“Let not the sun go down upon your wrath” has a wider significance
than we usually realize. As a matter of mere physical well-being, if we
have allowed the lack of knowledge or the selfishness of our brother
to annoy or irritate us, it is well to wipe away all traces of that
irritation before lying down to rest. It is well, when possible, to
seek the “little one” we have offended, through our own ignorance or
selfishness, and make our peace by confessing the fault; while, if we
are still self-centered enough to feel that our brother has dealt
harshly with us, we may remove all the sting by thinking lovingly
of him. As the soft answer turneth away wrath, so the soft attitude
turneth out wrath, both from ourselves and from him. Each day should
complete itself. Sufficient unto the day is the good and the evil
thereof, and to attempt to carry over the evil through resentment until
another day is but to lay up trouble for ourselves.
For, after all, it is lack of knowledge or understanding that makes our
brother unkind to us or us to him. Each is doing the best he can, being
such a man as he is. Each of us has still some of that separateness
which makes us regard our own interests as apart from other interests,
or hostile to them. What our brother does, therefore, he does because
it seems to him the best thing for himself. As soon as he sees that
one cannot truly prosper at the expense of another, because we are all
one, he will give up his stupid ways—as we shall give up our stupid
ways when we see that same truth. Until then it is useless to be angry
or upset, for that is only to show that we, too, are unable to see
the oneness of all. As it is bad for our brother that he is so blind,
it were more consistent that we should feel sorrow than anger at his
self-injury.
Epictetus understood that, nineteen hundred years ago, and we have not
become so stupid as to deny it; we only forget. He saw that there is
only one kind of motive in all men—they are moved by what they think is
right and best for themselves. Said he, “It is impossible to judge one
thing best for me and to seek a different one, to judge one thing right
and be inclined towards another.” We all know this about ourselves, but
we do not see it so plainly about others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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