Forgiveness

Introduction

In Martinus’ analysis, forgiveness is the gradual development of the ability to understand and love beings whose actions one experiences as hostile or unjust. It belongs to the transformation of the terrestrial human mentality from anger, revenge and punishment towards neighbourly love, which Martinus describes as love for all living beings. ^[1] ^[2]

Martinus connects forgiveness with the structure of fate and with the development of consciousness. In his example of murder-karma, a being that has completely outgrown the ability to kill can be liberated from the returning effect of that earlier action. Forgiveness is thus both a relationship to one’s neighbour and a liberation from fate that has become unnecessary through transformation. ^[3] ^[4]

Forgiveness and neighbourly love

The basis of forgiveness is the recognition that the neighbour is not defined by appearance, conduct or social role. Martinus writes that “neighbour” includes all fellow living beings with whom one comes into contact, and identifies neighbourly love with “love for all living beings”. This love is directed towards the being regardless of how it reveals itself. ^[5]

In this perspective, the living being is loved above the manifestations it produces. Martinus relates this to beings whom people call criminals or enemies. Their actions may be distinguished from the being behind them, who remains a neighbour. To love the neighbour regardless of appearance and production is, in his analysis, to love God above all things. ^[6]

This attitude is connected with the individual’s relationship to the Godhead. Martinus describes the neighbour as the instrument through which the Godhead is experienced in practical life. The relationship to the neighbour therefore becomes the individual’s actual relationship to the Godhead. ^[7]

Forgiveness, error and karma

In *The Eternal World Picture*, Martinus describes the notion of forgiveness of sins as a temporary symbolic explanation of fate. People may not remember the earlier lives in which many causes of their present fate were created, but the effects of good and evil actions do not disappear through lack of memory. The return of suffering is connected with the development of the faculty of humaneness. ^[8]

An erroneous action has consequences. In Martinus’ specific example of murder-karma, if a being has changed completely before the return of the effect and no longer has the will or ability to kill, the returning effect can be neutralised in its changed consciousness. Martinus calls this liberation from the effect of an error a cosmic principle of the forgiveness of sins. ^[9]

The process is connected with Reincarnation. Martinus describes returning physical arcs of fate across successive earthly lives. During these lives, the faculty of humaneness grows and gains a greater capacity to neutralise dark karma. When the being has completely outgrown the ability to kill, the corresponding murder-karma has become superfluous and can be neutralised. ^[10]

Martinus further connects this process with the purpose of suffering. Suffering develops humaneness and changes the being’s way of thinking from hate to love; when the being can no longer sow suffering, the corresponding returning fate has become unnecessary. ^[11] ^[12]

The Lord’s Prayer and guilty conscience

Martinus interprets the words “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us” as a thought-concentration concerning the individual’s mental harmony. Its practical significance lies in the relationship between the individual’s conscience and the neighbour who has been affected. ^[13]

He contrasts this analysis with the common Christian conception in which dark experiences are understood as punishments from an angry Godhead and absolution as exemption from punishment. Martinus presents Christ’s behaviour towards his persecutors as evidence of a consciousness in which revenge and punishment do not dominate. ^[14]

When a person causes suffering below his or her normal standard of love, Martinus says that the act creates a conflict with the individual’s general mental condition. This conflict is experienced as remorse, guilt or a guilty conscience, even when the act was unintentional. ^[15]

Martinus calls the harmony between the individual’s mental energies and the surrounding world the “axis of consciousness”. An act that produces guilty conscience shifts this axis and disturbs the relationship between the individual, the neighbour and the consciousness of God. Asking for forgiveness expresses a desire to restore this harmony. ^[16]

Enemies, anger and judgement

In relation to enemies, Martinus describes the command to forgive not merely seven times, but “seventy times seven”, as indicating that everything and everyone must eventually be forgiven. He connects this with Karma, since enmity produces worries, sorrows and suffering and prevents the individual from attaining a permanently happy fate. ^[17] ^[18]

In *Livets Bog*, Martinus analyses anger towards a neighbour as a transgression against wisdom. The world redeemer’s forgiveness of his executioners is presented as intellectual sympathy: the persecutors act from a mentality that has not yet reached the human stage and therefore do not understand the full effect of their actions. ^[19]

