Magnanimous spirit is the one that with capacity to free self from pain and suffering endures for the sake of the benefit of patience for another.
To have the power to repay ill with immediate justice and defer for the sake of the very ones that injure, that is power.
To be humiliated, to be slandered, to be reviled, to be forsaken, to be forgotten, to be maligned, to be exiled, while holding the power to overthrow, with the power to throw down those that live in high towers with no foundations, to temper that flame - that shows true power.
Can you put aside the ability held to destroy, even when immediately justified for the uncertain sake of a hope that is not even for yourself? For the charity of another's chance to change, for the very malefactors, the servants of damage and disease?
No one would do so without a belief that correct behavior, behavior based in morality, in righteousness, is the path to ultimate rewards unattainable by anything less, something no short cut would present, something no deception could create.
The hardest thing an intelligent person can bear is to live among masses of uninspired and less enlightened minds. The paradox though, yet remains. The very intelligence that can attest to the injustices and decries the wrongs, the wellspring of redress and retribution can equally see the prudence and purpose in patience and long suffering. For what makes up a man or woman other than what they have adopted in the experiences of their lives. And would you not punish an experienced person who knowingly does you wrong in contrast to the inexperience and brash ignorance of youth? How do you then measure intent? How do you then measure allegiance to improvement to all things edifying or all things destructive? How do you measure the soul of a human being that has not lived out their life and conclusively determined what they are to be?
Characters polarize and in the end there are few. On one end, the character that has designed a disposition of enmity for sake of self, carrying with it the burden of being hollow, lonely, miserable, and terribly vicious and dangerous to others; on the other polar end the character that has designed a disposition of equality, love, and charity. In the end we subject ourselves to one of these two masters. And how does a single act or even a million acts compare to the whole of the trillions upon trillions of acts in the culmination of those polar ends relative to the short interim of this human mortal life? What man or woman has the capacity to peer into the future and make that assessment in the present, calculating all the variables of a life lived, past, present, and future? Only with such factors could a truly just judgement be rendered, because only then could one conclusively know that suffering the injustices presented by another would have no effect in assisting that individual. How many Jean Valjeans are there that will change given enough charitable candlesticks? Such is the substance of an intelligent person. Such is the substance of the intelligence that governs and dictates their behaviour.
Intelligence is knowing the course, and because you know it, navigating it in the most beneficial way. It is to see clearly the facts and behave appropriately for the desired end. An intelligent person understands that they don't have the power to peer through time and the conclusive comprehensive volumes that determine a person's character. Without a clear depiction of how suffering the ills of others with forgiveness, patience, and long suffering will impact those individuals, prudence dictates that a forgiving and long suffering disposition be adopted so to give all individuals every available opportunity. It does not mean should we have a choice we knowingly put ourselves in positions of potential suffering, damage, or disease, that is definitely not intelligent. However once within the position of having been wronged, the intelligent person is governed by the assumption that if you have no way of distinguishing between those that would benefit from being treated with forgiveness, long suffering and patience, then you must be such to all. Such an assumption would result, in the end, in some individuals that would otherwise not benefit from forgiveness, patience and long suffering getting such behaviors. But this is needful because the alternate assumption would ultimately deny the benefit from such actions for those individuals that would benefit.
An intelligent person would realize that the better order of behavior is the one that provides benefit for the most people, after all, intelligent individuals living this mortal life understand that they are not perfect and will also have need of such virtues at times from others. And if they esteem themselves to be just, how could they expect something from someone that they themselves are not prepared to render to others. A moral code or order based on completely denying such virtues would ultimately be detrimental to all human beings. A moral order based only on individual preferences would be unequal and lead to further contention due to malcontent for injustice of personal preferences. It would cause more of a stumbling block for those already in need of being helped.
