Make a Habit of Liking People

Cheon Seong Gyeong 395

An ideal family is where the parents, children, husband and wife, and brothers and sisters all desire to unite through true love. In this situation, they are all eternally on an equal footing; from there, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth begins and the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven is automatically established. (Hero of the Future – 172)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 874

    The sun rotates on its axis just like the earth. The sun, whose mass is 1.3. million times greater than the earth, is constantly moving. There are vast galaxies in the universe whose mass is 200 billion times greater than the solar system. These galaxies are called microcosms. There are countless nebulae like these galaxies in the universe. Considered together we call this the macrocosm. We should broaden our minds and look at the world of this vast and boundless universe.
    God, who created this enormous universe whose radius spans hundreds of millions of light years, has moved this great universe along for millions and billions of years in accordance with an unchanging law. God is moving all these celestial bodies with a power that goes far beyond our imagination and senses.
    The more we think about God, who created this universe, the more naturally we come to bow our heads before His grandeur and greatness. We should broaden our minds to consider the fact that the Creator of this great universe is our Father, who looks after us, our God who protects us, and the great living Master. (5-342, 1959.3.8)

Richard:  Yes!  God is our loving Father.  When we seek first the Kingdom, it may seem that we are losing, but, God in His love cares for us so much.  That  means that we are winning!

A Good Heart

Loving kindness and compassion spring naturally from a good heart. Hence, cultivating a good heart ought to be a priority in life. A number of passages praise a loving heart as superior to faith, knowledge, dedication to the truth, and all other virtues.
A loving heart is rooted in God—what Father Moon call’s God’s heart (Korean: shimjung). Shimjung is God’s irrepressible impulse to love—the very motivation for his creation. (see chapter 1: Divine Love and Compassion) in human terms, it is closest to the heart of a mother, who cannot help but love her child. A good heart is impartial and all embracing, able to digest evil and unpleasant people as well as kind and virtuous people. Therefore, it is indispensable to reconciling opponents and resolving conflicts

1. Loving-Kindness
 
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
    Ephesians 4.32
 
May I look on all beings with the eye of friend!
May we look on one another with the eye of friend!
    Yajur Veda 36.18 (Hinduism)
 
 
He who can find no room for others lacks fellow feeling, and to him who lacks fellow feeling, all men are strangers.
 
    Chuang Tzu 23 (Taoism)
 
Treat people in such a way and live amongst them in such a manner that if you die they will weep over you; alive they crave for your company.
    Nahjul Balagha, Saying 9 (Shiite Islam)
 
Gentle character it is which enables the rope of life to stay unbroken in one’s hand.
    Yoruba Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
 
Monks, whatsoever grounds there be for good works undertaken with a view to [favorable] rebirth, all of them are not worth one-sixteenth part of that goodwill which is the heart’s release; goodwill alone, which is the heart’s release, shines and burns and flashes forth in surpassing them.
    Itivuttaka 19 (Buddhism)
 

Continue reading “Make a Habit of Liking People”

Should We Forgive Satan?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2184

In front of God what must you long to become? First, you must become devoted children. Second, you must become loyal subjects and patriots. Is there anyone above loyal subjects and patriots? Saints are higher. Devoted children in the family are absolutely loyal to their parents. Patriots are absolutely loyal to their nation. Then, what kind of people are saints? They are people like Jesus, Buddha and Confucius – people who assert God’s existence, not people who assert themselves. They lead God-centered lives and do not cause any harm, but instead try to benefit humankind. Moreover, they are not nationalists, but rather globalists. (54-214, 1972.3.24)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1638

Why and how did God come into existence? He came into being due to love. How did the origin of the universe come to be realized? The seed of love was assimilated by God as the object partner, with the result that God Himself came to possess internal nature and external form. Based on what did this come about? It was based on love. The same holds true for you. Through the love of your mother and father, you were given the seed of life, the one cell that grew into what you are today; in a similar manner God became the being He is today. His eyes, His nose, and every feature of His were formed in this way. He is exactly the same as us. (207-27, 1990.10.21)

