Be the Cause

Author: gianna

International Forgiveness Day!!!

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This last July, Cindy and Sonali—BTC Volunteers put together an International “Be the Cause” Forgiveness Day….and let me just say…it was a special special eve! The gathering was held at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, CA. When I came up to the circle of people who were at this event, I was touched by the posters that people made–illustrations of compassion, love, hugs, forgiveness.

What is forgiveness? Some quotes that I saw online may describe this word called forgiveness that sometimes baffles all of us…I admit, I don’t even know sometimes when something upsets me until it does and sometimes it is hard to let go of hurt, but I always feel all the better for it…no matter if I don’t feel forgiven or whatever wrong I feel has been done to me. Sometimes as stated at this amazing evening of sharing…the hardest one to forgive is oneself. Back to the quotes…here are some that I resonated with:

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.-Plato

When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.-Catherine Ponder

To err is human; to forgive, divine.-Alexander Pope

If I cannot forgive myself for all the blunders
That I have made over the years,
Then how can I proceed?
How can I ever dream perfection-dreams?
Move, I must, forward.
Fly, I must, upward.
Dive, I must, inward,
To be once more
What I truly am
And shall forever remain.

– Sri Chinmoy

“Some tension is necessary for the soul to grow, and we can put that tension to good use. We can look for every opportunity to give and receive love, to appreciate nature, to heal our wounds and the wounds of others, to forgive, and to serve.” -Joan Borysenko

There are a million and one quotes about forgiveness in the world and if we all shared our own thoughts…there would be ten million more :)

When we all gathered as a group, we read outloud some stories…where people have forgiven impossible situations and people…this struck me very deeply…and has made me feel the silliness of some petty arguments or discord. You can forgive from afar…even if the person isn’t in your life currently. You can forgive someone who has passed on, a family member, a significant other, a coworker, someone who has taken advantage of you spiritually, physically or emotionally. Forgiveness isn’t easy, but it’s the best choice to make. Mostly because it will save your own heart…I can’t say your heart won’t break…or that you won’t feel the pain. You probably will. But you will get through it! I believe in all of us and the joy we can all create for true peace in this world…

Day of Mindfulness with BTC

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It was a half day of mindfulness for me on July 26th, but beautiful and inspiring nonetheless…

In the morning, I meditated outside before heading out to Garden Grove for this special event. The meditation was powerful, but I don’t know if it grounded me fully. I still had trouble leaving my place in time and even got lost on way to event. I reminded myself that this was just the journey that we go through at times…to finally settle and calm the mind down. The phrase comes to me: “mind over matter.” Even though meditation is really a practice to release yourself from the ego mind…it also helps one focus his or her mind…so all the extra junk that’s in our mind…kinda flushes out…and we work from a more simplistic state instead of acting from the chaos that our mind usually creates…all the opinions, worries, fears that the ego mind creates…can go out the window. When I meditate, I’m so surprised by the peaceful state that my mind falls into…

When I got to the event, people were sitting very quietly and watching this movie called Baraka. I only saw a smidgen (small portion) of the movie, but the cinematography was gorgeous! I have to get the movie now via netflix..I just gotta!

The movie brought me into a peaceful state because there was a lot of nature imagery and the narrator’s voice of film was soothing and it was calming. I was happy I saw the film…even though when I sat myself down to view film, it was almost toward the ending credits.

I missed lunch but I heard it was wonderful and I got a taste of the food later in the day…yummy vegetarian food. During lunch, participants ate in silence and there was some discussion after two 15 minute meditation sessions (that I was honored to be a part of) about how when the group ate in silence…there was a savoring and appreciation of the food and the present moment!

At the end of the day, there was going to be a beach walk as one of the activities. The day went really fast! There wasn’t enough time to schedule in the walk…or so we thought!

A few of us stuck around…and lo and behold: Melisa, Christine, Sonali, Sukh and I got to run, skip, laugh on Main Beach in Laguna Beach. There was something very magical that night about us all enjoying the waves and sand that eve. I think mostly because we meditated pre-walk and partook in a wondrous day of mindfulness!

Thank you to the universe and my pals for this awesome day and eve! Namaste! :)

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