Martinus states that punishment and revenge cannot constitute true justice when directed at beings who do not understand what they are doing. A person who judges another as a criminal reveals his or her own moral standard through that judgement. The judgement thereby becomes a judgement of the judger, showing the extent to which the judger still participates in the principle of condemnation. ^[20]

In *The Road to Paradise*, Martinus describes the doctrine that an innocent being takes punishment upon itself so that criminals may be forgiven as a judicial practice contrary to the law of love. His argument is that forgiveness cannot be separated from the requirement that the Godhead itself must manifest the love it commands of human beings. ^[21]

Martinus also describes hatred, anger and bitterness as mental short circuits that obstruct peaceful human community. In the same analysis, he says that lasting peace requires knowledge of the way of being, not only knowledge and power applied to external life. ^[22]

An article by Martinus says that anger, criticism and judgement show that the person has not yet left behind the animal habit of taking revenge. Those who have developed further no longer have the heart to hate, slander or retaliate. Forgiving one’s neighbour is therefore a sign that human nature is replacing animal nature. ^[23]

Christ and world redemption

Christ’s behaviour towards his persecutors is Martinus’ central example of forgiveness. Christ’s prayer, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”, is interpreted as the practical expression of a mentality that does not answer violence with hatred. The world redeemer understood that his tormentors were acting against their own happiness and contact with the keynote of life. ^[24]

This behaviour is presented as a model for human development. Martinus describes Christ’s instruction to love enemies, bless those who curse, do good to those who hate and pray for those who persecute as the way out of darkness and war towards peace and contact with the Godhead. ^[25]

The development of forgiveness is part of world redemption. Christ’s life shows a mentality towards which terrestrial human beings are evolving, and his example is described as a source of love for both believers and those who cannot believe. ^[26] ^[27]

Forgiveness as an evolutionary capacity

Martinus places forgiveness in the transition from the animal kingdom to the human kingdom. In the animal zone, gravity-energy culminates and the killing principle dominates. Intelligence initially serves self-preservation, while intuition-energy is latent. The zone is therefore characterised by suffering and the killing principle. ^[28]

Through suffering and experience, the being develops the faculty of humaneness. Martinus identifies this faculty with neighbourly love and describes it as increasingly capable of neutralising returning dark fate. The individual becomes progressively less able to have the heart to harm others, and the karma that would otherwise return becomes correspondingly less necessary. ^[29]

Forgiveness belongs to a gradual change in the individual’s standard of consciousness. As understanding develops, forgiveness extends to beings whose conduct is experienced as hostile, unjust or destructive. Martinus describes the final training as lovingly embracing one’s enemies in thought, since there is no enemy who cannot be admitted into the heart in this way. ^[30]

The culmination of this development is cosmic consciousness, which Martinus identifies with the completely developed mentality. At this level, the individual perceives the world plan as culminating love and can understand beings and events that were formerly hated or persecuted. Forgiveness is one of the capacities through which consciousness approaches the experience that “Everything is very good.” ^[31]

References

[1] Kosmisk bevidsthed, section 1.15 (*)

[2] Reinkarnationsprincippet, section 3.11 (*)

[3] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 20.8

[4] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 20.11

[5] Livets Bog 4, section 1497

[6] Livets Bog 3, section 704

[7] Livets Bog 3, section 703

[8] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.64

[9] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 20.8

[10] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 20.11

[11] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 20.11

[12] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.64

[13] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.14 (*)

[14] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.3 (*)

[15] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.14 (*)

[16] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.14 (*)

[17] Reinkarnationsprincippet, section 3.11 (*)

[18] Meditation, section 2.19 (*)

[19] Livets Bog 3, section 887

[20] Livets Bog 4, section 1247

[21] Vejen til paradis, section 1.44 (*)

[22] Kulturens skabelse, section 1.35 (*)

[23] Article 0565

[24] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 3.3

[25] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 3.3

[26] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.4 (*)

[27] Verdensreligion og verdenspolitik, section 4.13 (*)

[28] Livets Bog 2, section 360

[29] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 20.11

[30] Kosmisk bevidsthed, section 1.15 (*)

[31] Kosmisk bevidsthed, section 1.15 (*)

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