def: An accusing thought.
In the Bible, the literal translation of the word “Satan” is “The Accuser.”
When scripture advises me to reject “Satan,” it’s guiding me to reject every accusing notion that occurs to me, to question the idea that someone is unworthy in any way, that someone has intended to do harm in the interest of evil, the voice that suggests a story of an enemy, of stupidity, of laziness, of negligence, of too much, of not enough…
That story is never true.
Never.
The only “evil” is that story, the story that grows from a seed of accusation. Because it is that story - and only that story - that destroys my peace. And even the story that a story can destroy my peace isn’t true since the result will only ever be a belief that my peace is destroyed.
Peace itself is indestructible.
It is always there, waiting. All I have to do is question my accusing thoughts and peace is there.
When I’m believing peace can be destroyed, I’m just stuck in a nightmare. And as long as I stay asleep, I will suffer.
Accusation comes from the mistaken belief that I am the knower of Good and Evil, the idea that what is should ever be anything other than it is. A belief that takes what is whole and sees it divided, which is confusion. And that confusion is hell. That confusion is the only hell that exists. Any story of Good and Evil falsely divides the world, mentally separating me from others, from myself, from what is. And that hell will go on forever…until I question it.
When I understand accusation this way, when I can see my accusing thoughts for what they are: imagination, innocently run amok, and release myself from their influence, I see that everyone is innocent. I see that everyone - including me - does the best they can with what they’re thinking and believing. Always. I see that the only way to peace is to recognize this.
And I see that even accusation itself is innocent, a gift (as long as I’m awake to it). It is nothing more than a signal that I am believing a false story: a story of a “me” that is “good” separate from “another” that is “evil” (or a “me” that is “evil” separate from “another” that is “good”) and bringing hell upon myself. When I feel The Accuser rising within me, I know I’m losing my connection with what is (otherwise known as “my grip on reality”). So I can question the thought and return to the recognition of our common wholeness and innocence and eternal peace.
That’s what forgiveness is: releasing accusation and returning to the to the recognition that everyone - including me, however imperfect, however we get things wrong - is INNOCENT: doing the best we can with what we’re thinking and believing.
And whenever I do that, I find myself in heaven.