It is its own unique suffering when you have hurt the heart of one whose heart you would never want to hurt. You didn’t mean to. You would never want to. Only you were careless in your speech, and now you reap the hurt in your own heart. This hurt goes deeper than the hurt you sowed because you cannot undo it.

All kinds of hurt have to be let go of. There is no blessing in them, except that you take heed the next time and find a way to express yourself without hurting any soul on Earth. The dictum to harm no other creature goes beyond physical injury.

I have told you that when your feelings are hurt, it is not to affect you because it really has nothing to do with you. It has to do with the other person, and so you are freed from taking on the hurt. However, when you are the one who has inflicted the hurt, you are responsible, and now you are responsible for letting it go. Your error is not reprehensible, beloveds. It is only one of many errors made, and now you correct it by letting it go into oblivion.

Hurt is not good for you, It is not good for another. And it is not good for the world. No matter what the source of the hurt, it has to be let go of. You have to let go of it.

And so you must forgive yourself, shrug your shoulders, let it go and not let it happen again. Do not ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness is your responsibility now. It belongs to you and not to another. Do not put it on another.

From now on, when you are steamed up about something, wait.

Better yet, don’t get steamed up in the first place. What is so urgent, beloveds, that you feel you must fuss and fume? Have no steam to let off. Have equanimity. Be level-headed. Calm the mind, and you will not disturb your heart or another’s. Take a breath and be calm. What good advice I give.

Take a good breath in now, and then exhale it. See how hurt leaves. It knows it doesn’t belong. It knows it has overstepped its bounds. It knows that the hurt of regret and remorse compound the hurt. You are not to wear a hair shirt. You are to doff hurts of any kind and remove them from the face of the Earth. Look, hurts are scoundrels. They would steal your sense of wellbeing from you, and you must not let them. Whatever threatens your sense of wellbeing can only threaten, beloveds. Do not kowtow to hurt. Do not let hurt intimidate you. It is all bluff anyway. You are not to give in to hurt and raise an altar to it.

Substitute love instead. What a difference love makes! See how high it raises you. Hurt would keep you low. It would bury you if you let it. It is not noble to carry hurt. It is ignoble. Transmute hurt into love. That is hurt’s undoing. You are the one to undo it, and that is how. Love yourself first, and then all else follows. Love is the leader. Love is King. Love is the way of the heart. Hurt is not.

Kick hurt away.

Evict it from your heart.

Do not belabor it. Do not reward it with your attention. Hurt is a dime a dozen. It is worth nothing at all. Love on the other hand is worth its weight in gold. Love is gold. Hurt is rusty old tin. Toss hurt out.