Forgiveness

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Great forgiveness is possible when you have understood the other person’s situation one hundred percent. Because God knows our situations, He forgives us. (2:220, May 26, 1957)

Joseph forgave his brothers, although they were his enemies who had sold him into slavery. Yet Joseph forgave them for his father’s sake, because they were all his father’s sons. Put yourself in Joseph’s position. Like Joseph, we have many enemies, yet we have no choice but to forgive them because they are all the children of our Father, God. We forgive them for God’s sake, because we believe in God. (146:125, June 8, 1986)

Among the countless people I have been leading, many have committed transgressions. I deal with them with the attitude, “I will forgive you one hundred times.” This is the fatherly heart.
    Suppose your own son were arrested as a robber and a murderer and was facing execution. Would you as a parent say, as you watched your son walking toward the execution chamber, “It is a good thing that you are about to die. You should be killed quickly”? No, you would look for every possible way to win him a pardon. That is the heart of a parent. You would forgive him, even a thousand or ten thousand times. (157:259-60, April 10, 1967)

You leaders who live with your members, if one of your members is wrong, do not tell him he is wrong to his face, but look for how you can forgive him. Look at his wife; is she worse than her husband? Look at his children; are they worse than their father? Then look at his mother and father; are they worse than their child? No, among his family some are good people.
    Thus thinking of his family’s good qualities and their love for him, you can find a way to love him. Then the blessings gathered in that family will be joined with you. If you live this way, you will not perish. Heaven will protect you. (308:208, January 5, 1999)

God does not strike someone who is defeated. Rather, God shows mercy to those who recognize their sin and repent. God exists; therefore anyone who raises a sword to strike a defeated person will bring ruin on his descendants. Instead, we should pray for him and give him guidance with the heart of a close friend. (25:333, October 12, 1969)

Among the Christian martyrs who were thrown to the lions in the coliseums of Rome, there were two kinds of people. One kind prayed, “God, take revenge upon my persecutors. Punish them! May they all perish!” Their mind was to resist the unjust Caesar up to the moment of death. The other kind prayed, “Forgive their sins! Forgive the Caesar! May Rome one day become God’s nation on this earth!”
    Compare the destinies of these two kinds of martyrs. Those who prayed for their enemies, for Rome and Caesar, are dwelling in an exalted realm among those who are victorious over Satan. But those who died with the self-centered desire to receive salvation and held a grudge against Rome are dwelling somewhere below the realm of Rome. (130:233, January 29, 1984)

When Jesus taught us to love our enemies, do you think he meant that we should forgive Satan? You should be clear about this question.
    When someone asked him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” If Jesus, the Son of God, could forgive people to that extent, should he not also forgive Satan? Yet he cannot do that; it is impossible.
    When Jesus prayed for his enemies, the object of his prayers was not Satan but rather the people whom Satan invaded. Evil people are merely victims of God’s enemy; therefore he forgave them and sought for them, as God was seeking for them. Yet, this does not mean that he should forgive Satan. (92:187, April 10, 1977) 

O Source of all goodness! I earnestly pray that Thou wilt forgive through Thine infinite love and magnanimity the many religious believers of this nation for their past acts of persecution against the children of the Unification movement. [Because of their actions,] some who joined the movement for a time grew tired and lonely and fell away, unable to endure the persecution, unable to find even one person to console them on the lonely path. And I know that many who remain on the path are exhausted.

Thinking of how they ought to be bowing their heads and begging Thy forgiveness, my indignation against them is hard to bear, and I long to resolve the grudges in Thy heart. Still, thinking about Thy merciful path of restoration, as Thou seekest to recover the children of the enemy, I know that Thou canst not help but bless them again— and therefore I pray that Thou wilt forgive them.

