To heal a hurt, simply forgive!

Ever so often we encounter people that cause us pain, injury and grief. When such people are the ones you trusted, your suffering is unbearable. You begin to question humanity itself and wonder if you were foolish enough to have trusted someone like that. In hindsight all of us are wise. And while we may continue to suffer, we swear never to trust another person another time. Wrong. Continue to trust. Continue to believe that your detractor is behaving so only because she or he is passing through a time that is making you experience her or him that way. Dealing with detractors does not need strategy, guile or tact. It needs love.

Osho used to tell a story that illustrated this point so beautifully.

One of the greatest Sufi mystics was Rabiya al-Adabiya, a woman who was known for her very eccentric behavior. But in all her eccentric behavior there was a great insight.

Once, another Sufi mystic, Hasan, was staying with Rabiya. Because he was going to stay with Rabiya, he had not brought his own copy of the holy Koran. He thought he could borrow Rabiya's holy Koran.

In the morning he asked Rabiya for the holy Koran and she gave him her copy. He could not believe his eyes when he opened the Koran. He saw something which no Muslim could accept: in many places Rabiya had corrected it. It is the greatest sin as far as Islam is concerned; the Koran is the word of God according to them. How can you change it? How can you even think that you can make God’s teaching better? Not only had she changed it, she had even cut out a few words, a few lines – she had removed them.

Hasan said to her, "Rabiya, somebody has destroyed your Koran!"

Rabiya said, "Don't be stupid, nobody can touch my Koran. What you are looking at is my doing."

Hasan asked, "But how could you do such a thing?"

She replied, "I had to do it, there was no way out. For example, look here: the Koran says, ‘When you see the devil, hate him.’ Since I have become awakened I cannot find any hate within me. Even if the devil stands in front of me I can only shower him with my love, because I don't have anything else left. It does not matter whether God stands in front of me, or the devil; both will receive the same love. All that I have is love; hate has disappeared. The moment hate disappeared from me I had to make changes in my copy of the holy Koran. If you have not changed your Koran, that simply means you have not arrived in the space where only love remains."

I have not read the Koran. I am not even sure if this story is factual. But I believe that it’s essence is unmistakeable. The story reminds us to replace hurt and hatred with love. For ourselves and for those that let us down. You carry a hurt as long as you think about the person that caused it as someone who has wronged you. Instead think of that someone as one who is lost in Life. Who knows not what he or she is doing. And then watch your anger, your hurt, transform into something beautiful and liberating – forgiveness!