From the point of view of good we can see and understand evil, but from
the point of view of evil we can neither see nor understand real
goodness. A man to understand the world must be in the process of
gaining his freedom from its evils. He must be learning to live
according to universal and interior standards, not according to the
standards of a special time, or of the people who happen to be about
him; and, in the process, he will learn that faithfulness to his own
sincere perception of universal truth will lead him eventually into true
harmony with the best in others. We know of only one man in the history
of the world who lived his whole life in a manner consistent with his
highest standards.
The world is a great, well-kept school. No one who believes in
immortality can possibly doubt that the short space of time we are here
is meant for training,--training to prepare us for our work hereafter,
whatever that may be, by doing our work here well. If we start with the
belief that the world is a school, and that we do not want to stay in
the primary class, but that we want to go through all the classes and to
graduate honorably,--if that conviction is strong in our minds, it is
astonishing to realize what a new aspect life will have for us. In
general and in every detail life will be full of living interest. No
trouble will be too hard to bear; there will be no circumstances that we
would run away from. We shall want to learn all our lessons, to pass all
our examinations, and to get the living power for use to others which is
the logical result.
To love his neighbor as himself, a man must be able truly to sympathize
with his neighbor and to see through his neighbor's eyes. By this I do
not mean that the neighbor's point of view must be his own, but that he
should be able to understand it as if it were his own. If a man does
this, he can understand the wrong or the right of it much more clearly;
and can, when advisable, modify his own point of view according to his
neighbor's. One can easily recognize the advantage it is to a doctor, a
lawyer, a minister, or a business man, to be able and willing always to
grasp the point of view of other people. A doctor makes up his mind as
to the best course to take in regard to his patient. The patient tells
him a long story describing his own state of mind, which seems to the
doctor, according to his own experience, entirely ridiculous. If he
excludes all appreciation of his patient's point of view and holds
harshly to his own ideas, he loses the most important means for
performing a perfect cure. If he listens attentively, and earnestly
tries to appreciate what may be good in his patient's ideas, so that the
patient feels his sympathy, an opportunity is thus opened to lead the
patient gradually to common sense. In so far as the physician closes
his mind to his patient's point of view, in so far he is narrow and
lacking in the true spirit of a man of the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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