Intelligent people are those that realize that materialism ends at death as does hedonism. And while there are many that refute that there is life after death, an intelligent person would concede the point that having no substantive evidence in popularized mediums to substantiate a designated outcome, does not in truth make a conclusive or valid argument for a verdict. Truth remains whether we recognize it or not. Two thousand years ago tell a man about molecules and atoms and electrons and they would have called you possessed of an evil spirit, after all without a microscope, electron microscope, or the other highly technical equipment which makes such discoveries palatable to the greedy hunger pangs of sight thereby accessing our minds and belief systems, it would of been difficult if not impossible to convince people of such truths. People are so myopic that they use to kill others for believing that the world was not the center of the universe. How did the truth-tellers of a spherical planet fare to the demon-ization of the disbelief by the flat earth believers. Have people really had so many experiences throughout the ages and still hold incredulous the belief that life continues after death just because they don't have immediate proof or understand how it can be done? What do you suppose mankind will look back in 2000 years and say of our society? Will they, like us, look back and say, how is it that they couldn't believe such and such when it is so apparent. What does it say about our arrogance as a people and individuals? What arrogance and pride it is to believe that just because we as a people can't do something, it can't be done, or just because we don't understand something it must not be. If I were apart of a superior race, that virtue alone would prove the danger in sharing such knowledge, technology and ability, and keep me from exposing such truths. After all, look at how we take care of each other, our planet, and the powerful secrets of nature which we have exploited for such mass destruction and deleterious ends. The truth is that there are evidences that individuals can find for themselves about life after death, only they are not popularly held mediums of verification. Prayer and spirituality in society is not highly regarded. Yet evidences do exist of life after death. And because they exist, it is intelligent to realize, that life, though not exactly the same as what is experienced in our present mortal frames, continues once past the doorway of death.
Logic would dictate that leaving behind the frail mortal cloak we inhabit while in this current state of life, and leaving behind all physical materialism relative to our current existence, as well as all possibility of hedonism inherent to our bodies, the only thing carried on in the next state is the intelligence developed and the character forged. Following this line of reasoning then, the one sure thing to be in the next state will be what does go through death - other disembodied intelligences subject to the characters that they have formed.
In such a state, unobstructed by what you materially have, will character not shine out the brighter and will relationships not be more valuable than the gold that was left behind? What of the structure and order of that state? Will we not seek to comprehend and function in ways familiar to previous patterns to deal with the circumstances of that state? Will we not relate in established patterns? Will the values of that world's existence not be sought out in the familiar strategies of a lifetime of practise especially where interpersonal relations are concerned? Is it not rational to suspect that there will be more disembodied intelligences there, than current corporeal living beings here now? Is it not reasonable to follow that vein of thought and realize that there will be intelligences that are far older, intelligent, and wiser, to the circumstances of that state than the paltry years we were alive and what was known during our living state? Is it not evident that birds of a feather will flock together establishing orders of society to productively meet the needs of that state of existence. Is it not logical to conclude that those societies will reflect the polar ends of the spectrum of character due to the systems of order most likely established by the most intelligent characters present and the sheer volume of the individuals supporting such causes? Imagine numbers of that magnitude polarized. One society would surely seem akin to paradise while the other would be the worst prison ever conceived of by virtue of the methods of manipulation and enslavement to the cause. The tactics will be greater than any ever devised or experienced in life. Which camp would you want to be a part of?
If life continues after death, there will be individuals with millennial experiences and accumulated intelligence for ordering society for the needs and purposes of the requirements and circumstances dependant to that state of existence. Does it not therefore become prudent to establish organizations that would keep their constituents? Would not one of the two polarized camps reflect those based on justice, love, equality, forgiveness, and virtue and on the flip side a structure that enslaves individuals through pride, lies, deceit, counterfeit, and subterfuge? Death in that state is no longer a concern, and while exile is the only viable option left for removing a trouble causing individual from a group, would not the focus of all groups be to win over the hearts and minds of the masses for the benefit of the objectives held distinctly by the group? Meaning, does it not stand to reason that the forces of recruitment to a cause will be unparalleled to any other ever experienced in life? And will it not stand to reason that the level of both polar ends will amount to far greater expressions than what was ever demonstrated or experienced during life. Is it so incredible to believe that these factors will manifest a far greater capacity to progressively polarize and cement a polar character in the individual than what was forged in life.
Resultant, isn't it vastly more prudent to recognize what type of character we are forging in this life? Doesn't it also become incredibly important to be forgiving, long suffering, and patient for the purposes of helping others have more chances to change their own character before they exit this life into the next? After all, if suffering injustice in the short term gains you an ally and friend in the long term, is your result not substantially better off for doing so, even though it was hard to endure? And if a person does change their character, will they not of natural consequence, due to the disposition of the newly formed equitable character, thereby desire and do all they can to make up the wrongs they forced others to endure while on the less equitable path? Would they then not reward you for the freely given gift that assisted them to a better disposition? Would it not therefore be worth the trouble suffered in the living state?
