Nikhil responded to one of my recent posts on prayer with a beautiful bit of Shakespeare from The Merchant of Venice. In this play, Shakespeare writes of mercy as being "twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."
That got me to pondering, do all of the divine virtues produce this effect of blessing the doer and the receiver of the virtue? Certainly love does: it blesses the person who gives the love and the person who receives it. The same is true for patience, forgiveness, service, kindness...
When we think about virtues like justice and truthfulness, the equation on the surface seems to get trickier. For example, if a child breaks a plate and tells his mommy truthfully, he may get punished. Yet, in the long run, both the mother and the child benefit from the trust that is built by the child in that act of truthfulness, and in this way they are both blest by the truthfulness. My sense is that the same is true of justice, though I find it harder to unravel. Any takers?
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3 comments:
i liked this post a lot, bb.
my take is this - the person who administers justice elevates him/herself by putting aside all emotional/non-rational leanings and doing 'the right thing'.
the person to whom justice is administered may play one of two roles - that of the 'sinner' or that of the 'sinned against' (for want of better words). for the sinned against, it is obvious how justice does good. for the sinner, justice gives a chance for understanding, self-analysis, retribution.
does that, albeit brief, make sense, do you think?
Ya, i agree with that, 8&20. Here's another side to this - lets consider what the expression of justice at the individual level looks like (something I didn't really think of until a most revelatory talk last year on this). The following Hidden Word, I believe, holds the key:
"O SON OF SPIRIT!
The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes."
And so justice at the individual level really reflects in the principle of the independent investigation of the truth in all circumstances - "seeing with thine own eyes".
Now how does this relate to being "twice blest"? First, I think it tells you that justice is really something you apply in every situation in life when faced with a question - not just when you see someone perpetrating "injustice" as is defined socially. And so it helps you discern the truth - for yourself - in every situation and so aids in growth. Second, when it comes to other people, investigating their nature for yourself - instead of blindly believing what other people might say about them, stereotypes etc - prevents you from developing prejudices (pre+judge) about them. This of course is beneficial both to us (as it enables us to find the truth about the other person) and others (as they don't become the victim of prejudice). Possessing a just heart, therefore, would imply that in every interaction we have with the world and its inhabitants, we abandon prejudice and instead search for the truth with an open heart.
More broadly, when it comes to virtues in general, I think this idea of being "twice blest" pretty much applies to all of them. I'd say that pretty much all virtues are really expressed when one interacts with the world around - and so virtues automatically become linked not to just our internal self, but to our relationship with the world and its creatures. And so the exercise of a virtue in any interaction with the world would, I believe, have a positive influence on both sides of the interaction.
I agree with you both. Justice certainly gives the "sinner" the change for self-analysis and retribution, as you say. And even if not, society has an opportunity to correct injustice by bringing this person to account.
Interesting linkage of justice to independent investigation, Nikhil -- makes sense and I totally agree with you.
We were also talking yesterday about how to be virtuous means deeds/actions of ours that demonstrate that virtue, which inherently involves always interacting with another person... so in this way, all virtues involve a doer and a recipient. And, in terms of virtues twice blest, I think it is helpful to cast the scale of the potential recipient to a global level, as our actions can have impact far beyond say the person being called to account (e.g., the building and preservation of a just society).
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