A wise person was once asked, “Why do you not take revenge from those who hurt you?”
The wise sage laughingly responded: “If you were gored by a bull, would you then suggest running into its belly headfirst?”
The moral here is reached in several conclusions:
Firstly, we can suggest the bull be killed, but with a more lethal weapon than the horn attack. But this would require killing a life unjustly. Therefore, we can eliminate this stream.
Secondly, we can hit the bull so it hurts and subsequently leaves us alone. But this would entail hurting a life without explaining or justifying why we responded in this manner. The bull may have acted through innate sequences. Our response will only baffle the bull, which may lead to further violent reactions in protection from further attacks. This is also not a positive strategy as it may hurt a life inexplicably and further induce violence.
Thirdly, we may simply walk away from the attack as we lived through the experience. Once clear of danger, we can devise the necessary strategy to never again be gored by a bull. We should adopt a strategy that will also take into account the rights of the bull and not transgress oppressively. In this manner, we avoid any future violent confrontation. As we drastically reduce the chance of further violence, we can now focus on the best approach to develop a loving relationship, being that we are on peaceful ground. Surely, if unprovoked, the bull is not searching to gore everything in sight. Even the simplest of animal intelligence is created in love as all things are an extensive attribute of the original energy force of pure love.
Finally, the wisest strategy would be to avoid the predicament of being gored in the first place. The French have a saying, “Mieux vaut prevenir que guerir.” This loosely translates to suggest it is better to anticipate a problem so as to avoid it, rather than to place effort in the healing process after being afflicted by it. In this scenario, it would be wisest to be a step ahead in order to avoid conflict altogether, so we do not have to resort to the third proposition of guarding ourselves from the goring attack of the bull. The advantage of prevention and anticipation is two-fold. On the one hand, we are obviously avoiding the attack altogether, which is the best-case scenario for ourselves. On the other hand, we are not placing the poor bull in a defensive situation in which it is obliged to form an offensive goring strategy to ensure its own safety.
As we become more capable of avoiding situations that lead to violence, we increase the chances of a loving approach to conflict resolution. After all, if we can envision even an enemy as a misguided friend who is connected to us in love, we are inherently removing the adjective of adversity found in having an enemy in another being. Reducing the ego’s arsenal of negative verbiage is, in its own way, a form of resisting violent altercations based on improper terminology.