Father, I earnestly ask Thee to please forgive and once again extend Thy grace to the pitiable churches that betrayed Thee. (27:301-02, December 28, 1969)

Do Not Rejoice When Your Enemy Falls

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2067

We need the nation, and we need the world. There is no clear way to find these. When we look at this fact, you professors must also establish the ideal of the sphere of love, centering on the vertical love and connecting with the horizontal realm of love at 90 degrees. There’s no way to escape such a pursuit of the original universal history. That means you must listen to what I say. If you don’t, you won’t be on the right track. If you are on the right track, where will you be heading? You will go to the family. That’s why, when we say tong ban breakthrough activities, we’re talking about returning to the family and realigning yourself to the right track. Because all of you are the sons and daughters of Rev. Moon, I have unconditionally given you everything that I’ve prepared on the world level, from the realm of heart, the realm of participation and inheritance, to the realm of equal rank. Therefore, you must return to your hometowns and lay down your roots. If you just lay down your roots and stand up vertically aligned, then, through me, you will rise to the glorious position of victory in which you can inherit the worldwide domain and participate with me. This is logical. True Parents are absolute. That’s why all religions have come to the conclusion that the messiah absolutely must come. (176-124, 1988.5.3)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 804

    Later on, when you go to the spirit world, what will you say before God, who has guided the history of restoration and who toiled until this day in search of one Adam? Did He not search for the perfected person of Adam from the time of creation to this day? Now you all know the Principle. This is your weapon to save thousands and tens of thousands of people.
    To this day, God could not teach humankind. To replace God’s anguish over having to guide the providence in the dark, we should do greater things than He can do on this earth. We have the path to enlighten and bring hundreds and thousands of Adams through the Principle. Think about it. Where can we find a task greater than this? (230-28, 1992.4.15)

Forgiveness

A large hearted attitude of forgiveness to those who have done us wrong is advocated in all the scriptures. Forgiveness is at the heart of Jesus’ message; indeed according to the Lord’s Prayer it is incumbent upon the Christian to forgive. God is most forgiving. It states in the Qur’an that people who seek to draw near to God should likewise be full of forgiveness. Forgiving is natural to a parent; therefore if we can take a parental heart towards others, akin to the heart of God our Father, we can forgive them. While it may be difficult to forgive people who do us grave injustice or injury, it is far preferable to holding a grudge, which would only fester and poison the spirit.
Yet how can we forgive? Forgiveness is not a natural thing. It will not do to simply forget a wrong or sweep it under the rug. Such easy or ritualistic forgiveness is phony and can mask deeper feelings of lasting resentment. As theologian Paul Tillich wrote, “Forgiving presupposes remembering. And it creates a forgetting not in the natural way we forget yesterday’s weather, but in the way of the great ‘in spite of’ that says: I forget although I remember.”19 Father Moon teaches that we need to find a positive reason to forgive, a reason to make a new beginning in relating to that person in spite of the painful memory of previous wrongs. thus he explores the reasons why God forgives us, and searches for that point of weakness and pathos in the wrongdoer that can evoke the heart of compassion.

Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
    Matthew 6.11-12

If you efface and overlook and forgive, then lo! God is forgiving, merciful.
     Qur’an 64.14

Allah is All-Forgiving and loves the one who forgives others.
    Algama’ Alsaghair 2.1749 (Islam)
 
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
    Matthew 6.14-15
 
Better and more rewarding is God’s reward to those who believe… and when angry, even then forgive…
 
Let evil be rewarded by like evil, but he who forgives and seeks reconciliation shall be rewarded by God. He does not love the wrongdoers…
 
True constancy lies in forgiveness and patient forbearance.
    Qur’an 42.36-37, 40, 43
 
Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, “I repent,” you must forgive him.
    Luke 17.3-4
The best deed of a great man is to forgive and forget.
    Nahjul Balagha, Saying 201 (Shiite Islam)
 
The truly great man must forgive people without being forgiven by them.
    Chu Hsi (Confucianism)
 
Release: The superior man tends to forgive wrongs and deals leniently with crimes.
     I Ching 40 (Confucianism)
 
Moses son of Imran said, “My Lord, who is the greatest of Thy servants in Thy estimation?” and received the reply, “The one who forgives when he is in a position of power.”
    Hadith of Baihaqi (Islam)
 
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”
    John 8.3-11
 
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles;
lest the Lord see it, and be displeased,
and turn away his anger from him.
    Proverbs 24.17-18
 
Who takes vengeance or bears a grudge acts like one who, having cut one hand while handling a knife, avenges himself by stabbing the other hand.
    Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim 9.4 (Judaism)
 
