Silver_Meteor wrote:
Is taking revenge on people who wronged you appropriate under certain circumstances?
Well you need to define revenge and any specific circumstances really but if we take examples from history and modern politics I would say - No. The cycles of initial act > revenge > retribution have been causing misery for many centuries around the globe. The acts lie waiting to be re-awakened from a festering sleep to cause awful suffering to the enactors and recipients - the Balkan situation is just one terrible example. That people always believe their actions are in some way more justified than those of others also leads to both sides feeling they are wronged.
If by revenge you mean that you need to act so that an individual or group do not oppress you then possibly but I find that violent or negative acts make me no better than the person/group I am acting against. There are modern situations where this has gone horribly wrong. It is sometimes better to see how these situations can be avoided.
There is a Buddhist story about two monks walking along a muddy road, they see a girl struggling to cross and one picks her up and carries her to the other side. Now this is against the idea of the personal struggle and achievement but he did it anyway. His brother monk is appalled but says nothing simply fuming for an hour until he can contain himself no longer. "You went against our teachings when you carried that girl, how will she ever achieve Nirvana if you do such things?" his brother replies "I only carried her across the road, you are still carrying her".
Peace
Tog
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Tog the Gleeman - telling the tale of Life