The Buddha’s Recipe for A Strong and Gentle Heart: Forgiveness

By Rebecca Bradshaw, IPV Teacher

As the next decade begins, we are coming into a world that is manifesting huge amounts of greed, hatred, and delusion. We are going to need help navigating this coming year and beyond; we are going to need a strong and resilient heart. During a six month series of talks, we will explore the Buddha’s practices to develop this heart. Each month we will look at beautiful mind/heart states that the Buddha encourages us to nurture, including the four divine abodes (Brahmaviharas), forgiveness and gratitude.

As we continue to explore the Buddha’s recipe for a strong and gentle heart, we are going to take a slight detour from the Brahmaviharas into a related quality, the quality of forgiveness. Sometimes when we intend to practice metta and compassion, we find that anger and ill will arise instead. The practice of forgiveness is about consciously freeing the heart of this anger and blame. Through honoring our experience, and cultivating deep connection and understanding, the heart begins to soften and relax and finds its resting place here on this earth.

​Come explore how forgiveness can help us let go of anger during this time of reckoning.

Join Rebecca for a drop-in and Dharma talk on Wednesday, May 13, 7pm via Zoom.
Zoom link can be found on the home page.