There is an interesting definition of a miracle in A Course in Miracles, (ACIM) Chapter 13, which offers very good advice: “The miracle enables you to see your brother without his past, and so perceive him as born again. His errors are all past, and by perceiving him without them you are releasing him. And since his past is yours, you share in this release…” Text, page 251.

If we are able to do this, and it isn’t easy, it means that we would disregard anything negative that had happened before between a particular person and ourselves. We would wipe the slate clean. It would be like starting a new relationship with the other person with no condemnation and no judgement.

The interesting thing about the passage above is the last sentence. ACIM, being a non-dual teaching, stresses that there is, in reality, only one of us appearing as many. That is why when we forgive and release someone, we are doing the same to ourselves.

If we could see everyone without their past, we would be living only in the present—a present untainted by the past. Books have been written on that subject! (The work of Eckhart Tolle springs to mind.)

In ACIM we are told: “The present offers you your brothers in the light that would unite you with them, and free you from the past.” T252