“Whenever someone has done wrong by you, immediately consider what notion of good or evil they had in doing it. For when you see that, you’ll feel compassion, instead of astonishment or rage. For you may yourself have the same notions of good and evil, or similar ones, in which case you’ll make an allowance for what they’ve done. But if you no longer hold the same notions, you’ll be more readily gracious for their error.” -Marcus Aurelius
The above quote from Marcus Aurelius in Meditations is suggesting that when someone does something that harms or offends us, instead of getting angry or surprised, we should try to understand what their beliefs and values were that led them to act that way.
If you consider the motivations of a fighter in a war you don’t approve of, you might find that they are fulfilling a job, upholding their duty to a nation, or perhaps their following skewed information that was given to mislead them. For the co-worker that seemingly mistreats you, consider that they may be fending for their family’s well-being or chasing their dream at all costs.
By understanding where they are coming from, we can either empathize with them because we share similar beliefs or we can more easily forgive them because we understand that our beliefs and values are different. It is a call for compassion and understanding in the face of…
