Jack Kornfield is an international meditation teacher and author, and one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. He says we need to understand what forgiveness is and what it’s not.

Sense the suffering in yourself of still holding on to the lack of forgiveness for yourself or for the other and start to feel that it’s not compassionate to have this suffering, to keep running the thoughts and running the scenarios. So you actually sense the weight of not forgiving.

Here are 12 helpful and practical teachings on forgiveness that may help you free yourself from the weight of holding onto the past.