• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 590 0

too often remind ourselves that if the thought is right, the deed cannot be wrong; and that a mere deed undertaken from an exterior motive is just as likely to be wrong as right in any particular instance, for there are simply no complete general rules for right conduct. No teacher could ever say that a given act must necessarily be right at any time, because the play of circumstances in human life is too hopelessly complicated for any such prediction. Anyone with the slightest experience of the world knows, for example, that to lend money indiscriminately to anyone who may ask for it is certainly not the part of wisdom, certainly not the part of elementary justice either to oneself or to those who may be dependent upon one, and that it would, in most cases, inflict actual injury instead of benefit upon the would-be borrower. As for turning the other cheek, literally, for a blow, such a proceeding would be in the last degree unlikely to do anything but harm to both parties; and we should note particularly that Jesus, when he was struck in the room of Pilate, did not do this himself; on the contrary, he met his enemies with grave dignity. This instruction about turning the other cheek refers to the changing of one’s thought when faced by error, changing from the error to the Truth—and, as a rule, it acts like magic.

If, when someone is behaving badly, instead of thinking of the trouble, you will immediately switch your attention off from the human to the Divine, and concentrate upon God, or upon the Real Spiritual Self of the person in question, you will find—if you really do this—that his conduct will immediately change. This is the secret of handling difficult people, and Jesus understood it thoroughly. If people are troublesome, you have only to change your thought about them, and then they will change too, because your own concept is what you see. This is the true revenge. It has been tried thousands and thousands, perhaps millions of times; and it never fails when properly carried out. It is often quite amusing to see it acting like clockwork. If somebody comes into the room at home, or into the office or shop, or anywhere else, looking as if he meant to make trouble, just try switching your attention straight off to the Divine, instead of sparring up aggressively to meet the difficulty or shrinking away to avoid it, according to your temperament. You will be amused and gratified to see the anger fade away from the subject’s face (which will mean that it has faded from his heart too) and quite a different expression take its place. You may find it helpful in the beginning to glance away from him while giving yourself this “treatment,” but with a little practice you will be able, so to speak, to look through him to the Truth of Being.

A lady was annoyed by overhearing two men engaged on some repairs outside her window, who, unaware of her proximity, were indulging in very bad language. For a moment a tide of anger and contempt surged up in her mind concerning them, but, remembering this text, she instantly concentrated her attention upon the Divine Presence which she knew to be within each of them—as it is within all men. She saluted the Indwelling Christ in them, to use our modern expression; and instantaneously the offensive language ceased. She said it was as though it had been chopped off with a knife. She must have got a good realization, and in that case it is certain that both men received a substantial spiritual uplift, and may even have been permanently healed of the use of unclean language.

All those of us who have been working in Truth for any length of time could cite many similar cases of harmony suddenly restored by this simple method of Jesus—that of “turning the other cheek.” I have myself seen several cases where men, and on two occasions children, were actually fighting, and upon a spectator “turning the cheek” in this manner, this strife ceased like magic. Animals respond even more easily to this treatment than do human beings. I have seen two instances where dogs were fighting savagely and all efforts