What is forgiveness and how does one practice it?

To forgive someone is to forswear resentment, anger, or other reactions to their having done something that justifies such responses. The philosophical problem is that this is apparently treating them better than they deserve; but how can it be a requirement, or even be permissible, to treat someone in any other way than as they deserve? The advice of Augustine, that we hate the sin but not the sinner also suggests an objective or impersonal attitude towards the sinner, as if the character of the agent is only accidentally connected with the hatefulness of his or her actions, and it has been argued, notably by Strawson, that this objective stance is inconsistent with full recognition of the personhood of others.

http://www.answers.com/topic/forgiveness

http://www.happiness-information.com/how-to-forgiv...

http://lifelearningtoday.com/2007/05/22/do-you-kno...

It doesn't matter whether the person that hurt you deserves or not to be forgiven . Forgiveness is a gift you actually give to yourself. as you've got a lot of things to do and you need to move on with your life.

'Forgiveness' is too broad a term to actually mean one thing to every person - some people say that another is forgiven of their misdeeds, but where is the line drawn on the misdeed? If you say 'I forgive the man who murdered my son', are you willing to have a friendly relationship with the killer?

Do you forgive the friend who was discovered to spread a hurtful rumor about you, or do you just publicly declare you forgave the friend without truly being able to let it go?

Is forgiveness real? If you have been wronged to the point of needing to 'forgive' someone, does that not change your relationship forever with that person? You will never forget the wrongdoing and it will change your view of that person -----------

forgiveness means not holding a grudge against someone who has hurt you (emotionally, physically or any other way). it means mentally letting it go and not ruminating over it.

i am always willing to forgive people IF they apologise and ARE truly sorry about what they did. you can't forgive people who repeatedly do the same thing and never have any intention of changing their ways. you forgive those who regret what they did and won't do it again.

it does not need practice if you throughly understand why should we forgive.