fact,
I could go a step further than that and say that all that is
needed is a willingness to forgive others for what we
think they have done to us.
To qualify that last statement, whether or not somebody
else has done something to us is really irrelevant. Whether
they have or whether they haven't it's us thinking
they have done something to us, that hurts us. By
thinking, we are creating the scenario that we
have been wronged and making ourselves into victims in whom
our "enemies" have power over us, whether or not they know
it. See how complex this is getting?
There is another way we can play the victim too. That
is we can blame ourselves for things that go wrong. In this
scenario, we are attempting to split ourselves up into perpetrator
and victim. We make a mistake and lose out on something.
We blame ourselves for our stupidity. Just one question
needed here. Are we willing to forgive our self for what
has gone wrong? Again just the willingness is enough.
Be aware of our mistake is to focus on it, forgiving it,
is releasing it. The problem that can arise here is
that many of us do not wish to focus on our shortcomings
and there's a risk that they can be repressed into the subconscious
mind to exert force on our subsequent thought processes.
And what about becoming a victim of what others are doing
to others. How many of use get filled with rage and anger
at man's inhumanity to man.
I feel that what we need to realise here is that this
form of behaviour is something that is as old as Man himself.
Blaming and seeking retribution has only brought about more
wanton destruction. Forgiveness is the path to atonement. What if men and women everywhere
just merely contemplated the opportunity to forgive? What
if they realised that by forgiving (self or others), that
they would find peace and liberation and ultimately atonement? What if they could
read this message and put it into practice? What sort of
world would we then live in? I will leave you
to answer that.
As mentioned earlier, my idea with this article is not
intended to be foster any particular religious belief in
any way, but I think you will find that if you examine any
religion, forgiveness was the fundamental idea the original
teacher was putting across. And forgiveness was the
road to stress-free life (atonement).
© Copyright 2000. Derek Ayre. All Rights Reserved.
Derek Ayre is a registered hypnotherapist and practitioner of Zen. He
has an ability to assist others on their path to greater self fulfillment
and realization of their true potential.
Questions? I encourage you to....
www.ayrehypnotherapy.co.uk
End of Article
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