Spirituality and Revenge
"If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by."
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Christianity, one of the world's biggest religions, has been in its core based mostly on forgiveness. Other religions, Eastern philosophies and even certain "cults" have proclaimed forgiveness as a basis for the evolution of mankind. Because of this, revenge has been a frowned upon topic in religious and spiritual circles.
Many of us have hence been raised under the assumption that wishing to take revenge on somebody who did us wrong, or wishing for them to get their “just reward”, is not brotherly, spiritual or “ascended” enough. We should live a balanced life in which we hold no grudges, since we are all, in the end, brothers and sisters and come from the same Source.
Contradictory enough, we've been exposed to the idea of revenge constantly, not just in the media, through all those many films in which the protagonist avenges the death of his loved ones, but also through classic literature, like Achilles avenging Patroclus by killing Hector. We as viewers or readers actually get put in the place of the protagonists and root for them to fulfill their revenge.
One of the teachings of New Age philosophies is to do exercises in forgiving. Forgive everybody who did you wrong, no matter how bad. And also ask for forgiveness. It doesn't mean you have to do it personally or even say it directly to the people, but it's more about saying it to yourself out loud or even write it down so that this forgiveness is set in motion and you then feel better, freer and ready to keep evolving.
The need for such an exercise and one of the reasons why it feels odd to do it (and I've done it) is because revenge has been imbued in our thought system for quite long. But it's not just that. Forgiveness is wonderful if you actually are able to let go. Let go for real! It doesn't bring you anything if you forgive but keep thinking about the wrongs that have been done to you.
t sounds nice to just say “I won't take revenge, I forgive you even if you keep doing wrong”, but is that always practicable? Even Jesus, who allegedly told to turn the other cheek when we are being slapped, turned the tables of the money changers in the Temple and whipped them out of there. He didn't just get in and say “oh brothers, what you're doing is wrong and I ask you to stop, but even if you don't, I'll forgive you.” No! He took action and even became violent. This is at least what the Bible tells us. The same book that shows us a vengeful God that wipes out humanity for sinning, gives rules for people to kill even their close relatives if they worship other gods, and sends his son to be tortured and murdered in order to teach mankind a lesson of forgiveness (!) See the contradictions there?
In any case, we need to be clear about something regarding the current age: We are living in a time in which evil forces are on the loose and in which there are people doing actual evil. It doesn't matter if it's dictators, terrorists, or just “regular” people bullying others. We can believe that these people are out of alignment and “know not what they're doing”, but many do indeed know what they're doing and they do it consciously, thus serving evil by keeping the vibration of mankind low. Should we turn the other cheek or turn their tables and whip them away instead?
Up until now, such thoughts of revenge on bad people have been something I had troubles with. Regardless of the Faith with which I grew up, I always took solace in having thoughts of people who did me wrong (bullies in school, thieves who mugged me in the street or whatever) being taken care of. Did that make me a bad person? I don't think so. It is human and “logic” in a way to think “why would you do me wrong in the first place? Now you should get what you deserve”. Since I never dared to actually get into a fight, the mere thoughts were the only thing helping me to cope with these frustrations in life.
When I did that forgiveness exercise some two years ago, a part of me wasn't believing it. I kept trying to convince myself that I was forgiving everybody, but my mind kept coming back to one person in particular, the one who wronged me the most in the last couple of years and thanks to whom I was going down a path of darkness until I got the message that I needed to crawl back out and reconnect with my spirituality. So I should actually be thankful for the lesson this person taught me, but no, I realize more and more that this person was doing me wrong consciously and deliberately, so my mind was busy with thoughts of revenge. God forbid!
Recently, this person has been involved in a corruption scandal and the local media where I live has been dragging them through the mud. I realized that I was glad to see this happening. Not just glad, but very glad. Now we have been taught not to be happy at the disgrace of others, but what when it's somebody who has hurt you badly like this person did to me and others? I realized that I had to accept and embrace the feeling of revenge and not try to push it away, because that's exactly one of mankind's biggest problems: We keep on repressing and denying our emotions and they end up manifesting somehow, be it in physical pain or elsewhere, because they haven't just vanished.
Some time ago, when I was getting started with the teachings of Abraham Hicks, I heard a podcaster mentioning how Abraham talks about revenge being one emotion that helps you to feel closer to joy than to rage. I was very surprised that these highly evolved spiritual teachers would be teaching such a thing!
This sounded so “non-spiritual”, but then I understood what it was about. Abraham teaches the Emotional Guidance Scale, a wonderful tool to help you move step by step, and not abruptly, towards the ultimate goal of joy. The problem with an exercise in forgiveness like the one I did is that it was abrupt. I was just trying to move from way down (anger, hatred, rage) to joy in a jump. Through the Emotional Guidance Scale, we can take one step at a time in order to improve our thoughts and emotions until we are at such peace with ourselves that we feel joyful.
In this scale, hatred and rage are below revenge and revenge is below anger, so when you start wishing revenge upon somebody, even just imagining it, you're well on your way to the top. It's still several steps below joy, but it feels more natural to flow in this way than to try to force it.
However, I don’t plan to stay in this state of revengeful thoughts and schadenfreude forever, and that’s the point I want to make. The feeling of revenge is cathartic, and that's one of the reasons why it's ever present in art and literature. The function of this cathartic feeling is to help you to feel better so that you can move on. And there's something else we shouldn't forget: Everybody's doing the best they can under the circumstances and even if we've been done wrong to, we have also done wrong to others somehow, consciously or unconsciously. So forgiveness should be indeed a goal for us, but the key is to not force it.
If there’s somebody or something you feel like taking revenge at, just let it flow, acknowledge it, don't repress it. What Abraham means with revenge in the Emotional Guidance Scale is a feeling and not the actual exercise of revenge. If it's evil people doing evil things, they're attracting more evil toward themselves because of the vibration they put out there. So there's no need for you to take action, but don't beat yourself for feeling good when you see justice being served. I know I feel good right now with what's happening to this person, but I will also move on, and so should you.
The result will always be feeling better, and the closer to joy that we are, the closer we'll be to living in alignment with our Source.
Love,
Henry
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