The Antidote to the Irreversibility of Life: Hannah Arendt on What Forgiveness Really Means

Forgiveness appears counterintuitive in today's culture, where the tendency is to cancel rather than forgive, and to harbor resentment instead of offering grace. This prevailing attitude stems from a belief in our own righteous judgment—that we have been wronged, are owed amends, and that those who have wronged us deserve to face consequences.

But,

We're practicing a willingness to simply return to the present moment without judgment, without disappointment, without contraction with a mind that is standing truly free of the past. It's always possible to recover this freedom, no matter what happens. […]

This ability to begin again has ethical force as well. It's actually the foundation of forgi

What forgiveness is intended to do here is to interrupt and redirect the normal retaliatory impulse that would otherwise add exponential strength to the original offence and push it further into its unstoppable and destructive career.

So the road to genuine forgiveness is often paved with hatred. But go to the heart of hate and you won’t find hate but rather great heart-wrenching grief, a broken-open depth of being that is both agonizingly and exquisitely painful, soberingly spacious, and eventually liberating.

“Forgiveness” is a term that has been in use for two thousand years, but most people have a very limited view of what it means. You cannot truly forgive yourself or others as long as you derive your sense of self from the past. Only through accessing the power of the Now, which is your own power, can there be true forgiveness. This renders the past

Yes, there can be nonforgiveness even with regard to the future. This is the mind’s refusal to accept uncertainty, to accept that the future is ultimately beyond its control. Forgiveness is to relinquish your grievance and so to let go of grief. It happens naturally once you realize that your grievance serves no purpose except to strengthen a false