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7th February 2012 22:14
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Jubilee 2012/ forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors
Forgiveness is to me not a theologic but an energetic practice . We claim Forgiveness for ourselves and for others that literally unhooks us from the past. I think creating a clean slate is the only way we really may move forward in a way that does not replicate the past. In looking at Forgiveness on a collective level, I was reminded of the process known as The Jubilee. Every generation, debt is completely forgiven and the slaves may all return home as freed men and women.
In religious history, As a time of Grace, the Jubilee Year provided an opportunity to stop, to listen and to consider and to enact forgiveness. It marked an occasion—what theologians call a kairos moment—to ask what we should forgive, whom we should forgive (and from whom we should ask forgiveness) and how we should forgive? In ancient times, as documented in the bible in Leviticus, it was an established Year once a generation (50 years).
I am personally envisioning a 2012 Jubilee of complete debt forgiveness. 2012 is the ideal time to have deep conversation regarding the practical issues (as in the call from the Occupy movement for fairness in the system of money debt). People are stymied by debt slavery. They are crushed by personal upside down debt (one that cannot be repaid in the given circumstance: as a student loan, a mortgage, credit extended in a boom time now bust). Ordinary debt hampers movement. Belief in debt's benefit belies its reality.
New commerce and business is stymied by the lack of resources but debt does not answer the problem. The system is fractured and small business is unable to even accrue debt. Yet businesses that might soon prosper fail again when debt cannot be repaid "in a timely manner". Decsisions based on debt breed desperation, corners cut and short range vision.
The matter of debt is also philosophical and personal. How do we forgive ourselves and one another and create a forgiveness based society? Do we deeply believe debt must always be repaid in full?
There has been past “forgiveness’ of debt already employed politically with various repercussions where some have enjoyed the benefits and not all. We can look to the mid to late 20th century at episodes where whole country’s debt was forgiven. Then there are current “bail outs which was just shuffling of debt from one segment of society to another (banks to taxpayers). This does not even begin to touch the current information available about the system itself of money being “just debt”. Debt is obviously not a “given” but an agreement. Agreements can be changed.
Forgiveness is also about release of past wrongs, hatreds and is healing of old wounds held deep in the social and personal fabric of our collective and personal bodies. The knowing that energy wasted in servicing debt is blocking the life force is brimming up from the hearts of those who choose to see a new earth.
We may feel afraid as we wonder what can be done ? Though we long to replace a mentality of superiority (I am owed) and suspicion (They owe me) with one of reconciliation (clearing the ledgers to zero), the burden seems huge and intractable. In the mean time, personal lives are suffering and our world seems shattered by intractible war (on all levels). The system has broken down and the walls are closing in around us.
What should we forgive? The first response to this question is, quite simply, "everything we can." That answer is a sobering reminder that in extreme cases, we may feel that the debt is impossible to forgive. We might think a debt owed is “too important” and we feel unable to forgive, or conversely that we cannot ask for forgiveness,
Religious instruction may ask us initially to leave forgiveness to God or, perhaps better, hand forgiveness over to God to hold for us until we are ready and able to forgive. In some instances, forgiveness may take a long time because the harm done is so great that simply staying alive and sane takes precedence. In other instances, we may be able to grant forgiveness immediately? Forgiveness is never easy. Each day it must be embraced, perhaps struggled for, and accepted.
But we have seen the way the legacy of debt has enslaved us all. No generation, no family, no nation should be condemned to perpetual debt from one era to the next. Fifty years is long enough. That is the underpinning of the ancient practice of the Jubilee
"Forgive what?" receives priority: A Jubilee calls for forgiveness and, more accurately, release and cancellation of debt. A one time and whole sale forgiveness seems a monumental though amazingly hopeful place to start. Even so, once does not seem enough. The bigger question is how to create a social order that balances the needs and the desires of all to thrive and does not accumulate further debt on all levels?
Whom should we forgive (and from whom should we ask forgiveness)? The answer includes our families, those with a family-like or intimate connection to us; the people our people have harmed and, on occasion, ourselves. Who is not our family?
How shall we forgive? Some answers from religious instruction are: when it is time, by pilgrimage and by ritual. These are the moments, places and means of renewal.
Debt Slavery is a state of being tied down to the service of a debt. It could be personal when we cannot release a grievance. Perhaps we cannot move forward due to our own inner inability to forgive? It can be social with ties to old ways of being. It can be commercial with debts we once agreed to carry and can no longer pay in the old way.
Slavery to our indebtedness reverberates and is always past energetic accumulation holding us down. The issue is much larger and more intangible than one can even begin to describe in a few sentences. However, debt on all levels is a very important logjam to redress. Let’s discuss the ways the idea hits us and together think into a future of freedom form debt from the individual and radiating out into the ONE.
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The Following 11 Users Say Thank You to Delight For This Post:
Carpathian (8th February 2012), Dennis Leahy (15th February 2012), GlassSteagallfan (7th February 2012), haibane (3rd October 2012), Herbert (8th February 2012), kreagle (12th October 2012), Maia Gabrial (8th February 2012), mojo (13th February 2012), NeverMind (8th February 2012), nomadguy (3rd October 2012), seko (8th February 2012)
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8th February 2012 01:30
Link to Post #2
Avalon Member
Re: Jubilee 2012/ forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors
I'm all for debt forgiveness.
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The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Maia Gabrial For This Post:
NeverMind (8th February 2012), seko (8th February 2012)
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8th February 2012 01:51
Link to Post #3