In the New Testament is the following exchange:

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Now, it would have been entirely reasonable for Peter to respond, "I don't think, Lord, that you really understand what I mean by forgiveness." After all, if I go around forgiving people incessantly, then what becomes of the concept of forgiveness?

When we work Steps 10, 11 and 12 on a serious, daily basis, the light eventually begins to dawn. Forgiveness only makes any sense as long as we are walking around thinking there is something to forgive. But the anger or fear we feel, which leads to resentment and the supposed necessity for forgiveness, is simply the result of our expecting that the world should be a particular way, that this person ought not to have behaved in that manner .... In other words, the situation in which we suspect we should forgive never occurred anywhere except in our minds.

There is a story of a student in the East telling the master than he could not forgive his old friend. The master shook his head and said, "Meditate." After meditating for some years, the student told the master that he had now forgiven his friend. Once more the master shook his head and said, "Meditate." The student meditated for several more years, and then came to the master and said:

"I see now that there was nothing to forgive."

And the master smiled ....