And even if they never change their character, would they not meet the inevitable end and ultimate justice of the paths they walk and the character they build? Untimely vengeance to established wrongs or a
After all, will the truth of a lie not catch up to a liar in the end irregardless of our own power to expedite or lengthen that process? Will the hollow pillars of thievery and corruption not buckle and fall under the weight of works unowned and ill established, works that in and of themselves can not produce the pathways these individuals try to cheat? Either lies exist or they don't. Either corruption exists or it doesn't. The corrupt and the liar of necessity have to believe that these words do not exist, as well as truth, because their very definitional existence delineates that the end product will be loss to the expected result. The only means through which corrupt individuals and corrupt practices stave off the inevitable exigencies of truth are by preying on the ignorant, less intelligent, or less powerful to make up the difference. Once absent of people to prey on, such practices of natural consequence implode and fall apart. After death it is conceivable that the speedy and high polarization of character and the stark segregation of parties will produce the implosion of the corrupt society, while the other end of the spectrum grows in capacity and power. With such an outlook established, would it not then behoove us in this life to be forgiving, patient, and long suffering? After all, if there is such a thing as truth, things as they were, things as they are, and things as they will be, then it follows that there is such a thing as natural consequence prescribed by the inherent established order to those truths. What this means is that if there is truth, then there is a reckoning to all truths, whether that reckoning is good or bad for the individual depends on their chosen works or actions. The intelligent person understands that no liar, cheat, thief, or any other perverted or corrupt behavior or person escapes the shortfalls associated by operating under a delusion. That delusion being: that nothing but actions consistent with the truths of an endeavor result in the attainment, maintenance, or longevity of the sought after reward. Anything short of that requirement results disappointingly in anything but the sought after rewards.
With that understanding, we need not worry that anyone of us will in reality ever "get away" with anything dishonest, immoral, or crooked, in the least degree. All we really do is take a step closer to solidifying, in either polar direction on the character spectrum, our disposition.
Justice will win out in the end due to the known and established fact that truths really do exist. In the moment that we are hurt unjustly by a cowardly act, cowardly in the sense that the person is not courageous enough to step up to the correct, equitable, proper, or responsible behavior for their situation and has therefore tried to behave in a manner that takes advantage of you or brings destruction or loss upon you unjustly for their advantage, the quenching balm to the fires that might burn in our bosom reside in the knowledge that they will never get away with that action.
Patience will provide a dual service to us in such a situation.
The first service patience renders is in the understanding that should shine forth in our hearts and heads that; should we have the capacity in that moment to repay evil with what it deserves, but especially if we can not, we are providing that individual a kindness in our long suffering, for their sake, with the hope that they one day soon will understand the injustice they committed, and without compulsory means of retribution or deserved consequence, of their own free will, make the needed changes in their lives so to spare themselves from natural and undeniable ends.
The second service patience renders is the fact that should the individual never make the needed changes in character, it will only be a matter of time before we will witness justice dispensed upon them. For those of us that seek that type of fulfillment, it will not be as rewarding as our emotions in the moment of infraction might persuade us to desire. When justice finally overtakes those that try to evade the truth, the state of that individual will be so broken and miserable that it will pluck the very heart strings of pity and compassion within us.
And even if we are moved to, at that time, try and help them, it will be too late and ultimately ineffectual. After all, characters are an individual construction welded together by the links of choices. Irrespective of persuasions, our choices belong to us by virtue that we are the actors doing the choosing. Persuasions ultimately only vary our reasons for making choices but we ultimately determine what and why we choose the way we do. And in that choosing we shape a character. We own and make our choices as free agents. Once a character is solidified, meaning it reaches a polar end, that is where they will always remain. The fact that it is now their character solidified and invariable keeps them cemented there. Once there, they remain determined to stay that way on account of the long journey of experiences and reasons that formed the rationale to persist on that course.
