How Do We Know the Path Of the Wise?

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

I listened to a video in Youtube.  I wasn’t watching it although it was a video.

There was a gentleman who was talking about The Path of the Wise.

No this has nothing to do with the Three Magi, also known as the Three Kings, although Christmas is just around the corner.

It has something to do with how we look at our problems and consequently, how we deal with them.

The gentleman started by talking about his two friends.  One friend had a certain fight which he had taken to the court. He’s been fighting for his case for six years. He probably had spent about eight hundred thousand dollars in lawyer fees and all.  His health was failing.  He had neglected his work.  He was always angry. He was so full of himself.  He eventually ended up driving his family away.  He was known in the neighborhood as the grouch. This friend was extremely miserable.
On the other hand, the other friend had a better disposition in life.  He was always cheerful.  Ever ready to lend a helping hand and he was known in the neighborhood as the gracious old man by the hill.

In contrast to the first man described in the video, this man was happily married.  He lived in a mansion surrounded by his loving children and grandchildren.  And anyone in the neighborhood didn’t think twice in approaching him.

This man is not a saint.  He was like other men who had their fair share of tribulations in life. But he adapted a better way of solving his fights.   He accepted them and faced his fight mildly and with humility. He looked at his enemy with a benevolent eye, like he was never offended.  As if he could see through the other’s conflicts.

One day, he had a misunderstanding with his colleague.   Being a kindhearted man, he had a practice of not letting the sun set on a quarrel.  So he took his “nemesis” to a coffee shop and spent about ten dollars  for their coffee. They recognized their differences like gentlemen and shook hands in the end. They parted ways laughing at their pettiness.

Not all people can be like the first or the second man in the story.  But somehow, I can’t help reflecting on how I perceive a conflict especially if I’m in it.
Which of the two paths will you take? Will you choose the way of the wise and the humble or that of the querulous and unforgiving man?

Choose your path well.