“By every hurt or harm that one causes me, one only makes me know him better.”

It’s all too easy to take offense. To flush red, glare, groan and snarl requires no insight. Reflection, on the other hand, is a science of the heart.

Much is to be discovered by looking beneath the surface. What first meets the eye is only the peel of the truth, not its kernel.

Why did the person do it?

Firstly, while the act might have seemed objectionable to you, the one who did it likely saw it in a different light. The person probably does not have all of the facts available to you, and vice versa.

Secondly, not only is the other person differently placed in the situation, the person is differently placed in life and being. You are separated by a gulf of divergent experiences traceable all the way back to infancy. In fact, even before birth, your souls were contrastingly tinctured by varying astral and spiritual influences.

And thirdly, as a rule a person who habitually causes suffering to others is himself or herself the sufferer of a wound, whether hidden or apparent. To chastise the person will not stanch the gash, though something else might.

The world is a theater of contrasts in which everyone has a unique part to play. If there would be heroes, there must be also villains. No villainy, however, is final, as change is constant, and every soul is bound at last to awaken to the Infinite.