Subvert anger by forgiveness.
    Samanasuttam 136 (Jainism)
 
Kuan Chung… could seize the fief of P’ien with its three hundred villages from its owner, the head of the Po family; yet Po, though he lived on coarse food to the end of his days, never uttered a single word of resentment. The Master said, “To be poor and not resent it is far harder than to be rich yet not presumptuous.”
     Analects 14.11 (Confucianism)
 
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
    Matthew 18.21-22
 
Doing an injury puts you below your enemy;
Revenging one makes you but even with him;
Forgiving it sets you above him.
    Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac
 
Where there is forgiveness, there is God Himself.
    Adi Granth, Shalok Kabir, p. 1372 (Sikhism)
 
 

God’s Love Is to Love Your Enemy

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1700

What belongs to woman is not for her own use. It is for man. Is there anyone who can deny this? That being so, nobody owns anything. It is not shameful to be women with nothing for yourselves but your names, for as such you can harmonize anywhere. You can harmonize with grandmothers, mothers, grandfathers, aunts and uncles. As the centrality of being women is not great, it leaves plenty of room for women to gradually expand their realm of reciprocity. This is connected to the formulated foundation based on the principles of the creation of the universe, and so it becomes definite. (255-144, 1994.3.10)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1247

    The ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be achieved without being married and forming a family. The reason the Unification Church emphasizes that all single men and women must receive the Blessing is so the ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven can be put into practice. Not only single people, but also couples who are already married should receive the Blessing for previously married couples, after fulfilling a certain standard.
    The reason I’m saying all people should receive the Blessing is so we can all return to the world of the ideal of creation. Originally, that world would have been a world created by true men and women who received the Blessing. But due to the Fall, such a history of love never came to pass. (Blessed Family – 556)

Richard:  Learn more about the Blessing.

Love Your Enemy

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

What kind of person can be close to God and attend Him in the Kingdom of Heaven? One who resembles God. Since the nature of God is to love His enemies, then the person who tries to love his or her enemies and invests him or herself completely for that purpose will be able to live near God’s royal throne.
    From this standpoint, the most precious education is to learn to love your enemies. The noblest training to cultivate your mind is to train yourself to always make effort to love your enemies. (124:155, February 6, 1983)
 
What is true love? It is God’s love. What is God’s love? In Jesus’ words, it is to love your enemy. If white people love other white people, there is nothing special about that. When a white person loves a black person, however, that is close to true love. Loving your enemy is true love, without a doubt.
    Why is loving your enemy true love? It is true because no one can criticize or complain about it. It is always round and can flow everywhere. Whether that love goes towards one side or the other, it is all good. Wherever it goes—into the eyes, into the nose, into the mouth—wherever it goes, it is good. (115:315-16, November 29, 1981)
 
What is the difference between love in the satanic world and love in the heavenly world? Satanic love repays evil for evil, while heavenly love repays evil with good. When we love even our enemy, Satan runs away.
    That is why Jesus went a paradoxical way, and taught believers to walk a paradoxical way. They had no choice because everything is turned upside-down. West had become East, East had become West. South had become North, and North had become South.
    Therefore, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you love your enemies—your individual enemies, your family’s enemies, your clan’s enemies, your nation’s enemies, and your world’s enemies. God likewise is in this situation. (130:161, January 8, 1984)
 
I am teaching you to love those who hate you. If you love them, sooner or later they will come to like you. If you return good three times for every time someone does you wrong, eventually that person will bow his head. Try it yourself and see if I am right or not. Everyone has a conscience. (39:302-04, January 16, 1971)
 
True love has influence on the enemy. If you overcome the first, second, third and fourth difficult situation with love, the enemy will disappear. Jesus loved his enemies knowing that love has such great power. (121:173, October 24, 1982)
 
Did you ever take pity on someone who opposed you and persecuted you? Did you ever think that he might be jealous of you on account of your many blessings? Did you ever think that the reason he persecutes you is because he is jealous of you? (105:31, July 8, 1979)
 
