Monique Ruffin I am a blogger, life coach, astologer, mom and adventurer This post is hosted on the Huffington Post's Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and post freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Satie Gossett recently joined me on my radio show, Rise with Monique Ruffin, to discuss his short film, Forgiveness. In Forgiveness, a black boy writes a letter to the president of the United States that asks for the long overdue acknowledgment of slavery and the effects that racism have on African Americans through the centuries. In this young mans mind, a simple apology to black Americans from a sitting president is the first step to healing our country.

If we view our lives through a spiritual lens, we are spirits having a human experience. If that experience is lived in a black body in America, that body lives out a narrative of oppression. Forgiveness is a key component of the pathway to freedom from this oppression, but it must begin within the one seeking to forgive. On the spiritual journey of growth and evolution, forgives serves as a deep exploration of ones relationship with the self.

Transformation is a stressful process. To turn carbon into a diamond takes a great deal of pressure. Without the outside forces and resistances placed on it, the carbon would not have the necessary heat to take a new form. This process is mirrored in the transformation of the black American soul. The racism that runs through American history, and that continues today, provides the pressure on the black spirit to evolve in its spiritual growth. The stresses and hardships can be exploited for the benefit of the souls enlightenment.

Those on the spiritual path make a point of living their lives beyond the material world, seeking deeper meanings to enhance their evolution eventually transcend many of the conditions that limit them. Forgiveness is a necessary practice in the spiritual journey.

For me, one of the greatest challenges to living a life as a spiritual being is to always remember that we are all connected. In our day-to-day reality, separation is experienced, but it is not a true representation of our wholeness. Although all the trees in the forest stand apart, the rich and intricate root system beneath the surface depicts the interconnectedness and unified sources of the forest. The same is true for humans: we are one appearing as many. In spiritual terms, my sister and I are one in the same. Any perceived harm done is truly a harm from oneself on oneself. And so forgiveness is an inside job.

I have struggled with the concept of oneness throughout my life as a spiritual seeker. It has frequently been difficult to see myself in the reflection of white America. My spiritual walk asks me to take responsibility for my creations, all of them. What does that mean? It means that I must ask myself, How do I participate in creations of racism in this nation? This is not an attempt to place blame in any one direction, but an opportunity to find solutions through responsibility.

Spirituality ultimately brings one back to the Self, with the understanding that, so within as without. Because everything is truly energy, our inner frequency creates our outer reality. It cant lie or be deceived. The mirror can only show you yourself. Whatever we experience in our lives is a direct reflection of our inner world.

Accordingly, forgiveness for a person on a spiritual journey is an act of self-love and understanding. We must forgive ourselves for what we perceive we are experiencing because we are in fact the co-creators of that experience.

Everything we experience that is unlike goodness, love, and joy is sourced in a loss of memory. We have forgotten our natural states of being and therefore keep generating painful and traumatic experiences to get our attention and help us awaken and remember ourselves. The problem or disconnect occurs when we focus our attention solely on the outer experience as victims rather than the inner reality as co-creators.

Self-knowledge is the pathway to the deepest freedom because it allows us to identify the belief systems and practices that keep us in a cycle of pain. For years, I watched myself play in fields of negative and self-loathing thoughts and behaviors. These negative patterns didnt start with me, but were passed to me through my family lineage, in the form of addiction, abuse, and mental and emotional health issues. The responsibility of healing, however, rests with me, because I was the one who was curious enough to explore the negativity, and I was the one that was interested in learning how to heal it. It meant being willing to throw away nearly every tool my family had given me to cope.

The moment I began considering the black American experience through a spiritual lens my resistance started melting away, and I realized this is the process my soul created to help me wake up to my divine nature. I believe this is true for all people, but Ive experienced that one must be curious and willing to do the inner excavation in order to reconcile the inner self with the outer manifestation. Always, we must accept, rather than fight against, or reject, or alter, what is. Such acceptance is a required tool if we are to grow toward the freedom that we desire.

Forgiveness is needed until its not any longer. Until we spend more time focused on how we co-create our reality and less time looking to where we can assign blame, forgiveness is the key to unlock our inner chamber. Self-forgiveness is the process through where we consider the world and take responsibility for the hatred, separation and fear we perceive. Its as simple as that. I forgive myself for believing anyone out there has greater power in my life than I do. I forgive myself for seeing anyone superior to me. I forgive myself for forgetting my divine sovereign nature. I forgive myself for co-creating painful experiences. I open myself to the original intention of my life and allow all that does not inspire me to fall away.

Join me each Wednesday at 7 a.m. PST on Rise with Monique Ruffin at 12radio.com", where my guest and I will explore spiritual solutions to the many challenges we face during this transformational time in our country.

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What Forgiveness Means for Black People - Huffington Post