Jean Francois Pignon
‘LE PARDON’ - THE CHAIN OF FORGIVENESS
For a long time, I have wanted to do something good for humanity. That can appear a little pretentious, but it is with humility that I would like to help others. It is often said to me that one needs money, means, displacements, time etc. I don't think so. A while ago, I saw a very moving film ''Pay it Forward,'' which gave me an idea. On the basis of the precept ''Have love one for another,” I said to myself that it was perhaps not necessary to go to Africa or India to find unhappy people. I believe that there is an absolute evil which fills up our hearts with hatred, revenge, jealousy and competition, and that all wars stem from this. How many of us feel rancour or indifference for one or more persons? Who can go deep down without finding hatred hidden under the years?
This emotion is an acid which corrodes you a little every day, it weakens us and embitters us. Why keep this poison in the warmth whereas it is so simple to get rid of it? Forgive and apologise. That's a true relief!
Isn't it child's play? Did you never ask your child to go and apologise even if it is a mere trifle? And didn't they then resume their play with a light heart? Here, it is easy as pie! The benefits of this action are incredible! Immediately, you'll feel free, and then the benefits will spread over your whole life, over the people you love. You'll want only one thing, to hand over and thus people you see suffering can be relieved in turn. For example, if a few years ago you verbally injured a member of your family and since then you haven't spoken to them, then the course of your life continues as before without resolving the situation. Without any judgment, without asking anything in return, without reconsidering the past, you are able to say to him: "Sorry, sorry to have done you harm, it is not what I wanted. I do not feel any more hatred for you, and I hope that you could forgive me one day." Or another example which is even more difficult; if one harms you, enormously. Each time you think it over, a bitter taste comes into your mouth. To be able to say: "I forgive you, I do not feel any more hatred for what you did to me. I want to go on with my life without this millstone of rancour round my neck."
Obviously, you'll need a lot of strength at the beginning, but that will help you so much and the price to be paid is ridiculous. This idea costs nothing, it will earn a lot. It is free from any religious idea and never mind if it is utopian, I want to believe in it. Perhaps at the beginning, you will not be sincere in your apologies, but it takes time to find the way, the way that brings you towards a form of freedom…