To reshape a character is a private work wrought with personal discovery and independent choice and personal agency. Being forced to change behavior is not changing character. Forcing hands to comply or behave does not change hearts or minds. A person forced to merely behave differently or endure hardship without a clear understanding of personal error, a desire to change, or a resolution to do the hard work that will make the change possible, a.k.a. true repentance, a.k.a. a change of heart, through an alignment of the the mind to the truth of things, without this happening, character is unaffected even if behavior is conditioned, for character is not merely what you do, it is more, it is what you are.
What this means is that such individuals upon entering death's doorway, inherit the pre-disposition to the polar end they most have formed and solidified during life and once across the threshold of death they will be more apt to join forces with the group that most resembles their character. Is it therefore not prudent and intelligent to suffer for others for the benefit of gaining their allegiance to the cause of the polar end built on truth and which ultimately brings happiness and increase, instead of quickly destroying them for their trespasses, and injuries? Does not the intelligent person therefore see the benevolence is delaying the inevitable for the sake of rescuing their fellow and of consequence recovering more than what was exacted from them unfairly?
The polar end that inclusively attracts through appreciation, affection, acceptance - love, and charity, making all equal and allowing them accessibility to all things held, that all may be rich and enjoy equally is also the character that steels the innocent to suffer injustices. It is the one that teaches and practices - love thine enemy. To live a life of character requires reason and intelligence, it requires a firm mind.
The intelligent person is faithful to the truth, and operates in full compliance to what was, what is, or what will be, even though it might not be apparently seen or even if it might not be accutely proximal in relation to time and quite distant. The intelligent person stays the course of truth, it shapes that individual's choices, and relationships. In a word the intelligent person is faithful. The intelligent person is faithfully obedient to the demands of truth.
The truth of matters is the light by which we can see and know how to act and know what the results of those actions will present. The worst state of mind is a person that believes something to be true when it is not. Such actions never yield the full measure of fruit sought after. Such a state is to be decieved, to believe a lie, to live a lie, and it is the most damning state by which to measure action. Duplicity, deception, and lies are a means to acquire resources. They work for the short term, but in the long-term they make you a liar, distrusted, resented, and dangerous to others. It perpetuates a world of competition and enemies, a world of only one. It necessitates functions of retaining the resources accumulated, whether it be riches or people. Those systems of retention develop snares to enslave, bind, and control so far as is useful. They are built on manipulating the truth of things. They are found harvesting those that don't understand the truth yet and who have to trust someone because they don't know things for themselves yet. This world order is a lone and dreary world of one. Competing against everyone means no one can be an ally. And in this mental state, to play the part of an ally means to manipulate someone into a position that would favor your desired outcome and end result. To win, to meet the end that one desires, without traveling the road that gets to it necessitates that others travel that road and lose the prize so that you might obtain it. Liars are natural thieves. Thieves are natural adulterers, perverters of natural order, and murderers to trust and confidence, ultimately slave makers and life enders. These people unjustly recreate beings that are their equals into mere objects to be used, abused, and discarded once their usefulness is at an end.
The intelligent person is one that finds out how things work and joins associations that promote and assist the journey's needs to culminate at truth's ends. Intelligent people not only detest lies, but actively repudiate them and work against all those that would promote them. They are builders of people and destroyers of lies. Intelligent people amass helping hands, caring minds, and sympathetic hearts by serving and caring for others not for individual benefits that divide them but for the benefit that all of them may enjoy. One polar end creates enemies, the other friends and trusted allies. One polar end sees individuals equally diverse and uniquely special and important as self. The other sees only cogs, means to an end, resources unworthy of equality and worthy enough to discard and destroy for the sake of self.
The intelligent person has all this understanding and in it finds the determined courage and fortifude to steel themselves against the suffering brought on by the unjust and their injustices. It is the core that grants them restraint from using powers that they might hold to meet violations with equitable and repudiating resistance.
Magnanimous spirit is the one that with capacity to free self from pain and suffering endures for the sake of the benefit of patience for another.
To have the power to repay ill with immediate justice and defer for the sake of the very ones that injure, that is power.
To be humiliated, to be slandered, to be reviled, to be forsaken, to be forgotten, to be maligned, to be exiled, while holding the power to overthrow, with the power to throw down those that live in high towers with no foundations, to temper that flame - that shows true power.
