Christ asked humanity to love one’s enemies, pray for those who persecute, and do well to those who calumniate, so we all can be children of our heavenly father, and be perfect as our heavenly father. He also wanted all to forgive others endlessly. Gandhi used sahana yoga (union with God and others through suffering) for reconciliation among all especially among Hindus and Muslims during the partition of India in the eastern section, and thus avoided enormous bloodshed. While I am deeply aware of the teachings of Christ and practice of Gandhi, I asked my assistant to call the police as a last resort to settle the dispute in the face of impending threats and abusive challenges. The police settled the issue on the basis of written legal documents. I justified calling the police as an instance of tough love to correct this man and avoid further loss.
The fact I deeply trusted this man as I would trust my own son caused me enormous financial loss. The betrayal of trust is a traumatic experience and pain that will take time to heal. Every time a betrayal of trust takes place humanity suffers. We may have to have recourse to tough love to solve problems at least temporarily. For a lasting solution, he prevailed, and got his way as I decided it was not worth my energy, money, and time to fight endless battles in courts. I was stupid in trusting him and paid dearly for it. Tough love works more often with children and compassionate adults. In any case one needs to be open to suffering, forgiveness and reconciliation. By trust that is betrayed one learns more about the other person, and ultimately about humanity in general. Of course I still stay dismayed as a spiritual person wondering what I could have done differently! In the final analysis I let him out of my system without hostile feelings. I guess everyone has to make his or her judgment call.
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