Forgiveness is Key

 

Generational Healing

“All your family, past and present, depend on you…you must work more to repair the past.”

George Gurdjieff

          There is an article in the Summer 2022 issue of Parabola titled, “Because of You.” Written by Lillian Firestone, it features an interview with Henri Tracol, who was a devote of Gurdjieff and studied with him for ten years. Tracol has a farm compound in the south of France where he instructs students in the study of consciousness. He accepts groups for a week at a time for communal living and to practice “how to come alive in the middle of ordinary life.” His compound is surrounded by fields of lavender and his teachings are about the nature of time.

“Time is not as we understand it. The past is not past. Today exists to repair yesterday and prepare tomorrow. If we continue to do nothing, we miss that opportunity.” (Henri Tracol)

          Gurdjieff taught that time is not something that flows only in one direction. It is, instead, constant, and ever present. We are the result of our parents’ and grandparents’ past, and our children are the result of ours. When we clear our consciousness of anger and resentment for what we did not get, and were not shown as children, that heals not only us, but our ancestors and our children. If we hold on to the pain and anguish of our personal past, we keep alive those emotions in the souls of our parents and in the psyches of our children. So, it is doubly important for us to find a way to heal ourselves. Since we cannot change the actual events of the past, our only option for healing is forgiveness.

          This teaching about the nature of time and importance of our moving consciousness to a higher plane is not unique to Gurdjieff. It also is echoed in Native American spirituality. Perhaps it is why psychology often focuses on our past relationships and how to see them objectively. Until we can find comfort and healing in them, we will continue to bring the toxins of anger and resentment into our everyday lives. When we forgive and let go, we allow ourselves to heal and send that energy backward and forward in time and in ancestry. This is how we come alive in the middle of ordinary life—forgiveness is the key.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane