What is forgiveness, and when is it necessary?

As I study A Course In Miracles, the one thing that stands out is that God created all life, and that life is in Him, not "elsewhere" - meaning that He did not create something apart from Himself. If this is so, then nothing that God created is any less perfect than Himself (how could what is perfect create anything that is not perfect?) If this is so, then what is perfect cannot do but what God Wills, since His Will is the same as the will of what He created (God's creations are an extension of Himself). And what is done according to God's Will needs no forgiveness.

Now, the common belief is that we as humans are separate from God, and as separate "beings" we can do things contrary to God's Will. A Course In Miracles asserts that we are still as God created us, and that it is our ego that has trapped us into believing that we are separate from and contrary to God, and further that we made our own egos. Add to that the "evidence" that we are bodies, separate from each other in every way. With all this "evidence", our "science" proves we are not one with God. ACIM asserts that we are not our bodies. What we really are is that which God created, a life with all the properties and potential of God Himself, and our only limitation is in believing in separation.

So with this concept, forgiveness is an attitude of love (unconditional acceptance) for ourselves and others, and it is this forgiveness that brings us together as one with God.

As I study ACIM, I start and end each day with a 15 minute meditation on the lesson given for the day in the Workbook, and throughout the day I stop what I am doing each hour and spend one minute contemplating the message. This I do each day for each lesson, and this is done for the entire year with a different lesson for each day. Okay, not being "perfect" in every way (I get distracted), I do miss a few hourly contemplations.

So, my "walk" with God is done within, not without, where I live and have my being in the Mind of God.

Still, it is necessary to recognize our misdeeds, but as coming from our egos and not from who we really are who cannot do but what God Wills because it is also our will. It is also not necessary to ask for forgiveness, but to recognize that we must forgive ourselves for our misperceptions and to forgive our brothers for our perception of them as having done misdeeds. It's all in the point of view. If forgiveness comes from love and not just words, the forgiveness is real. The "misdeeds" are based on our perception of right and wrong, and these perceptions are based on our ego's sense of reality, not based on God's reality. If we could but "see" that we are all one in the Mind of God, it would be easy to understand that what we do to another we are really doing to ourselves, and this understanding leads to forgiveness and peace.