The reason why God does not punish an enemy, even though He would want to kill him, is that He is thinking of the enemy’s parents, wife, sons and daughters who love him. God cannot bear to strike that enemy with His whip because He would experience the painful hearts of all those good people as they wept many tears out of their love for him. God’s love is like that.
    When you really feel this heart of God, could you take revenge on your enemy? If you really knew all the precious love connected with that person, instead of hitting him you would get someone to go and help him. Thus you come closer to the great way of the universal Principle, which instructs us to embrace everything with love. When you practice it, heaven and earth will shake and even God will cry out with tears, “You truly resemble Me. How happy I am!” This is how we should understand the teaching to love our enemies. Where can we find the power to love our enemies? The source is neither knowledge, nor money, nor earthly power. It is only true love. (201:150, March 30, 1990)
 
You should love your distant relations more than your immediate family. God gave His own Son, Jesus, to be killed because He was living for the benefit of Israel ahead of His own Son. Even though Israel had turned against His Son, God loved Israel more. Likewise, even on the cross Jesus loved his enemies. He interceded for the Roman soldier who pierced him with a spear, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” He did not say this to make peace with Rome, but to find the peace of God and the peace of God’s family. (235:224, September 20, 1992)
 
How much does God love His enemy? God’s love is such that He sacrificed His own Son in order to save His enemy’s children… If you can love your enemies more even than you love your own children, then Satan will surrender to you, exclaiming, “I could never do that. I could never be worthy to receive such love.” At that point Satan will retreat. You should know that this is the path of Abel.
    As Jesus was dying on the cross, he prayed for his enemies rather than for himself; he prayed that his sacrifice would become the source of their blessing. Can any being with a conscience not bow his head and yield to such great love? However vicious the enemy may be, he cannot help but bow down and surrender. By practicing this you can completely separate yourself from your enemy’s wrath—and you will discover that you have no enemy.
    Then Satan has no choice but to issue a certificate signed, “This son or daughter of God loved me, their enemy. Therefore I cannot stand in the way of God loving this person.” Satan can no longer hold on to his grudge, but when he sees God embracing and loving the person, he must say, “Amen!” This is how you must clear your relationship with Satan. (118:172, May 30, 1982)
 
Why is God on my side? It is because I have tried to love even those who opposed me. I have not sought revenge on the enemies who stood against me. I do not want an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or a life for a life. I try to digest everything with love. (168:204, September 20, 1987)
 
When I doubt people, I feel pain.
When I judge people, it is unbearable.
When I hate people, there is no value to my existence.
Yet if I believe, I am deceived.
If I love, I am betrayed.
Suffering and grieving tonight, my head in my hands
Am I wrong?
Yes, I am wrong.

Even though we are deceived, still believe.
Though we are betrayed, still forgive.
Love completely even those who hate you.
Wipe your tears away and welcome with a smile
Those who know nothing but deceit
And those who betray without regret.
Oh Master! The pain of loving!
Look at My hands.
Place your hand on My chest.
My heart is bursting, such agony!
But when I loved those who acted against Me
I brought victory.
If you have done the same thing,
I will give you the crown of glory. (The Crown of Glory)
 
 

Love Your Enemies

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1855

Blessed families have risen up on the vertical standard, but have not stood on the horizontal standard in Jardim. Therefore, from now on, families must be established that can live together with God on the horizontal standard. To facilitate this, I have made an education center for ideal families aimed toward world peace, and I have been re-educating the families that have been blessed until now. I must train them again with the contents enabling them to join God’s absolute glorious family. That is the family training, taking place in Jardim. (294-319, 1998.8.9)

Richard: We need education to learn how to be original, ideal families as God intended from the beginning. A good start will be to attend our next workshops at the Peace Kingdom Center on March 18-19, 2022.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1350

