The Eye Of The Eye Makes The Whole World Blind
We certainly all agree that people make mistakes. It is part of being human. We have all made mistakes and we have all found ourselves in a situation from which we could not imagine getting out anymore. In fact, we have more than once followed the old rule: eye for eye…
Who wouldn’t have hurt someone else at least once? What makes us better people is the attitude towards this issue.
The title of this article is one of Gandhi’s best known utterances, and in the article we deal with resentment, revenge, and forgiveness, for example. These words touch our hearts and relate directly to the people around us. For this reason, these words introduce many of our everyday thoughts.
It may not be your fault, but it could be
As we have already said, making mistakes is completely human. Maintaining relationships is complex. Often we find ourselves in situations whose circumstances we could not expect, and we may also fail completely. We are most aware of such moments when they relate to our family members, friends, or spouse.
We can make a mistake with ourselves or others, or others can make a mistake with us. In all of these situations, it would be good for us to keep in mind the phrase “eye for eye makes the whole world blind.”
There is only one direction to resentment and revenge
When other people disappoint us, we feel a great emptiness that we should be filled again. In that case, before we make any decisions, we should ask ourselves: when would resentment or revenge be the right solution? What if the situation were the other way around?
Kaunas becomes our own nuisance: violence breeds violence, revenge breeds revenge.
An attitude full of resentment and revenge has only one direction. And it only produces more harm to your own existence: negative emotions just grow, and they are never the solution. If we all punished others for their mistakes, if we followed the “eye for an eye” rule, we would never grow up as human beings.
Education through forgiveness
Justice and forgiveness are antibodies to negative emotions. As Gandhi has stated, we must imagine ourselves in the position of a person who has acted improperly, and thus we desperately need forgiveness from another.
Growing through forgiveness is a fundamental thing. Forgetting and learning are based on this, the opportunity to go on with our lives and understand mistakes: for only in this way can others get over their own mistakes.
So the eye-to-eye utterance makes the whole world blind to reason when we explore the deepest parts of human existence and self-development. The world would be a very sad place and would destroy itself if we could not forgive as well as we could make mistakes.
It is just a matter of understanding. While it can sometimes be painful, punishing others because we have been punished only leads to pain, not the happiness we should always seek.
