Forgiveness is at the heart of Jesus' unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles. In His mind-training manual, Jesus, of course, leads us to undoing our primary misunderstanding of forgiveness. An untrained mind tends to think that bargaining is forgiveness.

For example, an individual will say to himself, "She wronged me, but I forgive her." And in his "forgiveness," he feels superior. This is more like bargaining than forgiving; the wrong may be overlooked this time, but you owe me. Jesus helps us to experience that true forgiveness is not simply a change of mind, i.e., I think this, but now I think that, staying within the duality. Rather, we come to understand that forgiveness is the result of our minds changing, shifting from seeing thought/images through the eyes of the ego to seeing the reflection of an inner peace, seeing through the eyes of Christ.

It is a shift from a state of mind of conflict, to a state of peace, a shift from seeing projected thought/images, to seeing a bright reflection of the Truth of what we are, the Christ. And now we have this incredible opportunity to come together and share our experiences at International Forgiveness Week and Weekend of Perfect Peace.

One of the many opportunities to share your experience of forgiveness is a Writing Workshop on forgiveness and peace. In these Workshops, you will be given an opportunity to hone your writing skills as you express your personal experiences of forgiveness and peace and share these experiences with others.

Right now, we are asking you to submit in an essay of 600 words, or less, your experience of forgiveness. We will share these essays in a variety of ways, e.g., in the Writing Workshops during the Event, on our Web Site now, and perhaps, in a book collection after the Conference. Please submit your essay to me, soon.

Ray Comeau