Violence is a fierce coalescing of overpowering energy forced upon another physically, emotionally, and/or mentally. Until it is resolved, even one single act of violence continues generating damage into the infinite future. This damaging energy plays out generationally in our own families and leaks unimpeded into the collective world causing and creating further harm.
Because violence has endless disguises and countless manifestations, sound and outward appearances are unreliable judges of acts of violence and its consequences. Whether the thunderous explosion of a violent act creates pandemonium among many, or one silent, tightly-burrowed act of cruelty is exacted against an audience of one, violence always harms and continues to foster trauma until it is resolved at its source—the source is the perpetrator.
Because acts of violence trigger perpetual harm, it is impervious to the benevolence of forgiveness. Forgiveness of violence is an uninformed act of willpower that is an issue of ego and self-congratulations; it gives comfort to the misinformed by allowing them to ignore and bypass the true devastation created by perpetrators of violent acts. The misinformed confuse the necessary, all-encompassing scope of self-inflicted consequences that must be accepted and confronted by perpetrators of violence with harsh, unjust punishment lacking love and compassion. The misinformed mistake the emotion of love and compassion for authentic love and compassion. Authentic love and compassion supports and encourages the highest good. The highest good is the true evolution of the soul. True evolution is profound self-awareness. Self-awareness is created from experience and understanding of experiences.
Forgiveness of violence is an uninformed act of willpower that attempts to bestow upon perpetrators a reward that is not available to them. By relieving them of the residual tensions lingering from their violent behaviors, the misinformed, with their declarations of forgiveness, actually create barriers to the process of evolution—a process that always includes discomfort and seemingly unfairly grueling challenges.
Uninformed acts of forgiveness separate perpetrators from their vital life lessons, without which they cannot entirely evolve and fully integrate into wholeness. Through their chosen path of violence, perpetrators must completely and totally see and experience the full depth and width of the consequences of their violent acts, not only on their victims, but on themselves as well.
The power of the soul’s drive to evolve must not be mitigated by onlookers seeking superficial comfort. Consequences are uncomfortable, especially when meted out to a loved one. But consequences are a necessary tool of evolution and any interference with another’s consequences circumvents their growth by inhibiting and prolonging the learning required for moving forward.
All souls must eventually evolve into wholeness—that includes perpetrators of violence. The very action of a grievous act against another indicates how far lost in darkness, how disconnected from the light, the perpetrator has become. It is a long and arduous journey into the light both for the victim of violence and the perpetrator of violence. The consequences of even one act of violence must never be dismissed—its tentacles reach into the future and beyond. The perpetrator of violence must come to the full comprehension of the mayhem that his/her behavior has created not only in one life, but in the lives beyond their narrow vision as the energy of their violent acts continue to impact the world in general while its energy heeds the impetus to replicate itself.
Resolution of violence is wholly available to all. Compassion and support from concerned individuals for perpetrators of violence is essential. But forgiveness is inapplicable. Forgiving violence is an uninformed and self-preserving act of willpower—of misguided energy—that impedes necessary resolution and halts growth of the soul.
This is not about feeling good, this is about doing the work to create good.
Next time: GIVING FROM YOUR ABUNDANCE