“A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.”
Baltasar Gracián
Yesterday, I touched on how you can reach out to someone, and in the process make a friend. Today I want to place you in the receiving end. I will touch on the concept of enemies and backstabbers, and the influence they exerted on you.
Think for a brief moment about all the enemies you rubbed shoulders with throughout your lifespan. Was it worth it? Did anything positive come from it? To what extent are you maybe your own greatest enemy? The war strategist, Sun-Tzu, remarked that if you know your enemy and if you also know yourself, then you need not to fear the result of a hundred battles. If, however, you know yourself but you fail to know your enemy, then every victory gained will also be one suffered in defeat. If you know neither your enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
Napoleon Bonaparte was of the opinion that you should not fight too often with your enemy because you will then teach your enemy every art of war that you are practising. Is this what we should practice in everyday living? I can confess, from my own experience, that I have learned more from my so-called enemies (sunshine friends, backstabbers and leeches), that I have learned from my dearest friends. It is like that, you are going to have enemies who may most likely become one of your best friends, and friends who may eventually become an enemy. This you cannot avoid.
To me, the most crucial thing to remember is to always learn from your experience. If you can learn from an enemy’s behaviour, then kudos for you. It will, however, be sad if you encounter enemies and leave scarred, not seeing it as a learning curve and a lesson of revelation.
Let us learn from our bad encounters with others, but let us also strive to reduce rivalry and rather opt for peaceful co-existence.
Strive to set yourself free,
from any life-draining enemy.
The latter is only there to keep you back,
So meditate on compassion and stay on track…
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