Can you forgive someone who betrayed you and put your life in danger time and time again? In the Wuxia novel series Thousand Autumns by Meng Xi Shi, the main character Shen Qiao is the leader of the number one martial arts sect. He was a respected but isolated martial artist before he lost a battle in which he was poisoned and conspired against. Severely injured, Shen Qiao is saved by an evil sect leader, Yan Wushi, who seems to enjoy putting him in dangerous situations to see if he’ll turn resentful and evil. He spends his time going through betrayal, humility, and harsh recovery. Shen Qiao learns throughout the book about the complex relationships between people, resilience, and forgiveness. Shen Qiao learns about the complexity of people …show more content…
In response, he says, “Everyone holds evil thoughts inside their hearts; the difference lies in whether or not they act on it. Why punish them for being human?” (Meng Xi Shi 345). Shen Qiao acknowledges that people have evil intentions in their mind. However, instead of sitting with this reality, he goes further and understands that the factor that defines someone's character is whether or not they act upon these intentions. Shen Qiao understands this complex part of people and the way they act, which helps him later on in the book with his empathy and forgiveness. Resilience is important for Shen Qiao to continue his journey, he finds this out very early. While in an exhausted state, he gets cornered and attacked by a member of a demonic sect. Even though he's on the verge of passing out, he warns his enemy before successfully fighting them off. He says, “You all take me for a fallen tiger in the plains. Someone you can do anything to, as if I’m already caught and my fate is sealed. Do you think I’d just let things go in a situation like
Forgiveness is a process. You can still feel the pain, see the events behind your eyes, and feel the loss of the people around you but you have to find a way to forgive. People think that if you forgive someone you are forgetting or saying hey I would hang out with this person now because we’re cool but thats not at all what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is righting the wrong for yourself because you want the injustice you feel to leave. It’s acknowledging to that there a wrong that was done to you and you decide how you want to think about it not anyone
A person like this is the Bird, The Bird was a leader of a prison of war camp who treated Louis as if he were not even human. Louis never did anything against the Bird but he still tried to break Louis down. The Bird acted as if Zamperini had done something absolutely and horrifyingly terrible. The first encounter Louis had with the Bird was at the first camp called Ofuna which was a military based camp. The Bird had put a target on Louis back because he recognized him as a famous olympic runner. He beat and made fun of Louis endlessly trying to get him to his breaking point. later, Louis is moved to a second camp called Omori where he thought that he has finally escaped the Bird’s cruelness, he was wrong. The Bird also moved to Omori so that he could stay with Zamperini. The situation here did not get better as Louis thought it would, the bird actually got meaner and things got harder (Bos). Now, this seems like one of those particular situations where it would be impossible to forgive. It would take a very special person to forgive someone that has done so many horrible things to a person like the Bird had done to Zamperini. Louis, against all odds and against all normality decides that the right thing for him to do would be for him to forgive the Bird. This decision to forgive him happens later in Louis life, but no one knows where he is so Louis would
People are taught to “forgive and forget” in order to be happy, afterall living with a grudge can being a serious damper in ones life.
"Time heals all wounds." is a famous line in American history. I don't think that this is true. My line would be, "Forgiveness heals all wounds." I think that Forgiveness in a very important part of life. Without it, people can not move on with their lives. Let's take for instance a murderer and the family of the person he killed. The murderer may be sentenced to death. The family of the person who was killed could go in and watch the man that killed their family member be put to death. That may give them peace of mind, but they still can not completely move on. They must forgive murderer for killing the person before they can really move on with their lives. Once they do this it will be easier for them. A book that really illustrated this is The Scarlet Letter. In this book there are three main characters, Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, and Roger Chillingworth. These three people either needed forgiveness or needed to forgive someone. Some got it, some didn't. Whether or not they received or gave forgiveness had a great impact in their lives.
Life as we all know is full of disappointment and filled with disparity. Most of us are able to go through these and learn from and forgive ourselves. Yet, this isn’t always the case. People are faced with traumatic experiences that often take a long time to get over, if they ever do get over it. These experiences brew in our brain popping up at the most random points often bringing our spirits down. Although these experiences may scar us and fill us with regret and guilt, we can’t continue to live in the past and let these regrets haunt us. Self forgiveness is a key to healing and to moving on in life, no matter how hard it is.
One aphorism that hit me is “To learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others”. I had a few people in my life that had hurt me so much that I hated them. But, I was so miserable that I was not happy. I prayed to God to help me forgive them, a little by little I learned to forgive myself and then forgive them.
Must one forget before one can forgive? Forgiveness involves not holding a sin against a person any longer, but forgiveness is a decision of the will. Since we cannot selectively remove events from our memory, it is impossible to truly forget sins that have been committed against us. Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor, in his book The Sunflower, writes of an experience that occurred when he was a prisoner in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. He recounts a day when he was taken from work and lead to the bedside of a dying man. The dying man Karl, a member of the SS, confessed to Simon about his dreadful act for he sought absolution from a Jew. As Karl begs for Wiesenthal to forgive him, Wiesenthal remained silent and walked away. Wiesenthal’s purpose is to argue whether the inhumane acts of the SS should be forgiven. Because
The moment we learn to forgive and love is when we can begin to recover and move on.
Sometimes it is better to forgive than it is to forget. Forgiving a person may not always be easy, but it can strengthen a friendship instead of holding a grudge. In The Kite runner by Khaled Hosseini, there are times when you are going to have someone be faithful to you, lie to you, and hurt you. Through it all you still have to be humble and forgive that person, because at the end God still forgives you if you ask him to.
“Time is a monster that cannot be reasoned with. It responds like a snail to our in patience, then it races like gazelle when you can’t catch a breath.” Simon Birch. Time is very stable but with our emotions it makes it seem like you can never catch up or it taking too long. Forgiveness can feel this way to both victim and one who’s in the wrong. Forgiveness is very difficult thing to do certain times and takes time. Some may think justice helps or makes one forgive because of the punishment or karma and it makes everything better. But I would ask yourself are you truly forgiving one for the wrongs or are you just dismissing it. Justice and forgiveness do not go hand-in-hand. Justice is not forgiveness because to forgive someone or something for what they have done needs to come from our not from what happens to them for their punishment or karma.
There are many human rights being violated in China. Throughout these years citizens of China have been forced to have abortion, denied freedom of religion and sold children into slavery. There is no way of changing the grave effects of the people in China. Equality should be greatly enforced.
Is it possible to forgive a wrong done to someone else? Should only those who repent be forgiven?
A strong Christian lesson on the true nature of forgiveness can be found in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount:
Acknowledging a wound that needs healing is important in this process. If you have truly forgiven, your scarred emotions get healed. Most times when you forgive your offenders, you often find that your wounds are still bleeding. Meanwhile, Forgiven someone does not mean that you have forgotten or that what they did was acceptable. What it does is that it frees us from anger that reacts like poison in our system. However, even if your brains recall the painful memory of past experience, you don’t feel any more of the sting of the pain and hurt of that experience. If you are able to look back at those painful memories and you don’t feel the pain anymore, then you know that you have truly forgiven, healed and made whole. You need time to work through your pain and loss. However, some offenses you encounter lead to a sense of loss of trust, security, friendship, relationship and a whole lots more. You may also lose your direction and forget the purpose and meaning of life when inflicted with pain through an offense. Sometimes you’re most horrible and painful experiences can teach your life valuable lessons, making you more insightful and stronger individual through them. Forgiveness is all about finding what was lost and restoring the wholeness that one once