If I accept that the first person I must learn to forgive is myself, how do I do this? What if I have done something truly awful? What if I have abused children or committed genocide? I once told someone that you don’t know anything about forgiveness until you can forgive Hitler. I will start by saying that I cannot offer forgiveness on behalf of anyone else.

If I have hurt someone I cannot offer forgiveness for the hurt I have caused them. I am not God, and that absolution is not mine to give. I cannot forgive Hitler for the millions who were tortured and murdered as a consequence of his hatred and insanity, that absolution is not mine to give. Forgiveness is a cancellation of a debt. If I am owed nothing, there is no debt to forgive.

If I choose to forgive myself what I am doing is making the choice to no longer punish myself for what I have done, but that doesn’t free me from the consequences of actions where there is a debt to be payed to others.

1. Read sacred texts with care. Take notes. 
2. Acknowledge human authorship of said texts in historical context
3. Separate and discard practices and behaviour reliant on belief in omniscience, omnipotence or omnipresence. 
4. Separate and discard practices and behaviour which denigrate any group of people as “less than,” or “unclean” on the basis of any criteria. Criteria may includes, but are not limited to: age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, body shape, skin pigmentation, native language, hair colour, hair length, tattoos or lack thereof… No, really… anything.
5. Separate and discard practices and behaviour based on lack of refrigeration, understanding of biology, proper hygiene, and or physics (see point 2)
6. Separate and discard practices and behaviour reliant on higher authority. This includes reliance on gurus, Imams, Priests, monks, and or keepers of the sacred colander.
7. Ask self: “Self, does this teaching make me want or try to be better person without hurting anyone?”
8. Season with salt and pepper
9. Serve warm