A friend of mine is having an issue with a young man who has wronged her family. He told some lies and caused a bunch of drama and in turn has hurt some relationships that she held to be important to her. I really don't know a whole lot more about the situation other than that but I've been watching it play out on Facebook for a little while now.
Today she posted that she wasn't sure whether to essentially take this young man down by spilling some secrets that she knew that could harm him - or whether to just let it go.
I scrolled by her post and didn't respond. I knew in my heart that my friend holding on to her anger for this young man wasn't helping her - but I didn't say anything for many reasons. I didn't want to get in the middle of it, I didn't know enough of the story, etc.
Not 10 minutes later, I stumbled upon the following quote:
"It is natural for the immature to harm others. Getting angry with them is like resenting a fire for burning." Shantideva
I knew she needed to hear it and for whatever reason I was the vessel that needed to bring that to her. I feel honored to have been able to do that for her as she made it clear that she really truly appreciated it and needed to hear it.
Buddhist teachings have a lot to say about anger and forgiveness and it seems like most of it centers on looking within ourselves and seeing that the anger we harbor hurts us more than anyone else. It's something I think I should spend some time meditating about.
