Question: Is faith an illusion?

Does it really matter?

From one perspective, everything is illusion. Our minds are just like laser beams, focusing on the hologram. Of all the possibilities, they manifest whatever they focus on. We humans, like our Creator, create.

The more important question is what does each of us choose to believe in, choose to focus on, choose to create: Hate or love? Despair or Joy? Resentment or gratitude? What does each of us want to manifest? What can we create together? Can we create a peaceful, powerful, prosperous world?

Question: Have you ever had the feeling/ experience of feeling self righteous in any way?

Absolutely!  I am very self righteous in the sense of always trusting my own perceptions, emotions, and experiences.  At the same time I consciously try to stay open to and hear the expressed perceptions, emotions, and experiences of others.  The form these take may be quite different from my own, but they always provide information about where, mentally and emotionally, the other person is and about the relationship between us.  A short way of saying this is that I am always right for myself at any given moment in time.  I am never right for anyone else.  If the relationship continues, it is because both of us move toward tolerance, respect, and a fuller understanding of one another.  If it doesn't, it's because one of the two people believes their own perceptions, emotions, and experiences are the only valid ones.  That, to me, is the kind of self-righteousness condemned by religion.

"Define "word sculpt" … .sounds…cool… .

Word sculpting is taking raw energy, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, and structuring the energy, through words or symbols, into helpful tools, constructive directions, and win/win solutions. If we're speaking of emotional energy, the raw emotion is always bringing a message that something needs to change. The question is what and how. That's where learning to ask the right questions is effective. If you're asking the wrong questions, you're not going to get answers.

With word sculpting, you work on yourself, which is where your power is, and change others indirectly by changing yourself directly.

Question: "What if my heart and mind just WON'T forgive? Should I fake it??"

No. Faking it is emotional dishonesty. Better to be authentically unforgiving than self-righteously forgiving. But once you recognize this ugly feeling that is part of you, the question becomes: what are you going to do with it?

One thing you can do is give it a little love. Forgive yourself for your unforgiveness. You can ask yourself what it is in your actions or relationships that you need to change so that you don't have to feel this emotion again.

Forgiving yourself increases the forgiveness in the world and makes it easier for you to forgive others. However, if you don't also change YOUR actions which contributed to YOUR feelings of unforgiveness, you're going to simmer in unforgiveness forever. What an ugly thought! Changing your actions frequently requires setting boundaries, and that has nothing to do with lack of love. In fact, setting boundaries is love.