The truth is that human beings tell one another that they care deeply about each other, yet if you look carefully, they often fail to value one another. A kind heart can value others according to what they can become without giving undue importance to the incomplete being they are today. Human beings often treat themselves in the same way: they say that they care about themselves while failing to value themselves, and so they surrender to themselves as they are and fail to recognise the value of what they might become.

Kind parents value their child deeply, yet they do not give ultimate importance to the child’s mistakes, which arise from immaturity, or to desires that grow from incompleteness. So too a kind helper, a kind friend, or a lover who lets kindness guide the discovery of the path of love.

There is a statement attributed to Goethe to this effect: “Treat people as they are and they will remain as they are. Treat them as what they can and ought to be, and they will become what they can and ought to be.” I interpret this profound statement in the following way: treat every human being according to the final light of their being, because their Self is nothing other than your own Self. Look beyond the “I” they know and offer to you, toward something deeper, and in that depth you will find something of value toward which your action can be directed. To be kind is to see this light and to protect it within the Self and within other human beings.

Whenever we choose kindness, courage, and wisdom, the light of love, courage, and knowledge gains greater strength in the world around us. The waves created by each small act of kindness travel to places we cannot see and can bring goodness to rebirth in the world again and again with far greater power.

I end this piece with a statement attributed to Philo of Alexandria, who wrote a century before Christ: be kind to everyone, for everyone you see is engaged in a struggle with a suffering of which you know nothing. Whenever it is possible, withhold kindness from no one—and it is always possible.

Aydin Areta
Bahman 1398