What would you do if somebody you don't even know hits you out of nowhere, for reasons unexpected, but unable to justify the act? You can do many things. You can run away. You can fight back, or you can try talking pacifying the person. You can also do nothing, and let the guy beat the hell out of you. If you're pretty familiar with the law, you can even file charges of physical injury.
What if you were the one who hit someone out of nowhere, for reasons unexpected, but reasons unable to justify the act? In the first place, you could have avoided such a situation, but you didn't. Now you are heading for even more trouble than you ever expected. If he fought back, you could've gotten a black eye, and he could've gotten a rotten nose; you both lose. If he ran away, he could get back at you eventually. If he tried pacifying you, most probably because of anger (assuming you hit him out of anger, or jealousy, or whatever reason), you'd keep hitting him. Use your imagination. Anything could've happened. Anything negative could have happened, because you reacted negatively when you saw that person, whatever he was doing, or whoever he was with.
What if the unthinkable (for you) happened? What if the person you hit files charges against you? You spend two nights in jail before you can bail. You become angry. You think about all sorts of things, like what got you into that situation. Your thoughts tell you, "Never in my life did I imagine myself being locked up in jail. I was born for greater things." You even end up reacting in ways unimaginable. More hatred locks up in your heart, and you curse and end up disrespecting even the family of the person you hit, in different ways. Nambabastos ka na. You even think of ways to destroy the life of the person you hit. To you, it isn't enough that you hit him. You live in a spiral of violence.
Again, what if you were the person hit, and you decided that the rightful thing to do was to file charges? How would you go about it? Would you also devise ways to destroy the other man's life. Would you use every possible means to get the justice that you deserve? Would you also live in that spiral of violence?
We were taught, in one way or another, to do everything with integrity. We do not do anything that messes with or compromises our integrity. Because our lives are dependent on our decisions, deciding with integrity is essential.
Just this week I was told by our new teacher Mrs. Chee Kee that much of what compromises our life is not what happens to us, but how we react. We can always react in positive ways, and positive things will happen. If we react negatively, it follows that negative things will happen. Therefore, we should also guard our thoughts because from them stem our actions.
We just have to do the right things, and most of the time, the right things come from positive thoughts. It all really depends on how we look at things.
