Neither God Nor The Buddha Can Forgive Us
This is not in their power.

Forgiveness comes from our own realisation through grace. Grace is being pleased, thankful and grateful for realising that the past was the past, and now is now, and we see. What we did then was unskilful and mistaken, and we were ignorant of our true potential. This is true compassionate understanding, and through this understanding we have empathetic compassion for all. Their past was just as confused as ours was. Their present is just as confused as ours was. There is no pride involved in this: just the wisdom of equality.

What is this grace? It is Buddha-consciousness or, if you prefer, God-consciousness. After all’s said and done, we are decent people with enlightened potential.

We each have individual paths of confusion with particular types of thorny bushes, sharp rocks and grit. It is nice to think that a higher being will actually make it all right, but they are merely the inspiration.

We are free in the moment we see.
Grace is the relief of “Is that all?”
Thank goodness!