    Through the 430 Couples Blessing, Korea could be connected to the Unification Church. This means that, although many Koreans did not believe in religion, all could enjoy the privileges of the realm of the third Israel due to the fulfillment of indemnity conditions within that realm through the 430 Couples. I was therefore able to publicly announce that Korea is the nation of the chosen people. The realm of the chosen people was established. I can now expand this foundation globally.
    After the 430 Couples Blessing, the next stage is the global extension of the land and people from Korea. By that I mean sowing the land, designating holy grounds, and engrafting them to the 430 Couples. I therefore established holy grounds in forty nations. Following this, I made a world tour, during which, I blessed the 43 Couples. I connected a total of 43 couples from Japan, the United States, and Germany as the counterpart of the 430 Couples in Korea. This is truly historic. Through this foundation, the many nonbelievers in the world can also receive the benefits of the realm of Israel. The world passed through four thousand years of Jewish history before Christ or six thousand years including Christian history, during which traditions were passed on from generation to generation and people believed in the benefit derived from them. But now, they are being endowed with the privilege of participating in the realm of benefit in this era of horizontal expansion, even though they do not believe. Such a foundation has finally been laid. (110-123, 1980.11.10)

Richard:  I have noticed this effect through our Home Church ministry.  When I first moved to eastern Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the area was considered somewhat sketchy and crime ridden.  25 years later, when we moved, it was considered a desirable place to live.  I feel that our home church work, including practical projects that we initiated, like neighborhood watch, made a substantive difference.
Now we live in West Virginia.  By working with neighbors, I feel that the community is benefiting in general, not just those who are receptive to our ministry.

Love Your Enemy

The prescription to love your enemy and to requite evil with good is sometimes thought of as an impractical and perfectionist ethic. But in fact, this doctrine is widely taught in the world’s religions. It is in fact a fundamental principle for relating peaceably with others.
Many people seek recompense for wrongs done to them in the name of “justice.” yet if everyone demanded an eye for an eye, the whole world would be blind. revenge only multiplies evil in the world; neither does it solve the fundamental root of evil, which lies in Satan’s accusations against God and humanity. As Father Moon explains, only the unparalleled love of enemy can overcome evil at its root and lead to the advancement of God’s Kingdom.
Several passages in this section describe Jesus’ example of loving his enemies as he hung from the cross. We have also included quotations from two modern-day apostles of this doctrine: Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
    Matthew 5.43-48
 
God says, “Resemble Me; just as I repay good for evil so do you also repay good for evil.”
    Exodus Rabbah 26.2 (Judaism)
 
It may be that God will ordain love between you and those whom you hold as enemies. For God has power over all things; and God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
    Qur’an 60.7 
 
The Messenger of God said, “Shall I inform you of the best morals of this world and the hereafter? To forgive him who oppresses you, to make a bond with him who severs from you, to be kind to him who insults you, and to give to him who deprives you.”
    Hadith (Islam)
 
“He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me!” In those who harbor such thoughts hatred is not appeased.
 
“He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me!” In those who do not harbor such thoughts hatred is appeased.
 
Hatreds never cease through hatred in this world; through love alone they cease. This is an eternal law.
    Dhammapada 3-5 (Buddhism)
 
When we look beneath the surface, beneath the impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbor a measure of goodness and know that the viciousness and evilness of his acts are not quite representative of all that he is. We see him in a new light. We recognize that his hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God’s image is ineffably etched in his being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God’s redemptive love.
    Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength to Love (Christianity)
 
It is not nonviolence if we merely love those that love us. It is nonviolence only when we love those that hate us. I know how difficult it is to follow this grand law of love. But are not all great and good things difficult to do? Love of the hater is the most difficult of all. But by the grace of God even this most difficult thing becomes easy to accomplish if we want to do it.
    Mohandas K. Gandhi, All Men Are Brothers(Hinduism)
 
Do good to him who has done you an injury.Tao Te Ching 63 (Taoism)
 
The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed with one which is better, then lo!, he between whom and you there was enmity shall become as though he were a bosom friend.
    But none is granted it save those who are steadfast, and none is granted it save a person of great good fortune.
    Qur’an 41.34-35
 
If you meet your enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the ass of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it, you shall help him to lift it up.
    Exodus 23.4-5
 
Aid an enemy before you aid a friend, to subdue hatred.
    Tosefta, Baba Metzia 2.26 (Judaism)
 
It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.
    Mohandas K. Gandhi (Hinduism)
 
And when they came to the place which is called The Skull [Calvary], there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
    Luke 23.33-34